Timothy Porter, Author at NYPorter

Peru

Day 0 Arrive in Lima
Today was a long day. We should have known it was going to be one of unexpected events when our plane ran into problems landing in Atlanta. There was a ‘minor caution light’ that came on for the landing gear so the pilot calmly announced that we they took care of it (whatever that means) and that we were ‘going back around). We landed okay….
Then leaving Atlanta for Lima there was an ‘uncooperative pump’ issue that had us sitting on the ground in our seats while the issue was ‘addressed’. I suppose they brought someone in to talk to the pump about its behavior. In any event, the pump settled down and we were on our way. By the time we got settled in at our hotel in Lima it was either 1:30 or 2:30 in the morning… either way, it was late.

Day 1 Lima, Peru

Rise and shine! Anxious to see Lima, we dragged ourselves out of bed by 9:00 AM and headed down for breakfast. I could tell that Tim was still groggy because he was mixing in mangled Italian, French and German as he tried to communicate with the wait staff… everything BUT Spanish. Once he got coffee he was fine (sort of).

Carol Brewer stopped by and after satisfying our appetites we met in the lobby to plan the day. Through the hotel we scheduled a bus tour to Pachacamac, an Inca archaeological site south of the city. After spending some time exploring Miraflores, we had a quick lunch and headed for Pachacamac.

The Pachacamac archaeological site is about 35km south of Miraflores/Lima. The site is impressive with several pyramid temples, dwellings, remains of decorating adobe walls and other interesting constructions built by 4 civilizations. According to what we saw in the associated museum, Pachacamac was one of the most important religious centers of indigenous people at the Peruvian coast before the arrival of the Spanish.

We were all struck by the desert-like nature of the area and the dry air in spite of the ocean being so close. We looked at several temples in various states of restoration and the guide showed us a sample wall with layered illustrations. We also climbed a significant hill with the main temple atop it. That hill is set back about 500 yards from the ocean with a nice view. The last thing we saw before departing was the structure where the virgins were trained and kept under protection. You still can’t get close to it even today.

The city of Lima has grown in recent years until it not supports a population of 11 million residents. In the southern part of the city we saw scores of tiny three person micor-taxis, an enclosed motorcycle with two seats over a two wheeled rear axle. We didn’t see these vehicles in the Miraflores section of the city; apparently Lima has rules about where these vehicles could go and where they could not. I want to mention that unemployment was quite low, despite the huge population. Everywhere you looked there was someone cleaning the streets, watering the grass or picking up trash. For such a large city the streets were quite clean.

Sunday Pictures- Album

Day 2 Lima, Peru

This morning we met our fellow travelling companions and our Globus tour guide, Adrian. He gave us a great overview of the next week and laid out all the ground-rules for the group. An interesting fact he shared was that Peru contains 28 of the 32 world climates and it is 58% jungle. That was interesting and highlighted how little Tim and I knew about this country. Adrian also warned us to wear our sunscreen, hats and to drink the coca tea when we moved to higher elevations the following day. At that point we had free time until 2PM, so John, Carol, Tim and I headed out exploring.

Lima is a coastal city, but sits on a pleateu several hundred feet above the ocean with sheer cliffs down to the water. Our first stop was the shopping mall at Larco Mar on top of the cliff. Just up the coast from the mall is the Parque del Amor, a park with a statue of two lovers kissing. An just beyond that park were these crazy people launching themselves off the cliff with para-gliding canopies. Out they when over the ocean, then they soared back over the land and quickly gained height! Awesome. Carol, John and Tim each signed up and took off out over the ocean and then over the buildings of Lima. Fortunately everyone made it back safely.

At 2:00 PM we all piled into a bus for a tour of the area. Adrian took us to a local market where we tasted unusual (for us) fruits – some of which were very tasty. We found out that Peru grows 3300 of the 11,000 varieties of potatoes in the world. We visited a former monestary and walked through a large public area. Adrian was extremely knowledgeable and informed us about the food, the structures, the economics, the climate, the people and the history of Lima and the country. Peru is an interesting country with a vibrant culture. I couldn’t take notes fast enough. Fortunately- there was no test at the end of the trip! We were on our own for dinner (we had our first round of pisco sours.).

Monday Pictures – Album

Day 3 Cusco and the Sacred Valley, Peru

After a 5:30 wake-up call we’re off to the Lima airport and our first experience with the organization skills of Adrian. We quickly got through the crowds and checked our bags, then headed to the gate. Again at Cusco everything was organized for us. Organized as Lamas and Alpacas, we boarded our buses and headed for La Princesita and the Mother Earth Ceremony.

