Thursday, October 10
Ferrara, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna
Highlight: Cappellaci di zucca for dinner
Lowlight: Cancelling restaurant plans because of injury
I have a self-imposed rule that I will not include more than about 50 photos in any single blog post. Not only does this keep the posts shorter (and in the bad old days, easier to download), but it keeps me focused on photos that support the narrative of the blog. This particular post was extremely hard to pare back; Ferrara is a photogenic town and I am glad that we made a detour to see it.
Let's just say that sleep in Ferrara was hard to come by. The AC was blasting against the oppressive humidity and blowing directly on me, making me alternately hot and freezing as I would adjust the covers. Moreover, Ann and I both were snacked on by irritating mosquitoes during the night, though I killed several. Many was the time that a whining buzz of a mosquito near my ear awakened me in the night. How they were getting into the apartment was and still is a mystery.
By 03:30 it seemed as if we had decent WiFi in the apartment, just in time for me to read about Hurricane Milton striking south of Tampa-St. Pete. For what it’s worth, Milton was my great grandfather’s first name. Fortunately, the hurricane spared our friends in Tampa-St. Pete. I finally fell asleep towards 05:30 and woke up at 08:30. On waking, WiFi was all over the map, sometimes OK, sometimes iffy, and sometimes nonexistent. One thing was clear: we could get nothing over the cellular network.
After a crappy night's sleep, espresso was much in order, so we set out for the historic district, free WiFi, and a place to get a coffee. We meandered into the historic district via the Piazza Ariostea with its statue of Ludovico Ariosto, then past part of the University of Ferrara, and down to the Castello Estense where we were the evening before. There we got back on the WiFi network, which only got stronger as we walked the block or two south to what is called alternately the Piazza del Duomo or the Piazza della Cattedrale, seemingly the big public piazza downtown.
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| Piazza Ariostea |
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| Castello Estense in the Morning Light |
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Walking to the Piazza Della Cattedrale
Torre dell'Orologio (l), Palazzo Municipale (r)
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For coffee, Ann chose a little chocolate shop, a touristy nook that sells coffee, gelato, chocolates, and pastries. I think she probably chose it for three reasons: it was cute, it had seats on the piazza for people watching, and, truth be told, she needed coffee ASAP and was not going to look further. We got our coffees and then decided we needed seconds. Ann went in to get them and I could hear her yacking away in Italian and English with the young lady behind the counter. It seems they were fast friends in moments (which Ann can do with anyone; it's her superpower).
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| Espresso on the Piazza at Cioccolato Rizzati |
In people watching, as I sat in short sleeves enjoying the 70-degree weather, it felt like we were in Florida. Most people were dressed for winter, wearing down coats and scarves. Seriously? As we enjoyed our second cup of coffee, we noted that the once sunny skies were changing over to gray. I took advantage of our front row seats on the piazza to shoot some of the lovely downtown buildings including the cathedral and the Palazzo Municipale opposite the cathedral. At this point, the light kept changing as clouds rolled in and out, a true pain for photography.
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| Cattedrale di Ferrara |
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| Flags and Statue of Niccolo III at Palazzo Municipale |
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| Flags and Plaques on the Palazzo Municipale |
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| Tower of the Palazzo Municipale |
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| Detail of the Cattedrale |
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| Roof Line of the Cattedrale |
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| Colonnade on Side of the Cattedrale |
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| Highly Decorative Light Fixture in Front of the Cattedrale |
After coffee, we wandered in the Centro Storico with a plan to get lunch at a restaurant, of which we had selected a couple specializing in Ferrarese cuisine. Despite the rapidly deteriorating skies, we started wandering fairly aimlessly in downtown, making our way ever near the Canale di Burana, the canal that runs through Ferrara.
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| Palazzo Municipale Now in the Rain |
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| Piazza del Municipio, Scalone d'Onore |
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Contrast in Colors and Textures
Pink Marble Bollard, Pinker Marble Wall, and Brick Cobbles |
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| Typical Cobblestone Pattern in Ferrara |
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Pigeons on the Wall of the Castello Estense
They Appeared to be Feeding Young |
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| Courtyard of the Palazzo Naselli Crispi |
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| I Love the Ceramic Number Plates |
The return to our room proved an excellent decision on our part: it started outright raining after we got back inside. For lunch, we a beautiful pork salame and Fontina that we bought at the Aldi in Meran. With clearing skies by 13:30, we set out on another walk at 14:00 to go see Palazzo Bonacossi. We wandered around a bit back down toward the canal and then headed through a kind of slummy neighborhood toward the palazzo. Said palazzo is not in a scenic neighborhood, is not in good shape, and was not really worth the walk.
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| Chiesa di Sant'Agnese |
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| Flower Boxes on Unusually Shaped Building |
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| I Love the Cobblestones and Earth Tones |
After making this disappointing trek, Ann’s knee was killing her so we went immediately back to the apartment under overcast skies. My plan to take golden hour photos of the historic center was most definitely in question. Moreover, walking to a restaurant for dinner seemed totally out of the question. We had planned to go to Noemi, well known for Ferrarese cuisine, but because of injury we would have to execute another plan B, the seeming story of this trip.
The skies cleared toward sunset and we had to make a decision about dinner. Either we needed to walk to a restaurant or we needed groceries so that I could make dinner. Given the pain that I saw Ann in, I talked her out of walking on her bum leg with promise that I’d hit a store and make a nice dinner.
I left the apartment at 18:00 to take advantage of the sunset light that we discovered last night happened from 18:15 to 18:45. I shot enough photographs to satisfy myself, went to a grocery store by the Castello Estense, and walked home, arriving at 18:50. I hurried because I did not want to leave Ann all alone in the apartment with an aching knee and no internet access.
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| Piazza Ariostea at Sunset |
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| Ludovico Ariosto |
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| Italian Flag on Main Police Station at Dusk |
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| Awesome Rooflines on Back Side of Cattedrale at Dusk |
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| Striking Dusk Skyline of Palazzo Municipale |
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| Torre dell'Orologio |
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| La Cattedrale di Ferrara |
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| Castello Estense |
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| I Love the Red Brick Building Peeking Through the Arch |
While I was in the cobblestoned Piazza del Municipio taking the broad photo of the entire Castello Estense, a guy on a bike wheeled up to me and stopped. "Hey, do you love Ferrara?" he asked. "Do you shoot the building or the details?" he enquired. "Le due," I replied and showed him my camera roll, a mixture of wide shots and close-up shots of details. He whipped out his phone and showed me his versions, telling me he had photographed the castle hundreds of times. "Where you from?" he inquired and when I told him Oregon, he went on, "Portland? Portland Trailblazers? I love the Trailblazers!"
At this point, we took our leave of each other and I went on shooting a few more frames. Then I noticed that he circled back on his bike. He got off and held his phone out to me to show me another photo, this of a stylized hammer and sickle. "You know what this is?" he asked me and I played dumb. "Fascisti? Socialisti?" I fake guessed. He was mock offended, "No! Communisti! My country needs this; your country needs this!" I wished him a good evening and he rode off, apparently happy to have pitched his political ideology at me. Or perhaps he thought he found a fellow traveler.
I left the piazza immediately for the grocery store just by the castle with the idea to make Ann at least a typical Ferrarese dish: cappellaci di zucca, pasta stuffed with pumpkin. Cappellaci is known as tortelloni elsewhere. I managed to get 500g of cappellaci along with some prosciutto and sage for the sauce. I would wilt all the leftover salad greens from our dinner the night before, rucola and valeriana, into the sauce.
I also bought a bottle of Cartizze (Prosecco Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze) that we could sip while I was making dinner. Cartizze is the grand cru of Prosecco and a bottle runs $40-60 at retail in the US. I think I paid €13 in Ferrara. I also got a Montepulciano because I wanted a great red and Emilia-Romagna and specifically Ferrara is not known for great reds or even great wines. So I went to the best of Tuscany, next door, where we’ll be tomorrow. Actually, I think Brunello is the best of Tuscany, but they had none.
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| A Ferrarese Classic, Cappellaci di Zucca |
After dinner, we were again frustrated that internet access was totally absent. This made me recall that while I was downtown with WiFi signal, I got a reality check that our trip was coming quickly to a close, an email reminder from Delta about our upcoming flight home. It really had not sunk in until this point that we were closing out day 17 of 20. I was equally parts ecstatic to be heading home and sad that we would not longer be exploring beautiful places in Italy.
With these thoughts in mind, we headed off to bed to do battle with more mosquitos in the night and to look forward to heading to Firenze tomorrow.
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