Prison Dining in Volterra

On our last visit to Italy, we stopped in the beautiful town of Volterra, Tuscany. Volterra is a “walled mountaintop” dating back to the eighth century B.C., with structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval times.

On our way there, we found a citadel built on the highest point of the hill overlooking the town.  From below the Tuscan road, it looked like two small bastions joined by a wall, a “curtain wall.”

As my husband was driving, I looked up the history of Fortezza Medicea (Medici Fortress) of Volterra to find more information about its history. Built before De Medici’s rise to prominence and power, the fortress was built by the Duke of Athens who was governor of Florence in 1342.

The second fortress was built by another Florentine ruler, Lorenzo the Magnificent, in 1474, following the sacking of Volterra by Florentine troops in 1472. The Florentines were interested in Volterra’s alum. As a chemical, alum has many household and industrial uses.

The two fortresses are linked by a stone “curtain wall” and today it houses a medium security prison. What is so interesting about this prison, is the fact that on certain days tourists can dine in a restaurant operated by prisoners who are neither chefs nor cooks. The brochure stated that inmates are appropriately supervised, and tourists are checked before being allowed into the prison.

The prison administrators decided to open a restaurant in 2006 to rehabilitate prisoners who were serving no less than 7-year sentences. The menu was rather simple, and diners had to go through a screening process and reservations had to be made in advance.

Somehow, the idea of eating meals cooked by inmates, who were not just white-collar criminals, probably injured other human beings, did not appeal to me at all. Americans love such unusual experiences, but I was raised in Europe and under communism at that, so I have a healthy dose of caution when it comes to dangerous situations when the potential of being poisoned or sickened by inmate food was the least of my worries. What was in the back of my head were hostage situations, murder, escapes, and other violent encounters in a stone-walled medieval prison built and reinforced to withstand the volleys of Renaissance era heavy canons.

 I did not tell my husband about the prison restaurant, just the history of the fortress. To this day, my husband resents the fact that I did not allow him the pleasure of dining on prison food in a fortress. As a military man, he is fascinated by the history of medieval armory and castles built as defense for the population and its rulers.

 

 

Florence Sparkled Under the Bright Sun of Tuscany, Part II

Palazzo Pitti
Wikipedia photo

Not far from Ponte Vecchio, on the south side of the river Arno, is a stark, Renaissance building, Palazzo Pitti, a huge complex of 32,000 square meters, divided into many galleries with paintings, plates, statues, jewelry, furniture, and other luxurious possessions of the Medici family.

Sitting on a hill overlooking Florence, Pitti Palace is administered by Polo Museale Florentino, an institution responsible for twenty museums, including the Uffizi Gallery, and 250,000 works of art.

The original part of the building was started in 1458 by a Florentine banker named Luca Pitti. The Medicis bought it a century later as the residence for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Napoleon used the palace as a power base in the late 18^th century, and, in 1919, King Victor Emannuel III donated it with its entire contents to the Italian people and thus it became a museum.

The main gallery of the palace is the Palatine Gallery with over 500 Renaissance paintings by Raphael, Titian, Perugino, Peter Paul Rubens, Correggio, and Pietro da Cortona. This gallery follows into the opulent 14-room royal apartments, and is thus displayed as the private collection would have appeared then, not in chronological order or by a particular style or school.

Eleonora of Toledo

Portrait by Bronzino

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The last descendant of Luca Pitti, Buonaccorso Pitti, sold the palace in 1549 to Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I. At that time, Cosimo hired Giorgio Vasari to enlarge the palace to more than double the space and to build the famous Vasari Corridor, an above-ground walkway from Palazzo Vecchio, his old palace and the seat of government, through Uffizi, above Ponte Vecchio, and finally to Palazzo Pitti. It was an easy escape route for the Grand Duke.

Boboli Gardens façade
Photo: Wikipedia

Behind the Pitti Palace the sprawling Boboli Gardens overlooks Florence with a breathtaking view. An array of 16^th through 18^th century statues and Roman antiquities on wide graveled-avenues, fountains, grottos, nympheums, and garden temples, cover the vast gardens.

