Taking a break from towns and cities, Vallombrosa Abbey

A couple of days ago we took a half day for chores (laundry, shopping, etc.), but set out in the afternoon to see Vallombrosa Abbey. Founded in 1038, it now has a national forest preserve/botanical  garden in addition to the Abbey.

Buildings and towers were added at different times during the next several hundred years. I took a photo (below) of what looked to be the oldest tower, and then later caught the reflection of the tower in a fish pond.

Most of the buildings (museum, church) were closed, but we greatly enjoyed walking the grounds and enjoying the trees, many growing straight and tall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reminder that is was spring with bright new growth showing on the trees enhanced our time at Vallombrosa.

Some of the trees were extremely tall, and although I was able to take photos, you can’t really see the height. These photos show the bottom and mid-section of one tree on the left, and the top of the same tree on the right.

One tree had leaves hanging like vines. We all tried several pictures and none of us felt that the pictures did justice to the beauty of the tree.

Or is the best view to show the hanging leaves?

Since we have some lumbering background in the family, we enjoyed these slices of tree trunks showing the tree rings with calculations of the age of the trees.The first tree sample, according to the sign, was 116 years old.

The second tree stump, an elm (olmo in Italian), had been calculated back to a sprout date of 1865.

They had marked years on the sample, so we each could find our birth year.

Other beautiful trees on our walk…one with four or five trunks growing up from the ground from one “mother” stump and another with two trees intertwining together–all part of the beauty of this arboretum.

 

The abbey monks have a pharmacy with products they make. We bought a variety of items, honey, candy…and wished to buy more (but they are so heavy to carry home).

The monks had begun planting their garden inside the gates of the Abbey.

One of their fruit trees in bloom was leaving lovely litter.

The moss, vines, and other plants growing from the rock walls stopped me in my  tracks…and brought out the camera.

The area had many trails, picnic tables,and play places that could be explored and enjoyed.

Enjoyed? They don’t look so happy in that photo above, do they? Is this better below? My brother Keith, his wife Charlise, and their daughter Lisa, and in the yellow coat, our friend Gael.

Was it spring or autumn while we were there?

Saltino was a town we needed to drive through to get back to our house from this forest reserve…which way to go? The road goes in a circle?

Vallombrosa Abbey, a beautiful, peaceful place.

 

The view down into the valley from the mountain where the Abbey was located was stunning, but the road was narrow and winding with no place to pull over. We shot a couple of photos fast, but none do justice to the view. However, the house we rent is on the other side of the valley from the mountain of the Abbey, so I get to look out at the mountains every day–and take many, many photos. Here is just one, catching the clouds of morning (from our veranda).

An afterthought…what you get when you take a photo from the side window in the back seat of a car when it is curving up the mountain road in Italy…is it modern art?

For the family, a great photo of Keith, looking back up to the Abby from the grounds below.