Month: July 2015

The Retirees go Abroad – the Devils Bridge and the village of Sillico

Today we set out to see some of the smaller villages around Lucca. First port of call was Borgo a Mozzano which is best known for Ponte della Maddalena also called “del Diavolo” (Devil’s Bridge). The Devil’s Bridge is located about one kilometre north of the town. According to the historical notices beside the bridge it was first built to provide the Lombards with safe passage through their territories avoiding conflict with other tribes of the area. Then the present day bridge with its extraordinary engineering was commissioned by Countess Mathilde di Canossa in or around 1500. The bridge’s majestic structure attracts thousands of tourists every year.

The legend/myth about the bridge is that when the bridge was being built the devil said to the people of the village that he would enable the bridge to be built if he could have the first soul to cross the bridge. This troubled the Mayor until an old farmer said go ahead with the bridge I will give up the first soul. The bridge was built and the farmer told everyone to stay clear while he coaxed his pig to cross the bridge. The devil was so irate he threw himself off the bridge and never returned.

After spending an idyllic hour eating a picnic lunch under the trees near the bridge we pushed on to find a hot water spring Pra del Lama shown on our map. We searched high and low to find this spring even to the point where we were confronted with a track along the spine of a hill which I think even the Romans rejected. But we lived to tell the tale. Instead we ended up in Sillico (I think we were silly co), a pretty village on the peak of a hill/mountain where we got some great photos.

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The Retirees go Abroad – Verona Overnight

David and Veronica are now on their way to Rome and we head north to Salzburg in Austria. We have broken the trip into two parts – Lucca to Verona and Verona to Salzburg. We are hoping that we will get away from the heat for a while.

Travelling north through the heart of Italy we saw much the same scenery that abounded in Tuscany and it did not get much cooler. As it was an overnight we stayed in the Best Western CTC Verona. Tommy got terribly confused and took us miles from our destination but eventually we arrived. Quickly we unpacked and drove into the old town of Verona principally to see the balcony from which Juliette received those immortal words “Juliette, Juliette wherefore art thou Juliette”.

We found the parking station and walked through the old gate and ran smack into a Roman Amphitheatre. Verona has managed to preserve this historic part of its Roman history and today uses it for less violent activities. Presently they are preparing the stage for an Egyptian themed production.

Kerry was indisposed when I heard drums chants and whistles outside the arena. Maybe they have caught a Christian or two for the lions I thought but no it was a protest of some sort – most boring. We then headed into the streets of old Verona in search of a Shakespearean experience. Past dress shops and shoe shops and bag shops – hard work I can tell you until we saw the sign. There in front of us was a Japanese bus tour – they had found Juliette’s balcony.

We could not leave it there we had to find Romeo’s pad. Back into the street armed with a tourism map marked with all the sights, we found the Palace, Palazzo della Ragione, the Palais of Justice, the old city well, a church with grand tombs around it and a Square dedicated to a famous French writer whose name I have forgotten. Almost at our wits end we found it – a most unimposing place and no Japanese tour thronging to photograph it. In fact to our surprise, the current resident suddenly appeared – no not Romeo but who knows maybe a Capulette?

Verona was a surprising city with its pretty building its markets and the mobile market stands, its three wheeled eco cleaning utilities, and it’s pretty women. Dinner was a shared pizza in the shadow of the Roman Arena before going home with the prettiest woman.

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The Retirees go Abroad – Salzburg, Hangar 7 and the Capuchin Monastery

It’s Sunday and the weather is deteriorating. Rain is forecast for the week and we can no longer see the top of the mountain that towers over Salzburg. The mountain remained clouded and on some days totally obscured by cloud and rain. But we had a plan. We would go to the central rail station and purchase tickets to Munich (photo of the façade below) for Monday then go over to Hangar 7 then visit the Capuchin Monastery built on a monolith in the centre of the city.

Kerry had discovered Hangar 7 on the internet. It is located at the Salzburg Airport and is in part a museum of racing cars and planes owned by Red Bull or the Red Bull Racing team. It is mind blowing. The museum building is a stunning piece of architecture and the contents are priceless. Many of the racing cars are former F1 cars driven by Sebastian Vittel.

The exhibits included the space ship and suit the French explorer who sky dived from space, jet trainers, helicopters, turbo prop planes used in the Red Bull races, the first Red Bull executive plane a DC 6, motor cross bikes, F1 cars, a jet pack suit and a reconstruction of Leonardo’s “Bird Wings”. Whilst we were there a white executive jet pulled up to the front of the hangar and out stepped Mark Webber (who now drives F2 endurance cars for Red Bull) and he paraded through the hangar and went to the restaurant on the 1st floor where he was interviewed. We went to the bar on floor 2 via an amazing lift to have a drink and observe. Even the toilets were something special – the men’s urinals featured this huge floral display. Kerry figured that there was going to be some presentation there and later that night on TV we watched a show broadcast live from Hangar 7 including Mark Webber.

As we departed we noticed the further hangar across the tarmac and took in the sculptures around the hangar.

To finish the day we thought we would visit a monastery. So in the centre of the city, we searched for the passage to take us up to the monastery, finally finding it. Some of the things we found as well as the gateway to the monastery are below.

We climbed up through the old gate (the gate keepers house is still occupied) past the Stations of the Cross (I photographed a few only), then to the church but we could not access the monastery. Then, I made the fateful mistake of talking Kerry into visiting the fortress just a little way beyond. It turned out to be two kilometres up some very steep roads and then it was closed when we got there. We consoled ourselves that it had been a lovely walk, we had seen some great views, seen Hohensalzburg and we had go to see some of the large snails and slugs brought out by the rain. Kerry particularly consoled herself that we had accidentally found the main shopping area of Salzburg.

By now we had bought our weekly pass for the bus (which we used to death) and we jumped a No 5 to go home.

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