MANTUA, Italy — May 14, 2022 — We left Milan this morning, picked up a rental car, and made an uneventful two-hour-plus drive to Mantua, which welcomed us with this stunning view as we crossed the bridge over the lakes that ring the beautiful medieval city, the birthplace of the ancient Roman poet Virgil as well as a jewel box of Renaissance art and architecture. We were allowed to drive into and across the bumpy, busy main piazza to our hotel, the Palazzo Castiglioni, which hosts six large, incredible rooms in a renovated palace that sits right on the square. It was all so special, everything and everyone so nice, until we went to lunch, did a tour of the Palazzo Ducal, one of the highlights of Mantua, came back to our hotel hot, thirsty and in need of a break, only to learn that somewhere along the way I (Rick) had lost the key card that let us through the iron gates into the palazzo and on to our amazing rooms. During their fencing travels, Rick and (usually) Will have lost hotel room keys all over the United States and Europe, but this was a doozy, for it required Courtenay, who was already somewhat tired, frustrated by her husband’s inattention, and even less coherent in Italian than usual, to inquire about the lost key in several crowded locations, only to come up empty, while leaving behind a trail of confusion. We finally had to circle back and call the very nice hotel proprietor, who speaks little English, and seemed potentially short-tempered, to report that I’d managed to lose our key card after safely holding on to it all of an hour or so. Welcome to Mantua!

So far, however, this has been our only fail. Our last full day in Milan yesterday was a good, good day, which included all four of us visiting the Pinoteca di Brera art museum in the morning, where we saw many, many, many beautiful paintings of a half dozen or so Christian themes – or as Courtenay’s favorite virtual art professor Rocky Ruggiero lovingly puts it – “always the same damn thing.” Will and Amy escaped then for an afternoon of non-stop shopping across Milan’s famous fashion district, while Courtenay and I had lunch and went right back at it, venturing next to the Ambrosiana Art Museum. In fact, the Ambrosiana was wonderful. This compact museum is studded with great works, most notably a display of Raphael’s “cartoon,” his charcoal drawing, the actual blueprint, for my all-time favorite painting, “The School of Athens,” which we saw years ago in the Vatican Museums. Raphael’s huge drawing, well over twenty feet long, stands alone in an otherwise dark room, a powerful display and one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. There were other great works in the Ambrosiana, including Caravaggio’s stunning Basket of Fruit and Titian’s painting of Mary Magdalene. After we left the Ambrosiana, we marched on to the historic San Lorenzo Maggiore and Sant Ambrogio churches, which are quite old, and just fine, but perhaps by then I was wearing down. While I hung in there with the art, more art, and the churches, Amy was guiding Will through Milan’s endless retail offerings, where he caught his breath on the strategically placed “boyfriend couches” outside dressing rooms. He seemed fine after his afternoon of shopping, cool even, in a new pair of sunglasses. The day, and our memorable stay in Milan, ended with a chef’s tasting dinner at Le Brisa, where we had a table on the edge of a lovely garden, and toasted our unforgettable time in a city that we enjoyed very much.

Milano – Thursday, May 12, 2022- We arrived to Milan yesterday after a miraculous day of travel with no delays, hassles or mishaps. Not only was it a miracle to have no flight issues these days, but it seemed like a miracle that we are actually on a trip. For the past two years, we had gotten so good at making, and then cancelling, plans – Japan, Sweden, South Korea – that it seemed unreal until the last minute that we would even go this time. But here we are, thousands of miles from home, in a world that looks unchanged in many ways- crowds of tourists, no Covid restrictions except required masking at a few places. It’s surreal that northern Italy was one of the first places hit worst by the pandemic, and here is the busy city of Milan, its streets crowded, the trams and buses clanging along, sharply dressed business people grabbing lunch at the outside trattorias.

We checked into our apartment near the Duomo – it’s a sort of AirBnB – a few converted rooms carved out of the top floor of an office building – and headed to the over-the-top Gothic fantasy that is the Milan cathedral. The fourth-largest cathedral in the world, we rode to the rooftop on the elevator (thank God and the Madonnina statue at the tip-top of the cathedral that we didn’t have to take the stairs) and marveled at the more than 1,200 statues that festoon the pink-white confection of a structure – everywhere you look, there is sculptural decoration, from statues standing atop spires to a lowly pigeon carved into the steps on the rooftop. The Visconti family that started building this cathedral in the 14th century to glorify their despotic reign were late to the game – Gothic was going out of style by the time they got started, and it took more than 600 years to complete. We were surprised by how hot it is here in Milan right now, and it was very hot up on the roof, so we headed down for a pretty mediocre, expensive meal on a terrace with a fabulous view of the facade of the cathedral. The view made up for the food.

