Florence, Part 3

Are you sick of Florence yet?  Not me!  I could stay here forever.  Even today, which did NOT go according to plan, turned out to be a great day. 

Strikes are common in Italy.  You have to just go with the flow when they happen, and they can mess with even your  best laid plans, like the tickets we'd reserved months ago for the Uffizi and the Accademia today.  The Uffizi was closed when we got there this morning, because of a guard strike.  We rushed to the Accademia only to find that it too was closing, but they honored our afternoon ticket and let us in to see David.  I think Judy may have gotten a little weepy.  It's an amazing statue, definitely.  You have to see it to understand the scale, the power of it.  But more fascinating to me are the unfinished statues leading up to David, the amazing figures emerging from marble that are sort of haunting.  I'd post pictures, but they don't allow photography.  But seriously, the nonfiniti are an amazing glimpse into the process of art, and the title "Prisoners" really gets at the captivity of the figure in stone that Michelangelo wrote of. 

And now I rant for a bit.  There was a student tour group at the Academia and the kids just looked so BORED.  Which, I get, when I was 16, a museum was not how I wanted to spend my summer.  But if you're lucky enough to be in the presence of possibly the greatest statue ever carved?  Turn off your iPod, stop drinking soda (seriously, why do you even have soda in a museum, are you a moron?) and at least look.  Pretend to be interested or something, because someday you'll be 30 and saying "Oh, I saw that, but I don't really remember it" because you were too busy listening to Katy Perry and chipping the polish off of your nails.

della Robbia's rondells

Brunelleschi's columns

Rant over.  After the Academia my travel companions completely indulged my Renaissance geekiness.  We went to the Hospital de Innocent, the first classical building since ancient times, the one that put Brunelleschi on the map.  Of course, since we were supposed to be in museums all day, I didn't have my camera, so you get cell phone pics withh this entry.  It was pretty cool, and definitely an out-of-the-way site.  Also, the rondels by della Robbia were gorgeous on the building.  They have some of those at the MFA. 

Check out the fence!

Next it was a short walk to the San Marco monastery, where the majority of Fra Angelico's works were housed.  Again, no photos, but that's ok.  The most famous of his works was the Annunciation at the top of the stairs, and it's such a strange place for a painting, but beautiful. I'll keep that design idea in mind for when I have a house, because I love how it just seems to rise as you climb up to the second floor.  What fascinated me about this painting was the fence in the background.  Yes, perspective, yes, classical, yes, realism, but look at that fence.  I had that SAME FENCE in my backyard growing up.  How is it that in 500 years people are still building the same fence?  Am I the only one who thinks that's some sort of amazing piece of human history?  It's the SAME FENCE!

At the leather markets

Ok, the rest of the monastery had scenes in the monk's cells, including Savaronola, who is one of my favorite crazy people in history.  Crazy monk, preached a lot, ruined Boticelli, for which I sort of hate him, and got killed about 9 different ways, just to make sure he was well and truly dead. 

After lunch we split up and did some shopping in the leather markets.  I went into San Lorenzo with Anne, which has more Michelangelos, but I wasn't as impressed here.  The tombs of the Medici were definitely the highlight, but overall I think I was getting statued-out.  So, more shopping, without much purchase this day, but still a fantastic love of the city.

Florence, Part 2



Michelangelo's tomb

Vinny has arrived!  Minus some lost luggage, we met up with him at the Hotel Silla and got to begin our adventures here in Tuscany.  While I was with Laryssa for dinner last night, the rest of the gang went up to Piazza Michelangelo for sunset views of the city.  This morning, we began at Santa Croce, the final resting place of Galileo and Michelangelo.  There were also these amazing frescoes by Giotto but they were covered in scaffolding, being restored.  There's always something, right? 

Anyway, Santa Croce was very impressive and I probably could have spent a day there studying all of the tombs. Ghiberti was buried here, an unexpected find, as was Lorenzo Bartolini (see: Letters to Juliet). They had some cool religious artifacts as well, and the Pazzi Chapel, one of Brunelleschi's masterpieces. 

