Category: worries

(I am currently using my phone as a hotspot and hoping that I won’t burn through too much data…Later…that did not work either so I am laboriously typing this on my iPad mini which is the only device that I can get connected to the WiFi. It seems like any device updated to iOS 10 is impervious to the WiFi here)

Sarah and I have been up since 4 AM which does not bode well for the day. We make a quick breakfast of bread and cheese before we start our sightseeing.

We leave the apartment around 9:30 AM and make a quick stop at the Church of Santa Trinita on our way to Ognissanti. Among the things that we enjoy are a 14th century fresco of St. Jerome in his study. It is a change from seeing him out in the desert being a hermit with only his lion as company. I love all the doodads around his desk – a pair of spectacles, a pair of scissors, a ruler. I see he has left his cardinal’s hat up on a shelf above him. This work is by a painter of Ghirlandaio’s workshop and done in the mid to late 15th century. Another standout is a wooden crucifix from the 1200’s which has a modern look to it.

Walking further along down the Arno River we come to Ognissanti (All saints). The main attraction here is a Ghirlandaio Last Supper. Ghirlandaio was a teacher of Leonardo Da Vinci whose own Last Supper is in Milan. There are similarities.

The Apostles are grouped in threes and fours while the main focus is on the group of Jesus, the sleeping John, Judas and Peter. It is before Judas makes his fatal move towards the bread which marks him as the traitor but probably after Jesus has told them all that one will betray him. Peter is identifiable by the knife in his hand with which he will attack one of the soldiers later.

At the table each item has symbolism. The apricots on the left of the table symbolize sin while the lettuce nearby symbolizes repentance. The cherries refer to Christ’s blood and the oranges at the other end of the table refer to Paradise. Each tree, bird, and gesture has meaning.

After enjoying the wonderful Last Supper at the Ognissanti we make our way across the river to Santa Maria del Carmine and the Brancacci Chapel. The frescoes were commissioned in 1423 and were painted primarily by Masolino and the young Masaccio. Filipino Lippi completed the works in 1481 to 1483. The frescoes relate the life of St. Peter. There are also two frescoes depicting Adam and Eve. You can see the big difference between the more static figures of Masolino and the dynamic figures of the much younger Masaccio.

This is also true of the frescoes of St. Peter.

 

We’ve been going strong and mostly on our feet all morning and it is time for some lunch. We walk over to the Piazza Santo Spirito and to the restaurant Osteria Santo Spirito. We’ve stopped here for lunch almost every time we’ve been in Florence since we first visited in 1994. Usually we all have rigatoni with tomato sauce and ricotta salata but today we are game to try something different.

 

Now we are really tired. Both Sarah and I have been up since 4 AM and are badly in need of a nap. So we head back across the river and to the apartments. We immediately fall asleep like the dead for a couple of hours before my alarm summons us for more sightseeing at 4 PM.

We walk over to the Duomo and buy a combination ticket to see it, the Baptistry, the Museum of the Duomo, and a couple of other things. The Baptistry has closed already so we head into the museum. We have 48 hours to visit all the sites on our tickets.

The Museo del Duomo has been totally redone since we were last here.It is chock-a-block full of historic and artistic wonders.It includes older pieces from the early church plus other more ancient finds from the time of the Roman Empire and even back to the Etruscans. There’s a lot of great stuff about how the cathedral was built as well.

Can you imagine being the stone carver given this daunting task? Each one of these pieces had to be carved by hand and then assembled to make a door surround.

Everything that was lying about was used.  It was easier and cheaper to use already chiseled out blocks. I’ve seen other churches where Etruscan carved blocks were repurposed, especially in Tuscany which was an Etruscan state. Early (and later) Christians used the existing frames of buildings to be their foundations. Often Roman temples are found under Christian churches in Italy,

We have had a very full day and even though we succumbed to a nap in the afternoon we are really tired and decide to just eat some bread and cheese in the room before retiring (at 8 o’clock!)

Sent from my iPad mini

 

 

 

I am not going to say a whole lot about our trip here. Flying internationally these days is like childbirth. The only reason why you do it more than once is because you forget how bad it is. Our misadventures include a very warm cabin temperature for 10 hours, a security re-screen at Heathrow which makes us almost miss our connection that we had an hour and a half to accomplish, a man throwing up in the aisle between Sarah and my seats, and an endless passport control line in  Milan where we vie with the passengers of other flights for superiority while standing in line. Other than those things? A piece of cake.

We get to Milan and catch a taxi which brings us to our hotel, The Hotel Berna. The Berna has an excellent location near the railroad station which will be handy tomorrow when we start our journey south to Florence.

After a fitful night’s sleep for Sarah and me, we go down for our hotel’s award winning breakfast. Wow, it is really good!

Then we catch a taxi to the Pinacoteca di Brera. We spend about three hours enjoying ourselves in the museum. Here are some of my favorites:

Ran across this saint in Arezzo last year and did not know who he was. Today question solved at the Brera! This man got the rawest of all deals in the Old Testament. Horrible afflictions were given him in a wager between Satan and God. The leperous saint is Giobbe or in English, Job.

