churches: Siena and Florence.

view of Siena's cathedral from above

It is raining steadily today and Evan is recovering from a bad cold so there’s time for a long post!  We're just sitting around eating lots of blood oranges, which are in season right now, and the basis for a citrus addiction! Last Saturday, the boys and I took the train to Siena, about an hour and a half south of here.   Siena was on the "holy road" to Rome and Florence was not--churches on the holy road profited from the pilgrims making donations during their pilgrimages as you will see in the pictures below of Siena's cathedral. Siena is a medieval city that was always in competition with Florence until it was suppressed in the 1500s by Florence. Thus, the medieval portion of the city is pretty much intact from that time on.  It was a very cold day so we decided to stay for the afternoon, walking the mile from the train station to the medieval part of the city.  It has a huge square in its center called Il Campo where the famous Palio bareback horse races are still held to this day.  We climbed the 500 steps to the Torre del Mangia (the first watchman was an "eater of profits" and thus the name!), visited the beautiful Sienna Duomo and walked around the city a bit until we were frozen and Ryan found us a taxi to get back to the train station! 
  

Palazzo Publicco and Torre del Mangia (Siena)







view of Siena and Tuscan countryside from Tower of Mangia



Another view of Siena and countryside from tower



Siena's Duomo

 


up close, filigree work on Siena's Duomo



Ryan and Evan at top of Torre del Mangia

Okay, if you're still interested in churches, I have some pictures (below) and info to share from my tour of Florence's Duomo the other day with the art history class.  (The boys say they're sick of visiting churches!) Both of these cities had Baptisteries (for baptizing their entire populations) and these were separate from the cathedrals and octogonal.  8 was an auspicious number, indicating infinity (especially when placed on its side!) but also because it represented 7+1, that is it symbolized the eighth day of creation or eternity. Florence's Baptistery was built in two stages, the first part including the first two stories and then the third story was added later and you can see this difference reflected below.  It is a beautiful building and it was built over the site of an old "domis" or home from the Roman times.  The Florentines simply built up the piazza and put the Baptistery and church above.  We went underground below the Baptistery and saw the original mosaic tile floor remains of the house that was there in Roman times as well as some of its walls.  The church that accompanies the Baptistery is called Santa Marie del Fiore, St. Mary of the Flower, and it was built directly over Santa Reparata, the original church on the site.  St. Reparata was Florence's original patron saint, but she was really a "second-rate saint" (you know, only an eleven year old martyr) and so the Florentines decided to name St. John the Baptist as their patron saint to garner a little more respect.  Below you will also see a picture of a memorial to St. Zenobius, Florence's first bishop, just outside the Baptistery.  The day we were there, it was decked with all kinds of fresh flowers to commemorate St. Zenobius...legend has it that there was an elm tree on that site in antiquity, and when St. Zenobius corpse was carried past it, it spontaneously burst into bloom! 
At any rate, I am fascinated by how legends, myths, politics and competition all intertwine in the building of churches and are reflected in the symbolism within. Inside all of these churches are chapels and statues, etc. commissioned by wealthy families to establish their perpetuity, or some type of everlasting fame, and there is competition here as well for bigger and better.  Seems like we do that with our homes now, not so much our churches!  Inside of Santa Maria del Fiore are large paintings of some of their condotterie (mercenaries, in this case from England) who fought for Florence (Again, I love all the contradictions).  We stood inside Santa Maria del Fiore right on the site where the Pazzi conspiracy occured: the Pazzi family decided to take out the Medicis and while Florence's bishop (who was in on the conspiracy as was the Pope at the time) was delivering communion to Lorenzo the Great and his brother, the Pazzis stabbed Lorenzo's brother and killed him right on the spot.  Lorenzo ran into the sacristy of the church and barricaded himself there until help arrived.  Now, that would have been a much less boring lesson than the ones I learned in catechism class!
We had the opportunity to go up on the outside railing of the church (it has a rather low railing I might add) and view the city and Brunelleschi's Dome close-up.  Brunelleschi's Dome was an architectural marvel at the time and still is, since it was the first dome of its type built with flying scaffolding (usually the dome would have to be built over some type of support which would later be removed).  They still don't know exactly how it was done and Brunelleschi never revealed his plans....he didn't write backwards and upside down and cryptically like Leonardo da Vinci, he just didn't keep his plans. As an aside, Fred and I have read Ross King's book "Brunelleschi's Dome" and it is a fascinating account of the building of the dome and the politics and history of the time. We were also able to go inside on the inside upper railing of the church and had some stunning views from above.  Elaine Ruffolo seems to have an "in" with the museums and churches and this has enabled us to do some things you wouldn't do on a normal tour.
I also wanted to mention something about the campanile (bell tower) that accompanies the churches.  Many of these ring at odd times in the city and this still reflects their original purpose--to indicate when the gates to the city were opening in the morning and also to reflect the "working day"--thus, they are still calibrated every few days so they ring at sunset and every hour before sunset for that given day.  You will also see below an original 24 hour clock on the back upper wall of the church. Just across from the Baptistery is a building called the Miseracordia ( a place to "help people") with a fresco of St. Peter preaching to the Florentines to give alms to the poor.  Ironically, it was closed just three weeks ago because of a scandal--there is a great deal of money mysteriously missing from its coffers!
One of the things you can't miss are the Baptistery doors made of gilded bronze.  In 1330, the Florentines celebrated their wealth by commisioning these doors...the first set is by Pisano and they are solid bronze (directly below) and have panels you "read" from left to right of biblical scenes from St. John the Baptist's life.  For the second set of doors, the Florentines held a competition and it boiled down to Brunelleschi (who lost) and Ghiberti who won.  The second set of doors are hollow bronze--there was the revival of the lost wax technique of bronze casting re-discovered from the ancient Roman times.  In any event, the doors are fantastic and there are even little "portraits" of the artists sculpted into the doors!
Though, it is often strange to be "living" in the medieval part of a city, there are some great benefits to being able to go back and forth to these sites at will.  Often times, you can't take all of it in on the first pass.  Yesterday, I braved going into the Uffizi Museum for two hours...there was no line and I was able, for instance, to stand right in front of Botticellis' "Birth of Venus" and actually look at it for awhile...not many people even in that room! The down side to living in a medieval part of a city is that there aren't many trees or greenery, and some of the narrow streets seem like dungeons...just pavement and stone and noises just reverberate off the stone walls.  Today marks 30 days since I have driven a car so that also feels strange since the method of transport is mostly our legs, followed by buses and trains!