After Santa Croce, we wandered up to the Bargello, a former prison that's now a statue museum.  That sounds so unimpressive, but this is the home to a huge collection of Michelangelos, Cellinis, and Donatello's.  You can't take photos inside, which I actually enjoy sometimes because instead of looking for a great pictures, I can just LOOK at the artwork.  I try really hard to look and not just photograph things, as I see so many tourists doing.  Using my imagination while taking in a piece of art or scenery makes me remember it better than even a picture will.  My grandmother taught me that- she used to look at my pictures and point out things I'd never noticed.  Now I try to look more.

Brunelleschi's tomb

Lunch was at a little hole in the wall with the most amazing wine and olive oil.  It was such a pure green, so extra extra virgin, so awesome.  After lunch, it was up to the Duomo.  We went into the church to study the interior, and to find Brunelleschi's tomb.  The poor man is buried in the gift shop!
After, Joanne and Judy climbed bell tower, and Anne and I went into the baptisery to see the medieval mosaics in the ceiling.  We also found an amazing workshop and thanks to Anne's Italian skills, the craftsmen invited us in to see their restoration work.  Very, very cool. 

Be good or the devil will eat you!

We rendezvoused for gelato (tris di chocolate!) and then the group split up for a bit.  I went with Leslie and Joanne to the Musee di Opera del Duomo.  I love this museum best of all, I think, because it's not crowded.  Have you even been alone in a room with a Michelangelo Pieta?  Or a creepy wooden statue carved by Donatello?  If you haven't, add it to your bucket list, because for most of us, it's the closest we'll ever get to truly understanding artistic genius.

Florence

Ponte Vecchio

If there is a city I love more in this world than Florence, I haven't found it.  There's just something about this place.  I've been here in rain or shine, and in both it just seems to have its own glow.  It's modern, but there's a history that just eminates from the stones.  Then, there's the art.  It's just there.  Art where is was meant to be, tucked into the niche on a church, painted unassumingly on the wall, standing proud in a piazza.  It's in the arches on the buildings, the rondells over the windows.  Your eyes will never get bored or tired in Florence, and your soul will never cease to be marvelled.

Statues on Orsanmichele

I'm glad Anne gets this.  When we got to Florence, most people were tired, but Anne and I were just itching to get out into the city.  We walked down, across the Ponte Vecchio and it's tempting gold displays.  Once in the city, it was past the Uffizi and the street performers entertaining those in LONG lines to get it, into the Piazza della Signoria.  Then there's David, ok, a copy, but he's there, announcing that yes, you are here, you have entered what was the center of the cultural world half a millenium ago.  There's amazing art in the loggia, and tourists snapping pictures, and I wonder if any of them feel like I do, like it was here that the modern world errupted from darkness and then called us back to bear witness to its creation.  I know, I'm being incredibly over profound, but it's FLORENCE and it's just that amazing to be there. 

But the Piazza isn't the end, or even the center, because you have to keep walking, keep plugging onward to the Dome, and then you're in the narrow streets connecting the two, in the shadows of the greatness you can't see yet, but you know it's coming.  Then, when you arrive, it looms larger than imaginable.  It looks like a special effect, because nothing could be that big, or that stark against the blue sky.  It won't fit into a one picture, it's that huge, and to stand in its shadow and imagine Brunelleschi designed that, without cranes or drills, with just oxen and pulleys and men climbing up the 400 steps every day to lay bricks.  I could stare for hours at the Dome, and still not see it all. 

Il Duomo

And you're still not done, because there in the shadow of the Dome are the doors, with their Gold panels and throngs of tourists who are just in the way, and won't let you see no matter how long you patiently wait your turn.  The original panels are gone, thanks to the flood of 1966, but the copies mark their place and you wonder how many eyes have lingered here, how many great popes or leaders learned their Bible stories from the bronze reliefs. 

San Lorenzo

Anne lived here, looking out at this, and I'm incredibly jealous.  We quickly ran to her old apartment and marvelled at the proximity.  Then we continued on, up to the markets of San Lorenzo with their leathers and purses.  I was so happy to see that the knock-offs are gone, replaced with original designs in all colors and sizes in a shopper's paradise. 

