Etna, Alcantara, & the Vendicari Nature Reserve
The Greek and Roman Worlds (and More) in Sicily
With a rather quirky cathedral square.
Palermo. Welcome to Sicily.
The restoration reveals original details and surviving caches of amphorae, but the comparatively minor status of the site made it rather difficult to find the entrance, as we wandered the neighborhood.
With biblical stories arrayed on the walls and ceiling in gold mosaic, the effect is a magnificent space that is still used today. In fact, we carefully planned our visit to avoid a closure due to a wedding. And, yes, we did catch a glimpse of the bride.
The Big Easy. Easy to Love.
San Sebastián. Life is good, and the food even better.
Here, twelve miles from the French border, you are in the real heart of Basque Country, and it is entrancing.
People have been living in the area for around 25,000 years and the city was chartered in the 12th century, but a catastrophic fire following the breach of the town’s walls and the fall of the city in 1813 to an Anglo-Portuguese force has given it a 19th century look.
It’s a town that makes its living largely from tourism and international festivals and as a cultural magnet for the people of the region. Tourism improved dramatically when separatist violence from the ETA ended.
Where it’s easy to kick off your shoes and enjoy yourself, even on an overcast day in late October.
A stroll along either side of the river
Or in the old city
Will bring you to places like Constitution Square (where the numbers over the apartment doors harken back to when owners were forced to rent balcony space to their betters to watch the bullfights in the square)
Or a sunset over the Atlantic.
But, what has really put San Sebastián (Donostia, in Basque) on the map is food.
In what turned out to be a stroke of genius, we hired a guide to take us around to a few bars in the city for pintxos. Although we could have survived with a bit of pointing and taken advantage of the reasonable amount of English and the substantial amount of friendliness found in the Donostiarra who live here, our guide enriched our experience immeasurably.
Donostia is a city obsessed with food and gastronomy. Especially on Thursdays, people go out with friends and family to a series of bars offering both cold and hot pintxos. They order a couple, together with a drink they never finish, enjoy them and move on to the next establishment. People almost always stand, as this is a snack, not a meal. Kids are typically in tow.
Our first pintxo was a Gilda. Olives (yes, but only-available-in-Spain really good ones), anchovies (a revelation), and peppers (one in ten is hot). Eaten in one bite & it was extraordinary. The Gilda was apparently named after Rita Hayworth’s 1946 movie of the same name. Franco banned it. Reason enough.
Within sight of this first pintxo bar were three gastronomical societies, of which the city of barely more than 180,000 people is reported to have around 140. We were told that in their matrilineal society, Basque men value a place of their own, especially one in which they can cook and can claim the kitchen as exclusively theirs. Men may belong to 2 or 3 of the societies, maintaining connections to childhood friends, work colleagues, and so forth. The city has an embarrassment of riches in terms of food. Of Spain’s five restaurants with 3 Michelin stars (the highest rating), three are in San Sebastián. But, back to the food.
One of the pintxos at our third stop was Brie coated in poppy seeds and lightly fried. By the third stop it was raining a bit, so we huddled close under the umbrellas as we stood at the tables, but the eating was enough of a distraction that it really didn’t bother us.
As befits a pilgrimage to San Sebastián, we reported for our course in Basque cooking.
Our instructor Augus (holding the bag) took us through the paces.
Proper cleaning and deboning means you don’t over handle the fish
But carefully remove both the skin and the inner membrane which otherwise will cause the cooked fish to curl.
The fish is cooked gently by swirling the pan (for hours, if you don’t know the chef’s shortcut).
The peppers must be correctly sautéed. And, yes, Adrianne from Miami was recording pretty much every technique.
Frank, the Basque-American whose mother witnessed the attack on Guernica, tries his hand at one of the chef’s secrets. Whisking with a colander.
The team begins to assemble one of the dishes.
This one.
Truly delicious.
And reason enough for a visit to Donostia (San Sebastián).
On egin! (Bon appetit!)
Being so close . . .
The most (justifiably) famous Spanish cave is Altamira. It is open only to a few visitors who are chosen by lottery in order to conserve the artwork. In fact, we met two young men during our visit of El Castillo, one of whom had been fortunate enough to have been chosen to go into the cave. His friend showed us a video showing how visitors are suited up in what look like hazmat suits for their tours. However, a “Neocave” has been built that is a faithful, life-size replica of the cave and the paintings, visits to which are controlled with timed tickets. There’s also a sizable display covering cave art and other early human topics that could take most of a day to thoroughly consume.
Altamira’s art was produced at different eras ranging from 36,000 years ago to 13,000 years ago. It was the areas further into the cave (rather than closer to the entrance) that were used for the paintings. To Jim’s question why the cave walls and ceiling weren’t smudged with soot from the fires or torches used to see inside the caves, the guide at El Castillo explained that animal fats were used for lighting because they burned much cleaner than wood and didn’t produce that kind of smoke. To make the paintings, the artists used charcoal and ochre (iron oxide). They are very cleanly and precisely rendered, so that it’s clear that the painters must have practiced extensively elsewhere before committing their art to the cave walls and ceilings.
In the midst of fields with the pungent smells of country life
A house we couldn’t find without first rendezvousing with our host at the bar along the “main” road and following her along a narrow lane to the edge of the village.
Knowing of our interest in food and plan to next visit San Sebastián, our host pushed us to drive into the city of Santander for lunch, as she maintained that the food was just as good and cost half of what we would pay in San Sebastián.
So, we took the plunge and had a great meal
Bilbao and the Beginning of the Basque Country
That was certainly the case when we planned the trip with our friends Philip and Catherine.
The ceramicist Francisco Durrio
Dario de Regoyas
No, Picasso’s Guernica is not in Bilbao. Having lived its own life in exile until it was reluctantly returned by the MoMA to Spain under the terms of Picasso’s will, it is now installed in its own gallery in Madrid. However, the art museum in Bilbao (not far from the town of Guernica, “Gernika” in Basque) maintains a fascinating exhibit of a number of Picasso’s sketches for the work, as well as other anti-war art, including some pieces inspired by Picasso’s work.
A Day on the Mountain of Montserrat
Getting to the Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat has an element of drama. We started with a metro ride to the train station, then a train to the cable car station, and finally a ride up the mountain in the little yellow box.
The Benedictine monastery was founded in the 10th century and still has over 150 monks in residence. We didn’t see any.
The Abbey has played an important role in the religious and political life of Catalonia. In more recent times, the monks were persecuted during the Civil War by Republican forces and then also persecuted by Franco given their ties to Catalan separatists and left wing politics and habit of providing sanctuary.
In a basilica partly built into the mountain, the Virgin of Montserrat is the principle attraction for both the curious and the faithful.
Miro, Picasso & the Essence of Catalonia
He was fascinated with body language and graffiti. He was also influenced by Japanese art and the approach to calligraphy characterized by rapid execution following a period of intense concentration. He visited Japan a couple of times, as well as the United States where he met with the abstract expressionists, including Pollack.
The beauty of the Miro Foundation museum is that it actually does provide such as wide perspective on his work that you begin to have the illusion that you understand him.
From the Miro Foundation we walked over to the National Art Museum of Catalonia with its commanding view of the city (hi, Catherine!).
It’s again a very impressive collection that, makes you reassess how you feel about an entire epoque in art.