Rieti
Jun 19th, 2005, 08:21 AM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,767
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rieti
I've asked Rex to post about Rieti after reading a comment that it reminds him of Florence before the tourists. I'm hoping/planning to visit during an October trip. Thanks in advance Rex.
Jun 19th, 2005, 11:09 AM
#2
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 13,194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hmmm... slight misinterpretation of what I said... but close... I said (thinking through rose-colord glasses, no doubt) that the <i>province</i> of Rieti makes me think that it might be what be like what <i>Tuscany</i> could have been like before it became "discovered" (and bought up, a la "Chianti-shire", as others have joked before). How far back does that go? 50 years? 75? the Brownings were singing the praises of Tuscany 150 years ago, right? Of course, I don't really <u>know</u> what Tuscany was like, historically - - and I gladly succumb to certain images presented in "Tea with Mussolini" or "Life is Beautiful" (the first half).
And Rieti is a town, as well as a province; I have never been there (to the town). I don't think there is any comparison possible to Florence, neither in the early 20th century, nor in any other century.
I spent a little less than 24 hours in the town of Orvinio and the nearby "<i>Sabine</i>" countryside in the fall of 1999 - - and it's true, it made a very strong impression on me. I was "just a pup" here on this forum (soon afterwards, actually) - - and never elaborated on that trip a whole lot. But I remember Orvinio/Rieti as if it were yesterday (with a little nostalgia, I'm sure).
My wife and I were on a "scouting trip" for a <i>large</i> group trip (by my standards, 16 people, counting the two of us) that I was asked to put together in June 2000. We were looking for suitable villas or castle-like properties where we could spend a week with the group.
With some hesitation, Larry Haase of www.domani-usa.com said he could arrange a one-night look-see stay at "the Castle of Orvinio", even though he had never actually seen the place in person, and he wasn't sure how nice it was. On a related note, he said we might also seek out advice from a "friend" who had a nice villa, with a "side house" to rent in the vicinity - - http://www.domani-usa.com/rome/vallerosa/index.htm
If you think our recent Loire/Dordogne/Basque country trip was a whirlwind, this one was much worse. Night one was in Dublin, two in the Black Forest, three in Salzburg. On day four, we left Salzburg early (6 or 7 am?) drove to Venice, spent 4 or 5 hours there scouting out hotels and restaurants, and then back on the road almost all the way to Rome to reach Orvinio (about 40 miles NW of one of the last exits on the main Florence-Rome autostrada, before the GRA).
So, we arrived in the pitch black of night, (after 9 pm), in this little town of surely fewer than 200 people. Fortunately, that means getting local advice on where the "castle" is... did not prove difficult (despite no signage whatsoever) - - hardly an abundance of castles in the town!
Our host, a "marchese" Carlo Malvezzi seemed a little bit surprised, and quite pleased to see us at this late hour; while he spoke no English at all, we did manage to communicate with some success in a melange of (his bad) French and (my bad) Italian. He wanted to greet us with some of his homemade wine, despite the late hour. I have rarely tasted any truly bad wine, but this came close - - with a piny, resiny quality. We managed to smile and consume a bit less than half a glass.
He had no other guests, and though he seemed to suggest that we could pick any room, I got the idea that there was one he clearly wanted us to choose. It was a mixture of 40 year-old used-to-be-glamorous decor - - with a hefty touch of threadbare and decrepit. The bathroom clearly USED to be elegant, but had leaky sink faucets and toilet plumbing.
We had no trouble sleeping there, even though it seemed like we were all alone in a big old mildly creepy haunted house.
And we awoke to the kind of brilliant blue-skies sunny day one dreams for in Italy's September glory. The views out our window were marvelous, and what the house lacked in upkeep, his gardens did not.
We went down for breakfast, and he showed us into both a dining room, and what seemed to be a library - - much larger, dark and a little musty, but just brimming with books, maps and all kinds of stuff - - from which centuries? I don't know... several different ones, I feel certain.
We got a mixed message from him - - what would we like? - - and at the same time - - I have nothing to offer, so "come with me". My wife decided to return to the room to clean up, while I headed off with him on a trek, that turned out to be quite short (a quarter mile?) - - down what was essentially the only street in town. I could see from one end to the other, and the bakery we entered seemed to be just about the only thing actually open to the public.
Incredible - - both the smells of the oven, and the total austerity of the place; no displays, no counter, no signs or menu. Once again, it seemed to be a combination of "what do you want?" and "this is all we have" - - <i>pizze</i> he called it. It was as big as a cookie sheet, and about two inches thick, rich as could be with olive oil and rosemary - - straight from the oven, quite literally too hot to touch...
...and based on a hand gesture from the marchese, he whacked off a little less than half of it for us to carry back to the castle.
It was very filling, together with some truly awful coffee the marchese rustled up for us, and he motioned for us to come out and let him show off his property.
We got the impression that the marchese (and his family - - a wife? to shy to ever come out and meet us? or ill? I didn't understand - - and two, or was it three sons? perhaps a little feeble-minded?)...
...was a man long on pride, but now short on means. I don't think he really wanted to fix up the castle (and equally, probably could not afford to); with a bit of "what else can I do?" tone, he showed us that he really did have a nice place (especially the exteriors) for weddings or other parties, but he wondered - - how could he let the world (and Americans in particular) know about it? We hardly knew what to say - - the interiors seemed to need a lot of work.
And as we packed up our stuff, we did decide to go snooping in some of other rooms - - ours was, indeed, the closest to ready for guests - - and some hadnt been cleaned (we speculated) in years.
You can see now why I don't have my last trip report done (lord, how I ramble on!) - - there are still twice this many details to share with you about the rest of our day in Rieti... and I think this post is long enough for now! I'll continue on, later tonight or tomorrow...
Best wishes,
Rex
And Rieti is a town, as well as a province; I have never been there (to the town). I don't think there is any comparison possible to Florence, neither in the early 20th century, nor in any other century.
I spent a little less than 24 hours in the town of Orvinio and the nearby "<i>Sabine</i>" countryside in the fall of 1999 - - and it's true, it made a very strong impression on me. I was "just a pup" here on this forum (soon afterwards, actually) - - and never elaborated on that trip a whole lot. But I remember Orvinio/Rieti as if it were yesterday (with a little nostalgia, I'm sure).
My wife and I were on a "scouting trip" for a <i>large</i> group trip (by my standards, 16 people, counting the two of us) that I was asked to put together in June 2000. We were looking for suitable villas or castle-like properties where we could spend a week with the group.
With some hesitation, Larry Haase of www.domani-usa.com said he could arrange a one-night look-see stay at "the Castle of Orvinio", even though he had never actually seen the place in person, and he wasn't sure how nice it was. On a related note, he said we might also seek out advice from a "friend" who had a nice villa, with a "side house" to rent in the vicinity - - http://www.domani-usa.com/rome/vallerosa/index.htm
If you think our recent Loire/Dordogne/Basque country trip was a whirlwind, this one was much worse. Night one was in Dublin, two in the Black Forest, three in Salzburg. On day four, we left Salzburg early (6 or 7 am?) drove to Venice, spent 4 or 5 hours there scouting out hotels and restaurants, and then back on the road almost all the way to Rome to reach Orvinio (about 40 miles NW of one of the last exits on the main Florence-Rome autostrada, before the GRA).
So, we arrived in the pitch black of night, (after 9 pm), in this little town of surely fewer than 200 people. Fortunately, that means getting local advice on where the "castle" is... did not prove difficult (despite no signage whatsoever) - - hardly an abundance of castles in the town!
Our host, a "marchese" Carlo Malvezzi seemed a little bit surprised, and quite pleased to see us at this late hour; while he spoke no English at all, we did manage to communicate with some success in a melange of (his bad) French and (my bad) Italian. He wanted to greet us with some of his homemade wine, despite the late hour. I have rarely tasted any truly bad wine, but this came close - - with a piny, resiny quality. We managed to smile and consume a bit less than half a glass.
He had no other guests, and though he seemed to suggest that we could pick any room, I got the idea that there was one he clearly wanted us to choose. It was a mixture of 40 year-old used-to-be-glamorous decor - - with a hefty touch of threadbare and decrepit. The bathroom clearly USED to be elegant, but had leaky sink faucets and toilet plumbing.
We had no trouble sleeping there, even though it seemed like we were all alone in a big old mildly creepy haunted house.
And we awoke to the kind of brilliant blue-skies sunny day one dreams for in Italy's September glory. The views out our window were marvelous, and what the house lacked in upkeep, his gardens did not.
We went down for breakfast, and he showed us into both a dining room, and what seemed to be a library - - much larger, dark and a little musty, but just brimming with books, maps and all kinds of stuff - - from which centuries? I don't know... several different ones, I feel certain.
We got a mixed message from him - - what would we like? - - and at the same time - - I have nothing to offer, so "come with me". My wife decided to return to the room to clean up, while I headed off with him on a trek, that turned out to be quite short (a quarter mile?) - - down what was essentially the only street in town. I could see from one end to the other, and the bakery we entered seemed to be just about the only thing actually open to the public.
Incredible - - both the smells of the oven, and the total austerity of the place; no displays, no counter, no signs or menu. Once again, it seemed to be a combination of "what do you want?" and "this is all we have" - - <i>pizze</i> he called it. It was as big as a cookie sheet, and about two inches thick, rich as could be with olive oil and rosemary - - straight from the oven, quite literally too hot to touch...
...and based on a hand gesture from the marchese, he whacked off a little less than half of it for us to carry back to the castle.
It was very filling, together with some truly awful coffee the marchese rustled up for us, and he motioned for us to come out and let him show off his property.
We got the impression that the marchese (and his family - - a wife? to shy to ever come out and meet us? or ill? I didn't understand - - and two, or was it three sons? perhaps a little feeble-minded?)...
...was a man long on pride, but now short on means. I don't think he really wanted to fix up the castle (and equally, probably could not afford to); with a bit of "what else can I do?" tone, he showed us that he really did have a nice place (especially the exteriors) for weddings or other parties, but he wondered - - how could he let the world (and Americans in particular) know about it? We hardly knew what to say - - the interiors seemed to need a lot of work.
And as we packed up our stuff, we did decide to go snooping in some of other rooms - - ours was, indeed, the closest to ready for guests - - and some hadnt been cleaned (we speculated) in years.
You can see now why I don't have my last trip report done (lord, how I ramble on!) - - there are still twice this many details to share with you about the rest of our day in Rieti... and I think this post is long enough for now! I'll continue on, later tonight or tomorrow...
Best wishes,
Rex
Jun 19th, 2005, 11:17 AM
#4
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 13,194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think your question is "spot on"... that's why I implied that the comparison was to "Tuscany", more generally - - which surely didn't have the substantial "tourism infrastructure" today, back a half ccentury (or more) ago...
The province of Rieti still doesn't.
The province of Rieti still doesn't.
Jun 19th, 2005, 11:35 AM
#5
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,470
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi, Rex-
I was posting my last comment as you were yours,so I hadn't read your anecdote.Thanks for sharing -when people say they want an "authentic non-touristy" kind of experience,you can share that one.I have a few of my own,and I'll always remember them(maybe I'll share another time!)
I was posting my last comment as you were yours,so I hadn't read your anecdote.Thanks for sharing -when people say they want an "authentic non-touristy" kind of experience,you can share that one.I have a few of my own,and I'll always remember them(maybe I'll share another time!)
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Lexma90
Europe
28
May 9th, 2011 04:07 AM
kellbell
Europe
6
Apr 19th, 2006 07:47 AM
AnnieMaki
Europe
12
Jun 8th, 2004 04:49 AM
