Today I thought we could drive to Monaco, and visit Monte Carlo but the weather has packed up and the visibility is very poor and it has been raining all night.

  

We stayed around the apartment and went for lunch at a local restaurant in town. When we left the apartment it was still raining very heavy and when we went outside the paths were torrents of water. No real drainage except straight down the path.

We had a nice lunch of:

• Pasta with Artichokes 8 EURO
• Lamb and Bean stew 8 EURO
• Antipasti of Cheese, Sun dried tomato, mushroom, some type of cake, onions 7.50 EURO
• 1/2 bottle of wine – 8 EURO

We went back to the apartment and later when it cleared up I went out for a drive to a little town called Certo.

 

The road to Certo is vey narrow and zigzags about 8 times before you get to the top. Luckily I did not see any other traffic on the road.  As you can see traffic coming from the opposite direction could be a problem.

After this I went to the town of Badaluca and had a coffee

 

and bought an expensive bottle of wine from Docleaqua for 13 Euro

When I returned the rain had left but there was still some clouds around but the sun was out.

We decided that today (Tuesday) we would drive from Triora and visit some villages and work our way down to the coast and buy from more groceries.

Pam had a list of villages she wanted to see:

• Castel Vittorio
• Pigna
• Apricale
• Dolceacqua

We left Triora sometime after 10am and started our journey to Castel Vittorio – 28 km away but the TOMTOM said it would take 55 minutes. The road is very windey and narrow. We drove up a long way to a maximum of 1150 meters above sea level – Triora is at 750 meters above sea level.

The TOMTOM unit lost the road quite a few times and told us to go back but we ignored it and it found the road again – I think it did this about 6 times.

The winding road was overall quite good quality except at the top where the road surface was starting to have lots of holes. Some of the corners you had to toot your horn as you could not see if anyone was coming at all and the road was certainly 1 lane only in parts.

The mountains were covered in trees and it looked very nice while we drove along.

 

We found Castel Vittorio at about 11:45am, it was a spectacular village as we drove up to it. We found the car park and parked the car. We were not sure what the signs were saying  in the car park and I had to translate using the Blackberry Translate application I have. Basically it said that if you park there on a Friday they will remove your car – so no problems for Tuesday.

We stopped at a bar and had a coffee sitting on the edge of the street – cost 1 EURO each.

We then walked up around the village and left after about 20 minutes.

Castel Vittorio from a distance	Pam having a coffee in Castel Vittorio	The clock tower in Castel Vittorio
A religious figure in a wall	Pam in the alley	From Castel Vittorio looking over Pigna
Castel Vittorio	Castel Vittorio	Chris at the bottom of the clock tower

Pigna was only 5 km away from Castel Vittorio – but about 12 minutes driving, so we drove there.

The village looked great from a distance but we decided to just drive through when we got there.

Apricale was next after Pigna, 20 minutes and 10 km away. The road was actually quite good in parts here and we got there by early afternoon.

Apricale from a distance	A close-up of Apricale	Apricale from the car park
Art on the walls of the buildings in Apricale	Art on the walls of the buildings in Apricale	Art on the walls of the buildings in Apricale
A piazza in Apricale	A piazza in Apricale	The main road in Apricale
The wee jug is what my wine came in	A view from Apricale	The main road to Apricale
A typical building	The clock tower – a bicycle on the top?	Not sure what the figures mean
A nice scene	A pathway to hoses	a typical path

The village looked amazing perched on the hill top and this was one place we had thought about staying at.

We drove up and along the village edge until we found a car park. We parked up there and looked for somewhere to have lunch.

The first place we found was on the road we have driven on and had Pizza and Pasta and looked ok, the next place which was similar, but it smelt like diesel outside so we flagged that one, we then headed up to the village.

Some of the streets in the village stunk of cat piss.

There were a couple of restaurants we found but looked expensive – 30 EURO + for a full menu which is actually a lot of courses – but 30 EURO is about $80 NZD far to much for lunch each.

We wondered down to the first restaurant and settled in there. Pam ordered Ravioli with Fungi, and I ordered a dish of gnocchi with a cheese sauce. We ordered a bottle of water, and a 1/4 litre of wine for me.

