The Terrible Catsafterme

My previous two days in Rome with Chris had been utterly exhausting and we had walked nearly the entire length of the city. My feet were achy and blistered and I could have slept for a day…but I wasn’t about to wimp out. Chris really showed his stamina as he reported to work on Tuesday, May 12, 2009. Fortunately I was spending this day with Sarah…and she was tired too. She had just returned from an exhausting weekend in the Marches of Italy.

So while Chris had trudged off to work at I Tatti, Sarah and I spent a leisurely morning eating some crepes (that she originally thought were pancakes) with some sweet mascarpone cheese topping on one and pancake syrup on the other – casually watching Italian MTV (where the new song Attimo by Gianna Nannini made its first of three appearances this week) and chatting for a while.

So let’s pause while Brad and Sarah lazily prepare for their walking tour of Firenze – better known to us Americans as Florence – and enjoy some photos of Brad in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, taken on the morning of Sunday, May 10, as he walked with Chris to the train station in the early morning hours when there were no crowds around…

Overview of the Loggia dei Lanzi

Perseus With the Head of Medusa by Cellini (1554)

With the 1910 reproduction of Michelangelo’s David, standing where the original once stood

The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna (circa 1582)

The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammanati (1575)

Okay, so we’re back. And it’s about half past noon. Sarah and I headed out, sore feet and bones and all, and headed for our first destination of the afternoon, the Basilica di Santa Croce – notable as the largest Franciscan church in the world.

At the time, my biggest interest were in the famous folk who were entombed within the walls of this church: well-known names like Michelangelo (1475-1564), Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937),  Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527), and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). I was able to pose for photos with all of these graves except for Machiavelli (who was stuck behind some of the construction…er, renovation…that was going on in this church, and perhaps everywhere else in Italy). Also located here was a cenotaph for Leonardo da Vinci and a rather elaborate one for Dante Alighieri. Leonardo is actually buried in Amboise, France, and Dante is in Ravenna, Italy.

The tomb of Guglielmo Marconi, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the radio

The tomb of famed astronomer Galileo Galilei

Tomb of renowned artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Cenotaph of Durante degli Alighieri – commonly known as Dante, noted poet and indirect influence on my own Dante’s Info

This was most interesting: a memorial monument to Giovan Battista Nicolini. Completed in 1877, this was both a precursor and likely influence on the creation of the Statue of Liberty

Soon however, I became rather enthralled with the architecture and artwork throughout Florence. Chris had given me a good introduction to much of it as we toured Rome – but Sarah being the art graduate was a phenomenal host who knew the story and background of every building, every piece of art, and every nook and cranny of Florence and perhaps all of Italy. She showed me the symbolism, the artistic style, the mechanics of the many frescoes, and before I knew it I was taking my first baby steps toward being an art connoisseur.

Outside Santa Croce

After an hour browsing Santa Croce, we decided it was time for lunch. Sarah took me to a spot that is one of the best sandwich shops in all of Florence, one that opens and closes when they feel like it, and one that consequently Chris had never been able to enjoy. The prosciutto sandwich I got for just 4 euros was indeed fantastic. Sarah and I ate them in the bright sun in the Piazza di Santa Croce in front of the church. The famous calcio Fiorentino games (an ultra-violent version of soccer) is held in this piazza annually.

Ready to dig into the delights of The Oil Shoppe. I wonder if Chris will ever get to try it…

After I’d polished off my eats and Sarah had eaten almost half of hers, we moved on to our next destination, the Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens. On the way, we briefly stopped in the Piazza della Signora (same place as seen above) where I got a nice picture standing under the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace), now the virtual ‘town hall’ of Florence, and once the palace of the first elder of the ruling Medici family, Cosimo de’ Medici. He would commission the Vasari Corridor, which was an enclosed walkway that led from the Palazzo Vecchio, across the Arno river over the Ponte Vecchio (Old bridge), and to the Palazzo Pitti – our next destination.

In front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The palace was built around the already existing clock tower, which is why it is not centered in the structure

In fact, we virtually followed the path of the Vasari Corridor, by crossing over the Ponte Vecchio. The bridge had always been laden with open air markets since it had been reconstructed on the site of an earlier bridge in 1345, and the modern day is no exception, with plenty of jewelry, knick-knacks, and other souvenirs for sale. All other bridges across the Arno had been destroyed by the retreating German military in 1944, except for this one, which was kept intact at the orders of Adolf Hitler. Okay, so he did one good thing.

On the Ponte Vecchio, overlooking the Arno River

The Palazzo Pitti, which had been constructed in 1458,  became the chief residence of the ruling Medici family. The Boboli Gardens located in its ‘back yard’ was a beautiful garden and woods area with numerous sculptures from the 16th through the 18th century. The Palace itself had now been transformed into an art museum and an additional porcelain museum can be found up in the garden, nestled in the Tuscan hillside.

Sarah and I bought tickets to see the garden, which included some of the museums, but not a tour of the palace. It was nice to walk around outside and in the woods. And although the porcelain museum wasn’t all that exciting to me, those with a porcelain fetish might enjoy it. After we finished our walk, we spent a while in the Museum Degli Argenti (otherwise known as the Medici Treasury), with the temporary display of “Memories of Twentieth Century Art” and also the Costume Museum. No photographs were allowed in any of the museums, but I coaxed Sarah into snapping one with a Dali painting. Over the next couple of days, she’d become an old pro at breaking the rules.

Outside the Palazzo Pitti

Entering the Boboli Gardens

In the gardens, with an old city wall behind me

Sarah near the bottom of a very pleasing gargoyle water gutter

With Salvador Dali’s Nascita Dei Desideri Liquidi (1932)

Sarah shows her affinity for statue butts

Outside the Palazzo Pitti, a copy of the silly Bacchino with a copy of the silly Bacchino copy

Nice view of the Arno and the Vasari Corridor, which is stretching over the Ponte Vecchio

It was nearly 5pm, and after we had spent about an hour in the museum, we made our way back to the apartment. On the way, we stopped in the Chiesa di Santa Felicita to see one of Sarah’s favorite works of art, an altar piece commonly called Deposition (but known to Sarah as the Transportation of Christ) by Pontormo. The Vasari Corridor ran through this church too.

 More importantly we stopped at her favorite gelato shop Gelateria dei Neri, for an ice cold refreshment – a double scoop of crema giotto and white chocolate. There’s just nothing like gelato back home in America.

Happy Florentine campers – with happy gelato and ice treats

We headed back to the apartment to wait for the husband to return. He got home a bit early and we reviewed our activities of the day. Chris and I took a walk to the Meta Supermercati to pick up some supplies for the evening, namely sausage for the pizzas that Sarah was making for us that night. All good stuff – sausage, tomatoes, and I do believe pesto.We polished off Chris’ bottle of Grappolino wine scraps and watched North By Northwest.

Italian stores weren’t all that concerned about out-of-stocks as demonstrated in the yogurt section…

…although the wine area seemed pretty full

Italy, Hitchcock, pizza, wine, and two little bizarre figurines on top of the television. Does it get any better?

Italy will continue with another day in Florence…

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 6:56 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Famous Graves, Historical Locations, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.