Shaman Lawda completed the Mother Earth ceremony before lunch. We each blew on her offering three times and then made a wish… After a delicious lunch, while enroute to Q’enqo, we learned that Eucalyptus was introduced into Peru in the 19th century. The site of Q’enqo is set on a hillside of erected and carved stone. Much of it is carved out of a naturally occurring monolith. Q’enqo is one of the largest and most impressive wak’as or holy places in the vicinity of Cusco.

Most of us were very tired and took a nap on the bus as we left Q’enqo on the way to our hotel. On the way we stopped in Pisac and visited a local market before heading on to the Sonesta Posada del Inca Yucay Hotel. After checking in, we had little time to rest before heading out to dinner and dancing horses. The meal was great, the horses entertaining and the trip back to the hotel was quick. We were all ready to hit our beds that night. This was a full day and we were all plenty tired.

Tuesday Pictures- Album

Day 4 Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, Peru

Finally, a day where we didn’t have to be up at four in the morning! This morning arrived with a nice cool sunrise. We all had time for breakfast at the hotel before boarding the bus at 7:30. The sun was just peeking over the mountains surrounding the valley as we headed north for the village of Ollantaytambo.

Ollantaytambo was an outpost for the Inca resistance led by Manco Inca Yupanqui after the arrival of the Spanish. When we climbed the many steps to the top it was easy to understand why they selected this place. It was still cool as we started exploring the town, but the temperature would continue to rise throughout the day.

The precise stonework in the walls of the village was amazing. No matter where you looked, the walls were set with precision that’s lasted for centuries. Our first stop was into the Guinea Pig hut, ranch or whatever. This smoke-filled stone structure had a thatched roof with an opening for the smoke to escape. After the small Guinea Pig roundup and rodeo was over we struck out for the rest of the town and the fortifications. But first, most of our group acquired the walking sticks that would be so useful once we got to Machu Picchu.

Along the way we caught a glimpse of a an image of Tunupa carved into the side of a mountain, and then our first direct view of the Terraces of Pumatallis. By now it was already warming up, so we grabbed our water and headed up the terraces… I can still feel that climb in my legs today. The views were incredible and the craftsmanship impressive. Even if we’d missed the Guinea Pig roundup, Ollantaytambo was well worth the time. I’d strongly recommend that you not miss this if you head to Peru.

After a short ride from the terraces we arrived at Ollantaytambo Station along the Urubamba River; we’d follow that river all the way to Machu Picchu. Adrian managed to get us all in one first class coach and we settled in for the ride. Along the way we had lunch and enjoyed the sights as Adrian pointed out the Inca trail and its hikers, terraced ruins and other points of interest. It was mid-afternoon when we made it to Machu Picchu Pueblo and we left the train, ready to head right up to the top.

Our bus took us up the side of the mountain with countless switchbacks. After the exciting 20-minute trip we still hadn’t gotten a glimpse of the ruins. Adrian organized us, got us quickly through the admission gates and we headed along the path. We rounded the last corner and suddenly there it was, right in front of us. Adrian announced, “You made it…, welcome to Machu Picchu!” It was awesome.

The pictures don’t capture the imagery. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon with intermittent clouds providing an awesome backdrop for the peaks. We explored, listened to the local experts and soaked it all in.

We enjoyed another bus ride that would qualify for a Six Flags feature and we were back in Machu Picchu Pueblo. We checked in and gathered for dinner where the big debate centered on the weather for the following morning and who was going to take the 6 AM bus back up the mountain in the morning.

Wednesday Pictures- Album

PlatformIO for Arduino on Linux Command Line

So I had a challenge that required me to keep running up and downstairs as I was troubleshooting a new project. I’m having a problem with a temperamental water heater and decided to monitor it remotely. I have a photo-resistor taped to the water heater’s status LED and I use an Arduino Nano to capture and time the LED flashes and gaps. Then I send the results out the Nano’s USB interface to a Linux server I have running in the basement, conveniently close to the water heater.

Not having a laptop, I was using minicom to watch the USB traffic remotely from my desktop on the main floor of the house. Based on my observations of the USB traffic and minimal documentation on the Honeywell WV4460 temperature control, I’d come up with a programming change, take the stairs to the basement, disconnect the USB, pull the Nano and trek back upstairs to reprogram and flash it. While this started to become a chore, things got a little better as I employed a second Nano I had laying around. Now I’d reprogram the second board and just swap them. I still had to run up and down the stairs, but other than the device port changing every time I swapped out a board, it was a bit easier.

