My Perugia Travel Diary continue… June 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Aquarium, Art Gallery, Asia, China, Coliseum, Denmark, Destination, Dolphinarium, Egypt, England, Europe, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Gymnasium, Iceland, Istanbul, Italy, Library, Memorial, Morocco, Museum, Norway, Oceanarium, Paris, Planetarium, Poland, Restaurant, Round The World, The Nile , add a commentMass cremation pits containing ashes and charred bones indicate that he feared a plague, but Carthaginian skeletons with all their teeth have been disinterred as well as the tombs, yielding cataphracts as well as bones, of thirty Carthaginian nobles.
Spello, the most appealing of the Umbrian hill towns, is still enclosed by Roman walls with five gates, the main one bearing the legend “Splendidissima Colonic Julia Hispellum” over the arch. According to Spellan tradition, a phallus carved in the inner wall of the Porta Urbica does not celebrate Orlando’s (Roland’s) amatory prowess but the range and perfect arc of his actus mingendi. Spello is noted for its restaurants and truffled cooking, its steep, winding, and narrow streets—all one-way only—its Roman towers and amphitheater. A Vocabolaro del Dialetto Spellano, compiled by NicolettaUgoccioni and published here last year, contains, at a thumb-through guess, 20,000 words in current usage—by a population of only 6,800. (more…)
My Perugia Travel Diary June 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, China, Egypt, Flight Schedule, Hotels, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, London, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Round The World, Singapore, South Korea, The Nile, Victoria Falls , add a commentThe Brufani Hotel brings back memories of dinners with the Buitoni (pasta) and the Perugina (chocolate) tycoons, not here but in their homes. To judge by the absence of any renovation in the Brufani in the intervening third of a century, we assume that hotels in the smaller Umbrian towns are also not likely to have been upgraded since Smollett and Hazlitt griped about them.
The huge basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in the Tiber valley below Assisi was built to enclose the tiny church of the Porziuncola, whose walls are traditionally reputed to contain a stone from the tomb of the Virgin. Saint Francis died here in 1226, after, but not as a result of, throwing himself naked into the rose garden outside his small cell. His blood is supposed to have left a perpetual scarlet stain, but the roses bloom every spring, and the thorns have disappeared (miraculously). (more…)
Sintra: The palace of the Portuguese sovereigns in the Moorish style continue… May 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Cars, China, Destination, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Lisbon, Lodges, Morocco, Motel, Portugal, USA , add a commentMost of the interior of the palace is likewise typically Manueline in its treatment of certain features, notably Moorish carpentry (alfarge) and ceramic (azulejo) techniques adumbrating future developments. Over sixty different designs of azulejo are represented, from the simple green-and-white chequer-board, reminiscent of Persian work, on the walls of the Hall of Swans, to the intricate raised pattern of dark-green vine-leaves and turquoise-blue acanthus in the Patio of Diana, a little courtyard with a fountain bearing a graceful figure of the divine huntress. (more…)
