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On the Move - Italy (8 of 23) - Meeting Up
We managed to get up early, hang the laundry we'd done the night before out on the line to dry (no dryer), have breakfast and still be on the way to Firenze by 8:20am.
We drove up and parked behind the train station again and took a bus over to the Oltrarno to start our day at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna. We were a bit surprised to realize that by "modern" they meant "19th century," as opposed to the collection in the Galleria Palatina of 16th- to 18th-century art. There were some interesting pieces, but no real masterpieces. Our ticket for that included the Galleria dell Costume, which had about twenty mannequins dressed in the style of various periods, up through the late 30's. On the way back, we visited a couple of shops selling the local "pietro dure" mosaics of semi-precious stones carved into the shapes of flowers or birds or (less successfully) landscapes.
We made our way back across the Arno to the Museo de Firenze com'era, "The Museum of Florence the way it was," which is a collection of maps and models of the city from Roman times up to the present day. Having looked down on it all from above and begun to gain some familiarity with the place, we enjoyed the opportunity to see how it has changed over time. The best thing about the place, however, was its very peaceful garden courtyard, where we sat for a few minutes.
From there we continued northwest to the Opficina del Pietro Dure, an extensive collection of the mosaics typical of Florence during the 16th and 17th centuries, together with a demonstration of the types of stone and machines used to make these beautiful pieces.
On our walk, I had noticed a pizza place that seemed particularly inviting, so we made our way back to Gusto, on the block next to the Bargello, and had pizzas for lunch before trying a third time to visit the Palazzo Vecchio. We really thought we had figured out the schedule, but it was closed once more. Previously we'd been able to walk through the courtyard into the center of the ground floor, where the ticket office is located, but this time even that was closed. Denied yet again, we decided to go back to the mosaic shops nearby. I had thought the price tag on one that interested me said 150,000 lira (about $75), but I had missed the initial digit and the real price was 1,150,000 (about $600). They were lovely things and Jason was ambivalent, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much money for just a pretty thing.
We wandered back across town through some side streets, including the Piazza del' Ruccelai, where I found a shop selling wonderful items of the traditional Florentine marbled paper. We emerged into the Piazza della Santa Maria, with its granite obelisks supported by four small bronze turtles. There's one like this in the Boboli Gardens, too, the significance of which no one explains. I guess it really is "turtles all the way down."
While Florence is a lovely city, many of the piazzas are fairly seedy. Those outside Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce and San Lorenzo are all frequented by unsavory characters...Santa Maria Novella seems to be home to a tribe of goth teenagers at night and San Lorenzo was definitely the place to score whatever illegal substance might tempt your fancy.
We visited the church of Santa Maria Novella, built by the Domenicans in the 14th century (though a church has stood on this spot since at least the 9th century) and faced, like many of the churches in town, with green and white marble in geometric patterns. I had never seen such a thing before visiting Florence and they are extremely distinctive. The entry to the church is through the "avelli," a cemetery for affluent Florentines with lovely little lawns and Gothic arches. The interior of the church is lovely. Vasari went crazy here in the 16th century, bleaching many of the frescoes, removing the choir and rood screen and shortening several of the aisle windows, but much of his work was subsequently undone in the 18th century and many of the chapels still have their frescoes--by Nardo di Cione and Filippo Lippi, among others--as well as magnificent chancel, decorated by Domenico Ghirlandaio. This is probably my favorite fresco cycle yet. While the scenes are meant to depict episodes from the lives of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, they are interesting because what they actually show are the dress and customs of 15th century Florence.
After seeing the church, we walked around back to the train station and took a bus over to Piazza San Marco. We slipped inside the basilica, to admire its style so different from the Renaissance churches we'd been visiting and to see Fra Bartolomeo's 16th-century "Madonna and Saints" and a gorgeous 8th-century mosaic showing the Madonna in prayer against a backdrop of gold. It was made in Constantinople and cut in half to be shipped to Florence. The join is still obvious, right across Mary's middle. The 8th-century section is framed by a 16th century mosaic, depicting various saints adoring the image of the Virgin. While this was the only mosaic we saw like this, there were several instances where an earlier fresco or painting would be surrounded by a later one showing people worshipping whoever was in the older one, usually the Madonna and Child.