About the 10th trip back downstairs I had a thought. (First I thought – how many times is this gonna take to get it right…) My next thought was recalling that a while back I installed PlatformIO and Atom on my windows machine just to take it for a spin programming ESP8266 boards. Since it’s supposed to work with Arduinos and run on Linux so I wondered if it had a CLI. (My Linux server is CLI only with no GUI). Sure enough, it did and since I already have pip installed –
Sudo pip install -U platformio

The directory layout under Linux is the same as on Windows so I created an Arduino workspace named wheat_v3 (for WaterHEATer version 3) and initialized it.
cd ./wheat_v3 platformip init platformio init --board=nanoatmega328

I then created a main.cpp in the src directory and did a quick copy/past of the Arduino native code, made some minor changes and saved it. Then from the ./wheat_v3 directory this is what my edited platformio.ini looks like:

[env:nanoatmega328] platform = atmelavr board = nanoatmega328 framework = arduino upload_port = /dev/ttyUSB1

I ran platformio run –target upload a few times and cleaned up a few errors. Once the issues were cleaned up I got a clean compile and upload! Now each time I need to make a change to the code on the Nano I just kill the server side application to release the USB port and compile/upload. This is so fast and easy you’ll love it if you’re interfacing a micro-controller with Linux.

Raspberry PI GPIO

On Raspberry PI I use the WiringPi library for both C and Python development. Below is an example of cycling through three GPIO pins to light up a set of LEDs.

GPIO 17 – Pin 6 maps to the WiringPi logical pin 0
GPIO 22 – Pin 7 maps to the WiringPi logical pin 2
GPIO 27 – Pin 7 maps to the WiringPi logical pin 3

[code lang=”c”]#include <wiringPi.h> int main (void) { int offset; offset = 100; wiringPiSetup () ; pinMode(0, OUTPUT); pinMode(2, OUTPUT); pinMode(3, OUTPUT); for (;;) // Loop continously { digitalWrite (0, HIGH) ; delay(offset); // delay ‘offset’ miliseconds digitalWrite(0, LOW); // turn off 0 digitalWrite(2, HIGH); // turn on 2 delay(offset); digitalWrite(2, LOW); // turn off 2 digitalWrite(3, HIGH); // turn on 3 delay (offset); digitalWrite(3, LOW); // turn off 3 } // Loop back and start over return 0 ; }[/code]

Compile using gcc:

#gcc gpiox.c -o wp gcc wpiox.c -o wp -lwiringPi

The ‘-lwiringPi’ tells the gcc compiler to use the wiring Pi library. Then run using…
#./wp

And watch the LEDs flash…

Wireless RFM69HW – Part II

Gateway Node

The weekend is here and another chance to start poking around with my new RFM69HWs. Here’s my plan. I initially want to get the gateway node connected to a Raspberry PI in my basement via I2C. (I know, there’s probably an easier way, but, hey – I’m doing this for fun and to get better understanding of how I can leverage these boards.) The Pi should be able to poll the gateway periodically to get updated temperature data. I’ll figure out the logging later, by MySQL and a basic graph should give me a good view.

Connecting the Anarduino Gateway (GW) to the Pi is pretty straight forward. The GW uses 3.3VDC which is available on Pin 1 of the Pi. The I2C pins on the Pi are close by as well on Pin 3 and 5 with a GND pin just down the way at Pin 9. You can see in the image on the right that the 3.3 VIN and GND pins are on the same side as the analog pins; that makes wiring easy. In the following table I’ve laid out the pin mapping between the Anarduino and the Raspberry PI.

[table “T1” not found /]

The heart of the code for the gateway is very compact. Lines 7-9 initialize the board with the defined frequency, network and node ID. These are configured with #define statements. In this case the board is 433 mhz, the networkID is 100 and this node is set as 2.

#define NODEID 2 // GateWay - each node must be unique #define NETWORKID 100 // Same on all nodes that talk to each other #define FREQUENCY RF69_433MHZ

[ccN lang=”c”]
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
delay(10);

// RFM69HW setup
Serial.println(“RFM69HW config and setup…”);
radio.initialize(FREQUENCY, NODEID, NETWORKID);
radio.setHighPower(); // only for RFM69HW!
radio.encrypt(null);
Serial.println(“RX at 433 Mhz”);

Serial.print(“GPIO and I2C config and setup…”);
Wire.begin(SLAVE_ADDRESS); // initialize i2c as slave

// define callbacks for i2c communication
Wire.onReceive(receiveData);
Wire.onRequest(sendData);
Serial.println(“\nReady.”);
}

void loop() {
char inData[10];

if (radio.receiveDone())
{
memset(inData, 0, 10);
Serial.print(“#[“);
Serial.print(radio.SENDERID, DEC);
Serial.print(“] “);
for (byte i = 0; i < radio.DATALEN; i++){
Serial.print((char)radio.DATA[i]);
inData[i] = (char)radio.DATA[i];
}
if(inData[0] == ‘T’)
strcpy(cT, inData);
if(inData[0] == ‘B’)
strcpy(cB, inData);

Serial.print(” [RX_RSSI:”);
Serial.print(radio.RSSI);
Serial.print(“]”);

if (radio.ACKRequested())
{
byte theNodeID = radio.SENDERID;
radio.sendACK();
Serial.print(” – ACK sent.”);
}
Serial.println();
}
}
[/cc]

Lines 30-37 handle data from the remote node. Temperature data is prefixed with ‘T’ and battery data with ‘B’. Both are stored and delivered to the Raspberry Pi on I2C request. Next let’s look at the remote node.

Remote (Sensor) Node

Last week I added an antenna to each of the boards. This week I’ll design and build the remote temperature sensor. I selected a SparkFun TMP102 sensor; it’s small, fast and easy to work with. Because the remote node will be running on battery, I also wanted to add the ability to monitor the current battery output so I can (1) know when I need to replace the batteries but also (2) so I can optimize the configuration of the board to maximize battery life.

RFM69HW Anarduino Mini with TMP102 Sensor

The two resistors act as a voltage divider with the resulting voltage compared to the internal 1.1v reference. Other than that you can see the connections are pretty straight forward with the I2C SDA and SCL pins connected between the sensor and the Anarduino.

Power consumption proved to be an issue as the remote node was rapidly chewing through the battery. I found a library (LowPower.h) that looked pretty good and installed it. SO far I’m seeing good results. Here’s the headers for the node:

Setup if pretty sparse with the reference voltage set to INTERNAL – 1.1v and the RMF69HW is configured. Because I’m not overly concerned about the privacy of temperature data I’ve set encryption off, however it’s nice to have this feature available. The RFM69HW supports a high-power mode which I’m using.

Wireless RFM69HW – First Steps

A week ago I got a set of HopeRF Anarduino Mini RFM69HW boards in the mail. These boards are similar to an Arduino Pro Mini but have a RFM69HW wireless module mounted on them. They’re reportedly 100% Arduino IDE compatible and run at 8Mhz. The 6-pin header interconnect is an unpopulated set of six IO interfaces for FTDI type USB to UART (or similar) module or cable. The board also supports all the GPIOs you’d find on a similar Arduino board plus two additional analog pins, A6 and A7. You can see on the image here the FTDI headers and the four GPIO pins I’ll be using.

First things first, I soldered a set of straight male pains on the two GPIO interfaces and a set of 90 degree pins on the FTDI interface. After downloading and installing the RFM69 libraries I was ready to go. Then I connected a SparkFun FTDI 3.3VDC Basic Board to the FTDI interface, plugged in a USB cable and and fired up the Arduino IDE. Worked like a charm.

On the 1.6.4 version of the Arduino IDE you have to select the board, the processor and COM port. Initially I tried the Arduino Mini with no luck. After poking around on the internet I found a recommendation for using an Arduino Pro Mini setting and that did the trick. Once the IDE recognized the board I was able to compile and upload a demo program and soon had the two devices talking across the wireless link. However, as is normally the case with me and new hardware, there was a small problem.

The RSSI was running in the -110db to -115db range; not great if you want any distance at all. As I moved them more than a few feet apart the signal was lost. Like I said, not a good situation. I tried different orientations but they provided only meager success. With more poking around on the Internet I came across information on installing an external antenna. I ended up cutting a section of 24 ga solid core copper wire to 6 and 13/16th inches and soldering it into the antenna connection pint on the board. Wow, did that do the trick! I’ll get some more detailed information on that later. The short version is that it worked.

