I'm not sure why rides back home always seem shorter than rides going to a new place.
I think in this moment, it's the thoughts of Rome still burning in my memory.
The Basilicas, the Coliseum, the people, the culture, the history, the art.
Viva Italia, man!
Viva Italia!
After many hours driving, we roll into a town called Ferrara and get off the bus in
front of a castle surrounded by a moat.
Talkable walking through a time portal, the castle estace is the huge fortress, a medieval
structure complete with towers, moat, and draw bridges in the center of town.
It's a large block with four corner towers.
On the outside, the castle essentially presents the appearance given to it by Girolamo, the
Carpi, in the second half of the 16th century, with three entrances to fourth entrance to
the east with sacrifice to make room for the kitchens.
The appearance of the building still recalls a medieval fortress.
A bit higher up, the Carpi replaced the bowelments with elegant balconies and white stone and
graceful roof terraces with a fresh-gold courtyard.
The wells were to provide water in time of drought.
The round stone balled pal the ball over were ammunition for catapults.
A little further down is Ferrara Cathedral.
It's the largest and main basilica in Ferrara and is dedicated to Saint George, the Patriot
Seder Ferrara.
The basilica was begun in 12th century AD and consecrated in 1135.
The original romanistic design is manifesting the façade.
White marble, a series of lodgers, small arcades, and rose windows and statues.
In the center of the façade is the porch supported by two columns with talamons seated
on lions at the base.
In the center, a lodger with the statue Madonna with Child.
We move through the main court and pass by Chiffonoye Palace, a Renaissance palace built
for the Asté family.
The name Chiffonoye is thought to originate from Chivar la Noia, meaning literally to
escape boredom, which describes accurately the original intention of the palace and
the other villas in close proximity.
There is definitely nothing boring about this place.
In fact, there's something beautiful yet eerie about these streets.
I could be wrong, but I feel like this town has lots of stories and lots of bones and
closets.
It's like you can still see the bloodstains in the cracks of the cobblestone.
For example, in 1586, a no-musician, Gesualdo, who married his first cousin, Donna Maria,
whom after two years began to have a love affair with Fabrizio, the Duke of Andria.
She kept the seeker for almost two years, even though elsewhere the existence of the
affair was well known.
Hold on.
I feel a Jerry Springer moment coming, wait for it.
Finally, on October 16, 1590, Gesualdo, pretending to be on a hunting trip, returned to the palace,
caught them in the act, and murdered them both in their bed.
Afterwards, he left their emulated bodies in front of the palace for all to see, two
years later, but I guess the need to prove to everyone who knew and wondered how come
he didn't know that he knew after all.
Yeah.
The good thing was being that he was a nobleman, he was immune to prosecution.
Nice.
But the bad thing is that he's not immune to revenge, so he fled to his castle in Venosa.
Yashka was telling us another story about a man who walked into two people having sex,
thinking it was his wife having an affair and not wanting to look like a punk in town's
eyes like Gesualdo, he killed them both only to find out that the couple under the sheets
was his parents.
Damn.
I mean, how does one get that image out of one's head?
I don't know what's worse, the sight of his parents naked or the sight of them bloodied
up.
There ain't enough counseling or mental therapy to fix that shit, yet I can't help but wonder
what Dr. Phil would say.
Now, there needs to be trust and communication in the relationship, then grab his wife and
walk off the stage.
That story took place in this building.
We leave the center of Ferrara and head to the Diamond Palace.
This is one of the most famous palaces in Italy, as well as one of the most influential
examples of Renaissance European architecture.
Designed by Baggio Rosetti, the construction is starting in 1493, the most striking feature
is its exterior walls, which consist of some 8,500 white with pink veins marble blocks carved
to represent diamonds, obviously it's where it gets its name from.
The palace today houses the National Gallery of Art in Ferrara with frequent exhibitions.
Ferrara is renowned for music as well as the visual arts.
The painters establish links with Flemish artists and their techniques, exchanging influences
in the color and composition choices.
Composers came to Ferrara for many parts of Europe, especially France.
Ferrara is also surrounded by more than 9 kilometers of ancient walls, mainly built in the 15th
and 16th centuries.
Okay, okay, enough coursing around, I'm hungry and we need to get back on the bus soon.
We headed back into town and found a nice quiet restaurant.
The good thing about these small town restaurants is that they are authentic and original.
A real taste of Italy.
The bad thing is no one speaks English or English that well.
After failing to find some word on the menu that even resembles an English word, we each
closed our eyes and pointed at whatever.
We only left once, right?
Twenty minutes of everyone, waitress, go-gan myself, being lost in translation, then fifteen
or twenty minutes later, and the waitress brings us this.
You know what?
It tasted amazing, and the waitress was great too, except for the fact that all the umbrellas
came crashing down on us as soon as we paid our bill.
Punishment for not knowing the language, maybe, but we're alive.
Ice cream for dessert, then it's back on the bus.
Where are my smarties at?
Cool.
Instead of going back to Zagra, part of Goga's diabolical plan to get us to Venice was to
spend the night here in Iaca.
We got off the tour bus and bid our farewells to Yashko, the drivers and some new friends
we made along the way.
Rome, the Vatican, or Vietto, Ferrara, was amazing, but driving by Florence really bothered
me, so next year the plan is to come back.
Iaca is beautiful, but we're not done with Italy yet as we're heading out to Venice
in the morning.
