Day 13 - Getting the band back together: Visiting Don Bosco Territory

The Tuesday after Easter, we all met at the bus stop on Via Don Gnocchi. Yep.

Via Don Gnocchi, named after a priest called Gnocchi. Only in Italy.

It was great to finally see the boys after being apart from them for so long. As beautiful and peaceful as Chieri is, it can become a little too peaceful when you're stuck there with little to do. Fortunately, this was not the case for the boys.

They were beaming as they spoke of their home stay experience. We heard stories of families who had opened their homes to them, of being overfed and indulged with trips to the city and to the snow. Everyone had a story, and every story was told with a smile.

The program today was about following in the steps of St Giovanni Bosco, Don Bosco, founder of the Salesian order. This man whose dream and vision spawned one of the great orders of teaching priests, whose philosophy of education is as relevant and contemporary today as it was 150 years ago, is a great formative figure in the lives of the young men of St Joseph's College, whether they know it or not. It was essential that we paid him our respects and endeavoured to understand him as well as we could.

We headed for Becchi, first up. This is the town where Don Bosco was born. Here we got to visit the Basilica of Don Bosco, a massive monument to him built in the 1980s and opened by Pope John Paul II, as well as his home village and farm, the house where he was born and the first church that he built.

 

The Basilica of Don Bosco, Becchi

The house where Don Bosco was born and spent his early years, Becchi

Becchi is near the town of Castelnuovo Don Bosco about 20 kilometres east of Turin, and nestled atop green hills surrounded by rolling valleys. The view is breathtaking and it was the first location where Don Bosco worked with the disenfranchised youth of Turin. He used to walk his motley group of young men and fellow priests all the way from Turin, along the winding uphill dirt roads, all the while singing songs and playing games, stopping to rest and eat. Often the walk took them three days.

In honour of this walk, we walked back from Becchi to the bus stop. It was downhill, not uphill, and took thirty minutes and not three days. And while we didn't sing or juggle, we told jokes and laughed together.

When we eventually boarded a bus, we were bound for Turin and the other great locale in the Don Bosco story - Valdocco.

Those bus rides can be quite long

After a pizza lunch at Ciro Pizza in Turin, we walked to Valdocco.

Walking the streets of Turin

In Don Bosco's time, Valdocco was farmland on the very fringes of the city of Turin. With the Industrial Revolution at its height, Turin was rapidly expanding and what was once countryside was quickly being absorbed by the city and its factories. While the Industrial Revolution gave Turin enormous benefits and wealth, it had the unintended consequence of fracturing families and casting aside young people, especially boys. These were the boys whom Don Bosco reached out to, and Valdocco was the place he did it.

The entry to Valdocco

Pinardi, the owner of Valdocco, permitted Don Bosco to use the grounds and a cowshed to start a school for the street boys of Turin. Over time, the land of Valdocco was left to Don Bosco and the early Salesian priests and it became the centre of a worldwide order of teaching priests. Today, it is a complex of schools, churches, offices and museums taking up several city blocks and is the Casa Madre (Mother House) of the Salesians.

The first place we visited in Valdocco was Pinardi's Chapel. This chapel was built by Don Bosco on the site of the cowshed where he held his first classes. Simple in design, and small, it is nonetheless an inspiring place.

Pinardi Chapel, Valdocco - built on the site of the cowshed Pinardi lent to Don Bosco to conduct his first school

Next we visited Don Bosco's rooms. All preserved as they were in his day, the rooms contain Don Bosco's living quarters, offices and private chapel. Now a museum, they also contain fascinating memorabilia to him.

The first church that Don Bosco constructed in Turin was the Church of St Francis de Sales in Valdocco, built in the early years of the Order. A beautiful, yet modest church, this was dedicated to St Francis De Sales, the saint who inspired Don Bosco's work and lent his name to the Salesian order.

Contemplation in the church of St Francis De Sales

The last of churches Don Bosco built was anything but modest. Dedicated to Mary, Help of Christians, to whom the Salesians share a special devotion and who, coincidentally, is the Patron Saint of Australia, the Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture and was one of Don Bosco's great achievements. Housing the relics of several saints including Don Bosco himself, St Cecilia and St Domenic Savio, this is a glorious church. The boys were quite impressed with the enormity of the devotion on show.

