VERONA 2019 | FindPenguins

Newest first

Trip start
August 21, 2019
VERONA 2019 Traveler
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene
August 11, 2019 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Prologue, Romeo and Juliet
***************************************************************************
I leave for London on August 21. On August 23, I'll meet my friend Peter for dinner; and on August 24, I fly to Verona. I was there 19 years ago for less than a day. After a month in Italy, I'll be back in England until September 30, visiting my cousin Gaynor in Essex and my college friends Di and John in Chiswick.Read more
0 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Friday at the V&A
August 23, 2019 in England ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
One full day in London, so I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The street entrance of the V&A is far more imposing, but I always prefer the back entrance at the end of the tunnel from South Kensington Underground station because it takes me into the sculpture hall and straight to Doctor Joshua Ward, the quack philanthropist (1686-1761) who didn’t mind being immortalized in marble as a very sloppy dresser.

I discovered that the Mary Quant exhibit, which I thought had already closed, was still open, so I abandoned my first idea of going to see the Christian Dior exhibit in favor of revisiting the styles I wore in the sixties. Some of them I’d still happily wear, albeit with skirts about two feet longer than I wore in those days.

"Food: Bigger than the Plate" was the second exhibit I had on my to-see list. The Independent and the Telegraph, called it "a curious delight" and "witty, shocking and charmingly bonkers" respectively. I loved it.

The exhibit opens at the end of the food chain, with waste. From composting loos, we meander through creative uses of food waste, and arrive at oyster mushrooms growing from long mesh bags whose contents include grounds from the more than 1,000 cups of coffee visitors to the V&A drink daily. Once harvested, the mushrooms will be used as ingredients by the V&A café kitchen, closing the nutrient loop.

Next up is a display of items made from Merdacotta (which the V&A helpfully translates as “baked shit” just in case anyone missed the point). It’s the brainchild of Gianantonio Locatelli, whose herd of 3,500 cows produce milk for Grana Padano cheese and, as a byproduct, 150,000 kg. of dung per day (more merda than milk, in fact). Signor Locatelli developed ways of turning the dung into energy, heat, and fertilizer; and the leftover solids are mixed with Tuscan clay to form Merdacotta for bricks, tiles, and tableware. The whole manufacturing process is illustrated by a video that opens with a cow demonstrating (copiously) production of the raw material.

I doubt that Queen Victoria would have been amused.

Worldwide (even -- inexplicably to me -- in places where there is nothing wrong with what comes out of the tap) we buy 1,000,000 plastic bottles of water per minute. No, that isn’t a typo. Most end up in landfill, and it takes 700 years for every bottle to disappear.

We’re drowning in abandoned plastic and it’s almost certainly too late to do anything about it, but Skipping Rocks Lab of London is trying, nonetheless, with Ooho!, an edible, biodegradable alternative to plastic, manufactured from algae. Drink your water or squeeze your ketchup onto your burger, then eat the packaging. But don’t worry if you don’t want to because it is 100% biodegradable.

Microbes play a part in food production. Take cheese. Then take cheese cultured from microbes harvested from the ears, toes, armpits, and belly buttons of volunteers. On second thoughts, probably don’t. It was there to look at, but the V&A had wisely decided against offering samples.

At the end of the exhibit, the Loci Food Lab, a traveling food stand run by the Center for Genomic Gastronomy, whips up “a personalized, bioregional snack” from a wooded area of Britain for anyone interested.

From a touch menu on a tablet, you choose three from a list of 16 food attributes and receive a printed ticket. I chose “nutritious,” “affordable,” and “delicious” as the attributes I wanted in my snack. I didn’t think to make a note of all the others, but seasonal, open source, protein-rich, and the ever-fashionable gluten-free were among them. My ticket provided the menu for my Loci chef to prepare my snack. It also told me I was visitor number 34,407, and zero other visitors had chosen the same combination, which seemed strange as I’d thought them rather obvious choices. Apparently a mere 7% of visitors had included “affordable” in their lineup.

