Tuesday, May 15, 2018

City of Museums

CITY of the MEDICI



After our most pleasant time in Stresa we headed for Florence via Milan.  Train service is exceptional in Italy and we would not be surprised if it were in most of Europe.  Train travel is great for relatively short distances without the major hassle of the airport security.  We made a discovery: The train stations offer services for gimps like us. Not only does one get to the right train car, but they also assisted us up the steps, and with our luggage.  It was a very pleasant service.


As Mrs.T mentioned, she put great effort into trying to learn some Italian.  By and large she made progress. However she has a tendency to slip into Spanish.  Over the years in Mexico her Spanish has become quite acceptable. But here she speaks a sort of mashup of Spanish, Italian, and English.  The folks are very understanding and proceed as if nothing is out of the ordinary. And many are reasonably fluent in several languages. When at the Uffizi, several of the information desks were handled by young students studying languages.  Such attention to tourists is very satisfying.


Mrs. T has failed to mention the weather, which to be generous, has been okay.  We had only some sunshine on and off, both in Stresa and Florence. The weather was generally damp and there were showers in both cities, even a thunderstorm in Florence.  It was a bit chilly at night and only 70ish in the day (22c or so). Mostly this was not a problem but certainly not the best weather. Currently in Venice we have had some significant rain and thunderstorms although it may be clearing a bit.


On to Rebecca's latest:



When we arrived in Florence the train station assistants for people with disabilities were waiting.  They helped us off the train and got us installed in a taxi. Their service was much better than at the US airports.



The little apartment we stayed in was on the ground floor near Piazza San Marco. (Yes, there is one in Florence.  -dt) Many of the streets near the center of town are full of rows and rows of four story buildings, quite packed together, that curve and wind around little plazas, River Arno, stone churches, and old palaces, following, I can only suppose, the path of medieval streets.  These buildings seem to be made of different materials, mostly stone of different varieties but that is only a facade. The buildings we saw being repaired all had brick walls with a facade 6 to 12 inches on the outside. (Old buildings are made of stone but newer ones have been built to appear that way.  -dt) Buildings have stories about ten feet high and imposing wooden doors with fanciful knockers; ours were lions but that was just for show. Our door had a strong spring and one needed the strength of Samson to open it.


To get to our apartment we tiptoed through the living room of the owner out to a charming little courtyard which was surrounded by other buildings.  We could see up the back windows of the neighbors and of course they could look down on us. But we had our own little paradise of potted plants, a little table where we could eat outside when the weather permitted, sheltered by a vine arbor cover with flowering plants which smelled lovely.  I thought they might be jasmine. Our ceiling was about ten feet high with wooden beams. We were home. Our place: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmhVDoc6


Florence is an old city.  It is full art and history, palaces and gardens, churches and museums.  In fact the city put together a package for tourists good for admission to 72 sites in 72 hours. (The FirenzeCard -dt)  You could see all of Florence in three days, but of course you have no time off for sleeping. Who would be so silly as to buy such a thing?  Evidently lots of people, but not us.  In our ten days here we visited a few museums, churches, and a garden taking our time.


One of the first places we went was to the Academy to see David. (Galleria dell'Accademia -dt) This is a work of art almost everybody thinks they have seen.  But no, you have not seen David until you have seen the original in Florence. We must have seen a hundred excellent sculptures in the first few days but they were nothing; David was everything.  It's not just the size. Although David is taller by half again than most of the others. Nor is it the color, although the brightness of the carrera marble captures your imagination. It is not even the physical accuracy although this statue is Michelangelo at his best.  (some parts are out of proportion -dt) There is a spirit in this work that cannot be denied. Perhaps Shelley in his poem Ozymandias explained it when describing another statue:  


"Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;"


Something of Michelangelo's hand that recreated the marvel of his subject and something of the spirit of his model yet survive.

Another place we visited was the Botanical Garden.  This garden had the plants arranged by function. All the medicinal plants were in one section.  All the poisonous plants were in another section. YUK!!! Appropriate enough in the land of the Borgias, I suppose.  There was a story garden which recreated the Secret Garden. There was too much to see it all but my favorite was the trees.  When you are a great prince and think your garden will last hundreds of years you can plant your trees twenty or thirty feet apart so they have room to grow and thrive for centuries and that is exactly what these grand old oaks, pines, and cypresses have done.  What a wonderful place. (This garden is maintained by the University of Florence as a teaching venue. -dt) Some pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmhVuifv



One day when we were wandering down the street looking at  the windows we saw the workshop of a jeweler. We were talking about the equipment and the jewelry in the window when Stefano opened the door and invited us in.  His work was all original. We really liked it. Well there was one with a ginko leaf I especially liked and the rest is history. I can resist anything but temptation and Dan likes to spoil me.  (Stefano Alinari -dt)


