Castello di Avio, Castel Beseno, & Rovereto (16/12/2023)

I left Vicenza early by car and after taking the highway to Verona I then followed the normal road through the picturesque gorge of Chiusa di Ceraino. Driving further I then first stopped in the town of Avio, where I parked the car right next to the main church in the city center. I entered the nice 17th-century baroque church and then walked through the large square in front of it with the monumental fountain. At that point, I headed uphill through some side streets admiring the nice rural architecture as well as some old houses and palaces. After looping around back to the car, I then drove shortly to the nearby Sabbionara, a suburb of Avio, and tried heading up to the castle. Traffic signs said the road was closed so I parked in the main square and headed uphill on foot. I passed some nice houses and finally came in sight of the beautiful castle, the Castello di Avio, already glistening in the morning sun as it was higher in altitude and not covered by the mountains' shadows like the town below. Once at the entrance, I bought the Museum Pass online which grants access to museums across the whole Trentino province for 22 euros. I got inside the castle and started the self-guided tour with the audioguide downloaded on my phone. Built on a sloping hill facing southwards, surrounded by tall mountains in the back, this irregularly shaped yet harmonious defensive structure was in an important strategic location right above the Adige valley, connecting the north and south. As I headed up the hill, and through the castle's defensive levels, I then reached a small building that looked rather unassuming from the outside, the so-called Guards' room. However, inside I marveled at the beautiful well-maintened frescoed walls. These 14th-century frescoes have just interesting geometrical patterns in the first room, and exciting war scenes in the second, with men at arms, archers, and charging knights on horses. Heading upwards I then reached the central courtyard where the baronial palace and main keep are located. As it was Christmas time a small nice Christmas market was set in the courtyard and surrounding covered rooms, an attraction that visitors can enjoy freely without a ticket should they not want to visit the castle's tourist itinerary. After walking around the nice stalls I then headed up the stairs and into the keep, which, tall and imposing towers over the complex. At the top of its four floors is a rounded room, known as the love room, it holds beautiful 14th-century, partially surviving frescoes that depict rare secular scenes mostly related to allegories of love and everyday life. The room was most probably used as shelter by Guglielmo III Castelbarco and his wife Tommasina Gonzaga. An additional highlight of the castle was the beautiful view of the Adige valley below, looking southwards which even on this winter day, with the sun glistening was a sight to behold. Once I was done visiting, I headed out of the castle, and back down into town to get in the car. Then I drove onwards, and after a bit reached Castel Beseno, the largest fortified structure in Trentino-Alto Adige sitting on top of a large flat hill overlooking the Adige valley. After getting the entrance ticket with my museum pass I walked through the main gate and then through the large open area between the outer battlements and the inner ones. It was used both for defense but also as training grounds and tent pitching for troops. Once through the second gate, I was in the inner part of the castle. Here I first walked on top of the battlements which gave me an excellent view of the surrounding landscape and the Adige River valley right below a definitely strategic position. The fortress started out in the 12th century and was further refurbished and expanded during the 16th century. A century earlier, on the plain right below the castle, the Battle of Calliano took place where an army of the Venetian Republic was defeated by an army of Tyroleans and Austrians, stopping the Venetian expansion in the area. I continued my visit, taking me through courtyards, cellars, buildings, and rooms with partially surviving medieval frescoes. The whole complex was nice and full of sights, many of which were restored in the second part of the 20th century. Once I was done touring the fortress I got back in the car and drove to the final destination of the day, the city of Rovereto. First, I stopped at a supermarket on the way to grab some things to eat. Then I drove through the city center and reached the Military Memorial of Castel Dante located on a hill south of town, built between 1933 and 1936 during the fascist period symbol of the Italian victory in World War I and a place for rest for its fallen soldiers. Back towards the city, I found a parking spot and then headed on to visit the city center on foot. I crossed the Leno River across the Forbato bridge which gave me a picturesque view of the cityscape and the castle overlooking from above. Right next to the bridge, on the riverside among the buildings was a house known as the Casa dei Turchi, a 1500 residence which due to its eastern style architecture was named so. Moving onwards I reached the town hall, with nice renaissance external frescoes, and in front of which stood a monument dedicated to Fabio Filzi and Damiano Chiesa, two Italian patriots executed by the Austrians in 1916. Next to it was a 1911 Skoda cannon, used in many frontlines from Poland to Italy from during the whole period of WWI. Walking onwards I reached the nice and elegant square, Piazza Malfatti, and right next to it Piazza delle Erbe with at its center a nice early 20th century fountain. Continuing, I meandered through the picturesque narrow streets of the old town sided by tall elegant baroque palaces. Among them was Palazzo Todeschi-Micheli, where on December 25, 1769, Mozart gave his first highly acclaimed Italian concert in the presence of noblemen and notables from Rovereto. Once through the San Marco gate, a symbol of the Venetian dominance of the city, I entered the core of the old town. Here was Piazza San Marco, with the church of the same name, again a remembrance of Venetian rule. The latter featured a 15th-century lion of St Mark's on its facade and a beautiful rococo interior. A little further I then passed under the Civic Tower, dating to the 14th century as a defensive tower and later with the clock and bell added a century later. At the end of the street, I then entered the Casa Depero, a museum of futurist art conceived in 1957 by artist Fortunato Depero. The interior, though small, was really interesting with the typical futurist objects and art made by Depero. Once outside I headed on to the next museum, the Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra, hosted inside the castle, which I could visit with the museum's pass card. Originally built in the 14th century by the Castelbarco family, it was then taken by the Venetians when they ruled the city a century later and further expanded and refurbished and is now considered one of the most complete and interesting alpine fortifications of the Venetian style. Once inside I visited the beautifully made museum originally dedicated solely to WWI but later with the additions of the period before (1800s) and that of WWII. There were objects, equipment, weapons, memorabilia, and documents from the wars and from all sides and belligerents. The layout was nice and interesting and the exhibits were very informative, with not just the war itself but all social influences on the populations involved. Despite the exterior being renovated I was also able to head to the top of the main tower, the Torrione Malipiero, from where I then had a great view of the old town below and surrounding mountainous landscape. Once back outside I headed on to visit yet another museum, the Museo della Città hosted inside a nice palace, Palazzo Sichardt. It exhibited objects and art from the Middle Ages to the modern period relating to the city's history. Walking through the city I headed to the northern end of the old town, passing beautiful baroque palaces from the 18th century until I reached the Mart, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. The museum actually consists of locations both in Rovereto and Trento, but its headquarters and main building are in Rovereto. This latter one is a modern building with a large glass cupola built in 2002. Inside were permanent exhibitions on 20th-century artists such as Morandi, De Chirico, Carrà, etc. as well as some temporary exhibitions on Dürer, landscape paintings by Bezzi, one on contemporary Chinese artists, and other very abstract sections. After the visit, I was back out now by nighttime. I walked through the streets one last time, heading over to the part of the old town where a small but nice Christmas market was set. Eventually, I got back to the car and drove home to Vicenza. 

A fortified house in Avio

The old town and a historic well in Avio

The Guards' room inside the castle

Detail of the frescoes

View of the Adige valley from the castle

Frescoes inside the castle's keep

The castle's inner courtyard

The lower level of the castle

A view of the impressive complex

Castel Beseno

One of the inner courtyards

The view of the Adige valley from the ramparts

View of part of the complex

Another of the courtyards

The Castel Dante ossuary

A street in the old town of Rovereto

Rovereto's castle

The river flowing through town

Piazza Malfatti

Another street in the old town

Another street with the S Marco gate

The church of St Marco

The civic tower

Another picturesque street

The interior of the Depero museum

Entrance to the castle

WWI objects inside the Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra

View from the castle

Italian WWI uniforms

The Mart museum

Christmas lights

Frankfurt am Main (10-11/12/2023)

On another December weekend, Ania and I headed to Frankfurt. After reaching the destination by train from Berlin, our first stop was the tourist info point where we bought a Museumsufer card, a card which grants access to all 39 museums in the city for 48 hours. We got a family pass for just 32 euros and headed on to visit several museums throughout the day. We walked on the Holbeinsteg bridge over the Main River and reached the other side, also known as the Museum Embankment, where several museums are located. Our first stop was the Liebieghaus, a late 19th-century villa that contains a sculpture museum. However, as we got there we were told that as there was a special exhibition the car we had was not valid on that day, despite being told at the info point the car was valid for all museums and for permanent and special exhibitions. We then exited and walked to the nearby Städel Museum, the most important in the city and one of the best-known in the country. Inside was a large collection, of European paintings from the 14th to the 21st century. There were several important paintings by famous artists such as van Eyck, Botticelli, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Monet, and Renoir. After the visit to the museum, we crossed over the Main once again and reached the Jewish Museum. Though small the museum, located inside two neoclassical villas, presented Frankfurt's long Jewish history with objects and testimonies on the culture, religion, and life of its inhabitants. Next up was the archaeological museum, hosted inside the former Carmelite monastery. There were exhibitions on the ancient Roman past of the city and surroundings, with some interesting objects including mile markers, mithraeums, and columns. Furthermore, there were some sections on ancient Greek and Cypriot vases, WW2 objects and memorabilia, and then the former cloister of the monastery. Here was a collection of 40 fresco scenes on parts of the walls made between 1515 and 1520, featuring classic Christian themes such as the creation of the world, the birth and death of Jesus Christ, and the Last Judgement. Moving on we left the museum behind and passed by the church of St. Leonhard, a small gothic church from the early 15th century which is the only one of nine churches in the old town that survived WW2 nearly undamaged. Not far from it, we crossed the river once again on the Eiserner Steg, and from where we had a great view of both the old town and the newer part of the city with all the skyscrapers giving Frankfurt the colloquial name of Mainhattan. Following the riverside, we came upon another museum, the Icon Museum, hosted inside part of the monastery of the baroque Deutschordenskirche. Rather tiny it still had a nice and interesting collection of orthodox icons, mostly Russian, but also Romanian, Ethiopian, and Venetian-Cretan. From the museum we crossed once again into the old town, this time over the Alte Brücke, passing by the Leinwandhaus, a 15th-century gothic house, and reaching then the Cathedral. Built between the 14th and 15th centuries in a Gothic red stone style it was rebuilt after a fire in 1867 and again after WW2. Its size is imposing and features a tower that reaches a height of 95m which can be accessed with an elevator. Once inside, we walked around admiring some nice gothic altars and medieval stained glass windows. We exited the building just as it was getting dark and walked through the nicely reconstructed new town, with historic buildings and houses all around. We stopped in one of them which hosted the Struwwelpeter Museum. This curious museum is dedicated to Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter, an 1845 children's book composed of ten illustrated and rhymed stories, all of which with a cautionary tale that gives a clear moral lesson demonstrating the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. A street away from the museum, below some buildings we then walked through the small archaeological site of some ancient Roman ruins, most probably pertaining to the bathhouse, as well as the ruins of the Carolingian aula region from the 8th century. A short walk then led us to the Schirn Kunsthalle, a modern and contemporary art museum which quite disappointed me as it was rather mostly contemporary with few pieces, quite abstract, and with lots of unused space. Once we were done visiting the museum we headed on to the nearby Römerberg, the old town's main square, with all the nice reconstructed historical houses all around. Here was also the main Christmas market, with all the food and objects stalls, and quite crowded already. After walking around and enjoying the Christmassy atmosphere we were then getting hungry and decided to look for a place to eat. We ended up at the eatDOORI Indian Restaurant where I had a tasty chicken tikka masala while Ania had a chickpea curry. Eventually, tired after a full day, we headed to our hotel, the Scandic. 

The following morning, as Ania had to go for a check-up at her job's main site just outside Frankfurt I decided to head out of the old town and visit the Senckenberg Natural History Museum. Inside were some fascinating dinosaur bones, some originals, and some replicas from other natural history museums around the world. Originals included a diplodocus, triceratops, and edmontosaurus, while casts included a t-rex, iguanodon, and oviraptor among others. Apart from dinosaurs, there was also a nice fossil collection, minerals, stuffed animals from all over the world, and a section on life in the sea. After visiting the museum I headed back to town, and reached Römer Square once again. As the sun had come out I walked around the area seeing the Christmas market in a different light. On the same square, I then entered the Old St. Nicholas Church, a gothic building mostly spared during WW2. Heading then to the Cathedral I met back up with Ania and together we strolled through town enjoying the sun and architecture. From there we then reached St. Paul's Church, a former 18th century neoclassical church used as a national assembly hall in 1848 when the Frankfurt Parliament convened there, as the first publicly and freely-elected German legislative body. Not far from there we then walked past the Liebfrauen, a small gothic church from between the 14th and 16th centuries, and the church of St Catherine, a mix of gothic and baroque, both of which were closed, the latter also under scaffolding. In front of St Catherine's, surrounded by a large square we then saw the Hauptwache, a 1730 building used as the headquarters of the city's Stadtwehr militia when Frankfurt was an independent city-state as well as containing a prison. Moving onwards our next stop was the Goethe House, Goethe's birthplace from 1749, and the adjoining Deutsches Romantik-Museum. We entered the museum, where we got the ticket for both the museum and the writer's house, and began with the former. Dedicated to German Romanticism it featured paintings, manuscripts, and objects pertaining to the period and movement in question. Visiting then Goethe's house we admired the nicely reconstructed building and interior, all faithfully rebuilt after the WW2 bombing. Finally, after the visit, it was time to head to the train station from where we then took our ride back to Berlin. 

A view of Frankfurt and the Main river

Eva by Renoir inside the Städel Museum

The Idealized Portrait of a Lady by Botticelli

The Archaeological Museum

One of the frescoes of the former Carmelite monastery

View of the part of the old town and the skyscrapers

Another view, which clearly evinces why Frankfurt is called Mainhattan

Struwwelpeter

Ancient Roman and Carolingian ruins

The Römerberg, the main square, with its Christmas market

View from the hotel room

The Senckenberg Museum

Dinosaurs inside the museum

Another view of the main square by daylight

Reconstructed old town houses

The Leinwandhaus and Cathedral

The reconstructed New Old Town

The Hauptwache

The Goethe House

The interior of the house