The altar of the Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians

Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians

 
We left Valdocco for Porta Susa, one of Turin's central train stations where we boarded a train to Chieri.

Porta Susa train station, Turin

We said our farewells at Piazza Cavour.

Interlude - Interesting Italians

CHIERI

Giuseppe 'Beppe' Ferrero

Beppe Ferrero (he's the one with the hat) has lived in Chieri all his life, as did his parents, grandparents and great grand parents before him. Born in 1927, Beppe has lived in the same small house off the pedonale since then.

At the height of the Great Depression in 1933, Beppe's father passed away suddenly. With the burden of several children, his mother sent the six year old Beppe to Valdocco in Turin to be taught by the Salesians. This changed Beppe's life.

When in 1938 he returned to Chieri, he maintained a connection with the Salesians which continues to this day.

He has worked with the Salesians in various capacities, and has met each of the Salesian Rector Majors over the years and two popes. In 1987 he assisted in the writing of the official history of the Salesians of Don Bosco, providing valuable insight into their presence in Chieri and surrounding regions. Even today, he is one of two people in Chieri who has keys to the church of San Fillipo and is the go to man regarding anything to do with the Salesians in the 20th Century.

 Zante

Zante is the family dog of the family the teachers are staying with while the boys are in homestay in Chieri.

A solidly built affectionate dog, Zante suffers from an affliction affecting many Italian males: he thinks he is Casanova reborn.

He seems to have a particular affinity for Australian male teachers, and doesn't mind showing it.

FLORENCE

Claudio from Firenze 

We met Claudio while we he was waiting for his wife in our hotel lobby. Like most Florentines, Claudio liked to talk, particularly about his beloved city. He was full of advice about the interesting sites we should visit. It was particularly gratifying to be able to say to him things like, "Done that...", "Been there...", "Doing that tomorrow..."

Claudio has lived in the city centre for the last three years and says he hasn't had to drive a car in all that time.

Claudio is a born and bred Florentine who operates a number of businesses supplying restaurants with furniture and equipment. He was able to provide us with the names of several restaurants near us which filled our requirement of reasonably priced, good sized portions and traditional Florentine food. He told us we should say he sent us; when we did, they didn't know who he was, but the recommendation ended up being excellent nonetheless.

Vetulio Bondi

Vetulio Bondi grew up in Via Faenza in the San Giovanni Quartiere of Florence, the fourth generation of his family to do so. He runs a gelateria in the same street. His lovely wife also grew up in the same street, five generations back. I am reminded of the lyrics of Elvis Costello's Veronica: "Her world was the street where she lived."

All of Vetulio's gelato is made on site using fresh ingredients from around the district.

Vetulio's mission is to preserve the traditional craft of gelato and has an artigianale gelato shop. He is world renowned and runs classes across the globe in traditional gelato making, as well as judging international gelato competitions.

 

ROME

Enzo from Bar Romoli

We met Enzo in 2007 during the second Italy trip. The owner of Bar Romoli near Piazza Navona and where we're staying, Enzo has always welcomed our boys and teachers into his bar (um, his Italian bar; Italian bars are more like cafes, selling coffee, pastry, snacks and small meals), keeping them happy with his coffees, pastries and gelati and looking after them with discounts.

Enzo's family first opened their Roman bar in 1908, and each generation of the family have operated it ever since. Enzo took over running Bar Romoli 33 years ago, expanding it over the years and being recognised in competitions for Rome's best coffee and Rome's best gelato.

Enzo is a typical Roman: charming, confident, forward and always ready with a joke. He is the first of our Interesting Italians.

Sorella Giaconda 

Sr Giaconda was one of the religious looking after us while we stayed at our accommodation. She is a wonderful lady who at first comes across as gruff and cranky, but who really is warm and compassionate.

Giaconda was born in 1937 in the Sicilian city of Salerno. When she was 11 years of age she joined the Convent of the Sorelle dell' Opera del Mezzogiorno order, starting a seventy year life of service to God and young people.