The bite-sized snack was assembled with piping bags and tweezers by the Loci Lab chefs and handed to me with my ticket listing the ingredients. It looked almost too pretty to eat, but I ate it anyway and it certainly was delicious.Read more
0 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
San Zeno and San Giorgio
August 28, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
I’m not much for visiting churches, unless there are outstanding works of art to be seen. I tend to go in if I’m hot or tired and want to sit down. I did, however, make a special point today to visit the Basilica of San Zeno, which is a bit off the beaten track. It’s acclaimed as one of the most beautiful and best-preserved examples of Romanesque architecture in Northern Italy and is famous for its pretty facade of cream local tufa stone and pink marble. More than that, San Zeno is the patron saint of Verona, so it seemed only polite to pay his church a visit.

San Zeno was born in Africa in 300 C.E., became the 8th Bishop of Verona, and died in 380. As well as patron saint of the city, San Zeno is patron saint of fishermen and infants. He’s often portrayed with a fishing rod or, as in the 13th century statue inside the church, “San Zeno che ride” (“Laughing St. Zeno”), with a fish dangling from his crozier.

Legend has it that the first small church was erected by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, on a site above Zeno’s tomb. Construction of the present basilica and monastery began in the 9th century and the church was consecrated in 983. Parts of the original structure still exist, but much of it has been rebuilt and enlarged after earthquake damage in 1117.

Inside, the church is on three levels. As you stand in the nave and face towards the altar, steps lead down to the crypt and then up to a raised presbytery. St. Zeno’s relics have been housed in the crypt since 921, but it’s probably more famous for the tradition that it is the scene of the marriage of Romeo and Juliet.

The church does meet my requirement for good art, with the San Zeno Altarpiece, a polyptych by Andrea Mantegna, of which only the upper paintings are original*; and 13th and 14th century frescoes, important to the history of Veronese art, by anonymous artists. I particularly liked "San Giorgio e la principessa" ("St. George and the Princess"). It was my second in two days, as I saw the one by Pisanello in Santa Anastasia yesterday. St. George is the patron saint of England, and I collect sightings of him, just as I do sightings of my namesake lopping off the head of Holofernes.

----------
* Photograph (c) Italian Ways (http://www.italianways.com/)Read more
1 like
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Marketing Juliet
August 30, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
“For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

As far as the finances of the city of Verona are concerned, the tourist industry that has grown up around Shakespeare’s star-cross’d lovers is far from a story of woe.

Never mind that Juliet is a fictional character, and never mind that the famous balcony on the 13th century house at via Cappello, 23 was added in the 20th century; tourists flock to the Casa di Giulietta anyway to photograph the balcony and bring themselves luck in love by rubbing the right breast of the statue of Juliet in the courtyard. Feeling up someone for luck, who didn’t exactly enjoy much luck in love herself is ironic, and doing it in the age of Me Too seems a bit dodgy.

The covered passageway to the courtyard is covered with visitors’ declarations of love. To protect the walls, the city has put up laminate panels that can withstand the onslaught of magic marker and pieces of paper stuck on with chewing gum.

Visiting Juliet’s supposed house goes back at least to the 19th century. Lord Byron was there and so was Charles Dickens, who reported that it had “degenerated into a most miserable little inn” with “a grim-visaged dog, viciously panting in a doorway, who would certainly have had Romeo by the leg, the moment he put it over the wall, if he had existed and been at large in those times” (Pictures from Italy).

Like Dickens, today’s pilgrims can stroll on from Juliet’s house to her tomb in the crypt of what used to be the Convent of San Francesco al Corso and is now a fresco museum. Perhaps, like Dickens, we should treat the believers with indulgence.

People from all over the world write to Juliet for advice on matters of the heart or to tell their own love stories. You simply address your letter to “Juliet, Verona.” If you’re in Verona, there are a couple of dedicated Juliet mailboxes. No stamp? No worries. Juliet has an email address. According to the Juliet Club (http://www.julietclub.com/en/) every communication is translated, responded to, and archived. You can even become a volunteer secretary to Juliet yourself if you fancy it. Apparently I’d have known all this long before now if I’d seen the 2010 film Letters to Juliet.

Shakespeare (who clearly had more stamina than I when faced with 3,000 lines of rhymed couplets) based his play on a poem by Arthur Brooke, “The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet,” published in 1562. Brooke was inspired by Matteo Bandello, whose 1530 novella “Giulietta e Romeo” he had translated. Before Bandello came versions of the story by Luigi da Porto (“Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti”) and Masuccio Salernitano “Mariotto e Ganozza.” Whether or not the Romeo and Juliet story is based on fact (as da Porto claims) isn’t known; however, the families did exist. Dante refers to the Montecchi and Cappelletti in Purgatorio, VI.