The gnocchi was quite boring – no real flavour, and were like little bits of glue. Pam did not really like her pasta but it was a lot nicer than what I had. I did not think there was anything wrong with hers, and she had a nice sauce with it and the mushrooms were nice. The wine was so-so – quite light in colour and body. It was a local wine to the area – one I would keep away from – I did not note its name – house wine so it is never good.

So overall 22 EURO - $50 NZD for a pretty bland experience.

Back to the car and now off to Dolceacqua. It was only about 6 KM down the road. The road now got very good and generally two full lanes all the time. There were a lot of Tour buses when we arrived in the town. We saw the bridge (the main attraction) as we drove along and I guess after seeing a lot of other bridges and medieval villages it was a bit of a let down for me. There was no where to park so I continued on. The TOMTOM said to turn right so we did and found ourselves in a rather tiny road up on the side of the hill. It told us to turn left where there was no roads so we ended up doing a U-Turn and go back the way we arrived. I found a park but I could not leave the car so Pam went and checked out the bridge.

We then wanted to find a supermarket to buy some food – there was one in a large town called Ventimiglia. We found that OK, but could not find the supermarket in the shopping centre. Pam asked and it was down below us. It was quite a drab type of place and a lot of the vegetables looked pretty sad.

We bought Tomatoes, and Onions, Tomato Paste, more Toast, Water, Tonic Water, and Wine – about 22 EURO.

After this time was getting on for 4pm.

We decided to head back to Triora via the coast until a town called Taggia were we go back inland, and up into the mountains again.

We travelled from Ventimiglia through Bordighera and onto Ospedaletti and into San Remo. It was now about 4:40pm so the roads was getting busy.

The TOMTOM said we should be back at Triora at 6pm but the roads were real slow. And they got worse.

We ended up in a queue of traffic that just did not seem to move at all. Over 30 minutes we moved 500 meters and the TOMTOM was now saying wee would not get home to 6:30, but this traffic was not moving. We assume there was an accident up ahead as this could not be rush hour traffic.

About now I had enough of this and did a U-Turn and got the TOMTOM to find an alterative route back.

It told me to turn right, I did, but it was not a road, more like a driveway, so we backed out of there and continued and let the TOMTOM find another route. This time it said to take a sharp right (very sharp – 3 point turn) and head up hill. We zigzagged up a hill in San Remo about 20 times and we were now about 200 meters above the sea. Again we were not sure if this was the correct way but continued on anyway. At the top there was a sign for the Autostrada so we were happy the TOMTOM was doing its job again.

   

We got a new toll ticket and went onto the motorway, 130 kph is far better than sitting in traffic. We only drove for about 5 minutes and were told to exit the motorway (we has passed through 8 tunnels in that 5 minutes). The toll was 2 EURO.

We exited and headed for Taggia which is the same town we had came through on Saturday so we were now on familiar roads.

We passed close to a town called Badalucco and took a couple of snaps

  

We got back to Triora and took the groceries and walked back up the hill and got back to the apartment at about 7pm so overall a long day.

I got some stats form the car for our trip:

Total Distance Travelled : 136 KM

Total Driving Time : 5 hours 35 minutes

I then cooked Pasta for dinner, had a nice wine with dinner which was a Primitivo  - quite full bodied for Italian wines – note to self – buy some when back in NZ

After starting my walk to Sereto I turned back and saw a nice view of Triora so I decided to return to take some photos of the sun setting. My blister is now worse for doing this.

I suppose since the sun is only setting behind the mountains and not the sea there is not a lot of colour in the sky. My guess the real sunset would have been about 1 hour later.

There was a book about walking the Argentina mountains in our apartment so I took a simple walk from Triora to Sereto – about 5km round trip – time about 2 hours. I got a blister after walking the tracks but it was worth it as it was a great day out in the wild.

My walk started from the bottom of the road to Triora. I walked past a monument from the second world war and then found the track to walk. Pam did not do the walk.