RSSI climbed to -10db and I was able to move the client node outside the house with no issue. Even at a distance of ~40’ though multiple walls I’m seeing -45db. Next step is adding a TMP102 sensor and battery pack to the setup. More to come.

Italy – Day 7 (Brunello di Montalcino)

<strong>Friday</strong>

Today we can sleep in! We had a <a href=”http://tuscany.nyporter.org/Tuscany/Friday/22679069_HWgj5R#!i=1817206194&k=B46PF8h” target=”blank”>leisurely morning</a>, followed by a pasta-making class. With some help from Romeo’s and Federica’s daughter Emily, Tim, Joe, and others made the pasta for lunch – from scratch. The process sure seemed simple; we were walked through each step by Federica and provided close supervision from Emily. The result – we deliverd the best pasta we’d ever tasted. Wow!

Afterwards, we hopped on our tour bus for a trip east to Valley Orchar, the town of Montalcino. Here they make only <a href=”http://tuscany.nyporter.org/Tuscany/Friday/22679069_HWgj5R#!i=1817192966&k=4gVStM6″ target=”blank”>Brunello</a> wine. The Brunello gravevine is also known as Sangiovese Grosso. There are 205 wine producers in the valley all making the same kind of wine. It is very restricted in its production. They are not allowed to use irrigation and still call it the same pure wine. We all need to pray for rain for this area! It’s been dry since October.

If you drink this wine, be sure to let it breathe for 2-3 hours after opening the bottle. We had a great wine tasting class. First you check out the color of the wine by tipping it towards a white table linen and looking at the “arch.” If it is purplish it is young, red it is older. Then you smell the fragrance of the wine. Thirdly you “chew” the wine, is it astringent on your tongue and gums? A complex wine leaves a flavor in your throat. Brunello di Montalcino. After tasting this wine, table wine will never be the same.

Our evening was spent in <a href=”http://tuscany.nyporter.org/Tuscany/Friday/22679069_HWgj5R#!i=1817190935&k=3w6kP2j” target=”blank”>Pienza</a>. Pienza owes its beauty and fame to Enea Silvio Piccolomini born in Corsignano in 1405 and elevated to Pope in 1458 (Pius II.) Pope Pius remodeled the Castello di Corsignano into a Papal residence and renamed it Pienza (Pius.) We had about an hour to shop before the stores closed at 7:00. We found a few shops with ceramics and an interesting cheese store (check out the photos.) There was a great view off the hillside down into the valley below the town. I took some photos of the stone walls. There was a huge crack in the side of the church, never did find out if that was from an earth quake or just natural settling of the structure over the last few hundred years. Our dinner here was not remarkable. But I think that is due to all of the excellent food and wine we had had everywhere else. At our table, the wine drinkers didn’t even ask for more red wine. It seems like table wine just isn’t satisfying anyone’s taste buds anymore. Folks at our table asked for white wine. No one seemed that hungry, although I do believe there were a few unusual plates ordered (rabbit, piglet? Who are these people! Ha!)

This was our last evening in Italy. It was hard to believe that a week had passed so quickly. Saturday we had to head for home. No more wine at lunch, no more bruschetta, no more tiramisu.

Italy – Day 6 (Fortress on the hill)

Thursday
Arcidosso, the Fortress on the hill. This is a tiny village of only about 1400 people, but I managed to get some photos of a few banks whose name I recognized from my wire room days. Conner took his customary drink from the local water fountain. If he doesn’t end up with dysentery or any other water-borne disease this trip, I will be impressed. This was Romeo’s hometown. Everyone knew him here. We stopped in a small shop and bought some local extra virgin olive oil in cans for taking home with us.

We had a special tour guide, the mayor or former mayor of the city. Romeo’s family was at one time very prominent in the town (mayor, grandfather was mayor, and so forth). Romeo grew up a stone’s throw from the “castle” jail build in the 11th century and used as a prison from about 1350 to 1960. Talk about crude. There was a cistern inside the walled courtyard to collect water in case of siege. The cells were distinguishable only by their location – the lower ones (hell) and the higher ones (heaven). Those in the middle must have been purgatory. We climbed to the top and took a group photo of those of us who dared to climb the steep steps. The construction of the building was so basic. You could see the stone (volcanic rock) as part of the structure and as part of the mountain.

