We took friends on a Lunigiana castle tour this weekend. The weather wasn’t bad. The surprise came at Malgrate Castle, where the normally empty parking lot was full, and a tour bus had parked smack in the middle so that people had to gingerly back out of parking places. The unmarked and as yet untried Ristorante La Torre di Malgrate was animated with voices of coach tourists at 2:45 pm, which happens to correspond to the time we arrived.

The castle opens at three. Well, it’s Italy, so 3:05. The tower, when observed in the right light, looks a bit ominous, as if stained with the blood of those who’d fallen from (near) the top and washed (down) with boiling oil. Perhaps I am reading into the scene. Excuse me.

Malgrate castle, like most of the castles in the Lunigiana, is a Malaspina castle, devised to protect the byways and waterways through the Lunigiana (and extract taxes from travelers, just like the current castle charges you 2 Euros to pass through). The castle in its current configuration was built around 1275, but was certainly built upon older ruins. It’s been recently restored and there is an exhibit inside about the restoration with pictures of the ruins they started with. Impressive.

Inside the tower there are frescoes and some heraldic insignia (you can’t go up to the top, so those of you who suffer palpitations upon thoughts of ascending tiny, internal staircases can, without fear, take your he-man spouses to this castle to poke around). Over on the left is a picture of the best fresco, the one that appears just left of the entrance to the upper story, easily accessed via external stairs.

One of the heraldic arms caught my attention as an Alfisti (that’s someone who has owned and liked an Alfa Romeo so much that he just had to go out and buy an Italian abode to live in and murder the Italian language from).

The snake swallowing a man (child, they say, but it’s not my idea) is the symbol of Milan (and the Visconti who ruled it) and appears on just about every Alfa badge

It costs a mere 2 Euro to go inside Malgrate Castle. You should. A walk around the 16th century village is nice as well.

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Ah, I’m lucky to have this view from my window on a Friday evening at 7pm, an hour before dinner time. We’re at Hotel San Paolo Al Convento in Trani, on the Adriatic coast in Puglia, a very nice place to be right now.

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Matera hasn’t changed a whole lot since I was last there many years ago to see its most spectacular festival, the Festa della Modonna Bruna.

Hotels are still hidden in the monochromatic landscape. In September, the crowds aren’t so visible, although the restaurant we chose to eat at was fully booked at lunch, Ristorante Nadì. It was so good we booked a table for dinner. And they have the provocatively titled “crapiata”, a soup of grains and beans like ceci, fave, and white beans, drizzled with some spectacular olive oil. I’m now a crapiata fan. I wish we could get “I heart Crapiata” bumper stickers.

The September weather is perfect; you can eat lunch outside and you can still climb the sides of Matera’s “bowl” and not feel the effects of too much heat.

Y’all get over here, ya hear?

If you visit Pompeii, you’ll get the idea of how big a city it was. It takes a while to take it all in. Eventually, you’ll get the feel of the place, where the main street was, where the government offices were, that sort of thing.

But the night tour is something else again. It’s called Le Lune di Pompei. We took it in Italian, so we probably didn’t get all of the nuances, but it was interesting to see things you don’t ordinarily get to see.

In the picture above, the ancient graffiti of Pompeii is being projected below the Italian translation—with narration provided by a guide dressed like a resident of Pompeii in its heyday, I’m presuming.

The interesting graffiti aside, it’s a bit of a hokey tour, with big white balloons representing the moon popping out all over while a silver tongued interpreter tells you what’s what. But Pompeii under moonlight is quite interesting, so, if you can afford the 20 euros, go. The tour is a little over an hour, and they do it in English but only occasionally, so make sure you reserve for an English tour if that’s what you want.

All in all though, I preferred the light as the sun set on a perfect (meaning clearing-storm perfect) evening for wandering the ruins.

In other words, like this:

More info & reservations: Le Lune di Pompei

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It was a glorious day, a day for having the most succulent Tagliata de Manzo con Rucola one could ever imagine (@Ristorante Pizzeria Al Pozzo just outside the walls of Filetto). Then heading to Pontremoli for coffee in the very same piazza where the photo was taken. Then to Naturalmente Lunigiana for three kinds of aged, artisan cheeses and some organic yogurt (11 Euro in all). Fine, fine day as you can see from the picture.

Upon returning to the casa of course and saying hi to the neighbors, they each in turn informed us of the rain coming tomorrow.

Oh darn.

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