The teardrop

Although Tolkien is primarily known as a writer and a myth maker, he was just as obsessed with drawing and painting. As an amateur visual artist, he drew and painted his drawings and illustrations in the same minute detail as he did in his mythology. Probably the neatest phrasing of his creative process can be read in the short story Leaf, by Niggle – the only work of his which was written, as he stated later, almost at one go, in a few hours, and he didn’t have to rewrite it again and again as he did for so with his other works. The protagonist of the story, Niggle, is a painter, “not a very successful one, partly because he had many other things to do. Most of these things he thought were a nuisance; but he did them fairly well when he could not get out of them: which (in his opinion) was far too often. … He had a number of pictures on hand; most of them were too large and ambitious for his skill. He was the sort of painter who can paint leaves better than trees. He used to spend a long time on a single leaf, trying to catch its shape, and its sheen, and the glistening of dewdrops on its edges. Yet he wanted to paint a whole tree, with all of its leaves in the same style, and all of them different.”

Of course, most of Tolkien’s drawings are connected with his writings and his own mythology of Middle Earth in particular, on which he worked his entire life. But he liked to draw and paint in general, too. He made sketches of everyday family life in 1918, when he and his wife and their son, still a baby, could be together for a longer period of time, after a period in their first years of marriage when they were separated by the war. He made paintings to accompany the letters that he wrote to his sons in the name of Father Christmas between 1920 and 1943. And he drew various doodles on the sheets of The Times and the Daily Telegraph beside the crossword puzzle, maybe with a similar absent-mindedness with which he wrote the very first line of The Hobbit on the back of a school certificate. The recent exhibition of the Bodleian Library of Oxford – which is currently on display in Paris until 16 February – gives a comprehensive picture of these drawings and illustrations, among other aspects of Tolkien’s life.

However, the most heartwarming commentary on Tolkien’s visual arts – and on the author himself – is that anecdote which was recalled by his third son and executor of his father’s literary heritage, Christopher, the opening of the exhibition of Aubusson tapestries based on Tolkien’s illustrations at the former Cistercian abbey of Thoronet in January last year:

“I should explain that my father used to work very very late at night, for his painting and writing. And I, when I was very very young, very very very young, at night I used to worry about my father, in that way: was he still alive? One night when the whole house was silent I went downstairs to find my father and there he was. I was so relieved, poor little idiot, I started to cry and one of the tears, one tear but a substantial one, fell on the painting. Imagine that! But my father wasn't angry at all. What he did was, he got his small paintbrush and he rubbed out every trace of the tear. And he had to change the leaves in the tree a little bit, because the tear had fallen on the beautiful tree in the background. The title of the painting is «Rivendell».”

Río Wang tours in 2020

The tours of río Wang grew out of this blog at the request of our readers. For the eighth consecutive year, we have been organizing tours to regions that we know well and love, and which are not to be found in the repertoire of tourist offices; or even if they occasionally are, they do not delve so deeply into the history and everyday life of these places, the tissue of little streets, interior courtyards, cafés and pubs frequented by the locals: to the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Iran, the Far East. Our journeys are no package tours, but rather the excursions of friends. Almost always there is someone who admits to never having wanted to take part in a package tour, but could not resist the call of the blog. And in the end he/she recounts with relief that it has absolutely been no package tour. We consider it a really great compliment. As long as the epidemic continues and our real journeys are interrupted, we hold weekly trips online. For these and for fresh news, sign up for our mailing list at wang@studiolum.com! About myself: Dr. Tamás Sajó, art historian, translator, blogger. I live in Berlin, from which I organize my tours. I speak and translate in fifteen languages. I have worked at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Central European University in Budapest. In fact, the tours I organize are also peripatetic university lectures.

Our 2020 tour calendar has taken shape through the conversations during the previous trips and blog meetings, and all of the subsequent correspondence about them. The participants have told us where they would prefer to go, and their votes on the first proposal, which was sent out in a circular letter, has decided which tours to actually organize. Meanwhile, for some trips the maximum number of participants – 9 or 18 persons, the capacity of a small bus – has been also reached. So if, in the future, you want to take part in the shaping of the tour calendar, and want to be sure you do not miss out on the most popular tours, sign up for the mailing list at wang@studiolum.com.

In previous years, there were many tours we organized only once or twice, while the interest in them was increasing. This is why we announce many familiar trips again this year. Once again we visit Rome, Sicily, Andalusia, Lemberg, Istanbul, Berlin, Sarajevo, Albania. May, as always, is Caucasus month, when we travel through Georgia’s and Armenia’s still largely unknown sights. At the end of September, we repeat our Jewish heritage tour to Odessa through the shtetls of Galicia and Podolia, and in October the Toscan tour following the traces of Antal Szerb’s cult novel Journey by moonlight, as well as the tea-horse-road in China’s Yünnan province. Besides, we are planning new, exotic tours to Ethiopia, Morocco, Southeastern Anatolia and Saint Petersburg, as well as to the North Russian monastery region, Kizhi and Solovki.

I regularly hold presentations, historical and art historical lectures and travel reports on our tours, which are announced in the afore mentioned newsletter. Be sure to subscribe!