 

Welcome to Triora	A nice mountain view	The church of Sam Bernardino
An old abandoned house	A stream along the walk (I was stung with stinging nettles here)	My destination is that bridge – Sereto
Just a nice view	Another nice view
A gecko on a rock – handheld at 20x zoom	This is the old bridge to Sereto	The view looking back
I went down to the valley floor to see the bridge from another angle.	Quite a lot of water flowing there	The forest near the river
This is my destination – Sereto	A typical house	A sign with the height I am at 642 meters
The side of the church in Sereto	The view back to Triora	This photo was taken using the maximum zoom of the camera 80x (20x Optical and 4x digital), the grey coloured building in the centre is our apartment. This photo was taken from the same position as the previous photo which is on the Sereto bridge.
A Bar and Restaurant – I had a beer in there	The same old house again in Sereto	No longer wanted and deserted probably a shed
A new bud on a grape vine	Almost back in Triora
A typical flower on the trail	Not sure what sort of plant but it looked interesting

When we got to Triora there were quite a few cars and people around – Saturday afternoon visitors? but it was quite cold…..

We had instructions to find our accommodation but it was like a mystery challenge:

From the village centre, follow the original directions until the tunnel after the shops but then go left, up a few feet, and right, past an old double fountain, the out through the old gateway, to a road called DIETRO LA COLLA.  Turn right and follow this road for about 300 yards until you come to a Y-junction. Take the road that goes down, traverse a small square and take the road on your left, a steep cobble-stepped road that turns left and right en route downwards.

We finally found the place and were greeted by Carl who showed us around and had the place very warm – Pam was happy (the instructions actually read perfectly well as we did not get lost)

The foot paths were not what we were expecting – quite rocky and uneven.

A typical road/footpath	Another typical road/footpath	I even found a man driving on the road
A closed abandoned window	A better path	A turn off to our apartment

We rang the door bell and were greeted by Carl who showed us around and had the place very warm – Pam was happy since it was quite chilly outside.

We have ended up staying in “The Cloisters” and not “The Penthouse” (names given to the rooms) which is bigger due to a problem with the heating. Sounds fine to me – Carl said this apartment is normally 100 pounds more a week.

Our kitchen	Our Kitchen	Medieval swords and glasses in the kitchen
Just in case someone pisses you off	Another wall in the kitchen	Our lounge
The bathroom	Some art on the wall	A new pellet fire

 

The view from our balcony – behind the mountain with snow is Nice in France

A little village across the valley from us (they do not get a lot of sunshine especially the houses at the bottom left)

The same village as above but zoomed in more

We packed up our bags and left them at the hotel and went to the train station to pickup our rental car – I could not help myself and had to have a final coffee on the way – great as always – 90 cents

We went to the EuropCar office at the train station and filled in the paper work for the car and then had to wait until someone bought the car to the train station. It was obviously a busy day as a couple of girls came in looking for a car for 1 day and the man said they only had 1 car left which was 120 EURO for the day which is about 300 NZD

We waited for about 20 minutes for the car to arrive which was an Alfa Romeo – 159, only 30,000 on the clock, 6 Speed Manual Gearbox

First off I could not even work out how to start it – I knew from Top Gear that you put the key in the hole and click the Start/Stop button but it did not work. I finally got it going without really knowing what I did.

We fitted the TOMTOM to the window and entered the hotel address as the destination since driving is different than walking the route.

We reversed out and onto the road and into the street. Since I drive an automatic I am not familiar with the 6 speed manual gearbox and we stopped at a set of lights and I placed it into 3rd instead of first since it looked the right spot – I stalled the car and then could not work out how to start it again – STUCK in TRAFFIC – people honking behind me – at least it was a Saturday.

I finally worked out you had to put your foot on the clutch and hold it down to start  (should have worked it out at the station).

We drove to the hotel and picked up our bags which fit in the boot nicely and programmed the TOMTOM with TRIORA as the destination – 300 km and about 3.5 hours.

We drove through Milan central where the roads were sometimes not much wider than the car and found the Autostrada (Motorway) entrance and we were off (did I mention the TOMTOM? great – no hassles – I think it would have a been quite hard work with Pam giving me directions as she is terrible with directions saying the maps are not left handed)

The Autostrada speed limit is 130 kph which is 81 mph. Most people go a lot faster – I would say some would be driving 180 kph quite easily especially the Mercedes, Porsche, BMW’s and there are heaps of them all everywhere.

The road is good – 3 lanes out of Milan on the A7 until we changed to the A26 where it dropped to two lanes.

On the way from Milan to where we turned off near the coast to Triora I think we went through about 150 tunnels. Some short 100 meters, some 2km long.

