Another Lascaux?

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The Lascaux painted caves are world famous – the original, closed to the public on the 20th April 1963 due to over-visiting was needless to say, Lascaux 1. Lascaux 2 is the well known and loved facsimile opened on the 18th July 1983 – amazingly accurate especially when the fact that it was produced without the aid of computers and modern surveying techniques is ‘put in the frame’.

Lascaux 3 is perhaps less known – it is the travelling version of Lascaux which was launched in Bordeaux in 2012 where we saw it. It’s quite a feat to move it around since it takes up 12 shipping containers! Since then it has roamed the world, starting in Chicago and then on to Houston, Montreal, Brussels, Paris, Geneva, Tokyo, for example. In Shanghai this year, 2,300 visitors passed through this mobile exhibition space in one day! During May – September the exhibition will be in Johannesburg after which it will return to its base here in the Vezere Valley for some ‘tlc’ – some restoration and refinement of the art is necessary after 5 years. Then it will be back on the road again.

Lascaux

Model of Lascaux 3

Lascaux 4 is already very well known too. It opened in December 2016 and by August 2017 has exceeded it’s visitor target of 400,000 a year! There is no doubting its popularity – the cave art is every bit as authentic and, of course, powerful computing and state-of-the-art surveying techniques were used in its creation.

Lascaux 4

Then there is the cave we have dubbed ‘Lascaux 5’! It’s one of many caves in the Vezere Valley – some famous, some not – and it’s hard to fathom why this one was never either lived in or decorated in prehistoric times. It is a very ‘des res’ as caves go!

We were introduced to this very special cave by a kind neighbour who shared this local knowledge with us. To get there, we followed him along a track through woodland and up a small rise – then, ‘voila’ as the French would say, the well concealed cave came into view. One could easily pass it by.

Lascaux

Approach to ‘Lascaux 5’

Inside we marvelled at the art – very much the style of Lascaux itself. If we’d just stumbled across this site ourselves, not knowing its history, would we know how old this art was? That’s very debatable. Dating of cave art is a huge topic in itself – perhaps for another blog – and the possibility of ‘fakery’ is very real.

This cave was actually produced in 1995! A natural cave, it was decorated to emulate Lascaux and it certainly succeeds in doing that. The famous ‘Lascaux bull’ had to be included, of course!

Lascaux, Lascaux Bull

The Lascaux Bull

Why?, you may ask. It was for a film ‘Les Enfants de Lascaux’ – ‘The Children of Lascaux’. Not surprisingly, it is about 4 children who search for treasure under the hill of Lascaux – and find it. The rest, as they say, is history. The film is now hard to get hold of, but the story of the discovery of Lascaux is still told and retold and thanks to the facsimiles we can appreciate and share the wonder the children must have felt as they saw this awesome art for the first time in millennia.

Steve and Judie Burman live in the beautiful Vezere Valley in the Dordogne region of South-West France. Together they run Caves and Castles, specialising in prehistoric Cave Art and medieval Castles Tours. You can join a small group (up to 6) 4 night/5 day Tour based 2 nights each in the medieval towns of Sarlat and Montignac-sur-Vezere or book a custom Tour for a day or more.

Professional archaeologist, Steve loves to share his passion for the ‘Cradle of Humanity.’ World famous sites such as Lascaux, the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’ and Font de Gaume are close by. Coupled with gastronomic meals and superb wines, your Caves & Castles Tour is really special.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Let’s Return

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I was on my fourth visit to Stia in the Casentino, southeastern Tuscany, when Michelle Logue published her blog on our Slow Travel Tours website (https://slowtraveltours.com/blog/an-italian-pilgrimage/). It set me thinking afresh about the question: why travel?

I needed to tie up a few loose ends for my new Tastes & Textiles: Woad & Wool tour, part of which takes place in the Casentino, southeast Tuscany.

Stia, only 1 hour 20 minutes east of Florence, feels more remote than it is.

For the first time I felt comfortable in the place. I could relax and enjoy being there. I had a mental map of the area and didn’t have to slavishly follow Google’s directions, which always send you by the quickest route, not necessarily the most picturesque.

There were a few people I had met on my previous visits who welcomed me back as a friend. They had suggestions of who else I should meet to add to my list of producers, and ultimately friends.

I’d been wanting to meet Elisa Bellugi, a handweaver now in her 90s. But when I contacted her nephew Luca he told me she’d passed away in February. Although I’d missed her, Luca kindly showed me the studio where she worked and a collection of her clothing and other pieces.

A coat and hat by Elisa Bellugi

She wove a blanket for the Pope

…and received a thank you letter from him.

I met Claudio Grisolini of Tessilnova on my second visit to Stia, but mysteriously all my photos of him had disappeared. Second time lucky.

Claudio at one of his many looms, all of which he runs himself since his assistant retired.

Claudio’s father founded the woollen mill and designed this coat.

Here it is on Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (Claudio’s father is in the photo bottom right, not with Hepburn).

Next door is the Museum of the Art of Wool. It was my third visit to the Museum, but far from being bored, I found I could concentrate more on the details.

Elegantly decorated machine for measuring humidity in wool. No wool merchant wants to pay for wool heavy with water.

The Museum is Angela Giordano’s kingdom. She invited me to lunch, but her kitchen flooded that morning and we went out instead.

Angela will lead a workshop during my tour.

I had chosen the dates of my visit to coincide with the dates of the tour next year from 18 to 28 May. For the first time I walked up behind the Castello di Porciano where we’ll be staying on the tour, and below in Stia lingered by the Torrente Staggia marvelling at the force of the water that used to run the colossal machines in the woollen mill.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel…

Carpets of scented wild thyme

Torrente Staggia still beautiful but no longer useful as a source of power.

