The narrow streets, the vertical walls...
form textured canyons in every direction...
after a while there is a sameness...
even though there are many distinctions particular to any place...
it takes some practice to learn to see them...
and quite a bit of experience to tell one street from another...
or for that matter even one town from another...!
Though I can tell you that this is Montalcino, looking north toward Siena...
and I'm just not sure about this one...
but the point is not to be able to say, oh, THIS is HERE...
The point is that these stone towns, cities, and buildings have been standing for hundreds of years...
and that means that there are some serious masons in these parts...
and it makes you wonder how many generations of hands have worked on any particular wall...
this brick wall at an old monastery shows signs of many hands...
and no one is going to tear these walls down to make the street a little wider...
so there is an unfolding Texture Show all the time...
where in the world do they keep their clutter...?
How in the world do they keep Developers at bay...?
If you buy a place, you can't just tear it down, bulldoze the site, and throw up (no pun intended) anything you want...
No, deliberate decisions have been made to preserve the very special character of this entire region...
variety becomes more subtle...
texture becomes the constant backdrop...
looking a little different from this angle or in that light...
textures like layers of Time...
or quiet elegance...
makes you think every stone has a story to tell...
every walkway could tell a million stories...
every gateway was meant to allow some in and keep some out...
The Etruscan gate at Volterra goes back time out of mind...
its three guarding heads long ago eroded into anonymity...
they've been waiting for a long, long, time...
as gates do...
every doorway seems to lead to another...
each with a different feel...
its own blend of color...
pattern...
texture...
and plantings...
along with the many shades of reds, grays, and browns...
there is something particularly lovely about the partnership of stone walls and flowers...
the Etruscan wall behind Mate winery is a wonderful counterpoint...
facing the beautifully restored masonry of the 800-yr old house that is the subject of Ferenc Mate's charming book "A Vineyard in Tuscany"...
the patio wall of a restaurant...
an old window...
makes a particularly appealing pattern of stones and flowers...
windowboxes...
shutters...
shadows...
and trellis adornments...
all manifest their own poems of color and texture.
Grazie mille...questo è tutto per hora!