So what about Romeo in all this tourist frenzy? Well, you can see the outside of what is billed as the Casa di Romeo, but much like the bridegroom at a wedding, Romeo otherwise takes a back seat. Here in Verona, Juliet is the main event.Read more
0 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
A Walk with Marco
August 31, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
I signed up a few days ago for an English-language guided historical walk on Saturday, August 31. The meeting place was impossible to mistake, but when no one else had shown up by a few minutes to 10 o’clock, I started to get anxious. Then at 10:00 exactly, having texted me a few minutes earlier, Marco arrived. It turned out I was the only person who had signed up. I couldn’t believe my luck. Most tour operators would have cancelled. Because I was the only person, not only could Marco tailor the tour to places I hadn’t already seen, but we could also speak Italian instead of English.

Marco was immensely knowledgeable about the history of Verona and its buildings. He pointed out things I wouldn’t have noticed, and he often had entertaining anecdotes.

We started at the Arena, built by the Romans in 1 CE. It suffered from a severe earthquake in the 12th century and was also used as a ready source of construction material until an edict of 1451 prohibited the removal of stones. Only four arches are left of the outer circle, which was the façade. A Medieval legend, Marco told me, has it that it wasn’t the Romans who built the Arena. In ancient times, a prisoner under sentence of death was told that his life would be spared if he could, in one night, build the biggest and most beautiful building ever seen. The prisoner made a contract with the devil, offering his soul in exchange for the building. The job was too big even for Satan, and he didn’t finish the external ring. However, the building was so impressive that the prisoner’s life was spared; and as for his soul, it was safe. Satan hadn’t fulfilled the full terms of the contract, so it was void!

Without Marco, I would never have known about, let alone found, the non-descript door beside a restaurant and the stairs down to the Corte Sgarzerie archaeological site, which is open for three hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings. An excellent video explained that we were standing in part of the Capitoline complex, the center of which was the grand temple dedicated to the trinity of Roman gods: Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva.

Later on, on part of a Roman road that has been exposed for people to walk on, Marco pointed out to me the fossil of an ammonite in the marble. The fossils are characteristic of Veronese marble. Once I’d seen it, I started seeing them everywhere. The photograph is of one on the Ponte Pietra.

We made two stops: the first to sample freshly hand-made tortellini at La bottega della Gina, and the second for coffee at Cappa Café. The picture on La bottega della Gina's business card of is by the Veronese artist Pier Paolo Spinazzè, who paints under the name of “CIBO.” For the past 10 years, CIBO has been painting images of food (hence his choice of sobriquet) over neo-fascist graffiti around Verona, despite regular threats from the far right. When racist slogans and symbols are spray-painted back on his work, he simply paints over them again.

I'll be passing on others of Marco's stories and explanations in future posts. If you visit Verona, definitely take his historical walking tour.Read more
2 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Mercatino Antiquariato, Piazza San Zeno
September 1, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
I wouldn’t have known about the flea market in and around Piazza San Zeno if I hadn’t stumbled on Verona’s excellent webcams (http://webcam.comune.verona.it/) last night. I checked the cameras this morning to see how early the crowds take over the various places the cameras cover – not as early as 8:30, it turns out – and there, in what had been the empty piazza last night, was a market. I was in luck with my timing: the Mercatino Antiquariato takes place only on the first Sunday of the month.

Getting to San Zeno didn’t take as long as last time because I had the sense to look at a map beforehand and take a direct route, rather than pointing myself towards where I knew it to be and meandering around inexpertly, given my general lack of sense of direction, until it finally took pity and found me.

The stalls fill the piazza and adjoining streets. There’s furniture, clothes, books, old postcards, silver, jewelry, antique machinery, and all the usual bric-à-brac. On one stall, I saw a Canon Canonet Junior, the third of the many cameras I’ve owned since my first at age 8. There was even dancing in the street.

Eventually it got too hot. I watched a small white dog resignedly back itself under a stall while its owner dithered over a purchase. I decided the dog had the right idea, so I came home.Read more
1 like
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Cimitero Monumentale 1
September 7, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
…non averei creduto
che morte tanta n’avesse disfatta.
(Inferno, III)

A sunny day after one of thunderstorms and heavy rain, so everyone was out, and I decided on the Cimitero Monumental of Verona as a likely place for some tranquility away from the crowds.