You can register for the tours or request information about them using the same wang@studiolum.com address. In response, I will send you a detailed program with all pertinent information.

Usually, each participant pays for the flight ticket out of their own pocket, and everything else concerning the tour is organized by me. Participation fees usually include one bed in a double room (breakfast included), rented bus and my services as guide; if any other expenses accrue, I will specify them. If you prefer a single room, ask me about the surcharge. Where I only indicate the participation fee approximately, it will depend on the number of participants and the corresponding final costs of the bus and hotels.


2020

Sicilian round trip, 21-28 January. To bring spring forward, we begin with a few tours to warmer climes. During the one-week Sicilian round trip, we visit the most important sites of the island of many cultures – almost all World Heritage sites –, Catania’s fish market, Siracusa’s Greek old town and Jewish quarter, the valley of Agrigento’s ancient Greek temples, Cefalù’s Norman port and basilica, the Norman basilicas of Palermo and Monreale, decorated by Arab and Greek artists, the Greco-Roman theater of Taormina, and much more. • Travel by 9-seat minibus, participation fee 700 euros. • Full, but we will repeat it in March and December.

Marrakesh and the road of the kasbahs, 18-25 February. From Marrakesh, Morocco’s former southern capital, thousand-year-old caravan routes lead through the river valleys of the High Atlas to the gold mines near the Equator, and these routes are bordered by majestic Berber clay fortresses, kasbahs, and fortified towns, ksars. In three days, we traverse the valleys of the Ounila, Draa and Ouarzazate rivers, and visit several kasbahs and ksars, paying special attention to the neighborhoods and legacy of the “Berber Jews” who lived here as merchants and silversmiths until the 1970s. The kasbah tour will be completed by a few days of sightseeing in Marrakesh, where the palaces, museums and other sights of the city will more deeply reveal the history of this region of many colors and cultural layers. • Participation fee 700 euros. • Full, but, due to over-registration, we will repeat it in December.

Rome, from piazza to piazza, 2-6 March. Following our previous successful tours in Rome, we explore in detail the old town of Rome over the course of five days, including the most important ancient, Renaissance and Baroque monuments, also addressing some more “exotic” scenes, such as the Jewish quarter, the self-sufficient world of Trastevere, and the beautiful garland of ancient and medieval churches in the Caelius Hill. We acquaint ourselves with the city from square to square, street to street, so that it will offer many interesting details and secrets even to those who are already lovers of Rome. In addition, we visit the huge Raffaello exhibition, organized on the 500th anniversary of the master’s death. Our accommodations will be in the heart of the old town, in the Trastevere. For details, check our posts on Rome. Participation fee 500 euros. • Full.

Sicilian round trip, 7-14 March. During the one-week round trip, we visit the most important sites of the island of many cultures – almost all World Heritage sites –, Catania’s fish market, Siracusa’s Greek old town and Jewish quarter, the valley of Agrigento’s ancient Greek temples, Cefalù’s Norman port and basilica, the Norman basilicas of Palermo and Monreale, decorated by Arab and Greek artists, the Greco-Roman theater of Taormina, and much more. • Travel by 9-seat minibus, participation fee 700 euros. • Full, but we will repeat it in December.

(Next year) Georgia round trip, May 2021. Due to the bad constellation of stars, we postpone our three May tours to next year. They will be held in May again, which is the best month for these regions. To Georgia, we go every year in May, when the mountains are already emerald green, and have not yet faded from the summer heat. Over the period of a week, we travel through almost every beautiful region of this extremely diverse country, from Svaneti, the northernmost valley of the Great Caucasus, and the fifteen-centuries-old residential towers of Ushguli through the medieval quarters of Tbilisi to the monasteries of the Kakheti wine region. Here we have collected our posts on the Caucasus. • Participation fee 600 euros. • This tour can be complemented with the following one into one large Caucasian round trip:

(Next year) Armenia and Karabakh, May 2021. We start from Kutaisi, and, turning south at Tbilisi, we enter Armenia through the northern mountains. By following the route of our Armenian tour of four years ago, we visit above all the wonderful Armenian monasteries, from Haghpat and Sanahin at the Georgian border through the churches along Lake Sevan to Tatev in the south and Khor Virap at the foot of Mount Ararat, and, on the way back, to Bjni. We will see particular cemeteries, from the Armenian Noratus through the Jewish Yeghegis to the Molokan Bazarchay. We pass into romantic Karabakh, where we stop at hidden medieval churches as well as in Shushi, the former capital of the region. After sightseeing in Yerevan, we return to Kutaisi. Here we have collected our posts on Armenia. See also the diary of our first travel to Armenia. • Participation fee 600 euros. • Due to the large over-registration, we may have to lead this tour twice.

(Next year) Southeastern Anatolia from the Assyrian monasteries to Mount Nimrod, late May - early June 2021. The Turkish part of Northern Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and the Euphrates, is a vast mosaic of languages, religions, cultures and former empires from the Assyrians, Arameans, Persians and Greco-Romans to Syriac Christians, Armenians and Yezidis to today’s Kurds and Turks. Starting from the three-thousand-year old city of Diyarbakır, we take a bus tour through the white-stone medieval cities of Mardin and Midyat, the Assyrian monasteries of Tur Abdin, the supposed sites of Abraham’s life in Urfa and Harran, the largest museum of ancient mosaics in Gaziantep, and one of the wonders of the ancient world, the gigantic statues of King Antiochus’ tomb on Mount Nimrod. The diary of our exploration tour can be read here. • Participation fee ca. 1000 euro.