On my second visit I had spent ten minutes at the Monastery of Camaldoli, founded by the Benedictine San Romualdo in 1012. This time I dedicated four fascinating hours to it and the restaurant across the road.

The pharmacy originally made herbal medicines used by the monks to cure wayfarers. (Photo: Penny Barry)

The hermitage is still occupied by monks who maintain a vow of silence.They used to plant 4000 trees a year. You can see some of them in the background. (Photo: Penny Barry)

Bronze doors with symbolism of herbs and trees in gold leaf. Top right: ‘Thorn for pricking, correction and penitence’.

Centuries-old chestnut ‘Castagno Miraglia’ still surviving despite a hollow trunk.

The Monastery is in a nature reserve where herds of deer roam at sunset. (Photo: Penny Barry)

Dinner at Locanda dei Baroni, conveniently placed across from the monastery. Friendly staff and a fire in the fireplace welcomed us to the dining room.

You can only eat two Italian meals (at most) per day, and that’s pushing it! This time I could sample a few more restaurants.

Toscana Twist adds a modern twist to classic Tuscan ingredients.

I hate taking the autostrada which is useful only as a way of getting from A to B as fast as possible. At the end of my stay, I allowed myself the luxury of taking the back roads from Stia to Londa and on through the Mugello. From Stia the road runs next to the Arno River heading toward its source. Federica at the Castello had recommended that I stop at a water mill. I was sniffy. It’s no longer functioning as a mill, whereas we have four working water mills in the Garfagnana. Who wants to go look at dead machinery. But as I was passing anyway…

It was sad to see the broken wooden paddles of the old water wheel.

But the daughter of the owner gave an account of the late miller which brought the place to life.

The family was preparing for a party in this ancient room above the mill. Her father and mother were in the kitchen. They run bread workshops to teach how to make bread with sourdough starter.

The mill is the first one below the source of the Arno River. What a difference from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence!

I got home with a long list of people and places I want to return to. Travel helps me see the world with new eyes, giving me the capacity to understand other people, other ways of life and myself better. It’s difficult to dig deep if you’re always going somewhere new. The more I travel to the same place, the more fulfilling the journey. I’m going back. I hope you’ll be with me.

Erica Jarman invites you on inspiring culinary tours of life behind the scenes that you won't find in any guidebook — get to know the food artisans and craftspeople of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Liguria. Come join me and my Italian friends and dip into a lifestyle where lunch is more important than business. Find out more at Sapori e Saperi Adventures and follow Erica’s own adventures on her blog.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

The Disappearing Shabby-Chic of the Ribeira in Porto

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I’ve written here before about tourism and the effect on certain cities, namely Venice and Dubrovnik, in the past. There are other cities I can add to the list of places truly threatened by mass tourism, and Porto is one of them. As I sit writing in my Ribeira district apartment outfitted for the traveler and rented solely to visitors I am quite aware that I am part of the problem, but I hope there can be some changes soon to stop the tide of renovation and reconstruction in this area (and other parts of Porto) so that the city does not completely lose its soul.

This is the Ribeira district from the other side of the Douro River. Built on a hillside and with many narrow, cobblestone streets, and colorful buildings, it is a very atmospheric place to walk around. Its a place that has its own unique voice, and in the past has had a reputation of being a little gritty. You can see a square behind the little church on the left. All around that square, there is construction, construction, and more construction. Investors are buying up everything and renovating buildings into hotels and tourist apartments. On the one block street I am staying on, there are no less than three buildings being renovated. People who lived in the buildings before they were bought, sometimes for their entire lives, are evicted. There are a lot of people living in those apartments on the waterfront, who when they hang their laundry out now see a totally different reality than they did ten years ago. Namely, a gazillion tourists.

Who knows if this entire area will eventually be sold, renovated, and turned into tourist lodgings and souvenir shops. I really hope not, but because I like the funkiness of this riverside warren of narrow streets and pretty, but run-down (or uninhabitable) buildings and I certainly do not want to see all the locals kicked out. So here is a little photo documentation of what parts of Ribeira look like, now.

This place intrigues me. Some kind of workshop, in one of the a-bit-beat-up traditional buildings. And the woman on the left, maybe she is waiting for someone to deliver her bread. Yes, there are still places that deliver bread here. She would be the one put out if the building is bought and turned into tourist apartments.

A square, just outside the main tourist zone, that looks like locals still live in it. There is a church in the square that is undergoing a facelift and I am glad to see that public buildings are being renovated too.

I’m posting this picture because this stairway down to the river is truly precarious. Yet on the right of it, there is a jazz club with a river view. The staircase has been there a long time. The jazz club, probably not. Will they ever renovate the stairs? Its another thing I could be happy about.

Ripe for a buyer, a little taste of Bucharest in Porto. Does everything have to be pretty? Not to me. Though I suppose the neighbors aren’t too keen on this ghostly looking place with graffiti all over it.

I love this hodgepodge of buildings. It is the Ribeira where local people still live. I am in Porto now and will come back in a year, and I am sure that there will be more change.

I will see for myself, and you can too, next June on the 2019 A Taste of Northern Portugal tour.

 

Shannon

Shannon Essa leads small-group tours focusing on wine, food, and local culture in Croatia, Slovenia, Northern Italy and Northern Spain & Portugal.

Discover the backstreets of Venice or the wine, craft beer, and slow food of Piedmont, Italy. In Spain, experience the rustic foods and low-key lifestyle in beautiful Galicia, the wineries along the Camino de Santiago in the Bierzo region, or the justifiably famous wine regions and local food traditions of Catalonia. See many of Croatia’s most beautiful sights and learn about the rebirth of one of Europe’s oldest wine areas. And see all this with Shannon, who loves unique and out of the way wine and food experiences.

When not in Europe, Shannon does her eating and drinking in San Diego, California.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.