Today, we started with a walk through the fashion district of Milan, where armed guards stand outside shops with names like Prada, Gucci, Missoni, Chanel – while inside, stern masked employees glowered through the windows lest we should decide to come in and dare to look at the merchandise we clearly couldn’t afford. The streets were lovely and old, though, and it was fun to see the high fashion in the windows. We then walked to the Castello Sforzesca, the medieval castle tricked out by the ruling Sforza family in the early Renaissance. Ludovico Sforza was a Renaissance prince, not unlike Lorenzo the Magnificent de’ Medici in Florence. Sforza hired none other than Leonardo da Vinci to be his court artist for 18 years. It was for Ludovico that Leonardo painted his Last Supper, which we saw later in the afternoon. But first, we wound our way through a museum that Rick feared would never end – though it did end with Michelangelo’s last Pieta, a half-finished work of a standing Mary holding her dead son Jesus. Michelangelo’s first Pieta is the more famous, at the Vatican, which he did in his early 20s. This one was done just before he died at age 89. Rick said it was the saddest sculpture he had ever seen – the work of a man losing his powers to create. To me, it looked almost modern, an abstraction of grief and mourning.

We then trooped to the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazia, to see Leonardo’s Last Supper. It had been hard to get tickets, and they had sent all these strict instructions about having to bring our ID, and show up at least 30 minutes before to prove we were who we were and do a temperature check etc. etc. Amy even wore a long dress to make sure we wouldn’t violate the dress codes to cover knees and shoulders. Well, it turns out that none of that was necessary – we were welcome with a shrug and told to wait our turn. So we checked in early and stood around in the blazing sun waiting for our 15 minutes with the great late 15th century masterpiece – a masterpiece that had begun to schlump off the wall where it was painting just a few decades after Leonardo finished it. It’s a miracle the painting – considered the first of the High Renaissance with its perfect naturalism and single-point perspective – survived at all, even narrowly escaping a bomb in WWII. It’s beautiful, though faded and hard to read, but really pops when you stand back. It seems to literally recede into space, giving the illusion that the room extends beyond the wall. The painting has had a huge impact on art ever since, and it was remarkable to actually be in the refectory where he painted it.

Amy and Will then headed out on their own and found a Starbucks in a beautiful old building with a baroque facade, while Rick and I stumbled onto the 3rd-4th century AD ruins of the imperial capital of Ancient Rome when it was in Mediolanum, or Milan. They are right across from where we will have dinner tomorrow. We then wandered into a square with a huge Michelangelo-esque statue of a hand with its middle finger extended. Known as “Il Dito,” the modern sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan appears to be giving the finger to the financial institutions surrounding it, especially the stock exchange building, a post-2008-meltdown Bull of Wall Street. But it could also be that he is flipping off the fascistic architecture of the building itself, which is quite ugly. It also had echoes for me of the famous huge hand of the Emperor Constantine, on view at the Capitoline museums, with its colossal finger pointing up. He was the first to make Christianity legal in the Roman Empire – is there a knock at Christianity too? Who knows? That’s the fun of art – ancient and modern – trying to figure it out.

By Will Attig

Strada in Chianti, Friday, Oct. 7, 8:11 a.m. — Me and Bob were sick all day. But now we’re better. I didn’t feel good.
It is super windy outside, like it blew the lamp over it is so windy. There is a storm. Helen and MIke went to Rome and got back at midnight because they got lost. They had a good time; they are sleeping in. They had a way better day.
Bye.

PS Will’s fever got up to nearly 103 yesterday. Horrible day. But he woke up feeling better this morning, so we will remain hopeful today will be better.

By Will

Wednesday, Oct. 5 — I woke up this morning shouting “Gravy” — which is actually Greve in Chianti. And then we went to Greve and I got a wooden ax, a rubber-band gun and a wooden sword. We looked for a table cloth for Mike and Helen, but didn’t find it. Then we got some pastries. I don’t really like pastries in Italy.

And then we left and went to Montefiorelle, a tiny walled town. First we passed it and were accidentally going somewhere else. But we turned around and found it. It is described as a perfect walled town. There was nobody outside; only about 50 people, maybe a hundred live there, because it’s so small. I had fun walking around the town, there was a narrow cobblestone street all the way around inside the wall.

Elizabeth got sick. Then we went to Castello de Verrazzano. It was a stupid wine-tasting place. I got some pretty good pasta, and some really bad grape juice. (Ed. note: It was the birthplace of the Verrazzano who sailed up New York Harbor.)

Then we went to Panzano. (Ed. Note: We were going to see the Butcher of Panzano, a well-known figure, but a Dutch TV crew beat us to him.) We didn’t really do much there, but there was this really stupid Norwegian guy from a TV crew who said, “He is really, really famous,” and he was yelling at people to get out of the way of the camera. We went to gelato and I had chocolate chip; it was pretty good.

Then we went back home. Then I went swimming. I swam for awhile and then got out. Dad and I jumped in right where mom and Helen were sitting and they got all wet. Then we decided that we would all go to Rome tomorrow. I got super bored as mom was ordering the tickets.