The name Boboli is a corruption of “Bogoli,” the name of the family from whom the land was purchased for these gardens. The garden is lavish by any standards and it was built solely for the enjoyment of the immediate Medici family members. According to the guide, no parties or entertainment were took place in the expansive gardens.

Eleonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I laid out the Boboli Garden. Construction of first stage began under Niccolo Tribolo, who died in 1550, leaving the work to Bartolomeo Ammanati, with contributions by Giogio Vasari (laid out the grottos), and Bernardo Buontalenti (sculptures).

Knowing how difficult is to maintain and water even a small garden, it was even more amazing to find out that everything in this garden of 111 acres is watered by a conduit that brings water from the river Arno and is fed into an elaborate irrigation system.

The Large Grotto underwent restoration in 2015; the statues on display are examples of mannerist sculpture and architecture.  Stalactites, luxuriant vegetation, and waterworks decorate the grotto.

Giotto's Bell in Piazza del Duomo

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The focal point in Florence is Piazza del Duomo, one of the most visited places in Europe and in the world, the location of the Florence Cathedral, with Brunelleschi famous Cupola, Giotto’s Campanile (bell tower), and the Baptistery. Walking from the train station, it is impossible to have an open space view of all the works as buildings crowd around the small plaza. All of a sudden, this massive construction comes into view once you reach the end of the street.

Baptistery with the Gates of Paradise
Photo: Wikipedia

Built on the ruins of a Roman wall and guard tower, the Florence Baptistery (Baptistery of Saint John) is the oldest known building in Florence, erected between 1059 and 1128, with a status of a minor basilica, a place where, until the end of the nineteenth century, all Catholic Florentines were baptized, including famous Italians like the poet Dante and famous Renaissance men and women, including Medici family members.

The baptistery stands both in Piazza del Duomo and Piazza San Giovanni, across from Florence Cathedral and the Campanile di Giotto. The sandstone, colored marble, and white Carrara marble building, shaped like an octagon, has three sets of bronze doors decorated with relief sculptures and Biblical scenes.

Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The south doors were made by Andrea Pisano, and the north and east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti.  These east doors made of gilded bronze were named by Michelangelo the Gates of Paradise. Lorenzo Ghiberti, who worked on them for 21 years, carved his own face on the right side, a self-portrait signature piece for eternity. Twenty panels depict the life of Christ from the New Testament. Eight lower panels depict four evangelists and the Church Fathers, Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory, and Saint Augustine. The door frame has gilded busts of prophets and sibyls.

Ghiberti's self-portrait on the Gates of Paradise

Photo: Wikipedia

 

Giotto’s campanile (bell tower) stands adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistery of Saint John.  The free-standing tower was built in Florentine Gothic architecture, with “polychrome marble encrustations” and rich sculpted decorations. Giotto’s Bell Tower has 414 very narrow and slippery marble steps which I climbed years ago, giving the daring climber a breathtaking view of Florence.

Duomo at night

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

When Giotto died in 1337, he had only built the lower floor, richly decorated with geometric patterns, hexagonal panels of white marble from Carrara, green marble from Prato, and reddish marble from Siena and bas-reliefs. A century later, Lucca della Robbia built five more panels.  Seven panels were chosen because the number seven has a Biblical meaning of human perfectibility. Giotto was succeeded by Andrea Pisano, who added two more levels, then by Francesco Talenti who built the top three levels and thus completed the tower in 1359. Talenti did not build the original spire designed by Giotto, thus lowering the original design height  from the 400 ft. to 277.9 ft. Nobody knows exactly which is the decorative work of Giotto and which belongs to Pisano. The work came to a halt during the vicious Black Death.

Duomo complex

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

The largest medieval building in Europe is Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (St. Mary of the Flowers) at almost 502 ft. in length and 381 ft. in height.  Began in 1296, Il Duomo di Firenze, as the Italians call it, was completed structurally in 1436 with a dome planned by Filippo Brunelleschi. The façade of the basilica, with an elaborate 19^th century Gothic Revival style by Emilio De Fabris, is adorned by multi-colored marble panels in shades of green and pink, and white.  The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence.