Catalonia, the cradle of Romanesque art, 11-18 June. We start our first Romanesque tour in Barcelona, with the exploration of the fascinating Romanesque frescoes and carvings collected in the National Museum. Then we go by bus to the Pyrenees, the valley of Boí, where every town and church is a World Heritage site. From there we cross the mountain to South France, the medieval pilgrimage church of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. • Travel with nine-seat minibus, participation fee 700 euro. • Due to over-registration, we will repeat this tour in July.

Round trip in Scotland, 20-28 June. We tour the country by minibus from Edinburgh and back. We will visit fortresses, cathedrals and Renaissance castles, prehistoric stone circles and islands, whiskey distillers, we will sail on Loch Ness, and drive along one of the world’s most beautiful panoramic route, the North Coast 500. • Participation fee 800 euro. • Due to over-registration, we will repeat this tour in July.

(Next year) St. Petersburg, end of June 2021, five days. Originally, we wanted to organize a St. Petersburg tour this year, but it turned out that in St. Petersburg there the good accommodations are so few and the tourist period is so short – only a few months – that for a larger group we have to book a year in advance. This is what we will do now, awaiting your registration for the year of 2021. Over five days, we do a thorough tour in the Northern Russian capital, from the memory of Peter the Great and Catherine to the architecture of Russian Art Nouveau and the Avantgarde, and we will also have an overview of Russian history, literature and fine arts embodied in the city. • Participation fee ca. 500 euro. • The sightseeing can be also linked with the following tour:

(Next year) North Russian monastery region, Kizhi and Solovki, early July 2021, one week. We wanted to organize this tour for 2020, too, but the lack of good accommodations and the narrow period of visitation are especially true for the Russian North, while there is a great domestic and international interest in the monasteries. Therefore we also organize this tour a year in advance, looking for your registrations for 2021. From St. Petersburg, we take a bus across Karelia to the White Sea, the Solovetski Island, one of the holiest monastery complexes of Russian orthodoxy, which until recently was an inaccessible closed area. Along the way, we visit Old Ladoga, one of the centers of ancient Rus, as well as the wooden monasteries of Kizhi, on the island of Lake Onega. Meanwhile we get an overview of the history of Russian orthodoxy and monasticism, Russian religious art and icons. • Participation fee ca. 900 euro. • For the two Russian tours, send your application before 6 February 2020, because then I will go there to negotiate and book.

Photo tour in Kevsureti, 29 June – 5 July Khevsureti is the northernmost, closed region of Georgia, along the Georgian military road, where, according to many authors, you can still find the descendants of the Frank crusaders who supported medieval Georgian kings. After the other “roofs” of the Caucasus – Ushguli, Tusheti, Xinalik, Dadivank – now we lead a small photo tour here. From Tbilisi, we go up with an off-road vehicle to the fortress of Shatili on the Chechen border, from where we traverse this beautiful region of the Georgian Caucasus, accessible only in the summer. • Participation fee 1000 euro. • Full

Adventure tour in Georgia, 6-14 July. In contrast to the Georgian round trip in May, in which we travel comfortably by bus through the most beautiful regions of the country, on this tour we invite our more adventurous readers. From Tbilisi, we take off-road vehicles up to one of the most archaic and least accessible regions of the country, the valleys of Tusheti under the Chechen-Daghestani border mountains of the Greater Caucasus. Here, we visit the archaic fortified towns on horseback, but if you want, you can also come with us on jeeps. Then we go rafting on Rioni river from Ambrolauri almost to Kutaisi. To participate, you need no previous training in riding or rafting, we will get and learn everything necessary locally. Here you can read our travelogue of Tusheti, and here our collected posts on Georgia and the Caucasus. • Participation fee, which includes all equipment and full provisions, 700 euro.

Catalonia, the cradle of Romanesque art, 14-21 July. We start our first Romanesque tour in Barcelona, with the exploration of the fascinating Romanesque frescoes and carvings collected in the National Museum. Then we go by bus to the Pyrenees, the valley of Boí, where every town and church is a World Heritage site. From there we cross the mountains to South France, the medieval pilgrimage church of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. • Travel by nine-seat minibus, participation fee 700 euro.

Round trip in Scotland, 23-31 July. We tour the country by minibus from Edinburgh and back. We will visit fortresses, cathedrals and Renaissance castles, prehistoric stone circles and islands, whiskey distillers, we will sail on Loch Ness, and drive along one of the world’s most beautiful panoramic route, the North Coast 500. • Participation fee 800 euro.

Subotica Art Nouveau, 13-15 August. In one of the most important centers of Hungarian Art Nouveau (now in Serbia), we visit one of the most beautiful synagogues of pre-war Hungary as well as the gorgeous town hall – both chef d’oeuvres of the Marcell Komor - Dezső Jakab architectural duo –, and the entire old town, which, in late 19th century, became one of the most exciting architectural centers of the country. On the way there, we stop at the most beautiful old Hungarian library, of the Archdiocese of Kalocsa, where I did research for many years, and on the way back, in the Art Nouveau Spa of Palić, whose buildings were also designed by Komor and Jakab. See our posts on Szabadka/Subotica here. • Travel from Budapest by bus, participation fee 250 euros.

Long weekend in Sarajevo, 16-19 August. The original Persian-Ottoman name of Sarajevo, located in the high mountains of Bosnia, is Saray Bosna, “the Bosnian caravanserai”, and it really feels like time has stopped since the centuries of the Ottoman Empire. In the vast bazaar and in the tortuous streets of the mountain slopes, full of small mosques, Ottoman cemeteries and old houses, the atmosphere of the Ottoman period is still so present, to an extent which persists not even in Turkey. At the same time, during the period of the Austrian Monarchy, a beautiful Art Nouveau district was added to the old town, and the city was one of the intellectual centers of the former Yugoslavia. Today, Sarajevo has largely recovered from the destruction of the siege of 1992-1996, and it is considered to be one of the most important centers of contemporary architecture in the Balkans. During our long weekend, we explore this unique ensemble, and make a one-day bus trip through the wonderful valley of Neretva River to Mostar. • Participation fee 350 euros.

Unknown Albania, 22-29 August. In this unexplored country, we first visit the least known – because it has only recently been provided with an asphalt road – part, the northern mountains, the valleys of Theth and Valbona. We sleep in traditional farm houses converted into modern family pensions, and we make a long boat tour on the Drin river among the mountains. We visit the Ottoman merchant town of Berat, and the ancient Greek settlements of Byllis and Apollonia. We make a detour to Kosovo, to the beautiful Serbian monastery of Dečani and the Ottoman town of Prizren, and finish our journey at the pristine bay and beach at Vlora, next to the monastery of Zvernets. Our Albanian posts are available here. Participation fee 600 euros.

Lemberg, 6-9 September. Lemberg/Lviv/Lwów is one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe, and one which has not been demolished in the vicissitudes of the past hundred years. Several nationalities – Poles, Armenians, Jews, Ukrainians, Germans, Hungarians and others – have enriched it and made it one of the most colorful cities of the old Austrian Monarchy. Its architecture was as great during the Renaissance as it was during the Art Nouveau period. We visit this city over a long weekend. On the last day, we make a bus excursion to the Baroque town of Drohobycz, the birthplace of Bruno Schulz, and the Jewish cemetery of Bolechów, one of the most beautiful and best-preserved Hasidic cemeteries in Galicia. • Participation fee 450 euros.

Berlin scenes, September. A long weekend to explore Berlin’s iconic sites and unknown parts, contemporary architecture and exotic neighborhoods. We visit the historic heart of the city as well as the recently built centers, the subcultural neighborhoods and little hidden worlds. We pay special attention to the cultural flourishing of Berlin of the 1920s with its Eastern European and Jewish immigrants, the post-war divisions, and the alternative scene of the 80s and 90s. • Participation fee 500 euros.

Istanbul, beyond the bazaar, 16-20 September. We penetrate the many layers of the city’s two-thousand-year history, from the Roman and Byzantine period through the Ottoman Empire to modern Turkey. We explore in detail the most remarkable monuments from the Hagia Sophia to the Suleymaniye Mosque, walk through the self-sufficient neighborhoods from Galata to Kadiköy, and discover a lot of hidden places, small restaurants, Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Ottoman monuments. It is recommended that you read our posts on Istanbul and Turkish culture. • Participation fee 450 euros.

(Next year) Iran’s historic cities, September 2021. Due to the tense political situation and the epidemic, we have postponed our Iranian tours to next year, when peace will be hopefully restored in the Middle East. First, as in every year, we travel along the axis of the most important historical cities, from Kashan through the formerly Zoroastrian town of Abyaneh, Isfahan, Pasargade and Persepolis to Shiraz, from where we return by domestic plane to Tehran. • Participation fee 1200 euro. • This tour can also be linked with the following one:

(Next year) Iran, the ancient desert settlements, September 2021. The Iranian desert, as we wrote, is not dead at all, but a particularly beautiful region of the country. Thanks to the underground water channels, it is permeated by dense networks of thousand-year-old settlements, caravanserais and trade routes, which have played an important role in the history of Iran. We follow this network in the triangle of the historical towns of Kashan, Yazd and Isfahan, by visiting ancient Zoroastrian and Jewish settlements, clay fortresses of imposing height, and sleeping in lonely caravanserais in the middle of the desert, under a seldom-seen starry sky. This tour greatly contributes to the understading of how the Iranians see their own country. • Participation fee 900 euro.

(Next year) Ancient monasteries of Ethiopia, end of September 2021, ten days. This year, there have been not enough participants to stage this trip, so we announce it for next year to provide ample time to consider it. Ethiopia was among the first countries to embrace Christianty as a state religion, and, beginning in the sixth century, the Abyssinian highlands developed a rich monastic life. We primarily visit these ancient monastic regions, from the islands of Lake Tana through Axum, showing the impact of Egyptian culture, and the cave monasteries of Tigray, to the magnificent monastic complex of Lalibela, carved deep into the rocks. But we also go to see the Renaissance capital in Gondar and the villages of Ethiopian Jews, and trek in the fascinating Simien Mountains (almost all World Heritage sites). Here we reported about our first, preparatory Ethiopian trip, and here we wrote about the iconography of the Ethiopian churches. • Participation fee ca. 1300 euro, which also includes several domestic flights.

Odessa and the South Galician world of the shtetls, 23-30 September. The great tour de force that we do every other year, inspired by Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is illuminated. A three-day trip by bus through the important – and partly still living – Jewish settlements of the former Polish-Russian region, Czernowitz, Kamenets-Podolsk, Uman, Mezhibozh, the cradle of Hasidism, and many other Hasidic towns and cemeteries, down to Odessa, where we discover, in the wake of Isaac Babel, the sophisticated culture of the “Paris of the South” and the memories of the former Jewish gangster’s world in the Moldavanka. From Odessa, we return home by plane. We have collected our posts on Odessa here, and our writings on the Jewish heritage here. • Participation fee 600 euros. • If you wish, on the way back we can stop for a day’s sightseeing in Kiev.

The route of Journey at moonlight from Venice through Umbria to Tuscany, 3-10 October. In this one-week tour – which on its first being announced in 2016, was considered as the best Río Wang tour of the year – we follow the path of Antal Szerb’s 1937 cult novel, considered by Nicholas Lezard as “one of the greatest works of modern European literature.” From Venice, we travel by bus through Ravenna, Urbino, Umbria and Tuscany, Gubbio, Assisi and Arezzo, the centers of early Renaissance art, to as far as Siena and San Gimignano. During the journey, like the figures of the novel, we encounter the surviving traditions of the pre-Christian world, the many thousand-year-old Oscan towns built on hilltops, the magnificent view of the Apennines, and the renowned “Sienan primitives.” • Participation fee 700 euros, including several dinners.

Tuscan round trip, 10-17 October. We have followed several times with great success the route of Antal Szerb’s Journey by Moonlight from Venice through Urbino and Umbria, Gubbio, Assisi and Arezzo to Siena, individually identifying the sites of the novel. This year, we follow our route westward, to get to know what Mihály would have seen, had he not given up wandering at the end of the novel. We will see Etruscan and Roman monuments, hilltop towns, fascinating examples of early Renaissance painting, and magnificent views of the Tuscan hills. • Participation fee 700 euros.

A long weekend in Florence, 17-21 October. A detailed art historical and historical tour in the capital of the Renaissance and the cradle of the Medici House. We visit the most important monuments in the triangle of the Duomo, the Signoria and the Santa Croce and beyond, the left bank of Arno, the churches, palaces, squares and historical sites, everywhere explaining in detail the history and history makers, art and artists. • Participation fee 500 euros.


Journey along the tea-horse-road in Yünnan province, China, 30 October – 8 November. Three years ago, we started with this tour to explore China, with whose language and culture I have been engaged for a quarter of a century. In 2017, this was our most successful tour. Our road leads through one of the most beautiful and most archaic regions of China, rich in historical monuments and natural beauties, the region of Yünnan under the Tibetan mountains, homeland of Chinese tea, and the towns of several ethnic groups. Picturesque tea lands and rice terraces, deep canyons and still untouched historic towns (check the photos of my Yünnan guide, purchased there about ten years ago). Read the description of our 2018 tour here. • Participation fee 1300 euros. • At the end of May we will see the health situation in China, and then you can make your final decision.

Rome, from piazza to piazza, late November. Following our previous successful tours in Rome, we explore in detail the old town of Rome over the course of five days, including the most important ancient, Renaissance and Baroque monuments, also addressing some more “exotic” scenes, such as the Jewish quarter, the self-sufficient world of Trastevere, and the beautiful garland of ancient and medieval churches in the Caelius Hill. We acquaint ourselves with the city from square to square, street to street, so that it will offer many interesting details and secrets even to those who are already lovers of Rome. In addition, we visit the huge Raffaello exhibition, organized on the 500th anniversary of the master’s death. Our accommodations will be in the heart of the old town, in the Trastevere. For details, check our posts on Rome. Participation fee 500 euros.

Sicilian round trip, 28 November – 5 December. During the one-week round trip, we visit the most important sites of the island of many cultures – almost all World Heritage sites –, Catania’s fish market, Siracusa’s Greek old town and Jewish quarter, the valley of Agrigento’s ancient Greek temples, Cefalù’s Norman port and basilica, the Norman basilicas of Palermo and Monreale, decorated by Arab and Greek artists, the Greco-Roman theater of Taormina, and much more. • Travel by 9-seat minibus, participation fee 700 euros.

Marrakesh and the road of the kasbahs, 9-16 December. From Marrakesh, Morocco’s former southern capital, thousand-year-old caravan routes lead through the river valleys of the High Atlas to the gold mines around the Equator, and these routes are bordered by majestic Berber clay fortresses, kasbahs, and fortified towns, ksars. In three days, we traverse the valleys of the Ounila, Draa and Ouarzazate rivers, and visit several kasbahs and ksars, paying special attention to the neighborhoods and legacy of the “Berber Jews” who lived here as merchants and silversmiths until the 1970s. The kasbah tour will be completed by a few days of sightseeing in Marrakesh, where the palaces, museums and other sights of the city will more deeply reveal the history of this region of many colors and cultural layers. • Participation fee 700 euros.

Historic cities of Andalusia, 17-21 December. Andalusia is one of those special sites of the Mediterranean, on which many great cultures left their mark. Starting from Málaga, we go through the historic cities of Seville, Córdoba, Granada and Ronda, getting to know in detail their Roman, Arabic, Jewish and Christian past, monuments and still living traditions. • Participation fee 700 euros. • There are two free places left.

Whenever we announce a tour in detail, and when we include a new tour in this calendar, we will also send out a circular e-mail, for which it is worth signing up at wang@studiolum.com.

My Tokajs

In September, we organized with Dani Ercsey a tour called “The Route of Jewish Wine”, as we followed the route from the Hungarian Tokaj to the Polish Galicia and to Lublin in the former Russian Poland, along which Jewish wine traders transported the wine of Tokaj to the north, and the “princes” of the Hassidic rabbinical dynasties descended to the south. We are still in debt with a detailed report on the tour. However, we received a short impression from one of the participants, Anna Gáspár (Kempfner), with the comment that if we consider it good, we can publish it on the blog. Two days after sending us her essay, Anna suddenly died of a heart attack. We publish her writing, the last harvest of a rich life, in her memory. Our illustrations were made during our last common tour.

ANNA GÁSPÁR: MY TOKAJS

Plural, possessive case?

It occurred to me near Mád, when I introduced myself to the hitherto unknown fellow travelers, while tasting Tokaj wines: I have Tokajs, in plural. I don’t think it meant anything to anyone else but me when I suddenly uttered it.

Mád, Tállya, Tolcsva. This is how we learned the most famous places of the Tokaj wine region. Mád, Tállya, Tolcsva, this is how I memorized them as a little schoolgirl in 1950.

Some ten years later, I became friends with Polish architects in a university internship. First we visited for three weeks their wonderful country, from the Hel Peninsula to Krakow. We were amazed at their astonishingly modern architecture and fascinating historical world, we listened to the Polish language full of consonants, enjoyed the fragranes and tastes, were fascinated with their fashion that was very different from ours. We were delighted to see their extremely imaginative design, witty posters, their so different culture.

And then they came to us, enchanted at the sight of our capital that survived the war, enjoying the summer atmosphere of Lake Balaton. I went with them to Eger, Miskolc, Tokaj. I was their interpreter. I thought, Russian will be no problem to a Slav. But Polish students did not like Russian, and hated the RUssians. They absolutely did not want to speak Russian.

I had to learn Polish. They helped me, laughed at me, corrected me. I listened to them, I fantasized. We were happy. They loved Hungary and loved me. And in Tokaj, when descending through some hole into a cellar, it turned out they also loved Tokaj wine.

It was cool down there. We also got some food, we tasted a lot of barrels. As we ascended to the open sky, on a bright day, if I remember well, we fell on our fours, unable to walk. We somehow pushed our way to the campsite at the foot of the Tisza bridge. Whoever saw us on the road, must have had fun.

I was shocked by the grayness and poverty of the town. Is this Tokaj?


It did not take another ten years for Tokaj to reappear in my life, already familiar. In my first workplace, my first and only husband, towards the end of his bachelor years, fully in love with me, invited me together with his colleague Pista, who came from Erdőbénye in the Tokaj region, to the Tokaj Wine Bar near the Opera House. We impressed each other a lot, the two drink-resistent men and myself, the resh graduate engineer. As they later told me, I drank a liter of Tokaj Furmint on the spot. I enchanted them. Laci then married me, we had three children, and we lived together as long as he was alive. Was Tokaj wine the cause of it all?

Our children grew up and flew away, and Laci had arrived to the end of his road, when, unexpectedly, I became a vineyard owner in Tokaj, in Erdőbénye, next to Mád, in the Omlás Slope. Some fifty years have passed since our drinking at the Opera House. Although I have not become a wine addict – for many reasons –, I lived as a wonderful adventure the decade of being transformed from an unexperienced city dweller into a Tokaj oenologist. The transformation was due to Alex, my sommelier friend from Barcelona, the descendants of Pista, Mari and Bálint, and Józsi Pethő of Erdőbénye, who cultivated my one-hectare “estate” as his own. And, of course, to the wine school I completed in the meantime.

The splendor of nature, the magical and unlearnable vine cut, the spring bud-opening full of hopes, the quiet, chubby, secret blooming, the growing tendrils, the slow ripening of the bunches, and the late October harvest with the fragrance of honey, walnut and plum. This is what the vineyard gave to me, with its fruit blessed with different treasures every year, created from the same minerals, the same soil, and the ever-changing weather.


Must and wine. In Tokaj, you don’t have to manipulate it. Here the wine is samo-rodni, born by itself, and who would understand it better than I?

We made good wine. Hungarians, Slovaks and Poles gladly consumed it at the inebriated Erdőbénye Festivals.

But I have no vineyard any more.

This year, in early autumn, the magical Tokaj wine enticed me to a new adventure: traveling, exploring and tasting a wide variety of Tokaj wines. Not only in the Tokaj wineries, but also in Slovakia, and in Polish Galicia. Many wines, many synagogues, many hills, many little towns, many Jewish cemeteries within and beyond the borders. I did not care that it hurted here and there, that I could walk only a little, that I had trouble to stand waiting.

And in the Polish Tarnów, a miracle happened.

Here was born and here is buried Bem Apó, floating between heaven and earth, because at the end of his life he converted to Islam, and he was not allowed to be buried in a consecrated land. His tombstone is worthy of his deeds: the sarcophagus hiding his mortal remnants is held by six snow-white pillars standing in the middle of a lake.



Still, this was not the miracle of Tarnów.

In the evening, in the restaurant of a funhouse-like hotel converted from an old-fashioned Monarchy-era post office, where every wall was covered by huge paintings, portraits and landscapes in the wildest and darkest colors, the works of a poor painter who paid for the room and board for his pictures (oh, horror, I wish he would have not done that) – so, in the evening in the restaurant we tasted Tokaj wines, just like on other days. At the end of a great dinner, this time three kinds of dry Tokaj samorodni.

A Mezőzombor Disznókő Wine House 2015, and an Olaszliszka 2009 samorodni from the French Samuel Timon. The third one I do not remember.

It took my breath away. I remained speechless. Never before I experienced this kind of enjoyment, beauty, dazzle and obliteration. Nothing and everything, a gift of nature, for which I am grateful from the bottom of my heart.

Wines of my body and soul, Tokaj wines, my Tokajs.

Polyphemus’ ruin

In the post Good wine needs no bush the gastronomical aspect of the topic was lost. That is: what kind of wine was offered by the ingenious Ulysses to the Cyclops who had devoured his companions? And is Studiolum right when he is afraid of the wine offer of the Caffè del Centro in Piazza Armerina? And in general, what and where to drink if we come to this part of Sicily?

The mosaics focused on by the post depict a Greek story, whose respective episode takes place in today’s Sicily, so I will obviously not talk about Roman, but rather Greek wines, as well as modern Italian wineries.

At the time of Homer, in the 8th c. BC already existed Greek settlements and poleis in the island, but viticulture was much more rudimentary than around the emitting poleis. This is why Polypheus says that although he also has wine, but it cannot compete with the nectar obtained from Ulysses.

“He then took the cup and drank, he was so delighted
with the taste of it that he begged me for another bowl full:
ʻBe so kind’, he said ʻas to give me some more, and tell me your name at once.
I want to make you a present that you will be glad to have.
We have wine even in this country, for our soil
grows grapes and the sun ripens them,
but this drink is like nectar and ambrosia all in one.”

(Homer, Odyssey 9, translated by Samuel Butler)

Ulysses took home wine on his journey, that is, wine of Ithaca, and although ancient Ithaca’s position is at least controversial today, nevertheless we can state that whether the wine came from modern Ithaca, or from the neighboring Cephalonian peninsula of Paliki – which was probably an island at that time –, it was sweet and strong, and the sailors diluted it with seawater to drink. Today, PDO Robola, PDO Muscat and PDO Mavrodaphne stand out among the wine regions of Cephalonia. Each denotes a grape variety. The first one typically gives light, dry white wines, so this region is most in line with today’s wine consumption. The other is a local clone of one of the oldest grape varieties, Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, which produces natural sweet wines and so-called fortified sweet wines (where the fermentation of the wine is stopped by the addition of alcohol, so it remains sweet). Finally, Mavrodaphne is a naturally sweet red wine, so it is closest to the former Greek wine culture, where sweet wines were typically produced by drying the grape on straw bed after harvest, thus concentrating its sugar content. Then it was pressed, eventually enriched with previously prepared sweet wine, and then they added spices and seawater to it. The best example of this type of wine (although no spices are added any more) is the wine Methyse of 2004 from Cephalonia’s Foivos Winery, considered one of the highest rated Greek wines of recent years. (And the wine Commandaria of the Greeks of Cyprus, which has been traditionally made in this way to this day.)

However, we know that Ulysses did not offer his own wine to the Cyclops:

“I also took a goatskin of sweet black wine
which had been given to me by Maron, son of Euanthes,
who was priest of Apollon, the patron god of Ismarus,
because we spared his life and also his wife and son,
who lived in the wooded precincts of the temple.”

Unfortunately, the ancient fame of the wine region PGI Ismaros in Thrace is brighter than its present. Maron is only remembered by a seaside wellness hotel, and in terms of wines, there is no trace of one of the most famous, most dense and sweetest red wine of the ancient Greek world, the only one that had to be diluted in 1:20 proportion (!) so it would not make you drunk. (Nevertheless, I do recommend at least one local vinery, where you can find not sweet red, but light, modern dry white wines: the Kikones.)

Well, back to the streets of Piazza Armerina, where Greek wine is definitely no longer on offer today. Barely two hundred years after Homer, in the 6th century BC, the wines of the region not only reached, but exceeded the quality of Greek wines. This is partly because the Greek settlers, perhaps under Etruscan influence, began for the first time in the world to plant grapes in rows, in stalk cultivation, thus first establishing a monoculture of wine. The first steps to it already appear on the shield of Achilles, in Homer’s Iliad:

“He wrought also a vineyard, golden and fair to see,
and the vines were loaded with grapes.
The bunches overhead were black, but the vines
were trained on poles of silver
He ran a ditch of dark metal all round it,
and fenced it with a fence of tin;
there was only one path to it,
and by this the vintagers went when they would gather the vintage.
Youths and maidens all blithe and full of glee,
carried the luscious fruit in plaited baskets;
and with them there went a boy
who made sweet music with his lyre,
and sang the Linus-song with his clear boyish voice.”

(Homer, Iliad, 18, translated by Samuel Butler) 

Grape harvest in the reconstruction of the shield of Achilles. Above in the cover of the 22 September 1832 of Penny Magazine, below in Kathleen Vail’s reconstruction

Sicily, Magna Graecia of the time, was also called Oenotria, the “land of grapes cultivated on stalks”. The quality and reputation of local wines grew rapidly, but the history of today’s Sicilian wines was influenced at least as much by Arabic raisin culture, Normann gastroculture, Etruscan grape varieties, Roman and Carthaginese taste, as today’s marketing trends and Italian cuisine.


The Caffè del Centro mentioned by Studiolum in fact does not seem like anything more than a mediocre pub, although on TripAdvisor it has 4.0 from 37 reviews and on Google 3.8 from 21, so it must be a good place for a sandwich or other snack. The wine bar with the bakery is on Piazza Garibaldi, but its mother shop works in a narrow street beyond the corner (Via Guglielmo Marconi 2), and offers only coffee and cakes, perhaps some sandwiches. Most points are lost on the speed and quality of service. Wine is mentioned only once: a commenter in this summer wrote that the “local” wine was very poor. The quotation mark raises questions, but unfortunately the shop has no wine page on the net, nor has it any web page. Let’s accept that the wine is poor, but is it not local? In Sicily this is almost unimaginable. What is local wine and where can you get it in this charming little town?

Vineyards next to Piazza Armerina

The closest wine region is Riesi DOC to the southwest of the city. The most important grape variety of its white wines is Inzolia (also known as Ansonica), a variety producing a white wine of neutral taste, or with hazelnut characteristics. Many believe it to be of Greek origin, but it was in fact first described in 1696 (by the first Sicilan botanist, Francesco Cupani, in his Hortus Catholicus), and it also occurs in Sardinia and Tuscany. French Chardonnay is also important here. One of the two must be present in at least 25% in every Riesi Bianco wine, as well as in the sparkling wines and local sweet wines (vendemmia tardiva).


In red Riesi wines, Nero d’Avola (sometimes called Calabrese) or Cabernet Sauvignon are the most important. Nerello Mascalese is mainly used for rosé wines. The top wines of Superiore and Superiore Riserva can only be made from the local Nero d’Avola. For a first taste, I recommend the Riesi Rosso of the Feudo Principi di Butera winery, a relatively simple, but well-drinkable red wine from 2015.


The Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG wine region to the south-east of the town and of the mosaics is also known for its Nero d’Avola (Calabrese) and Frappato grape varieties. They are often marketed together as a cuvée. The Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico DOCG red wine of 2015 from Azienda Agricola Cos received a very high rating from international experts, but if you are also price sensitive, try the Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG of 2015 from the Feudo di Santa Tresa (and don’t be afraid of the newer vintages, either).

Centuries-old farm to the south of Piazza Armerina

So far I have only recommended red wines. Let’s see the white wine situation. Sicily is one of the best known wine regions in the world, interestingly rather thanks to Lampedusa’s Panther and Marlon Brando’s godfather than to its wines. The southern island evokes the idea of “red wine region”, while it has more white wine than red!

Bar Vitelli, the site of Godfather in the movie’s Corleone (in reality, Savoca)

The Catarratto Antisa 2018 wine from the Tenuta Regaleali winery (Tasca Group, Conti d’Almerita) allures you with its fresh acidity and cypress flavor, which is no wonder, since the grapes grow 900 meters above sea level. This is the wine of freshly fried or deep-fried seafood, so it’s worth trying more than once.


As far as the site is concerned, that is, where one should have a glass of wine in Piazza Armerina, the folks of the internet clearly recommends the Bla Bla Wine Bar in Via Garibaldi 89. It received a 4.9 from 7 ratings, which emphasize its good wines and good atmosphere. It is only open from 5.30 p.m., but then until 1.00 a.m. TripAdvisor gives it 5.00 from 19 ratings, that is, the best available. They have no website, their FB page is not updated, so I could find no wine list. But if you ask for Catarratto (white) or Nero d’Avola (red), you will not be disappointed. And if you will mention the above wineries and wines, they will think you are an expert.

Just take care your wine tasting should not end up in Kottabos, one of the most famous Sicilian wine game of ancient times, which, if truly authentic, is assisted by a devoted young servant who only wears a string of flowers on his head, and puts the plastinx back in place and refills the wine bowls…