Then this lady named Delfa, who was cooking at our villa, she made lasagna, and I don’t like lasagna, but she made some really good chicken and some good potatoes, and some lettuce with olive oil on it. I got sick at dinner. Then I went to bed and woke up every single hour.

Then I woke up in the morning and mom and dad didn’t go to Rome because I am sick. Only Helen and Mike went. I was pretty sick in the morning. But I’m getting better right now. (To Will’s classmates: “Bob the stuffed bear spent the night under my bed because dad knocked him off.”) That’s all for now.

On Tuesday, we drove into Florence. It was a long drive. We were following Rob. Rob has this job that he goes into these dangerous zones, like war zones and stuff, and leads a television news crew. He said he’s never lost a crew – until now. It was all going fine until we got into the city of Florence. We were driving along and a car swerved in and almost hit Rob’s car, right where Benjamin was sitting. But it didn’t. Rob crossed a bridge cars were not supposed to be on. So now we were driving through a city with pedestrians everywhere, where cars weren’t supposed to be. It was for authorized personnel only, like police. The streets were really narrow. And I was scared, a little. Like we were being honked at, or yelled at, by a lot of people. Then there was a bridge where we could go over to the other side. Rob kept going straight, but we ditched him and turned. We went across the bridge, and eventually came to a parking garage, and called Rob. We were safe!

Dad said there’d be amazing gift shops. So far I haven’t seen any. Then we walked into the main square with a giant dome and two towers. The line to go into the dome was like really long. So we decided to just go into the tower. It was hard enough walking on the straight stairs, but then we got to this really super crammed in spiral stairs. We made it to the third level, then a huge bell started ringing, it was noon, just as we were getting into the stairway again. So we had to wait while the bell was like shaking the tower, with echoes. It was horrible. Mom was claustrophobic and so she didn’t come. It was only me, dad, Mike and Helen. Mike was always the last to come up. Then we got to the top. It was cool. There were four hundred fourteen steps. The view was incredible.

Then we were walking along the streets of Florence. No gift shops. Everything was either super duper expensive, or junk. But next time we go to Florence on Thursday, these guys sell these things that go splat when you throw them on the concrete, then you pick them up and they come back together, and you can throw them again. (Dad typed that and made it sound kind of boring.)

Then we had lunch and gelato afterward. Then we went to the Uffizi Museum, which is world famous. I don’t like paintings. Not one bit. So we got into the museum, and I saw a bunch of sculptures in the hallway. I like sculptures. Then we went into the rooms. They were all paintings. I didn’t enjoy it. But then dad said I could get an extra wooden sword if I didn’t complain. Eventually, we left.

I didn’t like my dinner; it was extra cheesy pizza. Then we drove home. That was my day.

By Will Attig

Sorry I could not say what I did yesterday. I was super busy! The people I talked about yesterday their names are Mike, Helen, Rob, Elizabeth and Ben. Ben is a little kid and he is one year old. He likes to scream real loud at 6 in the morning. Rob is funny and has the most cool stories about his job. Elizabeth is also super duper nice and she can’t go to all the hill towns with us because she has to take care of Ben. Helen is very nice and is moving and HATES her job so she is going to quit. Mike is super duper funny and he never seems to be in a bad mood. Helen and Mike never wake up early.

Yesterday we went to San G. It was very beautiful. My mom went into a church with everybody else but Rob and I stayed behind. Daddy said there’d be good gift shops, but their wasn’t. The gelato (I had berry) was very good. Then I started to feel jet lagged and super tired, and wanted to go back. So we walked down a road, and I said we should go to the other road, because I knew it had gift shops, but dad said a different road, and so we went down that road, and there were no gift shops.

We were all really thirsty, so on the way home we stopped at a gas station and got some drinks. My mom accidentally got me a very caffeinated ice tea, and a chuppa chew, a special lollipop. At the airport I saw chuppa chews bigger than a baseball. This one wasn’t that big.

We started driving home. Mom said we should go a different way than the GPS system said. So we did. Then we got stuck behind a tractor pulling a wagon full of grapes for wine. We were driving through vineyards and past old castles and it was really pretty. Eventually we got back to the villa.

We went swimming. The pool feels like minus 30 degrees. But it’s refreshing if you jump in. When you jump in your feet get all numb because it’s so cold. Then Ben and Rob came to the pool. Ben is super cute and can swim, only a little bit. His head goes under and everything. Ben started laughing hysterically when Rob shot his mother with a little squirt frog. Everytime she screamed, Ben laughed and laughed. Dad threw me in super duper high on my belly, and it hurt, a little, but I went super far out there.

Then we went to a restaurant and had dinner. There was all of these animal skulls and horns and guns hanging from the walls. There was a wild boar, too. It was really cool. The steaks were like two inches thick and they weren’t cooked very much. They were all bloody, the way people here like them. (I had one bite.)

Back at the villa, there’s like a million locks and bars on every single door. It’s really weird. The villa is like four hundred or five hundred years old.

That’s all for now. We’re going to Florence today for museums. Maybe gift shops, if dad doesn’t pick the streets.