Brunelleschi’s dome is the largest masonry dome in the world. And  he topped it with a lantern which he did not have time to finish before his death but his friend, Michelozzo did in 1461. In 1469 Verrocchio crowned the conical roof with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics. Brunelleschi’s dome and lantern is thus 375 ft. tall. The copper ball was struck by lightning on July 17, 1600 and the copper ball fell to the ground. Two years later it was replaced by an even larger ball.

The copper ball was cast in the workshop of sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. One his young apprentices was none other than Leonardo da Vinci who was allegedly fascinated by Verrocchio’s machines that were used to hoist the ball to the top and young Leonardo made sketches of them.

As ornate as the exterior is, the Gothic interior of the church is disappointingly vast and empty. Perhaps it is so bare to make the point that a religious life must be austere and simple. Decorations were lost over time and some were moved to museums. On the other hand, the vast interior can accommodate lots of worshippers at one time. 

The interior art honors locals who contributed funds to its construction and repairs. There are 44 stained glass windows, quite a large number for that time period.  The first bishop of Florence, Saint Zenobius, is honored with a silver shrine that contains an urn with his relics. Saint Zenobius performed the miracle of reviving a dead child. The dome is covered with frescoes completed by different painters who used different methods and techniques. Brunelleschi had wanted gold mosaics that would have reflected more light through the lantern but he died and his idea died with him.

The crypt contains vaults where bishops were buried over the centuries. Among the archeological are the ruins of Roman houses, of early Christian pavement, and remains of the former cathedral,  Santa Reparata, with the tomb of Conrad II (c. 990-June 4, 1039), Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife.  There is a part of the crypt that is open to the public in which Brunelleschi’s simple and humble tomb is located, an expression of the esteem in which Florentines held the architect who helped build their place of worship. The cathedral is really his masterpiece and the crowning of his life.

Santa Croce Wikipedia

I found the Basilica di Santa Croce a most interesting church, smaller but very intriguing. A comfortable walk from the back of the Palazzo Vecchio, it is located in Piazza di Santa Croce, 800 meters south-east from the Duomo. The leather district of Florence with its shops ends in the corner of the piazza.

The minor Basilica of the Holy Cross is the largest Franciscan church in the world with sixteen chapels decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his students. It is said that St. Francis himself funded its construction. It is quite possible; St. Francis was a very rich man who gave up all his riches when he decided to follow God and the road to a simple and austere life.

Tomb in Santa Croce

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

When the site was chosen for the church, it was a marshland outside the city walls. Over time, some of the most famous Italians were buried inside the church, Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile, and Rossini. For this reason, Italians call it the Temple of the Italian Glories.

Santa Croce Interior Courtyard

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2005

 

The current church was erected to replace the old building and construction began in May 1294, paid for by Florence’s wealthiest residents. Pope Eugene IV consecrated it in 1442. The construction plan represents the Symbol of St. Francis, the Egyptian or Tau cross. There is a convent to the south of the church. Both Brunelleschi and Vasari were involved in the construction and design of the interior.

Santa Croce Façade

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

The neo-Gothic marble façade was designed by Niccolo Matas from Ancona and is dated from 1857-1863. I was surprised to see a large Star of David on the 19^th century façade which was the work of the Jewish architect Matas. Matas asked to be buried with his peers but, because he was Jewish, he was buried instead under the porch and not within the wall of the church.

Santa Croce Tomb

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2005

 

A public property since 1866, the entire complex is not just a place of worship but a burial for so many famous Italians and lesser known but moneyed residents. Florence Nightingale, who was born in Florence and named after her birthplace, has a monument dedicated to her memory in the cloister built by Brunelleschi and completed in 1453.

There is a Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce and is housed in the refectory. The former dormitory of the Franciscan monks houses today the Leather School (Scuola del Cuoio) where tourists can watch artisans make purses, wallets, and other leather goods sold adjacent to the shop.

Santa Croce suffered immensely during the Arno River flood of 1966 which affected the entire town of Florence. Mud, detritus, heating oil, and other pollutants entered the church and caused such heavy damage that it took decades to repair. On several visits, I witnessed the repairs to the main floor and to the tombs covering the entire surface. We had to walk on cardboard while the tombs were hidden from sight. I even wondered why rich Florentines would want to be buried in the floor and get trampled on by visitors and worshippers alike. The most famous were actually buried in the walls.