We decided to stop in Savona to get some groceries for our 7 nights in Triora – so we had to leave the Autostrada and pay out first toll. It was 10 EURO from Milan to Savona.

We were not sure were to go to buy food so we put into the TOMTOM we wanted a shopping centre and it found a few – the first 1.1 km and next 35km so we took the first option.

We found the shopping centre and all the parking was underneath it so we drove in the car park but I was not comfortable parking it down there as it takes time to work out the width and length of a new vehicle so we drove out again and parked on the road.

We went in side and found the supermarket or in this case a COOP on the second floor – We found a trolley (normally you have to pay 1 EURO and you get it back later when you drop it back) and went inside. You can buy a stereo, television, game machine, clothes with your groceries in this place.

We went for the food section – there is so much variety there compared to NZ:

• 1.5 Litre water – 45 cents
• 6 eggs – 1 Euro + 80 cents
• Parmesan cheese – depends on the quality but from 12 to 30 euro
• Olives – plastic bag 50 cents to glass jars 2-3 euro but it depends on the type and size
• Pork Chops – 7 euro / kg

We spent 80 euro on food which included 3 bottles of wine – mostly cheap stuff since I don’t know anything about Italian wine.

We bought some 24 month old parmesan, about 350 grams for a bit under 6 EURO

They have interesting toast here – it comes in a package like a pack of biscuits – and yes it is toast – pre toasted – Brittle but actually quite nice

They have lovely other cheeses everywhere and cheap – so we bought a selection. We also bought eggs, pasta, olives, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salami, prosciutto, lemonade, coke, artichokes, butter and jam.

After the shopping centre we put Triora back into the TOMTOM and off we went (picking up a new motorway toll ticket)

We drove for another 30 minutes and exited the motorway and had to pay 9 EURO in tolls this time so 19 EURO in tolls.

Now we leave the coast and work out way into the mountains – the roads now get quite narrow and in some places very hard for 2 cars to pass each other. Pam mentioned that there is a bus in Triora and it would not be good to meet this on a narrow corner  - we inched around a corner with another car from the other direction and the found the bus, but at least we had a wider section of road now.

I put a software application called HEIGHT on the TOMTOM that tells you your height and we could see we were climbing quite fast- our destination is at 700 meters.

We have not had a huge amount of food while in Milan – we arrived early on Thursday morning and ate on the plane so we did not need too much food. We went to visit the Duomo and after that we went to a restaurant around the corner (in the view of the Duomo means you pay far too much)

Chris had a salad - very nice and quite large, lettuce, Radish, Olives, Mozzarella  and you just add Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar – cost 7 EURO

Pam had a Pizza, Milan style – pretty basic a very thin base which looked like a flour tortilla, with cheese and some tomato and basil – cost 7 EURO

A 1.5 litre bottle of water – 2.5 EURO

I think my salad was better value and I enjoyed it more than Pam enjoyed her pizza.

Coffee 

Well what can I say – great (but it still depends on where you get it)

We went to a little bar next to the train station and their espresso is 90 cents and is great. Basically an automatic machine (I may try to get a photo tomorrow before we leave), the man grinds the coffee and the just clicks a button to get an espresso.

I asked for a Cafe this morning in the hotel and they came back with crap American style watered down coffee. This is suppose to be called Cafe Americano so I asked for an espresso – but this was too hot and tasted like some in Christchurch- a bit bitter with a bad extraction.

Breakfast

I enjoyed the breakfast in the hotel this morning – basically as you would expect – bread, jam, sweets buns etc. There was also eggs (uova), cheese, salami, and luncheon.

There was a nice Pianoforte with orange which I liked.

Lunch

Pam and I went to the park today and had lunch there.

I had a Panini with Tomato and Mozzarella drizzled with Olive Oil which I enjoyed very much, Pam had just a Gelato.

Dinner

We went to a local restaurant around the corner from the hotel and had a pretty simple meal.

I had a Risotto Milanese – which was basically Saffron Rice and cheese – pretty basic and yellow – 7 EURO

Pam had a dish of Spaghetti and Clams which tasted nice to me but she said she preferred mine. – 8 EURO

A large beer (660 ML) – 4 EURO

Parco Sempione was built on part of what were originally the gardens and the huge 300-hectare hunting reserve of the Duke, adjacent to his castle. Sforza Castle, named after its architect Francesco Sforza, dates back to the 14th Century, being one of the last examples of Napoleonic art, as it was modernised by the Napoleones.

