The city I live in, Ferrara Italy, is surrounded by an ancient wall (mura). How freakin cool is that? Since this is totally my first time living in an ancient walled city I, understandably, sort of got my dork all over it.
Here is a bad photo of a really old map done in a time when the wall was complete. I love this map and wish I had found it in the attic with a skull shaped rock and cryptic instructions so that me and my friends could go on an adventure and save our town from being turned into a golf course. But no.
Kite Festival March 2011
In the center of town there is a really cool castle. There is a cobblestone road that is heinous for riding bikes, Ercole d'Este, that runs from the castle to the top of the wall and this building. It is called the Gate of Angels, which I have heard referred to as the executioner's house. They loved to kill off folks back in the day, and damn it, most of them probably had it coming. Anyway, this gate was considered pretty posh and was used when all the cool people came or the dukes went hunting in the grounds across the way. Those grounds are now Parco Urbana, or "urban park" where there are tons of cool goings on. My favorites being the kite festival and the hot air balloon festival which are both annual events. My least favorite would be the old men sunbathing in their speedos during midday.
The building isn't a proper gate or house any longer. Currently it is being used as an art exhibition space. The current exhibit is a fun mid-century style of cartoon drawing that is captioned in Italian. Oh, and there's this outside:
On permanent display directly outside the gate (or executioner's house - who knows?) is this creepy Blair Witch art. I don't get it, but I look every time...and shudder.
A large portion of the wall, about nine kilometers, remains intact. In relatively recent history, there was a restoration of the wall that turned it into a great place to workout or ride bikes out of traffic.
This is a pretty standard section of the wall where I run or ride bikes. I took this picture mid day and as you can see it is pretty well deserted.
Here is the wall just prior to dinner time – roughly seven o’clock. There are a couple prime times for exercise. Seven pm is very popular as is lunch time. The morning gets an okay turnout, but not usually from me. Oh, and working out at seven PRIOR to dinner was not a typo. Restaurants don’t even open until about seven p.m.. When we first arrived in Italy we nearly starved (okay, we had plenty of reserved blubber to live on, but still, one likes to eat). We would be hungry for lunch and it would be reposo where the whole city just shut down. Then for dinner the, restaurants didn’t open until after we had put the kiddos to bed. Mama Mia. Amazingly, we have adapted.
It hasn't rained a lot so my trainers come home looking a bit post apocalyptic.
Is that nuclear ash or Ferrara dust?
There actually is a second fitness trail associated with the wall. The area that contained the moat remains largely park area with a pavement/packed dirt trail.
There are some really cool remnants of past architectural elements. One of my favorite is this one which I am told had something to do with crafts in the moat, but I could have completely misunderstood that. No matter. It is a great place to find folks playing with their dogs in the evening.
This a Jazz club and restaurant. It has a limited schedule and you have to get some membership to Ferrara clubs, but it is a good time. A better time with wine and friends!
http://www.jazzclubferrara.com/ All my local Ferrara peeps, you can use this link to get the jazz club schedule and the number to make reservations. You want to make reservations.
I had no idea that a wall could be such a cool attraction or part of a city, but it is. Ferrara’s history is thick. It is mind boggling to be running along listening to my i-pod on a wall that defended the city long before America was a country.
So what's on my i-pod: Lost in Hollywood by my all-time most super favorite band, System of a Down. This isn't one of their absolute best songs. In fact I could easily name off more than a dozen I like better. This is one of their songs that the guitar player sings...instead of the singer. Whatever. So why is it running laps in my skull? It is my favorite song when running on the wall. There is a line, "I was standing on the wall, feeling ten feet tall" always puts a little pep in my step. Of course, then Daron goes on to call the people of LA maggots. Whatever, I'm from PA.
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