On the other hand in Dan's case we went looking for trouble.  Dan knew of a pen shop and we went trying to find it. Unfortunately when we finally did they were closed for lunch.  When Dan returned he had a great time talking pens with the owners. He did come home with two pens he had not seen at home.  Ah well. (Casa della Stilografica; first rate -dt)


On Sunday we went to church in the Medici Basilica. (We think that is where we were -dt)  We knew what they were saying more or less, except for the sermon, an advantage for Catholics.  I ignored everything and admired the gorgeous old building, marble pillars, stained glass windows, statues, etc.  I did listen to the choir; they were all Korean but they sang beautifully in Italian. Go figure. I think it is a shame that there were very few attending this beautiful church.  Sigh. The priest - also Korean we think - thanked all the guests for coming and participating as best they could. Hmm.


After that we went to the Medici chapel, very fine I guess, but it was cold and dead, full of dead Medicis and old saints bones.  The bones were kept in elaborate gold and silver boxes. (and other artistic containers -dt) These are called reliquaries. If you had a plague you made a parade and marched a saint's  bones around the city singing and praying and hoped for a miracle; it was just the thing in the middle ages. I think Martin Luther made a thesis or two about this. By the way if you want to venerate a reliquary you kiss it.  I just thought you should know.


When Nick was little I used to read him a book about the 'Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum'. ( a Sesame Street book -dt) I think they were talking about the Uffizi Gallery.  For three or four hundred years the Medici family, who were incredibly rich, collected art with great passion. (The family lasted that long but their influence was a bit shorter. -dt) I got to choose and we concentrated on Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, and Caravaggio, but we saw a lot of other interesting works while we were looking for the rooms of these artists.  Of these I liked Bottichelli best especially the Birth of Venus.  The building itself is beautiful with frescoed ceilings, and painted ceilings and gilded great galleries with silk wallpaper.  I was overwhelmed by it all. When we got out I was exhausted and we could not find our little blue bus so we hired a horse carriage to take us back.  (We really did not look for the bus after she saw the horse carriage. -dt)


Oh Florence. We saw many other wonderful things.  But best of all was David.


More pictures:  https://www.flickr.com/gp/9151458@N07/3udfZK





At this stage Mrs.T said she was suffering writer's exhaustion and could not continue about Florence.  Suffice it to say we saw many other wonders there. Did you know there are about a half-dozen 'Last Suppers' there?  And the Bargello Museum has perhaps the finest sculpture collection in the world. Pictures of some other items in Florence:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsmhWrxYi



Florence was indeed cultural overload - too much to see, too much to show.  The pictures herein barely scratch the surface but should give you an idea of what we saw.


As noted above, we are now in Venice, our last stop of this tour.  A report on that will come later.


Stay dry,

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com





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Monday, May 7, 2018

Italy - Part Two

THE LAKE DISTRICT


Part One of our vacation in Italy had us off to a rocky start in Milan.  Things improved up at Lago Maggiore. Those of you who know Mrs.T well are aware of her love of flora.  As she tells below, she definitely was in her element in the Piedmont. The tour planner/editor made certain that there were plenty of opportunities for her to indulge her passion at each stop in his country of heritage.  


As you will surmise the stories trail our actual location a bit in time.  Wisely, days were left free to shop for food, wash clothes, and to prod The Muse into writing.  However, she is not the swiftest typist, and it also takes time to distribute our offerings. But if things keep on track you should have a good picture of our trip.




As the train rolled along the Italian landscape changed from flat to hilly and we were in the Piedmont.  Of course I was mostly sleeping as I do on trains. (Planes, trains, or automobiles, it doesn't matter -dt) These are the hills that lead up to the Italian Alps.  On fairly clear days you can see the tops of the snow covered Alps peeking over the lower hills. In some of the valleys are lakes most of which get their water from the melting glaciers.  This is the Lake District which many people think is the most beautiful part of Italy. In fact Queen Victoria used to come here for her vacations - as well as Churchill and lots of other famous people.  (Lido Palace Hotel in Baveno -dt) If it was good enough for the Queen it is good enough for me.


A lovely lady, Fiammetta, met us at the train station in Stresa to take us to our charming rooms in her home.  She and her father run a guest house in Carciano di Stresa. From our rooms on the ground floor we had views of Lake Maggiore and the hills. The rooms had very high ceilings, maybe 12 feet high.  The hugh embossed wooden furniture was maybe 8 feet high. (Things were high and tall but not quite that high and tall -dt) The curtains and couch were decorated with roses.


This whole town was a place of gardens.  All the houses had their own little gardens.  Many of the plants in bloom, such as rhododendrons and azaleas, were familiar to me.  They made swaths of color against the hillsides. Walls and arbors were blues with hanging wisteria.  Poppies of every color bordered paths dotting the stones with random beauty. Pansies in enthusiastic clumps froliced here and there.  I was enchanted.