Florence could be home for me, and it is for my friend Laryssa, who moved their after college.  I met her for dinner at an amazing restaurant called the 4 cats, which also had my favorite meal in all 30 years I've been alive.  It's a pasta stuffed with pears and marscapone, served in a creamy sauce.  I had it in Rome in 2005, and have craved it ever since.  I found it two places in Florence, here and at a little cafe near our hotel, and it remains my favorite food ever.  This restaurant had the recipe on the website, so I will be making this when I get home! 

Amalfi Coast

Hazy Coastline in the Morning

The Amalfi Coast is famous for its beautiful hillside towns and its scary, scary roads.  They are basically tiny horizontal ribbons tossed onto the cliffs.  One slip of the wheel and you're falling.  Not being brave enough to drive it ourselves, we took a bus tour that stopped in several of the towns along the way.  I was glad not to be driving, but wish the weather had been clearer.  There are winds from Africa called sirocco that are blowing in a hazy, hot front, muting some of the dramatic views.  They also make it really, really, really hot, and make me think that if I wanted Saharan heat, I could have gone to the Sahara!  Also, global warming: it does exist!

St Andrew's tomb

We stopped first in Amalfi, where we had a short walking tour of the town and then took a boat tour out in the sea to look back at the coastline.  It was really beautiful, and I loved getting out on the water.  In town, the Cathedral was pretty cool, with a gorgeous courtyard and some pieces of St. Andrew in the crypt.  I'm oddly fascinated at how so many saints got chopped up and distributed through Europe during the Middle Ages.  I think his head's in Scotland.  I wonder if they do tours specifically to see all of the parts of a given saint.  Maybe I'll start them and make millions....

Ravello

Anyway, after Amalfi, we rode further south, stopping in Ravello for a delicious lunch and some free time to explore the town.  There was a cool castle-like remnant as well as some beautiful gardens and just gorgeous cliffside views.  I loved one building that had "Peace" written on it in many languages.  I'm also amazed that neither Joanne, Lisa, nor I got a picture of it.  I would have made it my Christmas card.  There was a great pottery shop too, but big souvenirs during the first week of vacation just take up too much room and usually get broken by the time you leave.

 

This was new Italy for me, and I could definitely come back here and stay longer.  Next time I want to go even further south and see the Greek ruins at Paestum.  Being in a section of Italy that was so caught up in the Mediterranean rather than European world is definitely something I want to explore more.

Clearer skies in the afternoon.  Gorgeous

Pompeii and Capri

Two highlights for me: seeing Pompeii for the first time, and returning to Capri, one of the most beautiful places I've been.

 

We opted to do things a little differently for Pompeii, resting in the morning and leaving at lunch time.  I'm not sure how much that worked out.  We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but I think it was more to do with the heat than the timing.  It was HOT.  Pompeii was just out in the blazing sun with no shade and very little vegetation.  I made use of the public water fountains still running around the ruins of the city.  We wandered sometimes together, sometimes apart.  I had hooked Judy and Joanne up with audio tours, and Lisa and Ed sort of stayed with us as we wandered.  We saw homes, gardens, and went all the way down to the stadium.

Yes, there were bodies too.  I have mixed feelings about bodies being on display.  On the one hand, I truly appreciate the learning that comes from studying remains, especially those who are preserved in unique ways like Lindow Man in England or the casts frozen in time here.  On the other hand, I feel like if I died in some terrible, awful painful way, the last thing I'd want is some tourist taking pictures of my body a thousand years later.  So I observe, sort of give thanks that from this death comes knowledge of their time, and then move on without photographing anything.  But they were there and were gruesome.

After Pompeii we went to Herculaneum, which was at the bottom of a very big hill.  I was doubtful that I'd make it back up, I was so tired!  But once there, it was pretty.  It's no where near as excavated, and we didn't get down into the settlement, but it was cool to see the difference between that city and Pompeii.

