Touchdown ... and the journey begins!

Starting with a bit of culture

Greetings from Mantua - or, as the Italians call it "Mantova". There's some history here: apparently the place was settled around 2000 B.C. so there have been people living in this spot for over 4000 years. It's a gem of a place. The Guardian called it "Italy's sleeping beauty city", and it became the Italian "Capital of Culture" in 2016. Lovers of literature - and maybe just lovers in general 😉 - might also recognise Mantua from Shakespeare, But more of that later.

One of a number of classic piazzas in Mantua's ancient citadella

The square in the photo above is cobbled and the cobbles haven't been made more user friendly for the tourists. Here's an image of what they look close up ...

Now THOSE  are cobbles!

Here's another glimpse of an old building in the heart of the old city ...

One thing Italy is know for is it's cycling tradition, including a history of making wonderful racing bikes. And the world's oldest make of bike still in production is the Bianchi so I couldn't resist another photo when I saw this classic parked up against a pillar ...

Bianchi's the name; making bicycles is the game

We've just had a short stroll here in Mantua since our protracted transfer from Hobart. We both thought a nice cold drink in the open air would be just the tonic for the stuffiness of airplane fuselages and airport lounges. Here's a photo of Di in the sunshine, partway through an Italian red beer and refreshing some essential Italian phrases ...

Sipping beer and studying the lingo

Getting here

Being in transit - especially in cattle class airline travel - is generally not a whole lot of fun. Thankfully, in the greater scheme of things it is only transitory. Getting from our front door to Milan, where we picked up our rental car, took just on 35 hours. That journey, which involved four flights, looks something like this:

There are a lot of adages bandied about regarding travel. Stuff about it being not the destination that matters, but the journey - and generally I'd agree with that.  However, this part of "the journey" gets almost no kudos for enjoyment or enlightenment.

A Diamond amidst the dross

Long airline journeys invariably seem to involve cycles of reading, movie watching and dozing broken up by the occasional stretch, feeding session and visit to the toilet. Very occasionally a great film will lift the tone, and that happened for me towards the end of our transit from the antipodes to touching down in Europe. In my search for something worth watching I came across "Les Grands Esprit": a recent French variation on themes dealt with in "Stand and Deliver" which is an inspirational movie - based on a true story - about what inspired teachers can do with students who have been written of by everyone else around them. Here is a glimpse of the action ...

Although the English title for this movie is "The Teacher" I prefer a more literal translation: either 'Great Minds' or 'Great Spirits'. If you have some long travel ahead with the Star Alliance group, I highly recommend it. 

Getting on with it

Once we landed in Milan we were delighted that our luggage came through so quickly. That joy was a bit tempered with the drawn out affair of picking up "our" rental car at Milan. Firstly because the staff were very, very inefficient; secondly because the car we'd booked and paid for months ago wasn't ready and waiting for us. In the end, we were upgraded - which sounds like a good thing but in fact wasn't because the car we've got has more luxury features and passenger room, but less storage space than what we'd ordered. For us, the critical thing was being able to get our bike bags and suitcases in and out of the back easily. This car allows us to fit them all in, but not easily.

Anyway back to the idea of "the journey". Really, this whole trip is based on the concept of journeying for its own sake, rather than arriving at a particular place or places. It hinges around one journey in particular: our Lionheart bike odyssey, so I really like this travel quote: "It's not the destination, but the glory of the ride".  Perfect!

After that bike tour, we are going to walk through history via the Cathar Way, where we'll wander past a bunch of ruined castles like this one ...

We'll be doing that with our Breton friend Michel Leonard, who we met way back in 2010 when we traversed the Pyrenees. We are really looking forward to looking backward as we hike through history with Michel. What the Catholics did to the Cathars in the name of religion is very sobering, and I imagine we'll talk a lot about all that as we walk along.

More musings about Mantua

Did you recall where Shakespeare speaks of Mantua? Well of course it's in Romeo and Juliet. This old city is where Romeo is exiled to after killing Juliet's cousin Tybalt.

In a different life, working as a high school English teacher I relished the challenge of introducing Shakespeare to year nine and ten students. For the year tens it was either generally in the form of Macbeth or Caesar, but for the year nines we tended to use Romeo and Juliet. We would use film to help bring to life for our youthful charges the passion and themes of the text.

Older readers - yes, my generation! - might remember and prefer Zeffirelli's classic rendering of the play. While I thought it was a pretty good movie, there always seemed to be something missing. But  when Baz Luhrmann gave us his  interpretation I was blown away. The outrageous opening fight scene (isn't John Luguizamo's Tybalt just wonderful!) at the gas station sets us up brilliantly for what's to come. But the scene that perhaps shows more than any other the way reason and logic can be totally overwhelmed by emotion is the one where Romeo kills Tybalt and seals his own fate ...

When we were looking for a place not too far from Milan to chill for a couple of days after our journey from Hobart to Italy we stumbled upon Mantua. Neither of us had been here before and when we read a bit about the place we decided it would do perfectly. We're going to spend most of tomorrow out wandering about the old city. From the brief glimpse we've had so far today it looks like we're going to have a great day. If you're looking for some pleasant places of culture to visit in Italy that are off the beaten track maybe Mantua is worth considering. 

And that's it for today. I promised Di I wouldn't flog myself silly with blogging on this holiday and she says I've written enough so I'm stopping. Catch you next time.