Florence's baptistery (St. John) . Notice the gilded bronze baptistery doors




Brunelleschi's Dome on top of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral (little black holes in the dome are where the flying scaffolding for building the dome went or so it is said.  Inside, the dome, one of the holes comes out right where Christ's head is in the big fresco)



Memorial to St. Zenobius, Florence's first bishop.  When his body was carried by the elm tree that originally grew in this spot, it was said to have flowered spontaneously!



view inside Florence's cathedral from upper inside railing.  Those little blips are people walking around on the magnificent inlaid marble floors.




View of part of dome and city from outside railing of Santa Maria del Fiore



Gilded bronze baptistery doors--each panel has a biblical scene

24 hour clock inside the cathedral



view of the city from the outside railing of Santa Maria del Fiore...you see Santa Maria Novella in distance




Campanile (bell tower) that accompanies Florence's cathedral complex. 



Pictures of famous condotteri (mercenaries!!!) inside Santa Maria del Fiore



Cooking post from Renee 1-26-11

I attended a cooking class today at La Quercia Cooking Studio in Impruneta about 15 minutes outside Florence in the country side.  Veronica, the owner and teacher, has a rustic Tuscan kitchen (below) where she teaches cooking classes.  The surrounding property is gorgeous with acres of olive trees and grapevines and Veronica makes her own olive oil "Olio Extravergine di Oliva Toscana Villa La Impruneta" (if that isn't a mouthful!).  She has 27 chickens so has her own fresh eggs for baking souffles. It was an absolute treat just to walk into the kitchen with the fireplace going, the table set already and a large basket on the counter with artichokes, oranges, lemons, and chives...seriously the whole experience almost brought tears to my eyes, it was so other-wordly. 


