Nothing Drives Innovation like Spite

Catching up on a few days in Italy – Wednesday was mostly wedding stuff, and yesterday evening I got stuck dealing with a work issue and didn’t have a chance to blog.

Wednesday was mostly wedding stuff, but we got a had a few hours in the morning to do some more exploration. We spent it by visiting the Badia a Passignano monastery. It’s a monastery of Vallombrosan Benedictine monks, which was founded around 890. It’s been through some ups and downs over the last 1150 years, including being disbanded by Napoleon, having the building purchased and remade with a “castle” aesthetic by a Polish count, and eventually falling into the hands of (gasp) American bed and breakfast operators. It was reclaimed by the monks in the 1980s.

It’s a really fascinating place for a couple reasons. First, it’s rare that an active monastery allows visitors into the inner spaces. This is done for purely pragmatic reasons, as our guide (one of the monks) was happy to explain – it’s really expensive to maintain a 9th century monastery, and donation-based tours are a source of revenue. There are only five monks left at the monastery (really four – one is elderly and is off on an extended journey right now) and they handle the physical and spiritual responsibilities. Even more interesting, three of the monks are Indian (as in, from India). Apparently the Benedictines started founding monasteries in India in the 1950s.

The other reason the monastery is especially interested is because the refectory has a “Last Support” painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio. It’s said (with some historical evidence) that Da Vinci traveled to the monastery to view this Last Support before painting his in Milan. It’s quite a work in its own right – the scene is “lit” by the actual windows in the refectory, with subtle shadows connecting the world of the painting with the physical space.

Elsewhere in the tour, we met all the animals that they keep to help with garden maintenance – ducks, chickens, American turkeys, rabbits, and more. The monastery also hosts spiritual retreats and other events, including (last summer) a Concours de Elegance.

The rest of Wednesday was the lovely wedding celebration.

Thursday was a mostly unplanned day, so we decided to do a mix of Chianti exploration with a return to Siena. We’d found a “Chianti Origins” museum online, with a very nice website. The only thing you won’t find on the website is the address of the museum. A bit of an oversight. After one false start, we managed to track it down in Gaiole in Chianti. It’s really a few museums in one – one dedicated to archaeological excavations about the Etruscans and Romans in Chianti, one about the terroir of Chianti, and one about the L’Eroica bicycle race.

The last one was what drew our interest, mostly because we didn’t really understand what it was all about. Eventually we pieced together the key points – the L’Eroica is a bike race which started in 1997, which focuses on riding vintage (pre-1987) bicycles around Chianti. These are road bikes with hard saddles, no fancy materials, and skinny tires, which you ride up steep hills and on gravel and dirt roads. It looks grueling. Oh, and ideally you stick to wearing materials like wool – no lycra or other modern materials. Its spawned similar vintage races all over the world, and judging by the steady stream of bikers at the museum, has quite a following. Weird. Have they heard of e-bikes?

After the museum, we got some pastries and drinks and sat in the lovely pedestrian only area of Gaiole in Chianti while I caught up on a bit work. Then we got in the car and drove into Siena. We wanted to explore some shops, and do a bit more puttering around.

We visited the National Art Gallery, got some gelato, and then played a puzzle game via Questo. Questo experiences are always only “ok” but it’s a fun way to explore a new area. Then we got more gelato, and enjoyed early evening in Il Campo before driving back to San Donato.

Today we met up with Kat’s cousin Alex. He’s a car nerd, and he’d booked himself a private tour up to “motor valley” in Emilia Romania, home to Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, and countless long-deceased brands (ATS, Bizzarrini, Iso Rivolta, OSCA, etc). He invited us to join a long, and we met Alex and our guide and driver Ian, in Florence around 8am. (before meeting, we got some lovely pastries at Forno Ghibellina, definitely my favorite bakery in Florence)

The drive from Florence to our automotive destinations was about an hour and a half, which was a great chance to get to know Ian. He’s an American expat who came over with his family during covid. His wife is Italian, and they settled with their teenage daughter in Siena. He’s got a background doing all sorts of things, and in Italy does a mix of tourism and real estate. It was lovely to have an expat perspective – we spent the whole day pestering him with questions.

Our first stop for the day was at the Pagani factory. Because Pagani is only about 25 years old, they don’t have a huge museum – after all, they’ve really only made three models of car. But their cars are gorgeous to behold, and spending time up close is a treat. The didactic materials emphasize the founder (Horacio Pagani’s) love of cars and design. Because it was a weekday, the factory was in full swing, and we got to see the latest model (the Utopia) pulling back in after a test drive, while a Huayra BC was being revved and inspected.

From Pagani, we went to the first of the Ferrari museums, at the factory. The Ferrari factory is a huge complex, and is surrounded by companies which supply or support Ferrari manufacturing. The roads are full of tourists who are doing ride alongs or Ferrari rentals, plus factory test drivers out shaking down cars. The museum emphasizes the racing history of the brand, and shows off some of the latest models. Ian told us that the cars on display rotate very frequently.

From the Ferrari Museum, we went to the Enzo Ferrari museum, which is run by the Ferrari family (which still owns a good chunk of Ferrari, so things get a little confusing). This museum is housed on the site of Enzo Ferrari’s childhood home, and has a mixed emphasis on Ferrari hypercars, racing cars, and a lot of Enzo hero worship. The layout of the primary museum space is amazing – a long sloping ramp, such that you can be standing with cars at eye level.

Our last stop for the day was at Ferrari’s long time rival, Lamborghini. Semi-apocryphally, Lamborghini was founded out of spite, when Ferruccio Lamborghini complained to Enzo about the quality of a part in his newly purchased Ferrari car and was told to pound sand. Lamborghini has never been focused on racing, and has less of a glorious history to draw on (heck, they were owned by Chrysler in the 80s!), so the much smaller museum just showcases a few models. They do technically have a gift shop, but the museum doesn’t even make you exit through it (unlike Ferrari).

We had a lovely time at each of them (I’ve just chosen not to bore the blog with discourse on the clever transmission layout of the transverse mounted V-12 in the Miura or how interesting it was to see when Ferrari adopted a gear reduction starter motor on the engine the the 355). We continued pestering Ian with questions for the whole drive back to Florence, learning what it’s like to do business as a real estate agent in Italy (complicated, big personalities) and how hard it is to renovate a property (very – or conversely, very easy if you just ignore the rules).

We wrapped the day with an amazing and lengthy meal at Simbiosi in Florence (per Ian’s recommendation). It’s a restaurant doing a modern take on traditional Tuscan food with a focus on seasonality and sustainability. We had an awesome assortment of pumpkin-heavy dishes, including fresh pasta and some amazing lamb with baked pear. Definitely a high point for our dining on this trip.

Our stroll back to our car through Florence was a good reminder of how lovely the city can be, when the crowds have all left. Being up close to the Duomo, after spending time in Siena, was a reminder of just how monumental the Florence Duomo is. And as much as we loved discovering all that Siena has to offer, Florence is still so much more alive and dynamic. Better gelato too.