Since we are so close to “home,” we had lunch at Romeo’s father’s restaurant, Trattoria Lacanda del Prete. Carlos and his wife made us feel right at home. They served us bruschetta, a chicken caccitore dish, pasta with meat sauce and centucci vincanto. This last course was biscotti dipped in a deliciously favored white wine. ) It was very nice. After all the wine, Tim commented that he wasn’t sure he could make it back to the bus. Mark, always ready with something witty, said “I’ll carry you. Suddenly, I think I can do it!” – I think it was the wine talking. ☺ Later we visited the Castello Banfi where some folks tasted the famous Brunello di Montalcino wine. It is described as having a flavor of sandalwood, with blueberry and blackberry aromas and hints of dried flowers. A full body, with fine tannins and a long caressing finish.

Dinner that night was already made for us by Federico and her team of helpers and served in the large dining room with all the tables joined together into one large table. I don’t know how we justified eating again, but most of us managed to do it!

Italy – Day 5 (Firenza)

Wednesday
Again we got up early and headed out on the bus for a 2 ½ hour trip to Florence (Firenza). Here we toured the city on foot. We saw a large statue of Salistro Bandini, the monk who invented credit. (If he had only known what problems that would bring to people and nations in the 21st century he might have kept the idea to himself!) We walked to the Ponte Vechio – a bridge where on the most beautiful jewelry is sold in stores on both sides of the narrow, pedestrian only bridge. Rubies, diamonds, emeralds, pearls and gold and silver – serious buyers only! I lucked upon an abandoned map of the city and Tim and I walked around enjoying the sites, shops and people. Tim even saw a bicicletta verde.

We met the group for lunch and Romeo took us to a quaint favorite of his, the Ristorante Mamma Gina. They had a large back room where we were able to eat without disturbing too many others. We had the nicest waiter who spoke clear English and was very patient with our table. Everyone ordered whatever they wanted off the menu. I can only recall that I had a cold artichoke and cheese salad – it might have had a vinegar dressing, I’m not sure. It was just so light and the cheese was sliced paper thin. The whole meal was delicious.

After lunch, we were invited to wander again and agreed to meet at the Galleria Dell ‘Accademia, the museum where Michelangelo’s magnificent statue of David is housed. Security was very tight as you would hope it would be. This was another beautiful museum full of marble statues, paintings and mosaics. We were allowed to get very close to the statue of David. It is huge. His hands did seem a bit too big for the rest of his body though. Not that I could do any better. Just a comment, Michelangelo, not a criticism. We walked to the San Lorenzo market where we had about ½ hour to shop. I visited a farmacia for throat lozenges. Then we had a 2 ½ hour drive back to the villa and additional cooking classes!

Italy – Day 4 (Siena and Cooking)

Tuesday
The day arrived sunny and warm (although it was cool in the morning when we left for Siena, a “short” 2 hour ride from the Villa Poggiarello.) We visited the famous Piazza del Campo, the main square where the various neighborhoods of Siena have for 450 years held a horse race twice a year, known as Il Palio. Once you are in the square you can see how they have to roll up the awnings, pull in the tables and clear the outer area for the race. They then lay down 6 inches of clay and sandstone on top of the cobblestone for the horses to race on. Apparently, the noise and the number of people within the large square keep the horses nervous. They always have to restart the race a number of times (3 laps – 17 horses, riders ride bareback – it’s all over in about 90 seconds – not all horses run at one time. The winner gets a painting. ) The corner shops are lined with mattresses the day of the race to protect the horses as they make the sharp turns. If you go, be prepared to stay for the duration of the event. No one goes in or out during the event. (I would think that the unavailability of restrooms might make it a challenge to attend as you are in there for hours!)

The Duomo di Siena towers above the city and the river, Arno. We had some time to view the Duomo inside. The walls were striped black and white (the areas ‘local colors’). The art was beautiful – mosaics and sculptures, a perfectly preserved wooden nave. One nice touch was that you could listen to a description of the various pieces of art via headphones (for a euro). We wandered away from this area toward the restaurant Piazza del Campo. We had one course of the most delicious “bread soup” ever. I’m not kidding. I had bread soup at another restaurant and didn’t find it even half as good as this was. This small restaurant squeezed us in. The locals who stopped by must have been both amused and annoyed by the boisterous Americans, who with the help of the red wine, got louder and louder. (It was all part of the bonding process the group seemed to go through.) After lunch we had some time to ourselves to shop and admire the city. We had to meet the bus to go back to the Villa to take our first cooking lesson that night.

