l'ultimo giorno a Firenze

On our last day we visited Florence's Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore. Building began in 1296 and was completed in 170 years. It is bigger than the Duomo in Siena (there was a competitive relationship between the two cities) and the interior decoration not so ornate. The highlight for me was the climb inside the wall to Brunelleschi's enormous dome and then a further climb through a labyrinth of steps and tunnels up onto an external viewing platform. Here is a view from inside the dome - down, down, down to the nave and side chapel...

The inside of the dome is decorated with fresco work by Giorgio Vasari and Frederico Zuccari. The fresco depicts the Last Judgment with graphic and instructional images of heaven and hell. The size of the fresco is amazing in itself, but when you also factor in the height...! 

On our climb through the labyrinth we came across a room which demonstrated the kind of hefty wooden scaffolding that was built to enable the artists to work at this height.

We also came across a room that was a kind of a sick bay for decaying sculpture.

The irrepressible drive for self-expression.

One of many portholes and narrow slits in the wall with views of the city below.

And, finally, views of the city from the platform right at the top of the dome.

The climb down inside the walls of the dome.

Just before it was time to catch the train back to Rome I went to an exhibition in an exclusive shoe shop. The young male and female attendants were immaculately dressed in dark suits and fine leather footwear and looked really bored. I stomped in with my clumsy hiking boots and felt conspicuously dowdy. But it was a good exhibition. It was called 'Equilibrium' and included an eclectic collection of sculpture (ancient to modern), photographs and videos all connected to the theme of bipedal movement; the energy and balance required for the upright posture. The works included Muybridge's photographic studies of human movement and the video of Neil Armstong's walk on the moon (his moon boots made me feel better about the shoes I was wearing). Of the sculptural works I liked this fragment from a Roman bronze...

these Etruscan dancers from the 4th century BC...

and Rodin's sculpture of Nijinsky (1920s).

Ci vediamo Italia!

Firenze

Some images from Firenze...

This guy, in the Uffizi Museum, sounded just like Woody Allen only louder. He gave impromptu lectures on the artwork to his friend and whoever else was in the room. He particularly loved Titian and Raphael.

Beautiful art everywhere. This one (just a fraction of it behind Alan) covers the walls and ceilings in the lobby of the B&B where we are staying, Hotel Scoti. It is run by Doreen, a very friendly Australian woman who has lived here for 40 years.

Yesterday evening we attended sung mass in the crypt of San Miniato - well the first half of it anyway. The church is part of a Benedictine monastery on a hill just outside Florence's old city wall. The mass was sung in Gregorian chant. I had hoped to hear it sung by a choir but it was just the celebrating priest and an assistant who sang it. Both had very good voices that sounded beautiful within the stone walls of the church. There seemed to be a number of regulars there (along with the visitors). I assumed they were regulars because they knew the sung responses.

This is a photo of an elderly monk arriving with an attendant a few minutes before the ceremony began. So there were only 3 monks in attendance. I wondered how many more there were. The monastery attached to the church was huge. It would feel very empty without the numbers to fill the rooms.

The view from San Miniato at dusk.

Siena e San Gimignano

We have just arrived in Firenze after spending three days in San Gimignano. In San G we stayed at La Foresteria Monastero di San Girolamo, an enormous place that houses only four nuns. As guests, we only saw a small part of it. This is the view from our room, including Alan's washing. Che bella vista!

San Gimignano's centro storico is well-preserved and very much a tourist attraction.

It has intriguing pathways that connect adjacent streets.

The town is famous for its tall towers.

Here are views of the surrounding countryside from one of the towers. Alan took the photos. I'm afraid that my fear of heights got the better of me and I only managed to climb halfway up the tower's staircase before I had to crawl down again. It was a decent enough staircase, only recently installed, but the gaps between the steps meant the drop was always visible beneath by feet.

Our plan was to walk through this beautiful countryside as much as possible, but on our first full day in San Gimignano it rained heavily. We decided to take a bus trip to Siena and do some indoor tourist stuff. One thing I have noticed in rural Italy is the friendliness between the bus drivers and the local passengers. The bus driver never seems to be short of a conversation.

In Siena we visited the magnificent Duomo which was designed by Giovanni Pisano. Building commenced in 1215 and continued into the 1300s. Here is a view of the Duomo from a tower on top of the adjacent museum. I did manage to climb this tower. It was an old stone staircase, quite slippery and dangerous, but my fear never escalated - I had no idea how high I was until I reached the top. 

A view of Siena in the other direction.

The Duomo has a beautiful inlaid marble floor that was installed in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries after the completion of the external structure. Sections of the floor were designed by 40 different artists. In the following design a she-wolf, the symbol of Siena, is surrounded by emblems that represent the confederate cities. I was particularly taken by the hare of Pisa.

Here is another part of the floor that I liked, though I don't know much about it.

And here is part of the pulpit which was designed by Nicola Pisaro.

These carvings, originally from the Duomo's exterior, are now in the museum.

The following two days in San Gimignano were much finer. We went for a couple of walks over the rolling hills.

San Gimignano's towers were visible from quite a distance.

To tell you the truth I found the hills very challenging. After one steady climb we came across a disused villa and pomegranate trees growing along the path. I really appreciated the sustenance.

The following photo shows where we stopped and ate the lunch on the second day: boiled eggs, oranges, almonds, walnuts, figs and dates. The sign on the left indicates one of the pathways of the Via Francigena, the medieval pilgrim route between Canterbury and Rome. We walked just a small part of it.

The walks we did only took 3 or 4 hours each. We also visited a couple of museums in San Gimignano including one that housed the remains of an apothecary. The dolphin in the following photo would have hung in the old apothecary shop. It symbolises good health.

We saw lots of frescoes in San Gimignano. In fact,  I suffered a bit of fresco glut and was pleased to find a gallery of 20th C and contemporary art called Galleria Continua. This gallery presents the art of many famous names including Duchamp's 'Boîte in Valise' - a portable case that contains miniatures of all his key works.

Amongst the contemporary work I enjoyed a small series of thread drawings by Shilpa Gupta. They are very subtle works and difficult to photograph because the distortions in the paper cause shadows that are not meant to be so visible. This one is called 'Mango Tree'.

Two final photos for San Gimignano... first, the inevitable market. Compared to the trash and treasure markets in Rome, this one had reasonable clothing and good quality foodstuffs. I noticed that locals attended the market as much as tourists - a very sociable way to shop.

And here is a photo of one of the tiny 3-wheeled trucks that are quite common in San G.