We spent the day learning how to make the following dishes: a shrimp and white bean antipasto, gnocchi alla Romana, stuffed artichokes, a type of rolled meatloaf called "girello en gallantina", and an orange cream souffle.  My grandmother used to make the most wonderful gnocchis (dumplings) from a potato and wheat flour but the gnocchi all Romana are made solely from wheat (they even have the wheat flour numbered, with the fine 00 type used for gnocchis) and milk with ground nutmeg, then baked covered with some Parmesan and sage butter. I have seen large glass flasks in the windows of cooking stores (of which there are many in Florence!) and had no idea what they were for.  I learned today they are for cooking beans--as Veronica says you must use these flasks with the narrow necks as opposed to a large pan because the beans will "cook like a dance!"  She gave a dissertation on the difference between the four types of artichokes--I had no idea!

I can honestly say that cooking is approached as an art form here, and I understand how the "slow food" movement started in Italy.  You go outside into the herb garden and gather the herbs: everything is gathered fresh.  Often times, before a cooking class, the teacher will take the students to one of the outdoor markets to show them how to buy the ingredients.  We started about 11 a.m. and sat down for this incredible meal a few hours later just as I found out the bus drivers in Florence were on strike and the boys were again walking home from school.  No problem, a little Moscana after this sumptuous lunch...I calculate that I walked about 8 miles total today so I wasn't too worried about what I'd eaten!

La Quercia Cooking Studio

Antipasto di gamberi e fagioli
(antipasto with shrimp and beans)--the shrimp are marinated in fresh orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper after boiling three minutes



olive trees on the hillside in Impruneta



her olive trees (even in winter you have these wonderful shades of green on the hillsides)









Left: Carcioffi Ritti Scazzottatti (stuffed artichokes)
Right: Girello gallantina ("rolled" type of meatloaf with pistachios and eggs





Veronica in La Quercia Studio teaching



Evan's post

Hey this is Evan. Greetings from Italy. This is my first time writing so I want to fill in all the readers on everything that has happened since I got here. The first day after landing we walked around and got some gelato. I fell asleep at 6:30 because we had just traveled over 24 hours. I woke up the next day at 2:30. The next night i couldn't fall asleep until 5:30 in the morning. A few days later I got a cold. The first few days, as you can see, were pretty tough on me. I have really enjoyed walking through the markets with all the street vendors. Above is a picture of me looking through a window with a real gasmask from World War II that I purchased from one of the side street flea markets selling Italian World War II antiques

School has started, and like it is always is for the new kid, it was a little tough. The Italian kids here keep to themselves and it took time getting used to. But now I think I am situated and all is well.

One thing I really like is the food, especially the pasta and pizza.  The pizza has a very thin crust, and the cheese is very good.  My favorite is the gelato, especially fragola (strawberry). The food is fresh.I like to grocery shop and cook.


Evan.

school and neighborhood and art history

The bus line that brought the boys to school arbitrarily stopped Monday so they climbed up to school the back way up a winding series of steps from the Porta San Niccolo.  We found another way with two bus lines and they are back in business and, most importantly, learning lessons about self-reliance. When the bus lines changed, Evan was coming home earlier than Ryan and ended up way out in Florence somewhere on a different bus. So, he called a taxi! The school is a little over two miles away--very close to Piazzale Michelangelo (which is on a hill overlooking the city) in a Renaissance villa and it still has its formal gardens (certainly not in the shape they once were!), beautiful views of the city and the surrounding Tuscan hills. Ryan found out this week that his class will be making a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia for a week in March.  They will be at a model United Nations meeting with kids from all over and then they’ll also get to tour around for several days.  So, Ryan from Texas will take a trip to Russia with his classmates from Italy to represent Korea!  