The renovations were finished on this visit and the tombs in the floor were restored to their original glory. It must have been quite smelly in the church when all the dead people had been buried constantly in the floors and the walls.

We left the church after lighting more candles and walked to Leonardo’s leather shop. My students had been fascinated on previous visits by the beautifully embellished book covers and leather goods. On this trip, as a memento, I bought Dave a leather tray embossed with his initials. An apprentice pressed the thin foil of gold onto the rich burgundy leather with an old-looking embossing press.

In the narrow street outside, a group of four Chinese tourists were busy watching their doctor painstakingly free a pigeon that had entangled his legs and claws into numerous thin strands of silk and could no longer fly.  Using tweezers, a nail clipper, and an antibiotic spray, he released the bird after giving him water and a couple of seeds. The bird was a bit confused, walked like a drunk for a bit and then flew away to everyone’s applause who had witnessed the rescue.

From this point we stopped at the Gold Corner, not far from Santa Croce and bought an exquisite Christmas gift. We walked to the famous Gilli café, in operation since 1793. It was a real disappointment! The service was bad, it was noisy, hot, and the sweets were way too sweet but the coffee was divine. Scuderi, on the other hand, a café from the turn of the 20^th century, had delicious cookies which we brought back to our hotel. After a Caesar salad with chicken and delicious cookies to boot, we were ready for a restful sleep after covering so much historical hallowed ground in Florence.

 

 

Florence Sparkled Under the Bright Sun of Tuscany

Florence Duomo

After a restless night, trying not to sleep too close to the chasm between the twin beds cobbled together as one Italian-style matrimonial bed, we woke up with more mosquito bites and threw open the window to let the Tuscan sunshine in. From the eighth floor of our hotel, the downtown Florence, with its distinctive Duomo was sparkling like a red jewel against the late spring clear blue sky.

Our love affair with Florence started twenty-two years ago and has brought us back again and again, and every time we have discovered something new.  The capital of Tuscany, the birthplace and cradle of the Renaissance, is truly the crown jewel with magnificent palaces, museums, cultural monuments, art and architecture, a place where the visitor can feel lost in time.

 

Cupola of the Brunelleschi Duomo, a real jewel

Photo: Wikipedia

 

Florence, about 39.5 square miles, is always crowded by lovers of art and everything Italian (about 13 million per year), who never stop coming to experience the sights and sounds of history. It started with the “Grand Tour” in the 19^th century and has never stopped. It can be hot and humid in the summer and foggy in winter but, if you are lucky like us, a cool spring or a late fall are the best times to visit. The lyrical countryside is most verdant in late spring and early summer.

River Arno from Ponte Vecchio Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

The River Arno runs peacefully and muddy today through downtown Florence. You can see bridges crossing the river in the distance and the Florentine hills surrounding the city. In medieval times, wealthy merchants retreated to these hills during hot summers. August is still the favorite vacation month of Italians. It is not a good time to visit though because many businesses are closed and it is really, really hot.

Ponte Vecchio

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

Taking the early hotel shuttle in the morning, I stopped first in my favorite silk shop, the Evangelisti, while David was busy searching for a place to have lunch in the vicinity. On a parallel street from the city hall, Palazzo Vecchio, he found the sandwich shop where he had spotted the night before a large crowd of students, a sign that the food was good and inexpensive.

A huge fresh and just-sliced pork sandwich and a prosciutto sandwich later, we ate standing in the narrow shop crowded with smoked ham hocks, bologna, and fragrant salamis hanging from the ceiling; a few miniature wooden chairs designed for Tiny Tim, glass displays overflowing with typical Italian salads, meats, freshly made breads, anemic bulbs, a message board, and bottles of wines from the local and neighboring vintners completed the rustic decor.

There was no empty spot in this miniature eatery. A couple and their beautiful yellow lab were seated right in the front of the store, literally on the edge of the very narrow cobbled sidewalk, on the tiny street designated both pedestrian and “carrabile.” It was a dangerous game of “watch out for cars and scooters” to walk on this street.



Basilica di San Lorenzo exterior

Photo: Wikipedia

 

Established first by Etruscans, the Florence of today owes its existence to Julius Caesar who built a settlement for his veteran soldiers in 59 B.C. and named it Fluentia because of its location at the confluence of two rivers. Later changed to Florentia (flowering), the settlement was built like an army camp, close to the route between Rome and the north, in the fertile valley of the River Arno. The main streets intersected in what is today’s Piazza della Repubblica, a lively square with street entertainers and a carousel. On a previous trip we had stayed in the four-star hotel in the corner of the Piazza. It was so convenient to walk out the front door and into Renaissance art, architecture, and history.

Carousel in front of Santa Maria della Croce

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2005

 

The Florentines have had a love-hate relationship with the River Arno which keeps the area fertile but also floods it from time to time and markers give testimony to its fury and flood levels.

Among the many bridges that span the Arno, Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) is the most famous. The multitude of shops built on its edges, hanging like fruit and held up by stilts are infamous for its beautiful but expensive jewelry, art, and souvenirs.

Ponte Vecchio

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2004

 

Butchers occupied these shops at first but Florentines complained bitterly about the stench coming from the River Arno where butchers dumped animal blood and guts into the water, and the butchers were eventually thrown out in 1593 by the Medici Grand Dukes. Gold merchants replaced the butchers as soon as the shops were cleaned.

As nasty and smelly as the Arno must have been back then, it made a full come back today. I saw what appeared to be a beaver swimming below one of the shop windows. I can only imagine what the monthly rent must be to occupy such a tiny and special place – and it was like a miniature shop inside.

Vasari corridor from Palazzo Vecchio to Uffizi

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The bridge also carries Vasari’s elevated corridor which connects the Uffizi to the Palazzo Pitti, the Medici residence. The neighboring bridges are Ponte Santa Trinita and Ponte alle Grazie.

The original Ponte Vecchio was built by Etruscans; it was first documented in 996; but the current one was rebuilt in the 14^th century. It was the only bridge in Florence that survived WWII undamaged. As the locals tell the story, it survived because of an alleged direct order from Hitler to spare it. Its unusual construction of “segmental arches” reduces span-to-rise ratio and the number of pillars into the riverbed. The back shops that can be seen from upriver were added in the 17^th century.

The Hills surrounding Florence

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2004

 

One of the guides told the story of how the concept of bankruptcy originated here on Ponte Vecchio.  When a banker (money-changer) could not pay his debts, the table on which he conducted business (banco) was destroyed (rotto) by soldiers, thus the practice became to be known as “banco rotto”(broken table), or possibly “banca rotta” (broken bank).

We walked to Ponte Vecchio, ever so careful to avoid the speeding scooters, the tourists, the pick pockets, and the kids balancing precariously large cones of gelato. I took pictures of the vistas and admired the expensive “vitrine” laden with gold jewelry, something that insurers would never allow in fine jewelry shops in the United States. My friend Sevil would have loved window shopping on this bridge.

Benvenuto Cellini Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

To honor the great Florentine sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini, and the fourth century of his birth, the goldsmiths commissioned his bronze bust in 1900. His statue carved and cast by Raffaello Romanelli stands on a fountain in the middle of the Eastern side of the bridge.

There are padlocks on the bridge placed by lovers who throw the key into the river under the illusory belief that their love will be eternal. The warning of a steep fine of 160 euros may have prevented some from attaching padlocks to the bridge. However, mass hysteria founded on foolish superstition, still leaves behind thousands of padlocks that must be removed monthly, padlocks that have caused expensive and extensive damage to the bridge.

Uffizi Photo: Wikipedia

The Uffizi Gallery, with one side facing the river Arno, started as a project by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 at the order of Cosimo di Medici to make room for offices of Florentine magistrates, hence the name “uffizi” (offices) but was not completed until 1581. The magistrates’ offices, the tribunal, and the state archives were combined under one roof, with the eventual intention to display art works from the vast Medici collections. Grand Duke Francesco I, the son of Cosimo I, carried out his plan.

Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici member, negotiated a Patto di famiglia, which left the art treasures to the public in Florence, forming the first modern museums. The gallery had been opened to visitors by request since the sixteenth century but it opened officially to the public in 1765. The collection was so huge that some of the pieces had been transferred to other museums in Florence.

A car bomb which exploded in Via dei Georgofili in May 1993 severely damaged the Niobe room, classical sculptures, and the neoclassical interior which had been repaired; however the frescoes were damaged beyond repair. It was believed that the Sicilian Mafia was responsible.

Street art in Florence

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

Uffizi is so popular that standing in line for a few hours is not unusual. Last time we visited the museum we had to wait about an hour to get our tickets even though we had reservations.

The flood which resulted from a heavy rainstorm in August 2007 affected the Gallery when water leaked through the ceiling and visitors had to be evacuated.  The heavy flood of 1966 damaged many art collections in Florence including the Uffizi and inundated churches like Santa Croce.

In addition to ancient sculptures, the Uffizi collection contains works by Cimabue, Giotto, Sandro Boticelli (Primavera, The Birth of Venus, Adoration of the Magi of 1475), Leonardo da Vinci (The Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi), Albrecht Dürer (Adoration of the Magi), Michelangelo (Doni Tondo), Raphael (Madonna of the Goldfinch), Titian (Flora, Venus of Urbino), Caravaggio (Bacchus, Sacrifice of Isaac, Medusa), and Rembrandt (Self-portrait as a Young Man), just to name a few.

Boticelli's Birth of Venus

I was in awed silence as I paced the marble corridors of history and was lost in beauty, color, form, and genius.

Backtracking from the Ponte Vecchio, we came upon the Mercato del Porcellino (the piglet market) where tourists were busy rubbing a wild boar’s bronze snout for good luck and having pictures of themselves taken with it after throwing a coin in the fountain to make sure they would return to Florence.

Markets were held at this location as early as the eleventh century. The Loggia was added in the mid-1500s during the reign of the Grand Duke Cosimo I to protect vendors from inclement weather. The Fontana del Porcellino (the fountain of the piglet) is a 17^th century replica of a Roman statue which was also a copy of an original Greek statue.

Street art  Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

As we got lost on purpose on various narrow and dark cobbled stradas, we encountered phenomenally talented street painters who were using the asphalted pavement to duplicate with so much skill masterpieces from the Uffizi, using only colored chalk and charcoal.

San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapel

Photo: Wikipedia

 

Running from the Church of San Lorenzo along Via Ariento to Via Nazionale are the San Lorenzo markets.  The Central Market (mercato centrale), a two-level indoor market, sells raw and cooked food, and fruits and vegetables. In typical Italian fashion, food or produce cannot be touched, you must ask the shopkeeper to pick it up for you and place it in a bag.  The outdoor market sells leather goods, clothing and souvenirs which are of cheaper quality and not exactly inexpensive. I remember buying here a pair of sandals for April sixteen years ago.

Interior of Basilica of San Lorenzo

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The exterior of Basilica di San Lorenzo is a monastically-drab stone that can be easily overlooked when compared to the more lavish marbled-exteriors of many other basilicas I have visited. It is one of the largest churches in Florence, the burial place for famous Medici family members from Cosimo il Vecchio (the Old) to Cosimo III, and for the longest time, the parish church for the Medici family. After three hundred years of being the city’s cathedral, the bishop’s seat was moved to Santa Reparata.

It is believed that the first church at this location was consecrated in 393 A.D. when it stood outside the city walls. As the city grew, the church found itself in the heart of the Central Market.

One of the Medicis, Giovanni di Bicci, offered to replace the 11th century Romanesque rebuilding and hired Filippo Brunelleschi, the most important architect of the first half of the 15^th century, to design it.  “The building with his alteration was not completed until after his death.”

The San Lorenzo Church is part of a large monastic complex that contains the Old Sacristy by Burnelleschi with interior decorations and sculpture by Donatello, the Laurentian Library by Michelangelo, the New Sacristy based on Michelangelo’s design, and the Medici Chapels by Matteo Nigetti.