Dan, however was slightly overwhelmed by me saying, "Look at this, look at that" constantly; he might have developed whiplash trying to follow my enthusiastic sightings.  Well the first thing we did was take a ferry out to Isola Bella. This was the palace and garden of the Dukes of Borromeo. The garden was terraced and a mostly formal garden complete with an amazing grotto full of lots of statues.  On the top was a unicorn prominently displayed because the unicorn was part of the family crest. There were lots of unicorn tapestries in the palace also. Pictures of a unicorn poking a lion with his horn. And a unicorn poking a leopard.  Not very encouraging if your crest was a lion or a leopard. A rather aggressive family these Borromeos. Evidently the Duke built the palace to upstage his brother who took the traditional family palace on another island. I'd say he probably succeeded. (The family included bankers and a cardinal who later was canonized.  The family still owns most of the islands -dt)


In addition to a lot of familiar plants were many I did not know.  There were strange lilies. The climate is odd in that a lot of subtropical plants grow there.  Giuseppe told me that sometimes it snows but it melts almost immediately and does not seem to hurt the flowers.  (There was snow not long before we came -dt) There were a lot of palms and such which grew well and also desert plants which needed to be in special gardens.  Among the formal gardens we saw lots of statues. White peacocks wandered down the paths. There were rows of orange and lemon trees on different terraces. Unfamiliar odors enticed me.  I loved the gardens! Dan asked me if I liked the gardens. Is the pope Catholic?


Our next expedition was supposed to be on a cable car (the funivia -dt) up the mountain (Mattarone, 1491m -dt) to see the alpine gardens. But it was cold and rainy and this did not seem like a good idea. (I did not miss it -dt)  So we went to visit the Botanical Garden (At Villa Taranto -dt).


As you wandered down the paths you heard different kinds of music playing in different areas.  There was the tulip maze, past its prime but still with literally thousands of tulips blooming around a contorted path.  (Originally there were 50000 tulips in the garden for April -dt) There was a Rhododendron Glen. There was a gathering of azaleas.  This garden was not formal at all. (Maybe not in the British sense but it was well organized -dt) Different arrangements of plants flowed up and down the hillsides.  And even more wonderful, from my point of view at least, many of them were labeled. There were what looked like palm trees with very hairy stems but I discovered these were tree ferns.  There were of course hundred of kinds of different flowers. I was in heaven.


From the Botanical Garden:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsmbeRzwy



We rode home on the boat and caught a taxi back to our rooms.  Because of the loss of Dan's phone we could not call taxis. But our hosts generously drove us to the ferries and we were able to hail ones at the ferry stop.  We did enjoy hiking up and down the hills to visit the little grocery store, the pizzeria, and St. Blaise a lovely little church, all in our neighborhood. After a few lovely, peaceful, flower-filled days we were off to historical, political, artistic Florence.


Around Stresa and Isola Bella:  https://www.flickr.com/gp/9151458@N07/B494zS




As you will read later Florence is quite a bit different than Lago Maggiore.   We are having a good time in a different way. The woes of Milan are mostly behind us although the lack of a phone has hampered us a bit.  

Stay tuned.


Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com





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Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Italy Part 1

Vultures, vultures, vultures everywhere.



As many of you know, we are on a month-long stay in Italy at the moment.  The Glass Art Society conference is in Murano in mid-May this year and we decided to make a vacation around the event.  Mrs. T writes about the first part of the trip in Italy below. However, the adventures really started during the transition between Mexico and Italy which the editor will relate.  We have had quite a month. We are not describing this to elicit any particular emotions but just as straight reporting. Sometimes you get a lot of curveballs.


Mrs. T and I are not fleet of foot anymore and now regularly obtain wheelchair assistance at airports.  Not only is this helpful but the 'pushers' usually know the gate we need. Fortunately our travel planner leaves ample time for transfers between planes.  Returns to the US have by far been our worst experiences; US airports are terrible. And Atlanta on the return from Mexico was not fun. At foreign airports the same assistants take us from plane to plane.  Not in the US. We are taken from holding area to holding area, handed off like hot potatoes. And they are understaffed. We feel like stockyard cattle going to slaughter. (Lots of metaphors to work with -dt)  The international gates are miles from the rest of the concourses. And we need to go through the near strip searches at security. Atlanta was another of the poorly organized and badly managed examples of the 'free market' at work; handicap assistance is contracted and it is obvious the lowest bidder wins.  It is surprising that anyone travels out of the US. But we made it back to Philo.