This is probably a good time to mention that while the Madonnas are of varying realism and beauty, I really never saw what I would call a good depiction of Jesus as a baby. Many painters made him look like the Michelin man with a middle-aged head, while others erred in other directions. It seems bizarre to me that these great artists should none of them be able to paint a baby realistically, as if they'd never seen one and couldn't find one to use as a model.
After a brief visit to the church, we went into the Museo di San Marco next door. We were getting very tired by this point, but we struggled on through what seemed like miles of works by Fra Angelico, punctuated by a few pieces by other masters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio and Paolo Uccello. Upstairs, in the dormitory, we visited about fifty cells frescoed by Fra Angelico and his assistants for the contemplation of the resident brothers. These cells include the double-wide set aside for the use of Cosimo Medici, the great patron of the abbey, and those occupied by Savonarola, the monk who inflamed Florence with his apocalyptic sermons and created the original "bonfire of the vanities" in the Piazza della Signoria during his period of extraordinary sway over the people of the city, before being excommunicated and sentenced to a bonfire of his very own in the same piazza.
We hopped back on the bus to get back to the train station and were outside the traveler information office across the street at 6pm, as agreed, to meet Jason's parents. Somehow we blended in a little too well and Trish missed us and spent an hour searching all over the area for us, checking with the hotel reservations office and the police station in the terminal before finally swinging back to find us at 7pm. We all piled into their car--parked illegally in front of the police station--and drove around to ours to offload their luggage. Then we made our way through the maze of streets along the Arno to the garage where they were to drop off their rental car.
That accomplished, we walked over to the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco, but they were full, so we tried another recommended restaurant on the same block, Camillo. I started with carpaccio, while the others split a plate of various salume (the superset that includes salami, prosciutto and other cured meats). We shared two bowls of stracciatella (Italian-style eggdrop soup) and Steve had some pasta. Then Trish and I both had the shrimp in a tomato garlic sauce on rice. The rice was a bit crunchy around the edges, but the shrimp were completely peeled and very tasty. Jason had the grilled lamb, which was somewhat overcooked, but fairly tasty, and Steve had the pork and chickpeas, which he enjoyed. We walked back to the station via the Ponte Vecchio, the Piazza della Signoria and the Duomo, found our car and went back to Il Doccio.
Next, a road-trip to Lucca...
We drove up and parked behind the train station again and took a bus over to the Oltrarno to start our day at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna. We were a bit surprised to realize that by "modern" they meant "19th century," as opposed to the collection in the Galleria Palatina of 16th- to 18th-century art. There were some interesting pieces, but no real masterpieces. Our ticket for that included the Galleria dell Costume, which had about twenty mannequins dressed in the style of various periods, up through the late 30's. On the way back, we visited a couple of shops selling the local "pietro dure" mosaics of semi-precious stones carved into the shapes of flowers or birds or (less successfully) landscapes.
We made our way back across the Arno to the Museo de Firenze com'era, "The Museum of Florence the way it was," which is a collection of maps and models of the city from Roman times up to the present day. Having looked down on it all from above and begun to gain some familiarity with the place, we enjoyed the opportunity to see how it has changed over time. The best thing about the place, however, was its very peaceful garden courtyard, where we sat for a few minutes.
From there we continued northwest to the Opficina del Pietro Dure, an extensive collection of the mosaics typical of Florence during the 16th and 17th centuries, together with a demonstration of the types of stone and machines used to make these beautiful pieces.
On our walk, I had noticed a pizza place that seemed particularly inviting, so we made our way back to Gusto, on the block next to the Bargello, and had pizzas for lunch before trying a third time to visit the Palazzo Vecchio. We really thought we had figured out the schedule, but it was closed once more. Previously we'd been able to walk through the courtyard into the center of the ground floor, where the ticket office is located, but this time even that was closed. Denied yet again, we decided to go back to the mosaic shops nearby. I had thought the price tag on one that interested me said 150,000 lira (about $75), but I had missed the initial digit and the real price was 1,150,000 (about $600). They were lovely things and Jason was ambivalent, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much money for just a pretty thing.
We wandered back across town through some side streets, including the Piazza del' Ruccelai, where I found a shop selling wonderful items of the traditional Florentine marbled paper. We emerged into the Piazza della Santa Maria, with its granite obelisks supported by four small bronze turtles. There's one like this in the Boboli Gardens, too, the significance of which no one explains. I guess it really is "turtles all the way down."