This week I started Elaine Ruffalo’s Art History Course in Florence which is intended as an intro to the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance, with a special emphasis on Florence---each week devoted to a single topic or decorative complex.  Part of why I wanted to do this course was to learn why Florence figured so importantly in the Renaissance.  She told us that the original wealth in Florence came from the Wool Guild.  The Italians developed the dying process—discovering that alum bound pigment to fabric.  This, mixed with the fast flowing Arno River for washing fabrics, was a great combo.  The famous Florentine purples and reds, respectively, come from sea urchin ink and crushed ladybug shells!!  The business and money from the wool making business in turn helped develop the silk business, apothecaries, linen and shoemaker guilds, and ultimately, the banking guilds.  The arts then followed the money in Florence.  It has been hard to comprehend how all of this happened in one place.  We did get to Orsan Michele, which is the old granary turned into a church…you got it, first there was a church there that was torn down and a granary built on the site and then there was a sighting of the Virgin Mary on one of the columns in the open grain trading area, and they built an altar over the area, closed it in and made it a church!!  The church still has openings in the columns for the chutes that sent grain down from the upstairs grain storage area! On the outside of church are the statues of patron saints for the various guilds (kind of a "grain and god" type of place!)

We are staying close to a street named Corso dei Tintori, the original area where the wool dyers (tintori) lived.  This is such an old section that closeby, one of the curved streets is shaped that way because it was one side of the original Roman amphitheater.  I still find it easy to get lost…the streets wind around and since this has the medieval layout, the buildings were crammed inside the city walls with narrow streets, and you never really get a look at the horizon to see exactly where you are.  In fact, after the bubonic plague in the 1300s, they actually moved the second set of Roman walls inside the original ones because so much of the population was wiped out. Some days you’ll find a store or place on a street, but then the next day it may be locked up with a metal grate or huge wooden doors and you think you’re going crazy because you could have sworn you saw it on this same street and now it seems to have evaporated.  There are some other wild streets here: Borgo Allegri (street of the happy or joyful ones) and Via del Malcontenti (street of the unhappy ones...especially as those who walked down this street were on their way to the gallows!). I prefer to walk down Borgo Allegri if at all possible.

It is not high tourist time right now and you can get into the museums and sights without lines or throngs of people.  The restaurants are mostly filled with Italians but many restaurants close down in January because it is so slow and repairs are made, people take vacations and it is cold.  There is a feeling of displacement being here, not speaking the language, really being an observer and, almost invisible.  I like the early mornings when the vendors on Via dei Greci are setting up their carts of scarves and gloves and knick knacks and the news vendors are opening their stands and the Florentine women in high heels are walking their little coiffed, sweatered lap dogs over the cobblestones.  I went into Saint Niccolo church the other day early to take a look and watched as several of the vendors came in to say a little prayer to the Virgin Mary before going about their day. 



altar at Orsan Michele church in right front corner right over the spot where the sighting of Mary was! 




Upstairs in Orsan Michele where the old granary storage area was.  Now it houses original statues for the various guilds (wool, silk, apothecaries, etc.) while the replicas are in niches on the outside.  This building functioned both as a civic and spiritual center, sort of a "grain and god" type of place!



one of many Medici villas outside Florence

Fred, Ryan and Evan on via Pepi



This bridge is part of the Vasari Corridor which was commissioned by the Medici to connect the Pitti Palace(their residence on one side of the river) to Palazzio Vecchio on the other side of the river where they did business. It is what you see enclosed above the Ponte Vecchio Bridge.  Thus, they wouldn't have to be seen in public.  It actually covers up the front face of St. Felicita church.



post on Sunday Jan 16th from Renee

This is a short post...I wanted to put up some recent pictures!  We went to Fiesole, a short bus ride up outside of Florence, yesterday afternoon--it overlooks Florence and has some beautiful old churches. Friday night at 5 p.m. we went to the Vespers service at San Miniato al Monte.  The church was built around 1000 A.D. and it is said that St. Minias, who was beheaded, carried his head up to the top of the hill and that is why the church was built there over his relics.  The "white order" of the Benedictine monks are still living there and we heard them do Gregorian chants (the psalms in Latin) in the crypt of the church. Beautiful. Even the boys admitted this was quite interesting!  There is quite a cemetery behind and surrounding the old church with very impressive mausoleums and statuaries.  I've also posted a picture of a part of the old Roman wall around old Florence on the southern side that is still intact.  You see the old "Porta" or huge cement towers with openings into the city at various spots, but the wall is also intact still in areas.

It is a challenge speaking Italian--all of us trying to practice our Rosetta Stone Italian.  Also adjusting to all the differences here--most shops are closed between 1-3 or 1-4 every days and the restaurants don't open at night until 7 p.m.  The dryer we have has a "spinner" which is basically a centrifuge that wrings the clothes out but doesn't dry them!  The boys did the grocery shopping today without me as I have a wicked cold and they did an impressive job!