As part of the first group to cook (in our new aprons) we made dessert (Dolce) – Ponna Cotta allo Cioccolato, the Antipasto (Crostini al Peperoni), and one of the secondo’s (second course), piscelli primavera con pancetta (spring peas). The ponna cotta is just heavy cream, sugar and the equivalent of knox gelatin. You heat the cream and sugar, soften the gelatin and add it to the cream and sugar. Then put it in small serving dishes and refrigerate. Later melt chocolate and drizzle over the top – our use fruit or honey& nuts. We had an altima insignate for this lesson (good teacher.) We learned that the Tuscan trinity is carrots, onions and celery. Also use the capers that come in salt and sea salt is the best flavored salt (little tricks of the trade.) The second group prepared the Gahberoni (shrimp) al brandy and the spaghetti con tatoni (calamari). The whole meal turned out wonderfully, even if we do say so ourselves.

Italy – Day 3 (il Poggiarello and Tiramisu)

Up until Feb 11, 1929 the Vatican essentially controlled Europe. Mussolini changed all that. He gave them 1 square mile of the city in Rome to call their own. Now about 1000 people live in Vatican City. There are three main gardens in the Vatican – Italian, French and English gardens maintained by 35 gardeners. There are also 100 fountains in Vatican City. Official VIPs can fly into the helipad and stay at the St John the Baptist tower.

The tour of the Vatican Museum was overwhelming. The statues, paintings, mosaics were just amazing. There was a hall of tapestries from Belgium – each one depicting a different region in Italy. One fascinating tapestry was tricky – if you looked at it from one direction it appeared that the table depicted went from front to back (left to right), but if you walked a bit further to the right of it and looked back, the table appeared to point back to front (left to right). Each tapestry took 5-7 years to make. There were a number of statues that had been found buried under a hill in a field in 1508. There were statues from the Egyptian Valley of the Kings (3500 years old). Greek artists tend to make people look beautiful, perfect. Roman artists tend to make them true to life. Bees were the symbol of the Barbarini family. The frescos (meaning “wet”) in the Sistine Chapel are just amazing. It took Michelangelo 4 years to paint the ceiling. It is rumored that he wouldn’t let the Pope even have a peep at it until it was completed.

After this amazing tour of so many beautiful statues, paintings, tapestries, and mosaics we had to leave the romantic city of Rome behind. Romeo arrived to take us on our next journey. We piled our luggage in a large bus and rolled down the highway to the Grosseto region. This was Tuscany! Groves of olive trees, Cyprus trees, beautiful pink- blossomed peach trees, (trained to grow vineyard style for ease of picking) and, of course, vineyards surrounded us. Off in the distance you could see on every hill top a town, oozing down the mountain in beautiful old stone, the roofs all gorgeous red terra cotta tile. These were built ages ago on the tops of mountains for safety. The newer towns were on flat lands. We took highway most of the way to our next location. Then we were on a long, straight dirt and gravel road between the peach orchard and an olive grove.

Villa il Poggiarello
As we pulled up to the end of the ¼ mile long driveway to our Italian villa home for the rest of the week our world traveler, Maryann, advised us that the Cyprus- lined driveway looked “just like England” – or there ‘bouts. I think it was the majestic view that just over took her! It was just like in the movies – the scenery took your breath away.

We unloaded the bus and met the Villa owner, Chiara (her husband, Stephano, was out of town) and Romeo’s wife, Federica. We took a few moments to settle into our rooms (the villa was a gorgeous restored stone structure – indescribable.) Then we had a “light lunch” of antipasto, bread, wine, and more delicious food. Afterwards, Chiara took us out to the vineyard and explained to us their theory of good wine-making. Every winemaker has their own plans on what makes a good wine. The vines here had been cut WAY back – this led to less grapes, but better grapes. They make Muralia wine – 15% alcohol. Vines take about 4 years to mature enough to grow the grapes needed. We also toured the cool winery and storage area for wines maturing in casks and stainless steel tanks. Well, by this time it was time to leave for dinner! I know we just finished lunch, but we had a short drive ahead of us up a steep hill to the town of Montepesche. Here there was a restaurant willing to open just for us on a Monday night. It pays to have friends – or to have Romeo who has friends willing to do this for us. Again we were fed some fabulous food. If I write about it I may have to go get more food to eat, and I just finished dinner. Dessert was tiramisu – who couldn’t like that! Our driver managed to get us safely back home, winding down the narrow, dark, twisty roads – back to our villa.