I love learning new things. Here are a group of saints in what I used to think was just a deteriorating background. But here’s the real story. These rather static figures went out of fashion when the more realistic figures of the Renaissance arrived. The gold leaf was too precious just to discard with the old paintings so they scraped it off and used it again. The orange paint was the underlay for the gold leaf.

Here is a painting by Jacopo Bellini, the father of Giovanni Bellini. In Venice we will see the younger Bellini’s fabulous triptych at the Frari. In it the Madonna appears to be practically stepping out of the frame. In this much earlier picture by Jacopo you can begin to see the elements of the son’s later style. The Christ child looks as if he is leaning forward to escape his mother’s arms.

Finally here is my absolute favorite of the day, Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus. I love the realistic everyday people that Christ and his followers have become in this painting. Christ blesses bread while the others look on wondering what he is doing.

Now we head off to lunch. We settle on the Mo’Puglia Bistrot which has been recommended by someone on Facebook. It is pretty good.

After lunch we catch a cab, pick up our luggage and head to the train station for a train to Florence. The high speed train to Florence takes less than 2 hours. It is comfortable and quick and seems like a good time for Sarah and I to nap.

We are renting apartments in Florence right in the center of the old town. We have stayed here before and except for the terrible wifi that we hope they can fix tomorrow, everything is great.

Sarah and I make a quick run down the street to pick up some staples. Sarah is charming talking to the shopkeeper in her rudimentary Italian. Our little neighborhood has it all. Within a block or so are a bakery, butcher, deli, tavern, and restaurant. We head down to the restaurant, Trattoria Marione for dinner. Afterward we head back upstairs and allow our thoroughly jet lagged selves some sleep.

Nathan, Jon, Sarah, John and I have a festive birthday dinner at Amici’s after the guys have gone to the movies to see Batman: A Legos Movie. We have pizza and a celebratory piece of cake. Nathan is really growing up and joins in the family banter. He is getting so tall. His next goal is to be taller than Ryan, Leigh, and me.  He doesn’t have too far to go! Plus he is also becoming very handsome. Happy Birthday, Nathan!

In February we discovered a puddle on our floor in the dining room.  It has been raining here A LOT and the water had infiltrated somewhere on the roof and was dripping down the inside of our dining room window. We hadn’t noticed it before but apparently from the paint damage, dripping drops had been going on for a while.  So we called someone to fix it. After a couple of tries we decided it must be fixed and left for St. George on a Saturday and arrived on Sunday. Taking a shower we discovered that our shower which we thought had been fixed was still leaking.

So we arranged to meet with our contractor on Monday to hash out the situation. In the meantime it started raining in California again.  Monday morning we get a text from Sarah saying that the roof is leaking again. Oh no! We quickly reset our meeting with the contractor for the morning, go talk to him (the shower guy had never come to fix the showers), get the car gassed up and leave Monday afternoon to return to our leaky roof problems in California. We were in Utah for less than 24 hours!

Hopefully the roof is finally fixed. At least we think so because here’s what is happening today!

Today Hookslide sang at the Willow Glen Middle School in San Jose. They are terrific! This is one in a series of concerts and workshops they do with area schools to promote the arts.  All the proceeds except for expenses go to the schools.  The kids, judging by the reaction of the audience, had a great time. We did too!

There is no way that I can be the mother of someone who is 40 but I guess it just happened while I was not looking. The whole family went out to the Fish Market in Palo Alto. I got to sit next to the birthday boy. I forgot to take pictures but here’s one that I posted on Facebook on the day. It is from when he was 10 months old. He looks a little concerned!

 

John and I decided to get away from all the rain in California by going to Utah where mostly it rained and was cold. Oh well, it was a nice break and we met with our contractor to work out the details of the bathroom renovation.  Mostly, though, we stayed inside and cooked, or did puzzles, although we did manage to play tennis on a couple of days when the temperature got almost all the way to 50F.

Pictures are mostly of various dinners we made.

Here are a few more pictures which are mostly not about food.

Today is Sam’s birthday! Since he will be having a large children’s party on the Saturday after his birthday and we will be in St. George, Sarah, John and I go over to Palo Alto for a special family party with gifts, cake, and pizza! The biggest present hit is an ant farm given to him by his Auntie Leigh. We have brought some gifts and cards along with the dinner and cake. Happy Eighth Birthday, Sam!

We are such loyal fans of Hookslide. Today they are singing at Thornton Junior High School in Fremont for the League of Volunteers.  We are among the youngest in the audience. They sing a variety of hard rocking songs and ballads. The crowd which is a little smaller than usual due to the rainy weather is appreciative. We, of course, think that they are great.

After making a lot of food and getting the house decorated we are ready for Pilat Eve and Christmas.  Some pictures from those days –

Of course on Christmas morning we have our traditional bagels and lox washed down with  our favorite beers, Schneider Weiss for. Sarah and me and Scheider Aventinus for John.

Later we head over for more festivity at Jonathan’s where he has prepared a fabulous dinner including a prime rib, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, pies, and Indian pudding.