We sat on the grass and had a simple lunch, Pam just had a Limone Gelato 1.5 Euro, I had a Pomodore and Mozzarella Panini (sandwich) 2.5 Euro and later a Pistachio Gelato 1.5 Euro

We then strolled the park and caught the metro back to the central station and our hotel. We bought some beer (1.5 Euro per can) and water (49 Cents for 1.5 Litre) at the Super Mercato at the Train Station.

Today is Good Friday and as such it is a public holiday in Italy (as it is at home)

We have tickets (see http://www.cenacolovinciano.org) to Leonardo's Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie church. You need to buy tickets well in advance and in our case we bought them on the internet about 2 months ago. You are granted 15 minutes in a group of 25 people maximum which is actually quite good since there are no queues and you have a good view of the restored painting.

You can get very close to the painting, about 6 feet, and in fact there was no security to stop you taking anything in the room.

This page allows you to view the room the painting is in in 360 degrees and zoom in and out
http://milan.arounder.com/da_vinci_last_supper/IT000005341.html

This page allows you to zoom into parts of the painting
http://milan.arounder.com/da_vinci_last_supper/IT000005356.html

You are not allowed to take photos in the gallery and you must go through a dust removal process where you go through a couple of air locks before you get in.

The painting is large at 4.6 by 8.8 meters (roughly 15 by 29 feet).

History of the Painting's Restoration

The method in which the painting was executed, on a dry surface, rather than on wet plaster, the traditional method for a fresco, meant that it stood up very poorly to the test of time. By 1556, the notable contemporary historian of the Renaissance Giorgio Vasari was describing the painting as  "ruined", to such a degree that the figures were no longer recognizable. In 1652, a door was cut through the bottom of the painting -- almost completely gone by that time -- and this can be seen in the gray unpainted area immediately below Jesus. The arch was eventually bricked up again.

Michelangelo Bellotti was the first artist to try to restore the painting. In 1726, he attempted to paint over the damaged sections with oil paint, and then cover the lot with varnish to preserve it from further deterioration. However, the methods and materials of the time were unequal to the task, and another restoration had to be attempted in 1770, some 44 years later. Giuseppe Mazza completely undid Bellotti's work and started from scratch, essentially re-painting the work. However, he was never allowed to finish, as the public was outraged at what they saw as creative liberties on his part.

In 1796, Napoleon's French troops were stationed around the convent and used the refectory as a makeshift prison, though it is unknown what further damage this caused.

In 1821, an attempt was made to move the "fresco" to a safer location. Stefano Barezzi, the expert charged with this task, damaged the painting quite badly before he realized that the work was not a fresco, but had been painted on a dry surface. He attempted to fix the damage he had done, but this only made the situation worse. From 1901 to 1908, Luigi Cavenaghi began a careful cleaning of the painting. He was followed by Oreste Silvestri in 1924, who cleaned the painting further and stabilized those parts that were still intact with stucco.

In 1943, during World War II, the convent was struck by a bomb. While sandbags had been put up to protect the painting from bomb splinters, vibration may have caused further damage. After the war, from 1951 to 1954, another cleaning and stabilization was attempted by Mauro Pelliccioli.

It was not until the end of the 20th Century that a major restoration of this key work of art was undertaken. Between 1978 and 1999, under the leadership of Pinin Brambilla Barcilon, a concerted effort was made to reverse the damage caused by time, dirt, pollution and previous restoration attempts and to permanently stabilize the painting. Since the method used for the original painting made it impossible to move, the refectory was sealed off and set up with climate-controlling equipment. A detailed study of the painting was conducted using state-of-the-art methods such as infrared reflectoscopy and microscopic core-sampling. To determine the painting's original shape, the restorers studied Leonardo's sketches, as well as contemporary copies of the painting.Some areas had undergone such extensive damage that the restorers concluded that they were unrestorable and re-painted these areas in subdued watercolors, in order to demonstrate that these were not part of the originial work.

The results of the restoration were unveiled on May 28, 1999. There was considerable controversy over some of the decisions made by the restoration team, which included drastic changes in color, tone, and even the facial features of some of the apostles.

Same photos in a different layout