Spring Trip to Spain

With spring break upon us in mid-March (yes, I'm a little behind...), we decided to split our time between Spain and a Tuscany road trip. Some images and highlights below....

In Madrid we based ourselves at Puerta del Sol, a large bustling plaza in the very center of the city. Our days started at La Mallorquina, a Puerta del Sol bakery cafe that has drawn Spaniards and tourists for generations. The apron-skirted woman is the pastry-shop's icon. (Can't explain why I took such delight in seeing her on the wall each morning...it might be because she was accompanied by all sorts of delicious smells--baking croissants and strong spanish coffee--or perhaps because she is clothed in the colors of the Italian flag).


The attentive purveyors of the bakery's delicacies...

One happy customer:


"Tio Pepe" the iconic billboard that has presided over Puerta del Sol for about as long as the bakery has been in business (this was reputed to have been the first billboard in Spain):


The area around Puerta del Sol is lined with tapas bars and "ham museums"--not exactly what I think of when imagining Madrid's museums! Here is one such ham museum--really just a jumbo-sized cured meat shop...


While the food of Spain merits museum exhibition, ham "museums" were not the only museums we visited in Madrid. We also spent time in more traditional museums, and even spent a morning at the Palacio Real (depicted below):


One newly-finished church adjacent to the palace was especially captivating--light, uplifting and airy, with a colorful ceiling that could have been painted by South Pacific artists.



My last visit to Madrid was as a teen in the Franco era and in my memory, save for the squares and parks around the Prado, the city felt gray. For me, this was a new, brighter Madrid. Some of the plazas in the heart of town burst with color, and the tiled surfaces of some of the small businesses carried romanticized imagery of the past. Even the tackier tiled shopfront murals kept me dawdling behind Peter and Danielle...






SEVILLA:

From Madrid we took a train to Seville for several days. It was the first burst of warm weather in Spain and people were rediscovering outdoor life, strolling, setting up terrace cafe tables, and refurbishing after the rains of winter.

Sprucing up Seville's bull-fighting ring, in anticipation of the start of the new season later in the month:



Side door entrance to the bull-pen area:




Bull-pen:

Paintings depicting bull "types" from the bull-fighting museum (for my bovine & kerbau-loving friends!):


Where matadors pray before the bullfights (a small chapel adjacent to the bull stalls):


Where matadors & fans go after the bullfights:



Around Seville:



:
Inside Seville's Alcazar: A tiled, fountain-filled oasis...









Day trip to CORDOBA:

Cordoba Alcazar gardens...


Streets of old Cordoba...

Exterior of the Mesquita (the old mosque):


Interior of the mosque:

Italian Easter

Easter season in Rome has prompted a transformation of shop windows. Local bakeries, candy shops and even corner coffee bars and take-away food places suddenly filled with gloriously wrapped egg-shaped delicacies of all sizes and themes. Some dangled from the ceilings like pinatas, as depicted below....


And others crammed the display windows...accommodating all tastes and all budgets

This & That: Carnivale & Garbatella (an interesting part of Rome)

Although this year's Carnivale in Venice drew record-breaking crowds, Carnivale in Rome appears to be primarily child-oriented. For about ten days before Lent, neighborhood children could be seen at our local Piazza San Cosimato playground tossing confetti and sporting Carnivale costumes (boys mostly in superhero garb & girls mostly princesses). A few children in Daniela's class had Carnivale parties: [below]

Bakeries displayed special seasonal Carnivale treats (cream puffs or fried pasta dusted in powdered sugar), and some other shops and trattorias adorned their display windows with masks or confetti. But overall, for those of us not oriented towards the neighborhood's nighlt clubs, Carnivale in Trastevere was decidedly low key. On Fat Tuesday, Daniela's class wore their costumes to school and paraded over to Piazza Mastai in the afternoon, along with their teachers and older schoolmates (which I missed since I was teaching). However, the previous Sunday we'd visited Rome's Garbatella neighborhood for a birthday party and happened upon a lively little Carnivale parade:
Some watched the parade from the sidelines, while others opted for the comfort of their windows:

The parade ended in a neighborhood square where costumed children threw still more confetti while parents caught up with friends:

The Garbatella neighborhood where the parade took place is a fascinating pocket of Rome. Originally constructed in the 1920s as a planned community for workers and immigrants, its now considered a neighborhood ripe for gentrification. Lead architects Sabbatini and Giovannoni designed low rise buildings with large gardens and public spaces where they envisioned diverse community members could mingling harmoniously. Here are some images:


Many of the buildings have little flourishes that one would not expect to find in workers' housing-- sculpted drainpipes, wrought iron balconies, and decorative urns.