This week I made a useless little business trip to Tuscany in Italy, which still managed to change my somewhat gloomy opinion on the Boot Country a bit, so instead of posting pictures from Austria or Hungary, I'll just go on and upload some views from the Italian countryside.
Taking a train from Florence to a station that smelled of cow dung...
...and making my way uphill to the town of Cortona.
A nice view over the historical town from my hotel room.
And right outside the hotel front door, an utterly mind-blowing view over the countryside that Tuscany is so famous for. The lake in the distance is about 11 km away from where I stood.
Making my way further uphill to the meeting place, not minding the walk at all. The morning temperatures were close to 20 degrees Celsius, making it a comfortable stroll, but towards the afternoon the thermometer would climb unerringly to over 30 degrees with such high levels of humidity that I wouldn't dare go outside during the worst hours.
The meeting venue, a renaissance villa/castle, Palazzone di Cortona, owned by Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
I'm not lying, when I say that it was the nicest looking place I've ever had 2-day PowerPoint presentation marathons in.
But how on Earth are you supposed to be able to focus on an insanely boring speech after another, when right next to you are large windows with views like this?
A well in the central courtyard of the villa.
Another charming well outside the main building, getting its waters through a small waterfall connected to the other well.
Tiny lemon trees and battlements.
Less tended parts behind the palazzo.
Plenty of cats in the walled garden we would eat lunch in. Great food, by the way. The cats were constantly trying to beg/steal their part, too. :)
Walking back to the town, we were all of sudden joined by two shaggy dogs, who decided to accompany us for several hours.
Central square of Cortona. There were a lot of tourists, but for some reason a good 90% of them were from the US of A; I saw none of the usual Asian swarms during my whole stay. During the football games in South Africa a lot of people would gather in the restaurants and bars lining the square to watch and cheer, sitting down wherever they could, including all over the pavement.Speaking of which, I had the pleasure to eavesdrop on an interesting breakfast table conversation in my hotel, as two American middle-aged couples were gulping down their strong Italian coffees and discussing the current state of American economy. The men were very worried about it, considering different ways to ward off/survive the coming economic collapse of USA, while their wives would just tsk-tsk at them, telling them to talk about more positive things on their holiday.
This was actually the first time I've heard strangers talking about the looming global economic Armageddon that seems to be growing more probable by the day. As banker and state-controlled mainstream media outlets mostly only sport headlines such as "the economy is healing" or "the double-dip depression avoided", and as the old crowd-control method of bread and circuses is today just as efficient as it was in the days of the old Roman empire, the "little people" at the moment are mostly oblivious to, or simply don't give a damn (until of course, it is too late, and they find themselves living in a freshly born third world country, possibly under military dictatorship) about the condition of the civilization around them, and so, listening to this little conversation was a very refreshing experience indeed.
Right, onward.
A big church on the top of the hill. I was leaving behind a stream of sweat, when I finally reached it. The Greek guy in our little group didn't even think it was a particularly warm day..
Me sporting my freshly-grown beard. So manly, so itchy, always getting into my mouth, a great place to hide food in.
Down the hill. Your car better have decent breaks on it, if you want to live here.
Being so hot and humid, a thunderstorm blew through the region every evening at roughly the same time.
Found this magazine in the hotel lobby. Alexander Stubb, huh.. (A Finnish politician) Inside the magazine, a page after page of hideously photoshopped bitchy-looking super models in ridiculous clothing, car and watch advertisements, and more pictures of Stubb in various attires.So, what exactly made me adjust my opinion on Italy, then?
Three things, I guess:
Food was really fantastic. But I was kinda expecting that one.
The scenery at places was heart-breakingly beautiful. Better than I expected, surely.
The locals were actually quite nice, and certainly a lot more peaceful than the people I've endured so far in Rome, whenever I go there. Even the young people of the town were a lot more down-to-earth than their big-city counterparts. Perks of the sticks, that. Loud macho people are pretty damn high on my list of Annoying Things in the World. :)
