We left San Gimignano at 8:30am and drove through the winding roads and (surprisingly) heavily forested hills southwest to the Abbey of San Gelgano in Tuscany, a Cisterciean monastery completed around 1280 AD.
Visitors must park a kilometre away and walk down a road lined by trees, so the abbey stands clear in the distance long before arriving, a solitary structure surrounded by farmer’s fields lying fallow. The abbey was the first Gothic structure built in Italy. It suffered under the hands of John Hawkwood and his mercenary troops in 1363, just a few short years before Chaucer would have met Hawkwood. The roof collapsed in 1786, and it has remained as it was since then, open to the heavens.
Andrei Tarkovsky, the Russian filmmaker, shot the final scene of his 1983 film Nostalgia in this abbey. Nostalgia has been my favourite film since I first saw it in 1986, and I have a poster of the film on my bedroom wall. When I saw it screen locally in 1995 I paid a film projectionist a mickey of Scotch to cut the last frame of the 16mm film, which I then had blown up – now also hanging on my wall.
Like many of Tarkovsky’s films, the film’s plot is difficult to pin down, but the title speaks to the feeling his protagonist, the Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov, who travels to Italy with his translator to conduct research, and is overcome by nostalgia for his childhood home in Russia. Tarkovsky placed his protagonist lying in front of his boyhood cabin, his dog before him, and the entire scene set inside the abbey, which has no roof. In the final 30 seconds, snow begins to fall. As an army brat I lived in 10 homes by the age of 10, and our house burned down when I was almost seven, so I my sense of “nostalgia” is no doubt very different than Tarkovsky’s, but I still find this scene incredibly moving in the film, and to experience the location in person was powerful.
From the Abbey we walked about 500 metres up the hill to the the chapel off Rotonda di Montesiepi, the tomb of the dissolute knight Galgano Guidotti, now Saint Galgano, and the purported site of his death in 1181. After returning from the crusades and a life of killing and living hard, Galgano was travelling across the plain below and saw a vision of the Archangel Michael. His horse led him to the hilltop where he vowed to give up fighting and lead a life of peace, and planted his sword into the ground, where it lies today lodged in stone inside in the centre of the small chapel.
This is Italy’s own “sword in the stone” legend that has more famously been captured in the Arthurian legend.
The chapel was silent; only one other couple was visiting at the same time, and the sword was indeed thrust into a stone block. It was covered by discoloured plexiglass, but clear enough to see.
This from Wikipedia: “An analysis of the metal done in 2001[11] by Prof. Garlaschelli confirmed that the ‘composition of the metal and the style are compatible with the era of the legend’. The analysis also confirmed that the upper piece and the invisible lower one are authentic and belong to one and the same artifact.”
So there was that to ponder as I took in the beautiful frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and a lovely icon painting.
From there we drove southwest to Massa Marritima, which sits like many towns high on a hill, surrounded by walls. The Saint Cerbonius Cathedral dates from the 13th century and is built in Romanesque-Pisane style and filled with some lovely murals, including a rare 14th century stained glass Rose window.
The town has been inhabited since the Bronze Age…and boasts an incredible view of the valley below.
The streets are quieter than San Gimignano, and the heat of the day was a welcome balm.
The town also boasts one very unique mural at the Fonte dell’Abbondanza (Fountain of Abundance), with a mural called the Tree of Fertility. There was bird netting in front but look closely and you’ll see a special kind fruit being collected by the women…
Then to the coast. Another two hours brought us to the Mediterranean, the town of Santa Marinella, and lunch. We followed our nose to a small local restaurant nestled between houses on the water – very Point Grey-like. Refreshing to stumble onto such a find without the aid of TripAdvisor.
The restaurant was small, jutting out into the water, with canvas blinds pulled down to keep the strong sun out. A family was enjoying a meal, a few other patrons scattered about. The servers didn’t speak much English but we figured things out. Excellent pasta with bass sauce, and then we dipped our feet into the warm Mediterranean water below.
Then to the Fiumicino B&B by the Rome airport. A very frustrating end to the journey, as the address supplied by Booking.com was not the final address. After a couple of failed attempts at a rendezvous, three calls to the owner, and almost giving up, we finally arrived. Quite nice. Too tired to go to the airport, return the car, get on transit, go into Rome for a few hours, then find way back to B&B, so left Rome for another trip.
Next morning, up at 5am, and then it took four tries to get to the car rental location; luckily we’d left very early so still had lots of time. Was even able to make it to the VAT office to try and get some tax money back for some shoes I purchased. No idea if the money will actually show up…
Then on a 11 hour-flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, followed by a four hour flight to Seattle, then returning home to the day job and Vancouver rain and catching up with family…