There we encountered another adventure.  The house was COLD. Not freezing but in the 50s; not what we wanted returning from the tropics.  And no hot water. And no oven. It took us a while to ascertain that we did not have any gas. We learned from our wonderful neighbors that there had been a leak somewhere in the gas lines that crisscross our area and somehow our line had been shut off.  I managed to have our gas reconnected and we had heat. However, the hot water tank seemed to have self-destructed some parts of its internals which will need repairs when we return. Cold showers are bracing. Makes one appreciate the travails of the pioneers.


Well, on to Mrs. T's account of the first part of our Italian adventure.




We managed to get to Milan, Italy by way of Chicago (think Atlanta again -dt) and Copenhagen (no problems -dt).  The plane to Copenhagen was not full so we got two seats each. This gave us room to spread out but not enough room to lay down.  We caught a train to our hotel. Here I must state that Learn Italian in 5 Days (on YouTube  -dt) did not work very well even though I practiced it for at least 10 days.  However most people smiled at me and answered me in English. Our hotel in Milan was clean and functional and being exhausted we slept well.  


The next day we went downtown on the Metro and saw a bunch of very expensive stores. (Milan is known as a shopping Mecca  -dt) We looked in the windows but did not go in. When we passed the Chanel store a whiff of expensive perfume escaped out the door.  There was a Prada Store but although I peeked about I saw no devils. I admit some of the clothes looked pretty nice but I did not see any fat lady shops.  


We also saw La Scala one of the oldest theaters in the world where they  invented modern opera, theater, and ballet. It was closed. We saw the outside of the Duomo, a very ornate old church.  The plaza in front of it was full of all kinds of people speaking all kinds of languages. I was a little overwhelmed but fortunately Dan was not.  There were a lot of soldiers hanging around in dress uniforms. We did not know then but found out later it was Liberation Day with parades and such coming in the afternoon.  We found a very old stationary store but it was closed. Dan had wanted to visit it so this was disappointing. (Many stores were closed because of the holiday. -dt) We were tired and ready to go back to the hotel.


Unfortunately the soldiers had blocked off access to the entrance to the Metro.  We were told we had to go back to the previous stop. At least I thought that was what we were told. (Everyone was being screened to go into the Duomo Plaza.  -dt) This was confusing because instead of the Yellow Metro line we would be on the Green line. A nice man told us how to transfer to the Red line so that we would end up at our stop.  The Italian people are so nice and friendly to strangers - I thought.


The stop was very congested as two stops crowded into one.  We managed to squeeze onto the next train. The train was swaying back and forth as we sped along.  Everybody was bumping into each other. (sardines in a can -dt) Suddenly there was a big lurch and somebody gave me a serious shove and I fell down.  Hands came from all around me lifting me up, giving me my cane and my purse, and reattaching me to the bar I was holding onto. "You get up and let the lady sit on the seat," said a friendly lady.  At least that is what I imagined she said. She could have been saying something quite different. A teenager got up and I was helped into the seat. Another person moved and Dan was seated beside me.  Well that was not so bad, these people are really quite nice, I thought again.


As the train rumbled to the next stop another younger woman held out my money purse and Dan's leather notebook.  "I think these are yours", she said and disappeared out the door. I was confused and by the time I realized my money had vanished with her they both were long gone.  I was devastated, not to mention somewhat impoverished. (about 200 euros -dt) I was not only angry that they had done this but very sad that I had thought they were so nice and they were not.  I also felt extremely stupid. I suppose I should be grateful they did not take my credit cards. Dan was furious but not at me. He was sweet, me telling me it was not my fault. Sigh. He had his little leather notebook in his pocket; they must have thought it was his money which was in another pocket which fastened shut. (We admitted whoever - and there may have been more than one - did the deal was skilled -dt)(R now stores money in her personal bank -dt)


The next morning we went down to breakfast which was quite good.  We were still both bummed out. It was after we left the hotel and were on our way to Stesa we realized that Dan's phone (and the leather notebook again -dt) was gone. Dan was absolutely incensed!  I was beyond caring. Milan was a hard luck town for us. Fortunately Dan had his phone passworded and fingerprinted. But he had all kinds of information about our trip on the phone and in the notebook (easy to read -dt), not to mention all his addresses and such.  After about an hour I gave up trying to comfort him while he raved. We sullenly sat thinking our own sad thoughts as the train rolled on. (We are rather savvy travellers, but these were first-time events for us -dt) (As an added precaution I had the phone locked when we reached Stresa.  -dt)


Some photos from Milan:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/shares/606oPC



As you may recall R's phone was damaged in Hurricane Irma and so is turned off in Philo.  If you want to contact us it is probably best to use email. We hope to have new phones by the end of May.


Well, that is a description of the beginning of our journey.  Next time Mrs.T will talk about our stay in Stresa, Lago Maggiore - a great time there.


Ciao.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com



                   










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