San Miniato al Monte

  

View outside Fiesole



copy of David in Piazzale Michelangelo



Mausoleums in cemetery behind San Miniato al Monte



old Roman walls still around Florence on southern edge

view of Florence in am light



boys in Fiesole



post from Renee on 1/13/2011

I thought I'd put several pictures on this post since it was our first really spectacular day weather-wise in Florence.  Ryan and I had to go pick up some school supplies and we were near the Duomo just before sunset and decided to just go ahead and go in since it was nearly empty (January and February being cold and a very good times to visit here!).  We climbed the 463 steps to the top and had magnificent views of the city just before sunset.  I could hear the Italians saying "spettacolore" and knew just what they meant. Ryan also took a picture of the frescoes (frescoes were painted in 14th century and onward and replaced the mosaic...fresco means "fresh" because they were painted on wet plaster) inside the Cupola...after you climb a number of stairs you are staring right up at this fresco (below) and it looks like the workers are climbing right out at you.  As we climbed back down, there was a room on the side with some of the implements used to get materials up to the top...a huge pulley system that was counter-weighted...oxen would just go round and round in circles all day inside the church to hoist the beams, bricks, stone to complete the dome. When you're inside the Cupola (before going outside to walk around the walkway), you look down at the magnificent inside of the church with its inlaid marble floors.

Speaking of spectacles, yesterday it was raining and I visited the Museum Specola, which forms part of the natural history museum of the University of Florence since 1775.  There were more mounted animals there than you could imagine...it was haunting to look at elephants, rhinos, monkeys, polar bears, every type of bird you could imagine...all preserved and in these old glass cases.  But the most amazing part were the waxworks, specifically the medical models showing with precision every part of a human anatomical dissection.  The most mind-blowing were the three-dimensional (diorama-like) large boxes showing "scenes" from Florence during the plague...rotted corpses, rats, mushrooms growing from the devastation...all in unbelievable detail...of course, with an angel or two hovering above.  Surreal.  Night at the Museum 3 should be filmed right here!

Also, I also have a picture here of some of the "love padlocks" that lovers place on the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) and then throw the key in the Arno.  But, alas, they've been removed and placed on chain links near the Arno, not on the bridge...wonder if that still means their love is "eternal?" 

Our landlady told us yesterday the noise we hear from the Piazza until all hours of the morning is from the drunk American college students...they really cut loose here. We are still finding our way around, trying to avoid being hit by Vespas (which means "wasp" by the way!). 

Duomo (top of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral) just before sunset

Campanile (bell tower) of Santa Maria de Fiore

View of Florence from top of Duomo (463 steps up!)

Palazzo Antellesi

Frescoes inside the Cupola of Duomo

Some of the "love padlocks"near the Ponte Vecchio (legend is if you attach a lock somewhere on the Ponte Vecchio bridge and throw the key in the Arno River, your love is eternal---only thing is they've moved the locks off the bridge!)

Rduff post that Rduff's mother made him do, but it's ok cause he graciously accepted

Ciao Ciao. Florence is a chill city, and our apartment is chill too. Our apartment is conveniently in the middle of the city, in a very old building. Aside from the weird smell of such an old building, the apartment is cool, and it even has a really old elevator that my brochacho and I use.  The city is much different than Dallas. It takes some getting used to, but I like walking and riding the bus everywhere. I took this picture of the Duomo a few days ago. The Duomo is Florence's most prominent landmark. I liked it because it was humongous, and each part of it had intricate designs, and it was covered in marble. I've had one problem since we started walking the streets...I can't resist buying anything interesting I see. My Christmas money is going away because of this habit. It's so bad that I bought a cheap fake Rolex that stopped working 5 minutes after I bought it. We've been to a lot of museums and other historical monuments. The grafitti in this city is crazy. It's everywhere. Literally. It's on cars, and signs, and walls, and streets, and everywhere. I'm going to do a photography project where I take some pictures of graffiti. School is interesting, to say the least...it's confusing and much different than any American school, so it will take some getting used to...

ciao ciao

The First Week

Fred posting from Dallas.  Uneventful trip back Friday.  Above picture taken as we walked to the train station for me to catch a night train to Milan.  A little drizzly my last night there, but still the city magical with lights, lots of people, and stone everywhere...the streets, the buildings, the monuments.  We packed a lot in during our first week there and I think Renee and the kids are feeling pretty settled and ready to go. 