The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana), built by the Medici Pope, Clement VII, to emphasize the Medici’s scholarship, contains more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. These manuscripts and books of the famous merchant family formed their private library. Michelangelo planned and built this library in the style called mannerism, with elongated proportion, balance, ideal beauty, and highly stylized poses, often exaggerated.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

 

 

Next Stop in Tuscany, Florence

View from our hotel of Florence
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

We made it to the ultra-modern four-star Hilton Hotel on the outskirts of Florence which was no small feat in the slow rush hour traffic.  The roads and ramps are so much narrower in Italy, that I am positive an 18-wheeler would not be able to maneuver the turns and the exits. We were assigned a room on the 8^th floor with a gorgeous view of downtown Florence and the Duomo. 

The bed was maddening, the joining of two twin beds on the same frame which worked fine as long as neither one of us fell in the crack in the middle. The fancy marble shower leaked copiously through the glass enclosure. The bathroom had a bizarre feature; I am not talking about the ever-present and annoying bidet but a sliding partial wall that revealed a glassed window from the bedroom into the shower. It was a peeping Tom meets modernity for the sake of adding more glass into the décor and perhaps an illusion of spaciousness.

To make matters worse, that night we got bitten by mosquitoes while sleeping. Who would have thought that mosquitoes could fly that high up? Perhaps we would not have cracked the window to get some fresh air and much-needed coolness as the A/C was tied-to a smart meter tightly controlled from the reception, a balmy 26 degrees Celsius.

Interior of the gorgeous ceilings in Palazzo Vecchio seen through a window

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

An elegant and smiling reception clerk apologized the next day and brought up delicious chocolate and a plug-in with a chemical repellent. An elegant note suggested that we should keep the windows closed at all times.  Apparently Florence was built on a swamp and mosquitoes have been a problem through the centuries. Some of the Medici members who were reputed to have been poisoned actually died of malaria; scientists found out through DNA analysis of the remains of two of the Medicis entombed in a church.

David Wikipedia

That evening we took the 6:30 p.m. hotel shuttle to downtown with numerous magpies who talked incessantly like children who escaped parental supervision.  They were dressed up to the nines in their tightest clothes possible. They were in town for a conference on May 5-7, the State of the Union, Women in Europe and the World, and were going to dinner together. One lady nearby told me that Prime Minister Rienzi was going to address them the next day at 7 p.m. in Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria.

As I spoke to three young men whom I stopped later in the piazza, I found out that one talk did address the problem of European women raped by the influx of Middle Eastern refugees allowed into the country by their own government who were willing to change the face of Europe and Islamize it. The speech was allegedly posted to the website.

The bus dropped us and picked us up at the train station, a bustling sea of travelers from around Europe who were taking fast trains in various directions. We had to walk a good distance from the train station to the old downtown, past the beautiful marbled and well-lit Duomo. The EU tourists had thickened even though it was early evening.  

Via dei Calzaiuoli  Photo: Wikipedia

I could tell the locals by the way they walked, hurriedly and with a purpose, on the edge of the street, in perfectly matched and artsy designer clothes, carrying a fashionable Italian leather briefcase, and wearing uncomfortable-looking but beautifully crafted shoes meant to be showy, not utilitarian.

A self-respecting Italian would never be caught in a pair of Nike tennis shoes. Clownish-looking shoes resembling our bowling shoes were an aesthetic expression only fashionistas could understand.

The ever-present Italian silk scarf was elegantly tied around their necks even though sometimes it was not cold enough to justify wearing a scarf. If you wanted to look Italian, you could not possibly leave home without a scarf or a shawl, it was an essential accessory, especially around Milan and Venice where the weather could turn on a dime.

My silk scarf shop that looked like a prison on the outside

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

Our favorite gelateria on Via dei Calzoiuoli

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

Piazza della Signoria at dusk

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

The street to the left of Palazzo Vecchio with the three gentlemen I interviewed

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

The Piazza with the Duomo at night

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

Shops were closed, the streets are rolled up early in Florence too, save for gelaterias and a few restaurants that catered to tourists. The locals eat in out of the way places where tourists seldom venture and the owners charge a cover if they agree magnanimously to serve you. If they don’t, the chef with hairy arms and starched white coat and hat may get upset. Our favorite gelateria, on Via dei Calzaiuoli still served the best gelato in oversized cups.