For the last thirteen years she has been working with the Order in Rome.

Days 9, 10, 11, 12 - Chieri at Easter

Not a lot to say about the boys, other than to say all reports from home stay families are positive. Let's talk about Chieri instead.

Chieri is a beautiful town that has managed to maintain much of its medieval and Renaissance character. Inhabited since around 2000 BC, the place now known as Chieri has had a long history. Conquered by the Romans early in their march to imperial domination and named Carraeum Potentia, ancient Chieri became an important Roman fort town. With the fall of the Empire and the rise of independent city states in Northern Italy, Chieri became a vibrant town.

It is unclear when Chieri received its current name, but there is a legend that says that after he besieged and destroyed the town in the 1100s Emperor Fredrick Barbarossa mockingly said to the defeated population, "Ma chi eri?" (Roughly, "Who were you again?". The legend goes on to say that the people took on the name Chieri (chi eri?) in defiance as they rebuilt. Most historians agree this is simply myth and that "Chieri" is a derivative of the Roman "Carraeum Potentia, but it's a cool story and play on words nonetheless.

Whatever the origins of the name, aside from a couple of devastating bouts of plague, Chieri thrived over the next 800 years or so. It's recent history has been a little rocky with the collapse of the textile industry that had dominated the town since the Industrial Revolution due to competition from Asia and India, but the town appears to have weathered that and is quite a cosmopolitan and thriving little place.

In today's Chieri the St Joseph's boys are settling into their families. With no activities planned with them, we decided to walk through Chieri taking in the sites and hoping to run into some of the boys.

As I walk through Chieri I hear in my head an old 80s song - Dream Academy's Life in a Northern Town.

The centre of Chieri is Piazza Cavour, a central piazza surrounded by two churches, a bank, government offices and a couple of funky shops. This is the standard meeting place for people in Chieri, and that is our designated meeting point for the boys. When they meet up with their Italian friends, that is most likely the place.

Piazza Cavour, Chieri

Piazza Cavour by night, looking from the west

Moving on from Piazza Cavour, we come to one of the oldest parts of the town, Via Palazzo Di Citta, the main street of Chieri. Probably the safest area we will pass through on the Italy Trip (including Ferntree Gully), Via Palazzo Della Citta is pedestrian-only for most of the day (the locals call it the pedonale, the pedestrian area) and has people going about their business at all hours. It is a pretty street, with restaurants and cafes, bookshops and many boutiques and services. It also is the site of San Fillipo, the church where Don Bosco commenced his priestly studies in 1861. Also impressive are the many crooked lanes and alleys coming off it.

The pedonale by day.

Further along the pedonale, with Triumphant Arch in the background

The church of San Filippo, where Don Bosco studied to be a priest, also on the pedonale

The pedonale by night

The pedonale by night, further along

We wandered around Chieri, taking in the sights and saw little of the boys, but the home stay parents reported all was well with them. We returned by night (hence the photos above). After grabbing some dinner, we went to Chieri's cathedral to participate in the Easter vigil Mass.

Easter Vigil Mass, Chieri

The Mass went for over two hours and finished quite late, and at its conclusion, we were pretty sure that we were the only Aussies in the Church. Some of the boys went to earlier masses and others said they would be going on Sunday.

Happy Easter to all back in Australia.

Day 8 - Homestay in Chieri begins

We started early today.

After a hearty breakfast we checked out of the hotel and went straight to the station. We said our farewells to Florence, a city that was a gracious host to us and which expanded our understanding of Italy, history and just what humans are capable of.

Our last minutes in the Machiavelli Palace Hotel

The departure lounge at Santa Maria Novella station in Florence

Boarding the train for Turin

A four and a bit hour train ride followed. Students read, slept, completed homework, laughed and talked their way as the train choo-chooed its way through the regions of Tuscany, Emiglia-Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont regions. At Turin we changed trains for the last thirty minute journey to Chieri.

Porta Susa station in Turin

At the Chieri station, the boys' Italian families were ready to collect them. All were a little tentative in their greetings but there were smiles all around and the boys happily, if nervously, went off with their families.

