Italy 2000: Day 2: Udine: Wednesday, April 26

Tuesday, April 26: Udine

We seem to have beaten the jet lag by sleeping through the night and adapting to
Italian time without difficulty. The weather is stunning....sunny and warm with
a cloudless blue sky. I continue to have computer problems--a combination of
dialing mishaps and connection problems; I hope they get ironed out soon.

Breakfast at the hotel is quite fine--a nice room and a good spread. Our only
problem is that we seem to have gotten on the wrong side of the breakfast room
waitress for being slightly impatient with the service; we may pay for that for
the rest of our stay.

We need to run an errand before we start our sightseeing in earnest. The
charger for the cell phone we brought is not working, so we end up buying a new
one, as well buying some pre-paid phone time at the phone store in the
neighborhood. We still find our Italian not quite adequate for these type of
encounters, but we struggle through.

The town is quite lively today and the shops are bustling; as we make our way
through the downtown, we are again struck by how pleasant the town appears to
be.

We make our obligatory stop at the local tourist office in hopes of some
literature, maps, and itineraries for our Udine visit, but there is not much to
be had in any language. Our next stop is at the top of the small hill that
dominates the town....the original settlement is there and, in addition to the
Castello (now the Civic Museum) and an old church, there are pretty good views
over the town and a lovely park. There is also a 15th century loggia leading up
to the hill top, beginning from a gate designed by Palladio which ties the
Castle to the center of the "centro storico". The town features a Venetian
style square, complete with lions on high towers; one of the buildings in the
complex is "in restauro", but the work is covered by painted representation of
the what is being restored. The other main square, the Piazza San Giacomo, is
the nerve center of the city. Cafes along the square are filled and mothers and
children are hanging out in the square around the fountain.

We wander through the streets and stop for a coffee near the university. Many
of the osterie are already busy at 11 am serving small glasses of wine to what
seem to be regular customers; this turns out to be a Udine ritual and it
continues all day long. We do a little shopping and head back to the hotel to
drop off our packages and get in the car for an excursion into the countryside.
A quick lunch at a takeout store located around the corner from the hotel is
undistinguished, but we eat while sitting in the sun in a little courtyard which
seems to be typical of the town. Many of the shops are located in courtyards
off the main streets; these public spaces reduce the effect of traffic noise in
the center of the city. Some of these courtyard/malls are set next to canals
and are very inviting.

We wend our way out of town with the general intention of heading to the west,
perhaps to the famous town of San Danieli, the home of the rival to Parma's ham.
Diana gets her first experience with Italian driving and she does quite well.
This area is no real rival to the scenery in other parts of Italy, but there are
some rolling hills to break up the mostly flat terrain. We change our plans en
route and end up in the town of Spilimbergo, just across the very wide and
barely wet Tagliamento River. It seems amazing that a river with such a wide
bed--perhaps as wide as the Potomac--could have so little water flowing,
especially in the spring time.

Spilimbergo is one of those Italian towns that looks completely unprepossessing
at first glance. We make a short stop at the Cathedral--noted for its
Romanesque portals and paintings by local artists--and then walk into town.
Once through the medieval gate, we find a stylish and sophisticated town center,
with some very large, unique modern wood sculptures scattered around the
streets, with shops and buildings you would never expect to see. Spilimbergo is
also home to a very famous school for mosaics but we were unable to visit it.
After a stroll through town and a very good gelato, we headed for another
notable attraction in the area, the Villa Manin in Passariano.

We got caught in a large traffic jam on the way; an accident had brought traffic
to a standstill on the road leading to the bridge over the river, so we had to
make a u-turn and improvise an alternate route.

The palazzo is a very large villa, common in the 17th and 18th century in this
area, in the style of Palladio. It was the home of the last Doge of Venice,
before the French handed Venice over to the Austro-Hungrian Empire; as a matter
of fact, Napoleon stayed there when he signed the treaty confirming the deal.

Now the villa is part of the Friuli park system and is used for exhibitions and
art shows. It just so happened that they were either tearing down a show or
putting one up, so we couldn't get inside (except for a brief visit to the
chapel) but we wandered around and were very impressed with its scale and the
extensive grounds.

Back in Udine, I took another stroll around town--mainly to check out places to
eat for dinner, but also to locate some of the places we would head to the next
day. I found an incredible book store devoted to the books and magazines about
Friuli, with a section in the local language--Furlan. I browsed around--they
had an extensive section on Trieste and several books on the subject of the Jews
in that city--and tried to find some material in English about Udine and/or
Friuli. The owner pointed out a short guide in English, which I bought, and
suggested a couple of coffee table books with lovely pictures and some English
text. I told him that I would bring Diana back the next day.

We headed out to dinner at an osteria--La Ghiacciaia (The Icehouse) which was
close to the hotel. We sat out on the terrace overlooking a canal and enjoyed
the spectacular weather. Dinner was simple and mostly good.....We shared a
plate of very delicate and tasty San Daniele ham,I had a delicious orzo and bean
soup, followed by an terrific dish of cooked cotechino sausage with polenta;
Diana had an excellent dish of spaghetti with oil, garlic and peppers (with
little evidence of peppers)
followed by some white asparagus (a local specialty) drenched in butter and
parmigiano cheese. Unfortunately they were quite overcooked by our standards so
they were not a success. The apple strudel was also just so-so, but the white
wine was pleasant, so it was all-in-all a nice outing.

Back at the hotel, we finished our first report and struggled with the Internet,
before finally getting it off. By then, it was midnight and we crashed.

I must add that we are throughly taken with Udine....a nice sized city that is
easy to negotiate, lots of things to do and an exceedinly charming atmosphere.
I
hope the feeling continues.

Jim and Diana

Di's PS: I'd wondered whether the timing of this trip was crazy or great -
coming on top of the wonderful but exhausting Passover. It turns out to be
great. My tiredness disappeared and it's great being back in Italy and on
vacation together. There's enough familiar to feel rather at home, but enough
new and interesting to make it a challenge. Some of the usual mysteries remain.
How is it possible for me to walk for hours and hours here, whereas at home if
Jimmy suggests a stroll up to the avenue I'm not interested? How is it that
Italian waiters can be so solicitous and then totally disappear after the main
course? How can Italian women be so slim-hipped and always be wearing the most
exquisite shoes? How can somewhat minor cities be so charming, with great,
sophisticated shops and store windows, amazing art, fabulous food and wine?

Part of the pleasure of vacation for me is to read, and I've read 2 good books:
finished my sister Josie Woll's book, Real Images: Soviet Cinema and the Thaw
which is so well written and full of such interesting stuff and trenchant
analysis, that even if you've never seen one of the movies she discusses, the
book is fascinating. I am completely unbiased, of course. And I also recommend
Body & Soul by Frank Conroy, a fine novel about a pianist, a child prodigy, set
in NYC beginning in the 1940s.