Guillermina's Home

San Francesco 31 December 2007

I should work for the agency that promotes the house we stayed in: San Francesco. That's Italian for Saint Francis... as in Saint of Assisi. You know, the place where I ate pigeon and tried (non-neurotoxic) Absinthe. Anywho, it was a great place to stay. Each bedroom (and there were, like, 8) had its own private bath. The toilets had two flush settings: light and heavy (or, Number One and Number Two). Live pigs, chickens, cows, horses, donkeys and kitties, plus the aforementioned Etruscan Ruins. It was great.

San Francesco

This is a view of the Montefiascone from San Francesco. We will be visiting Montefiascone in a few days. It is a lovely hill town.

Guillermina is a good kitty.

I miss her a great deal.

Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio 30 December 2007

Civita di Bagnoregio is Rick Steves's favorite Italian hill town. It was just a hop from San Francesco (and our landlady owns a shop there), so we just HAD to take a trip. It was way cool. Civita is the old town. It had been used in the era of the Barbarian invasions as a place for Italians to hide from Barbarians (mainly Lombards). Eventually, it was conquered (more or less) by Lombards and the Lombardian King liked the natural springs so much that he named the town "Bath of Kings," or Bagnoregio. As the danger of attack decreased over the centuries, the town expanded down the slope and up to another mesa, which became the main part of the town. Since the terrain is comprised mainly of soft sandstone (-like stuff), erosion is a constant problem. Several centuries ago, the land bridge connecting the old part of Bagnoregio to the new part collapsed, permanently separating the two. The old town became the Civita di Bagnoregio. The new town is just "Bagnoregio" (and is much larger). We went to the Civita.

Civita di Bagnoregio is in serious danger of erosion. Every few decades, another building falls off the edge. Nowadays, only 15 people live here year-round. Indeed, the only way to even get up there is by the footbridge. Yes, one can take a small motorized vehicle (like a Vespa) across, but there is no large (even as small as a Smart Car) motorized traffic. It was quite a hike, but it was also one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Judy, Doug, Katie, and Maggie Montanaro; Aaron Maurer; Civita di Bagnoregio

About half of the buildings were in ruins. Bo loves History.

Some of the vistas are not for the feint of heart.

La Chiesa. I think that this thing was a genuine cathedral (seat of a Bishop) back in the day. It's kinda small, now. Oh well. It gets the job done, I suppose.

Katie in front of the valley.

Picturesque courtyard.

Window overlooking the valley.

I love looking down on the farms. You can see the patterns of the land division. Sadly, this photo is low enough in resolution that you cannot easily see the herd of sheep. Look for little white dots.

Old architecture.

Sike! THIS is old architecture. This is the olive and wine cellar that is beneath the shop owned by our landlady. This was excavated by Etruscans. Evidently, the Etruscans were expert burrowers. Their structures are so good that they are still in use, today (albeit, with electric lighting installed). This space was so humid, that my camera rapidly fogged up. This was my only "keeper" from the bunch.

Picturesque alleyway.

Civita di Bagnoregio, departing view.

Okay, fine. This is neither in Civita di Bagnoregio nor regular Bagnoregio. I snapped this photo in Viterbo, though it was the only one in the bunch. I just thought that this cute little Fiat in a typical Medieval Italian lane was worth preserving. Take note of how greet the plants are. It's frakkin' December! There are succulents. SUCCULENTS!!! The Mediterranean climate rules.

Alex 1992-2008

Alex

aka:
Walex
Woo
Willy Woo
Buddy
Boo
Billy Boo
Silly Sue
Killy Koo
Alex the Kitty
Alex P. Kitty

Alex has been suffering from Diabetes for several years. His kidneys have been weakening over the past several months. The confluence of these conditions made keeping his healthy a delicate balance. Our struggle came to an end earlier this evening. I knew that the end was near, but I did not know how long it would be. My worst nightmare would have been needing to take him to the vet to be put to sleep. He hated going to the vet. I didn't want our last moments together to be his least favorite thing in the world. My last moments with Stampy were dropping her off at the animal emergency room. I hated that.

Instead, Alex's last moments were doing his favorite thing in the world: cuddling with me on the couch. After lying together for about a half an hour, Alex seemed to want to get down off the couch. I carried him down to the litter box. He did his business. I then brought him back up. Several times he tried to get away, so I set him down. Was was so weak that he could barely move. After carrying him back to his blanket on the couch (and cuddling a little), he seemed to seize up. I tried to make him comfortable. I could still hear his heart. After a while he was no longer moving. I could no longer hear his heart. He died in my arms.

I named Alex after Alex from A Clockwork Orange. When he was a kitten, he used to stand up on his back paws. I liked to say that he was evolving. He also liked to play rough. I trained him to kill. He particularly liked to kill this one shoestring. I was very reluctant to have him neutered, worrying that he would stop being as fun to play with. When he got back from the vet, instead of being boring (or even groggy from the anaesthesia), he was more playful and more fun. It was like losing his nuts freed him to have fun.

He also liked to eat. Who am I kidding, he was morbidly obese at times. The thing about his eating was that he only really craved dry cat food. He never tried to get people food. He didn't care for wet cat food, either. Plain, dry cat food. He knew how to open doors. He liked to repetitively rub his paws on things just to make sound. He and I talked to each other - call and response. When Stampy was a kitten, when all of the other cats were mean to her, he cuddled with her and protected her like he was her mother. When Azrael would lie on her back, Alex would perform cunnilingus on her. He didn't really get along with Hawkeye or Klinger, but they tolerated one another. He had a cordial relationship with both his sister, Alexsis (aka Alex's sister), and Bunsen Honeydew (his roommate), both of whom survive him. He loved catnip. He hated the laser pointer. He would attack my hair, when I had long hair, and lick my hair when I had short hair. He liked to lick my beard.

I miss you, Buddy.

Caves and Corpses

San Francesco 30 December 2007

Have I mentioned my quest? I am certain that I have. In case you need reminded (or have yet to read my earlier posts), I have made it my quest to reach the valley below San Francesco. Today, we will be traveling to Civita di Bagnoregio, a short jaunt away. I have plenty of time to attempt my quest. A hiking I will go.

The Valley: My Quest! I reason that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I'm just gonna go straight down the hill. Sure, I'm gonna have to hop some fences, but it should be doable. I have hiking boots.

Again, the Dungeons and Dragons nerd in me REALLY wants this to be a dungeon. I want to find, like, a secret entrance to the dungeon beneath San Francesco, or at least the lair of some kind of monster (dragon, werewolf, beholder, etc.). From the side, this clearly looks like a D&D style dungeon entrance.

But, NOOOOOO! It has to only be about two meters deep. No self respecting monster would make a lair, here. Or would it...

Perhaps some kind of terrifying adventure is in order! Inside the cave, I located the desicated remains of some sort of porcine creature. Perhaps it is a Wild Boar (Cingiale) that was killed and eaten by a Werewolf! I'm in the werewolf's lair! Adventure!!! I look for secret entrances... No luck. I need an Elf or Half-Elf in my party. Shit. No more adventure. At least for an instant, I felt like I had stepped through the gate into another world, one filled with action and adventure. This trip is really feeding my imagination. Anywho, I still have a quest to complete, so I return to my journey down the cliff face. Onward!

What is this? Another dungeon entrance? Yet again, my hopes for that sort of discovery are stifled, however, this one has a delightful surprise...

This cave seems to be adapted to human use. Around Orvieto and Bagnoregio there are caves, such as these, with niches dug to serve as burial sites for Etruscans. As we have already covered, San Francesco is located on a site occupied by the Etruscan Acquarossa community. These niches are too small to serve as burial niches. They look more like shelves. I'm inclined to think that these caves served as living quarters, or at least some old Etruscan dude's garage.

So, here's why I didn't complete my quest, today. After adventuring in the caves, facing down a werewolf and an undead, headless wild boar zombie/vampire (or something like that), I discovered that the ground between the caves and The Valley was particularly wet. To make matters worse, there was a very wide stream, surrounded by brush, that stood between me and The Valley. I was not properly equipped to ford the stream, nor did I have enough time to explore a better crossing point. My quest would need to wait for another day. After turning around back toward San Francesco, I did snap this photo depicting one of the cave entrances. That looks like Shelob's lair, right? RIGHT?!?

So, on my way back up, I found the skeleton of a cow. I then thought to myself, "The dead porcine makes sense, there are tons of wild boar running around, but why would there be a cow skeleton out here... ...Oh." Yeah, apparently I was still in the cow pasture. This is a bad thing, 'cause these cows are assholes. Anywho, for shits and giggles, I carried the skull back with me. I suppose I can do some Georgia O'Keefe-style photos. Now, to find some flowers that look like vaginas...

Guillermina sure likes the skull. Isn't that cute?

My quest will need to wait for another day. At least I can photograph The Valley. This is my favorite capture of The Valley, by the way. The stream that blocked my way is just out of frame below the frame. I had trekked a long distance.

I did manage to capture another super cute photo of Guillermina. She is sitting on a light fixture. At night, she sits on the light (while it's lit... duh) in order to keep warm. Isn't that cute? Actually it's a little disturbing. Fortunately, it doesn't get all that cold at San Francesco. Still, I was seriously tempted to let Guillermina (and her mother) in the house. I was good. Why do I feel guilty for being good?