Heading off to their Italian homes

It was a little bittersweet to watch as their teachers. On the one hand, it was great to see them embrace this opportunity to be immersed in Italian life and language, to be put in a situation outside their comfort zone and know that they would grow and become independent as a result. On the other hand, however, our little touring group has become quite close over the last eight days; we have shared so much, have had every meal together and have learned and laughed so much that we really are going to miss each and every one of these young men and their unique characters.

It's not like we won't see them, I know; we have a lot planned together in the coming week. We will be at school together, and have many excursions into Turin and Don Bosco territory; we will also come across them as we visit Chieri, attend midnight mass on Saturday night and Easter Mass on Sunday.

But still...

As a side note, our little blog chronicling the Italy trip has become international, with visitors from as far afield as the USA, Austria, Germany and Hong Kong. What a great world we live in.

(With all those views, there has still been only one comment left on the blog. Just saying...)

Check out the update to the INTERESTING ITALIANS page.

Day 7 - The Uffizi and Florence from above

Miraculously, the sun came out in the morning and stayed out all day. One could be forgiven for thinking this might be the best day yet in Florence. One would be right.

After a hearty breakfast, we set of for the Uffizi Gallery. The sky was blue, and the sun was shining; Florence was putting on quite a show.

Former government offices (hence the name 'uffizi'), the Uffizi Gallery is one of the greatest galleries in the world, and has the best and most complete collection of Renaissance art. Within its walls are works by giants of art such as Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, Raphael, Donatello and Rembrandt. We weren't sure how the boys would respond to the art on offer, having looked at a fair amount of frescoes and Churches so far.

As with so many other times on this trip, the boys were amazing. They took in all the Uffizi had to offer, were fascinated by the skill, beauty and history on display. They wandered through the endless rooms, up the steep stairs, completely absorbed in the paintings, drawings and sculpture within. It took us two hours or more to navigate the gallery; when we emerged, we suddenly had a bunch of art critics on our hands - each could tell you their favourite and worst pieces and explain why.

After some shopping and wandering through the San Lorenzo Markets we had lunch in the Mercato Centrale of Florence.

We next boarded a bus which took us to Piazzale Michelangelo, high in the hills encircling Florence. On such a clear day, the city was spread out before us with the Duomo standing proudly in its centre and the Arno River weaving through it like a silver ribbon. The view was, at the risk of using a cliche, amazing. We took in the view for a good part of the afternoon before setting back down the hill, this time on foot.

We walked down ancient paths, through crooked medieval streets and through the old fortifications of Florence. Our trek took us along the Arno, where we followed its course to the Ponte Vecchio, stopping to chat to a group of schoolgirls and their teachers from Oregon USA. It was good to see that the boys had studied up on their historical Italians such as Casanova.

Crossing the Ponte Vecchio we headed back through the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza Signoria, past the Piazza Nazionale as we went back to the hotel.

Dinner was in another Tuscan trattoria with traditional Tuscan fair, the Trattoria Palle d'Oro. We thought we would commemorate our last night in Florence, and the milder weather, by going for a gelato at Triangolo Delle Bermude gelateria.

We closed off the night by wandering back down to the Piazza Della Signoria. This piazza is fascinating at night with buskers, tourists, lovers and street sellers combining with the history and beauty of the place to add life to the evening.

Tired, excited (and a little anxious) about the upcoming homestay, we took ourselves to the hotel, packed and crawled into bed.

Day 6 - Florence and Siena

This was the coldest day yet in Italy, with the temperature hovering around the 9 degrees mark for most of the day. Just the right kind of day for boarding a train to Siena, a medieval city high on a windswept hill.

We started the day by walking through the old city again, stopping at the Medici Palace and the church of San Lorenzo, both sites important to the history of the Medici family who wrested power in Florence and ruled for four generations before being made Grand Dukes of Florence.

We then walked to the Arno, the river that runs through Florence. Along the way we passed by the Uffizi, which was crowded with tourists. Since we arrived in Italy armed police and soldiers have been present at all major tourist centres and everyone has felt safer for it.

We came to the Arno River, and looked along its length to the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval bridge that has become the centre for the selling of gold and jewellery in Florence. Once again, I asked the boys to buy their mum's something nice, but none did.