Now, Capri.  The ride was much smoother than the last time I was here (I got pretty sea-sick feeling on the boat last time).  There were also a LOT more people.  We got into the dock and bought tickets for the Blue Grotto, then boarded another boat to ride around the island.  It was hazy- there were sirocco winds blowing from North Africa that made everything a little fuzzy.  When we got to the Grotto, we had to change to ANOTHER boat, this one a row boat.  Anne almost went it!  We got in and had to lay down to squeeze through the opening into the Grotto, but once there-- wow!  It was like something from an animated movie- real life water doesn't glow that color does it?  My pictures are a little fuzzy because of the movement and lighting, but trust me, it was amazing.  When we got out, we had to get back into the big boat and the had a tour around the island.

The afternoon we spent at the top of the island, having lunch is a wonderful pizza place with beautiful views and then shopping, eating gelato, and visiting the gardens with the beautiful views.  It was hot but gorgeous.

I definitely preferred Capri in April, but it was still an amazing day.

Sorrento

Sorrento is beautiful.  After Rome and seeing a lot of the sites again, (they don’t change), it’s great to be somewhere new.  It reminds me a lot of Seville, that relaxed Mediterranean atmosphere with narrow streets and beautiful little piazzas.  World Cup fever is in full swing even though Italy was eliminated and the restaurants are full of spectators on giant flat screen TVs. 

Traveling is definitely harder with a group.  Some pack lighter than others so getting on and off of trains, not to mention up and down stairs, has been a challenge sometimes.  We’re still working out teamwork logistics of “now is time for bathrooms, now is time for shopping,” but we’re getting there.  Last night we went to a restaurant on a pier over the water for dinner.  It was a beautiful spot, and a delicious meal that broke the bank for a couple, especially those who forgot to ask the price of the fish before ordering! 

The food has been amazing overall, though we’re starting to get past the glee and realize two huge plates of pasta today is not a diet anyone can maintain for two weeks.  Today we’re going to picnic before going to Pompeii.

The Many Sides of Rome

Two days in and we've already conquered Rome!  Yesterday was dedicated to the Vatican since our hotel is near there.  We went to the museum in the morning and had such a good time that we ate there and some of the group stayed to see more.  I loved getting to see School of Athens up close, one of my favorite paintings and one that I use to teach the Renaissance.  I was in heaven!  We went to the Basillica afterward and stayed until closing.  It was beautiful, very different than I remembered, I think because of the light and the time of day.

Today was ancient Rome.  In the blazing heat we trekked the Circus Maximus, climbed the Palatine Hill, strolled through the Forum, and quickly toured the Colosseum.  It was grand, though so very hot!  I found my FAVORITE restaurant in the world for lunch.  Yes, I found it!  It wasn't QUITE as good as I remembered, but still delicious, and I even got a street painting of the street.

We went to St. Peter in Chains after lunch to see Michaelangelo's Moses, a very cool piece from Julius II's unfinished tomb, and then rode the Metro to miscellaneous Rome.  Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Temples, Pantheon, and then to St Mary Minerva which held the body of St Catherine of Sienna and another Michelangelo, Christ holding the cross.  It also had the grave of Fra Angelico AND I MISSED IT!!!  Must go back.

We went to Piazza Navonna in the evening to see the 4 Rivers Fountain and then had a delicious dinner in a little piazza.  Anne and I finished the night walking to Castel St Angelo and then back to the hotel.  So busy, and now to pack, for it's off to Sorrento Tomorrow.

Welcome Back!

I can't believe how FAMILIAR Italy feels. I spent one week here five years ago, and it shouldn't feel so much like stepping into an old familiar neighborhood. We arrived this afternoon tired, hot, and cranky, but riding on the #64 bus across the city was just an amazing burst of energy and excitement. I was BACK. I made it here again.

Our hotel is near the Vatican, a converted monastery that wasn't at all what I expected. The rooms are simple but enough of a hotel to be comfortable. We walked a short distance for dinner tonight, and shared some wine and a big bowl of pasta for our first meal in Italy. Afterward, we ventured down toward St. Peter's Square. It was nearly deserted since the Basilica was closed. The sun was just setting despite being well past 8 PM, and we were able to sit in the square and take in the grandeur. As the sun set, the lights came on, and the greatest Basilica in the world cast its glow through the square. We could even look up to see the Pope's light on in his apartments.