The cemetery was designed by the architect Giuseppe Barbieri in 1828 to consolidate several burial places into one location and in accordance with Napoleonic law that burial places must be located outside the city wall. As the city of Verona grew, the original cemetery was not big enough and so was expanded in 1910. In the 1930s, the Ossuary Temple for the soldiers who died in the Great War and the Garden-Cemetery were added. The scholar Ippolito Pindemonte, the poet Berto Barbarani, the writer Emilio Salgari, and the artist Umberto Boccioni (among others) are buried there.

The first sight, as you come through the impressive entrance, is arresting; and beyond this first huge expanse of graves is another, equally large. There are larger cemeteries, where more people are buried, but perhaps it’s because the graves in the Cimitero Monumentale are closely packed that the impression is – for me anyway – so strongly of how many (in Dante’s words) death has undone. And perhaps because most Italian graves include a portrait of the occupant or occupants, it’s easier for me to think of the unknown-to-me buried as once having been real people.

Because I have more photographs to share than the ten per post that FindPenguins allows, this is the first of two parts on the cemetery.Read more
2 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Cimitero Monumentale II
September 7, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
Over the years, I’ve taken a lot of photographs of funerary sculpture, and the Cimitero Monumentale boasts some very interesting and beautiful pieces of neoclassical, art nouveau, and modern statuary and relief. Aside from the obvious set pieces and portrait busts, there are statues that clearly are real portraits of the deceased, not sculpture chosen off the shelf.

Has the woman in the fourth photograph been depicted wearing her favorite dress, I wonder? And are the three children standing in front of the organ pipes the grandchildren of the man buried in that grave, placed there to sing to nonno (grandpa) and keep him company for eternity?Read more
1 like
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Museo degli Affreschi
September 10, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
The former convent of San Francesco al Corso is home to (wait for it) the tomb of Juliet, but much more interestingly, it’s also home to Verona’s Museo degli Affreschi. Frescoes made between the 10th and 16th centuries and recovered from the facades of buildings in the city are beautifully preserved and displayed, with detailed explanations of the fresco process and how these frescoes were removed from the buildings. On the lowest level is a collection of first century Roman amphorae from excavations in the area.

Cross the peaceful cloistered garden, go down a flight of steps to a crypt, and there it is: the marble sarcophagus that is billed as Juliet’s final resting place. Yes, of course I went to see it.Read more
1 like
VERONA 2019 Traveler
At the Feet of Dante
September 12, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
Dante Alighieri spent the last 20 years of his life, until his death in Ravenna in 1321, in exile from his native city of Florence. He had been a prior, one the city leaders, but when the Black Guelph party (strong supporters of the papacy) took power from the more moderate White Guelphs, Dante, who was in Rome at the time, was put on trial for corruption, found guilty, banished for two years, and fined.

It was probably a trumped-up charge. Certainly Dante denied it, refusing to pay the fine and earning himself permanent exile and burning at the stake should he ever again set foot in Florence. Not until 2008 was the sentence revoked by the Florence city council.

Dante’s wanderings through Italy took him to Verona for a time, where he was given refuge by the ruling della Scala family -- the “gran Lombardo / ch ‘n su la scala porta il santo uccello” (the great Lombard, whose ladder bears the sacred bird”) Dante writes in Paradiso, XVII. The ladder and the eagle are part of the della Scala coat of arms, still to be seen in many places in Verona, and the “gran Lombardo” is usually thought to be Cangrande I della Scala.

It was during his exile that Dante wrote La Commedia, later dubbed “Divina” by Boccaccio.

I was in Verona for less than a day in 2000 and made sure to be photographed at the statue of Dante in Piazza dei Signori (more commonly known here as Piazza Dante). So this time I naturally wanted to be photographed again at the feet of the master. “You’ll be very small,” said the kind French tourist who took the picture for me. As it should be.Read more
0 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Piazza Brà
September 13, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Piazza Brà is Verona’s main square and one of the largest in Europe. Its name derives from the German word “breit” meaning broad. It is bounded on one side by the Portoni della Brà and the remains of the medieval city wall and is surrounded by historic buildings.

In the center, what was once the Austrian military parade ground is now a garden with a fountain, shaded benches, and statuary: Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a unified Italy; a statue commemorating the partisan struggle against fascism; and a plaque in remembrance of Italian victims of the Holocaust. The plaque and the fountain were sponsored by Germany when Verona was twinned with Munich.