Last afternoon I was there we toured the ancient church of Santa Croce which is on the piazza where our apartment is; as Renee mentioned in her last post saw the tombs of Gallileo and Dante and Michelangelo.  So much art and creativity and beauty in this city hundreds of years later.  Fascinating that all this talent came out of this small region of the world over the course of a couple hundred years, igniting Europe's renaissance. 

The boys started school today...hopefully they will start posting their observations in the coming days. 

Beautiful flight home...below taken as I flew over northern Italy or Switzerland...the western Alps I presume.

post from Renee

It has taken us some time to "start" to get acclimated....plus a crazy time of year to come here.  M80s going off in the Santa Croce piazza at night on New Year's. We woke to a live puppet show outside the window and church bells pealing.   In fact, you could be quite content to just sit and look out the window onto the square all day. Also on the Epiphany (the 6th), it was non-stop...anything for a celebration here. The master bedroom faces the piazza and we have to wear earplugs!    It's been really cold but still tons of people especially around Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo.

We are just starting to know the back ways and have been trying to go to just one landmark a day...could do that every day for six months and not hit everything.  We can look out the window and see the face of Santa Croce church and take a very short stroll down Via Greci to get right into Piazza Signoria where Palazzo Vecchio is with all those statues out on the loggia...we found the marker in the square in front of Giambologna's Neptune statue where the the monk Savonarola (remember bonfire of the vanities?) was burned, dismembered, and ultimately thrown into the Arno.  Have been into Santa Croce once but it's so massive you can only take in bits at a time. Yesterday we went to the Bardini gardens (just on the south side of the Arno about a quarter mile from here) and found there was a back way into the Boboli gardens behind the Pitti palace... no one was in there and the garden, though not listed in our tour guides, is huge with stunning views of the city and terraced gardens with espaliered fruit trees!

 We are in this very old district Santa Croce and there is a wonderful outdoor market very closeby, Sant Ambrose, that goes from 9-1 weekdays with fresh fruit, veggies, cheese (Fred bought over a kilo chunk of parmeggiano for about 15 euros that is taking up half the little refrigerator!), clothing, etc. etc. 

 

Another thing we've found here is that the churches have "relics" of the saints...pieces of bones, etc...the Medicis even had pieces of Saint Francis' intestines (his tunic is in the Santa Croce).  Fred just finished reading Hibbert's "The The House of the Medici" and we've done a preliminary visit to the Medici Chapel and San Lorenzo but will need to go back to take this all in.

 

Our building, Palazzo Antellesi, has all these amazing frescoes on the front (20 painters took 12 days to do these) and every time a tour comes through approximately seventy times a day, people are looking up and pointing at the front of the building!  I am really intrigued by the "sinopia" which are the crude sketches done on plaster before the frescoes are actually made...there many of these inside the Museo dell Opera of the Santa Croce.

 

We are also learning the bus routes...and the phones...and the little markets...and, of course, the best gelato places...

 

The boys start school on Monday so we've done a few dry runs on the bus to the International School.

  

One other funny thing: on the Epiphany, there was a street flea market just down the way and Evan bought a gas mask worn by an Italian in WWII along with some other weird things including a copy of the Godfather movie...he just asked for "il padrone" and the guy, who spoke no English, knew exactly what he meant....that's the biggest challenge, trying to understand this beautiful language that is spoken at the speed of light...

 

Florence viewed from Bardini Gardens

The first few days...

Uneventful trip over and swiftly settled, getting to know the area, enjoying the flavors of Tuscan life.  The boys will need gelato detox when we arrive back in the states.  We are in a very old building on Piazza Santa Croce...one of the older parts of town.  The piazza has hosted important events, festivals, and gatherings for 600 hundred years or so.  The "anchor tenant" is the church of Santa Croce, built for the Franciscans and finished up around 1385...here is the church from our apartment window: