Roberta Reports From Italy

Roberta Reports From Italy
November, 2004

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In most places I can think of, the weather is turning grim. Unless gray skies, drizzle alternating with rain, and general gloominess do it for you, that is. For some reason, I started thinking about frangipani and was amazed to find that, although I associate it with the tropics, it actually grows in abundance in Palermo, in Sicily. I will have to wait until the late spring to see it, and then I have all the way through to early September, but that sounds OK to me. Apparently, it thrives as happily in the gardens of the patrician villas as on the balconies of the less-exalted quarters.

Lots more surprises await, botanically-speaking, in Palermo. For, a visit to just a few of the parks and gardens that have been spared the encroachment of housing construction in the last thirty years or so, reveals that hundreds of tropical plants find the Sicilian climate to their liking. And that many people spent many years and considerable sums of money finding out just how true this was.

More than two hundred years after the German poet Goethe came to the city and marveled at Villa Giulia, which he described as "the most beautiful spot on earth," we too can follow in his footsteps. Created in 1777 by Nicola Palma, Villa Giulia is a typical eighteenth-century giardino all'italiana. The plan is a perfect square, with paths running diagonally to the center of each side. These form a second square. Two more paths cross the park from corner to corner. These intersect in a circular spiazzo. Four frescoed music pavilions in neo-classical style set off the space, and focus our attention on the fountain in the center. Designed by the mathematician Lorenzo Federici, this features a putto who holds a twelve-sided figure. On each face, a sundial. Paths form concentric circles round this central area. The paths around the perimeter and the inner circle are planted with poplars and elms. The internal paths are trimmed with orange trees. In more recent times, these have been joined by dracenae, ficus, palms, succulents of various kinds, as well as aloe, and pineapple. The perimeter fence is composed of espaliered oleanders, while boxwood hedges serve to mark out specific sections. Just five minutes walk from the railroad station in Palermo, Villa Giulia is open daily.

Next door to Villa Giulia we find the botanical gardens. Among the best of its kind in Europe, Palermo's orto botanico is especially noted for its sub-tropical vegetation. The original nucleus of the gardens covers some ten hectares of marvels. Although there is a gate from inside Villa Giulia, this is now normally locked, and access to the botanical gardens is gained from Via Lincoln, through the Gymnasium, or entrance pavilion. This neo-classical building, with its impressive Doric columns, was designed by the French architect Leon Dufourny in 1789, and houses the university's botany department, as well as a herbarium and the library. The side-wings, which accommodate the Tepidarium and the Calidarium respectively, are the work of Venanzio Marvuglia. Divided into four sections (quartini), the main part of the garden is laid out according to Linnean classification. See also the greenhouses and the acquarium. Not for tropical fish, but for water-plants, including water lilies, lotus flowers, and many more. Around the pool grow many types of bamboo. Look out for a splendid example of a Dracaena draco as well as the magnificent Ficus magnolioides, the Australian banyan, or pagoda tree. There's also a soap tree (spindus mukorossii), so-called because its fruits produce a lather if rubbed between wet hands. I am not sure that this experiment is actively encouraged so we can just take it as read. The botanical gardens are open 9 am – 5 pm, Monday to Friday (October 16-April 15) and 9 am – 6 pm, Monday to Friday (April 16-October 15), and 8:30 am – 1:30 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Click here for their web site.

In the center of the old city, in front of what was formerly Palazzo Reale and now Palazzo dei Normanni, we can visit the gardens of Villa Bonanno. Replanted with palm trees in 1905, this garden also features a fountain.

In Via Dante on the corner of Via Serradifalco, we come to Villa Malfitano. Built for Joseph (Pip) and Tina Whitaker by Ignazio Greco in 1887, Villa Whitaker was for many years the center of English society in Palermo – of which there was quite a bit. Among others, Edward VII stopped by in 1907, while George V and Queen Mary paid their respects in 1925. What were these people doing there? Well, the Whitaker-Ingham family were wine merchants who brought Marsala to the rest of the world, especially the United States, starting in the 1830s. The royals, we presume, were on a jaunt, as was their wont.

The gardens surround the villa and extend over some four hectares. They feature no fewer than 250 species of rare plants and trees. The entrance drive skirts both sides of an "island" filled with palm trees, and joins again to reach the villa. This section of the garden is probably the most magnificent. There's sago palm (cycas revoluta), as well as fan palms (chamaerops humilis) and bamboo, including phyllostachys nigra, the black variety. Then there are palms, including the extremely rare Jubaea chilensis, as well as a particularly huge example of the Ficus magnolioides. In the 1970s, the base was measured. It was found to have a span of over 120 feet! The eastern side of the villa is almost completely covered by a wisteria. See the glass-house that serves as a winter-garden, the cyperus papyrus in the elongated pool, as well as the larger pool in the eastern part of the garden where water lilies and colocasia antiquorum have made their home. In the western section is a splendid citrus grove. More run down than it perhaps ought to be, this garden is surely worth seeing nonetheless. Open 09.00-13.00 except Sundays and public holidays.

Locals may bemoan the fact that, despite its wealth of gardens, Palermo has also lost at least as many again over the years. While acknowledging this sad truth, we cannot but concur with Goethe that the "blessed strangeness" of these gardens is a sight not to be missed.

Back home in Milan, I bumped into a Nobel prize winner in the market the other day. I was there to do my shopping (bananas, nectarines, and uva americana which, for some reason is the name given to black grapes here, albeit they are actually a reddish color) and there he was. Also I assume, doing his fruit and vegetable shopping. Why not? Even someone who has been honored by the Swedish academy needs to eat. I have seen him before, actually. I saw him perform his one-man show Mistero Buffo in London, and also at the Edinburgh Festival. Come to think of it, I also saw him on a train one evening. Indeed, we were on our way back from Camogli on the coast near Genoa and were sitting in a first-class compartment, all the lights went out for some reason, and suddenly we saw a tall man come towards our compartment. As obedient passengers, we thrust our tickets at him, assuming him to be the ticket collector. Just as we did that, we realized who it was. At the time not a Nobel literature laureate, but just the internationally-renowned author of plays whose titles in English are “Can't Pay, Won't Pay” and “Accidental Death Of An Anarchist.” I don't suppose he remembers that evening when he was mistaken for an employee of the Italian state railways. Even if he did think it was funny at the time. The name? Don't say you don't know! It's Dario Fo, of course, who lives with his wife, also a playwright, in Porta Romana, here in Milan. Round the corner from where the local street-market is held on Fridays.

Lots more market news this month. I was interviewing a fashion journalist for an article I was writing on luxury goods and she mentioned the fact that the market held every Wednesday at Forte dei Marmi on the Tuscan coast between Viareggio and Massa Carrara is absolutely the place to go to get cut-price knock-offs of supremely expensive designer clothes. Not dirt-cheap by any means, but 300 Euro for a copy of a coat that sells for a couple of thousand sounds pretty good to me. I did not include this snippet in my piece but I thought I would tell you instead. Oh, and she also said that Alberto Biani produces jackets that are almost identical to Armani's at way more reasonable prices. Check it out.

Thinking of Forte dei Marmi, I remembered that this market’s fame was such that it had become itinerant. Working on the Mohamed-and-mountain principle, I guess. Like who, unless you're someone staying in Lucca or Pisa, manages to get away midweek, to boot – to Forte dei Marmi? So, the market comes to us, on a Sunday. In September it was Varese, in October Piacenza was one of the locations. Next month I will let you know what the upcoming dates and places will be.

The first large-scale show in two decades of the work of Medardo Rosso (1858-1928), an impressionist sculptor, can be seen through November 28 at the Galleria di Arte Moderna in Turin. The exhibition, entitled Medardo Rosso: le origine della scultura moderna, features sixty of Medardo Rosso's sculptures, many of them in wax. The show also features twenty photos, and fifteen pieces by Rodin, Picasso, Brancusi, Matisse, and Boccioni and other artists who were influenced by Medardo Rosso. Loans have comes from all over the world, including Japan, the USA, and the Estorick Museum of Modern Art in London. The catalogue is by Skira. At Via Magenta 31, open 9 am – 7 pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Friday-Sunday, 9 am – 11 pm on Thursdays. Click here for the web site.

There's plenty of time to see the other big show in Turin this runs to January 23 and is an exhibit of portraits from Raphael to Goya from the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The venue? Palazzo Bricherasio in Via Lagrange, 20. Open 9:30 am – 7:30 pm Tuesday-Sunday, 2:30 – 7:30 pm pn Tusdays, and until 10:30 pm on Thursdays and Saturdays. Click here for the web site. By the way, Via Lagrange is also the main shopping street in Turin, and has some lovely shops. Check out some Christmas presents while you are about it.

I am writing this in the run-up to Halloween. The Italians have really taken to this holiday, which has really become a feature in the large cities anyway in the last ten years. I also see that a number of hotels are running Halloween specials. I have to say that, in my time, I have stayed in a few places that I would nominate for Horror Hotel of the year. Not recently, though, I have to admit. After the Grand Hotel in Rimini, memories of which are still coming back to me every now and again, I continued my Grand Tour of Italy with a couple of nights at the Grand Hotel in Abano Terme, near Padua. No time to sample the mud baths and other beauty/wellness treatments, and I just had time for a dip in the indoor pool. Not that there weren't people in the outdoor one, of course, and I could have joined them. The water temperature would have been delicious. The waters are thermal and come from sources way underground. There was a shimmer of steam as the heat of the water met the cool air of a mid-October morning. Must go back.

Back to Halloween horror stories. Here's one from the Italian State Railways. If some of you recall being able, in an emergency, to jump on a train and pay for your ticket on board with a surcharge of about 5 Euro, then forget it. It used to be worth doing if you rushed into the station and found there was a train leaving imminently and not another one for ages, and there was a huge line for tickets. Turns out that since October 1, you must have a valid ticket for your journey or you pay a 25 Euro surcharge. That's not funny. (Also not good business practice, or a whole lot of other things too.) So until and unless they decide to change their minds, be warned. If you are going to be traveling by train, try and find a travel agency that will supply tickets. (Not all of them do. Look out for the bluey-green sticker in the window.) The agencies will charge 1 Euro for the privilege of selling you a train ticket. But, since every time I go past the ticket booths at any station there always seem to be hundreds of people waiting, it is surely worth it. In Florence, there is an agency in the Duomo square, just up from the Scudieri bar.

Just skipping back a bit, the reason I was staying at Abano was because I had been invited to attend a press tour of the Palladian villas of the Veneto area. Why, other than their astounding beauty, are they well worth seeing anyway? Because of an exhibition entitled Andrea Palladio e la villa veneta, with a subtitle Da Petrarca a Carlo Scarpa. The Venetian republic preferred to negotiate its way to greater power as opposed to using force, which I presume is why it is called La Serenissima. This meant that the lords of the various manors did not need to build castles or fortified places to defend themselves if things went badly wrong. They could dedicate their time to farming, and other unwarlike pursuits. Such as building beautiful mansions in exquisite bucolic settings, safe in the knowledge that their investment would not be swept away by rampaging armies of vandals, milanesi, or whoever. Andrea Palladio was the architect of choice. Once he had finished, the painters were called in -- people like Veronese and the Tiepolos, father and son. The outcome was and is outstanding. The exhibit, which includes more than 300 works of art from over fifty museums and galleries worldwide, will run from March 5 to July 3, and will be held in the Museo Palladio in Vicenza. If you want more information about the villas, click here for the web site.

Whether you decide to see the show or not, the villas, of which there are about 5,000 in various states of repair and about ten that are in perfect condition, deserve to be seen. Many of them are now closed for the winter, and in any event they tend to be open just one day a week in the season. Villa La Rotonda (aka Villa Almerico Capra) is just outside Vicenza, and is perhaps the best-known. It can be seen from the inside on Wednesdays from 10 am to noon and then from 3 to 6 pm. The outside only can be seen at the same times on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To confirm opening times, call 0444/321-793 or 049/879-0879. Located at Fanzolo, ten kilometres south-west of Monte Belluna, Villa Emo can be seen on Sundays from 2 to 6 pm from now until the end of March, after which it is open every afternoon from 3 to 7 pm as well as on Sunday mornings from 10 am to noon.

While I am on the subject, I would recommend checking out the Burchiello, a boat that plies between Padua and Venice along the Brenta canal where many of the villas are located (between April and the end of October). Click here for the web site. One villa that you will see on this cruise is Villa Foscari Malcontenta, at Mira, which is just about 20 kilometers from Venice. This was probably my favorite of all. It's open from the beginning of May to the end of October, on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 am to noon. The rest of the week, the Villa Malcontenta (no, I don't know why it is called that, but I will try and find out) is open by appointment for groups of 12 or more. For details, call 041/547-0012.

By Roberta Kedzierski, Milan

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