We walked across the river to the magnificent Pitti Palace and then back to the hotel along Florence's west side, coming to the famous San Lorenzo Market where the boys had an opportunity to buy souvenirs, gifts and personal items. It was great seeing the boys master the ancient art of haggling.

When lunch came we went to Mercato Centrale, Florence's food market, a huge building selling the unique produce of Tuscany. The boys had panini again, choosing between finocchiona salami or porchetta as their filling. The panini were virtually inhaled.

Now it was time to board the train for the 90 minute ride to Siena. A political and economic rival of Florence's during medieval and renaissance times, Siena has maintained much of its thirteenth century character, with narrow, twisting streets and old high buildings. We walked through those streets until we hit the Piazza del Campo, Siena's main piazza. This is the site of the palio, a horserace around the piazza dating back to the middle ages.

Even though it was around 8 degrees, one of the boys stayed true to his ambition to have a gelato in every city he visited, and bought himself a double scoop of chocolate gelato.

We moved next to the Cathedral of Siena, a huge marble church. Many of the boys were versed enough in Renaissance history after one day in Florence that they were able to identify the gothic and Renaissance elements of the church, and draw comparisons with similar buildings in Florence.

After the long train ride back to Florence we headed straight out to dinner.

The charmingly named Trattoria Da Guido was the setting for our dinner, another selection of traditional Tuscan dishes.

A long day, and a cold day, meant that we were in our rooms soon after.

Day 5.2 - Ciao, Firenze

The first thing we noticed about Florence was the weather. We had left the bright blue skies and temperate days of Rome to land in a grey and bitterly cold city.

We settled into our accommodation, the Machiavelli Palace hotel, and soon set out into the city of Florence.

The birthplace of the Renaissance, and still a world centre of art and culture today, Florence is a city brimming with history not only in its museums and cathedrals, but also in the most surprising of places. Our first stop was one such place, the church of Santa Maria Novella. A large yet unassuming church, this late Gothic contains some treasures of the early Renaissance. In the church we find a large floating crucifix by Giotto, and a wooden carving of the crucifixion by Brunelleschi. The Holy Trinity fresco by Masaccio is the first known use of perspective in the history of art, and was a painting that in its day drew artists from all around the world trying to puzzle out how the illusion of depth and three dimensions. Added to this are frescoes by some Renaissance masters including Lippi, Pisano, Ghirlandio and an early nativity scene from a very young Botticelli. So many influential pieces in one almost anonymous church.

From Santa Maria Novella we continued on our walking tour towards the old city, invariably finding the dome of the Cathedral of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, or the Duomo, looming above every other building in every street. We couldn't help but eventually come across it.

The Duomo is an engineering marvel, for a long time the largest freestanding dome in the world, and still the largest brick dome in the word. The culmination of around 130 years of building, the dome of the Duomo is its crowning achievement. For a long time the cathedral sat without a dome, the translation from plan to reality impeding its development. Enter Fillipo Bruneleschi, architect and sculptor. Brunelleschi's solutions to the dome were ingenious and led to the construction of the largest dome since Roman times. We visited within the Duomo and found an enormous space with a lot of history. We heard about the conspiracy to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) and his brother Giuliano in Easter 1478, and the fallout of that incident. The nearby bell tower designed by Giotto, and the Baptistry with its bronze doors crated by Ghiberti and recently reopened by Pope Francis as part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, were also sources of admiration and wonder over

Our walking tour took in the old merchants' church of the Orsanmichele where guilds competed to install the most impressive sculptures. Among the artists' work there are a piece by Ghiberti and another two by Donatello.

Striking towards the river, we arrived at the Piazza Della Signoria, the centre of political power in Florcnce and heard some stories of the way politics worked during the Renaissance, especially under the ruling Medici family. Among the powerful works on display in this place of power are Michelangelo's David, Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa and Donatello's Judith.

With the day getting darker and colder, we decided it was time for dinner. After a short sojourn in the hotel we headed to the Trattoria Guelfa, a small family run restaurant serving traditional Florentine fair for a delicious three course meal. Our first day in Florence had come to an end.