 Photo: Wikipedia

Via dei Calzaiuoli connects the famous piazza del Duomo with the Piazza della Signoria.

We found the tiny silk scarf shop I discovered twenty years ago called Evangelisti but it was closed. Italians workday is much shorter than our traditional eight-hour day. Italians know rest and take pride in their two-hour siesta, riposare dopo pranzo.

The evening ended at the outdoor restaurant Il David, by the heating lamps casting a glow on the Loggia with its beautiful statues, right across from the replica of the famous statue of David, currently housed in the Galleria dell’ Accademia.  Michelangelo’s original statue of David was placed initially outside the Palazzo Vecchio as a symbol of the Republic’s defiance of the tyrannical Medici family.

Turtle and Rider statue in Piazza della Signoria

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

In the center of Piazza della Signoria, was a gaudy temporary piece of art made of shiny rose metal, a man riding a turtle.  The piece was a strident expression of modern art meets tasteless, in sharp contrast to the beauty surrounding it.

Giambologna’s equestrian statue of Duke Cosimo I (1595), celebrates the man who brought the entire Tuscany under Medici military rule, while Ammannati’s Nettuno (1575) revels in the Medici’s maritime successes.

Loggia dei Lanzi

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

Photo: Wikipedia

 

Loggia della Signoria (Loggia dei Lanzi), with wide arches designed by Benci di Cione and Simone di Francesco Talenti (1376-1382), is an open air art gallery of antique and Renaissance art with beautiful original sculptures and copies. It is told that Michelangelo had proposed the construction of such arches all around Piazza della Signoria. The terrace was used by Medici princes to watch public ceremonies in the square and to watch Gonfaloniers and Priors being sworn into office.

The name Loggia dei Lanzi goes back to the rule of Grand Duke Cosimo I. His landknechts (lanzichenecchi, short lanzi) were German mercenary pikemen who were housed in the Loggia.

Photo: Wikipedia

One of the statues by Cellini which took almost ten years to complete (1554), Perseus, is holding in one hand Medusa’s head dripping blood and a lance in another, an alleged reminder of what could have happened to those who crossed the Medici family and its rule. The intricately carved marble pedestal displays bronze statuettes of Jupiter, Mercury, Minerva, and Danae.  In his autobiography, Cellini described how the melting furnace got overheated while he was casting the bronze, spoiling the process. Cellini fed the furnace with his own household furniture and with 200 pewter dishes, plates, pots, and pans, successfully restarting the bronze flow.  When the bronze cooled, the statue was finished except for three toes on the right foot which were added later.

Neptune Fountain

Photo: Ileana 2016

Palazzo Vecchio façade

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

 

The Medici lion

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

On the right side of David, the Medici family appropriated and placed Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus (1534) to demonstrate their power upon return from exile. A Medici lion and Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabines completes the statuary of the Loggia. It was carved from an “imperfect block of white marble, the largest block ever transported to Florence.” The beautiful statue placed in the Loggia since 1583, can be admired from all sides. The marble pedestal is also decorated by bronze bas-reliefs with the same theme.

Michelangelo's David outside Palazzo Vecchio

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

Giambologna’s marble statue, Hercules beating the Centaur Nessus (1599), was placed in the Loggia in 1841.  Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus, discovered in Rome, stood originally at the southern end of Ponte Vecchio.

Corner of Palazzo Vecchio Photo: Ileana 2016

 

The back of the Loggia has five marble female statues and the statue of a barbarian prisoner from the Hadrian or Trajan’s era, discovered in Rome in 1541 and housed at the Medici villa in Rome since 1584 until brought to the Loggia in 1789.

Uffizi middle courtyard that separates the two wings

Photo: Ileana 2016

 

On the left side of the Loggia, crowded very close to the Palazzo Vecchio, leaving just a narrow street in the middle, is the Uffizi palace, harder to see in the low lit surroundings.

Utterly exhausted, we trudged our way back to the train station for the 10:45 p.m. shuttle pick up for Hilton hotel.  I will continue the exploration of Florence after a good night’s rest.