While Florence is a lovely city, many of the piazzas are fairly seedy. Those outside Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce and San Lorenzo are all frequented by unsavory characters...Santa Maria Novella seems to be home to a tribe of goth teenagers at night and San Lorenzo was definitely the place to score whatever illegal substance might tempt your fancy.
We visited the church of Santa Maria Novella, built by the Domenicans in the 14th century (though a church has stood on this spot since at least the 9th century) and faced, like many of the churches in town, with green and white marble in geometric patterns. I had never seen such a thing before visiting Florence and they are extremely distinctive. The entry to the church is through the "avelli," a cemetery for affluent Florentines with lovely little lawns and Gothic arches. The interior of the church is lovely. Vasari went crazy here in the 16th century, bleaching many of the frescoes, removing the choir and rood screen and shortening several of the aisle windows, but much of his work was subsequently undone in the 18th century and many of the chapels still have their frescoes--by Nardo di Cione and Filippo Lippi, among others--as well as magnificent chancel, decorated by Domenico Ghirlandaio. This is probably my favorite fresco cycle yet. While the scenes are meant to depict episodes from the lives of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, they are interesting because what they actually show are the dress and customs of 15th century Florence.
After seeing the church, we walked around back to the train station and took a bus over to Piazza San Marco. We slipped inside the basilica, to admire its style so different from the Renaissance churches we'd been visiting and to see Fra Bartolomeo's 16th-century "Madonna and Saints" and a gorgeous 8th-century mosaic showing the Madonna in prayer against a backdrop of gold. It was made in Constantinople and cut in half to be shipped to Florence. The join is still obvious, right across Mary's middle. The 8th-century section is framed by a 16th century mosaic, depicting various saints adoring the image of the Virgin. While this was the only mosaic we saw like this, there were several instances where an earlier fresco or painting would be surrounded by a later one showing people worshipping whoever was in the older one, usually the Madonna and Child.
This is probably a good time to mention that while the Madonnas are of varying realism and beauty, I really never saw what I would call a good depiction of Jesus as a baby. Many painters made him look like the Michelin man with a middle-aged head, while others erred in other directions. It seems bizarre to me that these great artists should none of them be able to paint a baby realistically, as if they'd never seen one and couldn't find one to use as a model.
After a brief visit to the church, we went into the Museo di San Marco next door. We were getting very tired by this point, but we struggled on through what seemed like miles of works by Fra Angelico, punctuated by a few pieces by other masters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio and Paolo Uccello. Upstairs, in the dormitory, we visited about fifty cells frescoed by Fra Angelico and his assistants for the contemplation of the resident brothers. These cells include the double-wide set aside for the use of Cosimo Medici, the great patron of the abbey, and those occupied by Savonarola, the monk who inflamed Florence with his apocalyptic sermons and created the original "bonfire of the vanities" in the Piazza della Signoria during his period of extraordinary sway over the people of the city, before being excommunicated and sentenced to a bonfire of his very own in the same piazza.
We hopped back on the bus to get back to the train station and were outside the traveler information office across the street at 6pm, as agreed, to meet Jason's parents. Somehow we blended in a little too well and Trish missed us and spent an hour searching all over the area for us, checking with the hotel reservations office and the police station in the terminal before finally swinging back to find us at 7pm. We all piled into their car--parked illegally in front of the police station--and drove around to ours to offload their luggage. Then we made our way through the maze of streets along the Arno to the garage where they were to drop off their rental car.
That accomplished, we walked over to the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco, but they were full, so we tried another recommended restaurant on the same block, Camillo. I started with carpaccio, while the others split a plate of various salume (the superset that includes salami, prosciutto and other cured meats). We shared two bowls of stracciatella (Italian-style eggdrop soup) and Steve had some pasta. Then Trish and I both had the shrimp in a tomato garlic sauce on rice. The rice was a bit crunchy around the edges, but the shrimp were completely peeled and very tasty. Jason had the grilled lamb, which was somewhat overcooked, but fairly tasty, and Steve had the pork and chickpeas, which he enjoyed. We walked back to the station via the Ponte Vecchio, the Piazza della Signoria and the Duomo, found our car and went back to Il Doccio.
Next, a road-trip to Lucca...