Most famously, of course, Piazza Brà is dominated by the first century Roman amphitheatre. When I arrived, the opera season was coming to an end, and tourists who had hoped for a clear view of the amphitheatre didn’t get it because props for the productions are stored in Piazza Brà. No, I didn’t buy a ticket and go to the opera. I’m sure it’s a stunning experience, but being in the middle of 22,000 people just isn’t for me. The season finished last week, the props are gone, and the amphitheatre is back to being the backdrop for selfies.

Along one side of the piazza is the Liston, a wide promenade paved with Veronese marble and now lined with restaurants. My guidebook tells me that the Lista was the area in Venice around the embassies, and when this area of Piazza Brà was paved in the late 18th century, it became known as the Liston (the big Lista). Running parallel with the Liston is Via Dietro (behind) Listone, and that’s where my apartment is. I’m right in the center, yet at night it’s very quiet – the ideal location.Read more
0 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
A Renaissance Garden
September 14, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
In 1406, Provolo Giusti moved his family from Tuscany to Verona to further their interests in the wool dyeing industry, Verona’s main source of wealth at the time. He bought land for his enterprise. Later on in the 15th century, Agostino Giusti replaced the wool dyeing buildings with an elegant palazzo and a formal garden that would become a regular part of the Grand Tour. Among the famous visitors were Mozart, Ruskin, Addison, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, and Goethe. The last so admired an enormous cyprus (now over 600 years old and referred to as the cipresso di Goethe) that he mentions it in his Italienische Reise (Italian Journey) of 1817.

The Giardino Giusti is an oasis of tranquility about a 25-minute walk (a slow walk today because it was hot) from Piazza Brà. Perhaps that’s why it was so pleasantly uncrowded on a Saturday late morning.

Contrary to the usual practice of placing the villa at the highest point overlooking the garden, Agostino Giusti placed his house at the lowest point so that it is overlooked rather than overlooking.

The geometric symmetry of the Italian Renaissance lower garden is beautifully balanced with the natural wooded part at the back, which rises by means of steps and steep paths first to a belvedere on top of a grotesque mask that was designed to amaze and frighten visitors by belching out fire and smoke. From the belvedere, you climb to a tower with a spiral stone staircase that takes you to the upper garden from which there are some stunning views of the city and the garden below.

Formal gardens without too many flowers are my preference, and today’s visit to the Giardino Giusti is one of the highlights of my time in Verona.Read more
1 like
VERONA 2019 Traveler
The View from Castel San Pietro
September 15, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
A couple of weeks ago, I took the funicular to the Castel San Pietro. Giangaleazzo Visconti built the original castle in 1398 over the ruins of a late 9th/early 10th century fortress, but the area has been occupied since Roman times. Visconti’s castle was blown up by the French in 1801 and completely demolished by the Austrians in 1840 together with the Romanesque church that was also on the site. Between 1851 and 1856, the Austrians constructed a Romanesque Revival fortress and barrack where the castle and church had been, and that is what is there today.

Castel San Pietro has suffered badly from years of neglect and is finally under restoration, so it’s not yet open to the public. The views of the city from the Piazzale San Pietro are what make the visit worthwhile. The bridges visible in some of the photographs have been rebuilt after being destroyed by the retreating Germans in 1945, in some cases using as much of the original materials as could be recovered from the river.Read more
1 like
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Castelvecchio and the Ponte Scaligero
September 16, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
In 1354, threatened by insurrections, Cangrande II of the ruling della Scala family moved his residence from the center of the city to a more easily defended position on the river at the city wall. The Castelvecchio combined the della Scala residence with a soldiers’ yard, a controlling tower, and a private bridge that eventually served the family as an escape route to Germany. Napoleon, during his occupation, closed the courtyard on the river side to protect it from the Austrians, who occupied the other side of the river.

The 1943 trial of Gian Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law and former foreign minister, was held in the Castelvecchio, after which Ciano was executed by a firing squad nearby. When the Germans fled the city at the end of World War II, they destroyed the Ponte Scaligero.

After World War I, part of the castle became a museum, which it is today. The galleries display an impressive collection of romanesque and gothic sculpture and paintings. Some of the rooms still have the original frescoes. It’s difficult to take pictures of art in an uncontrolled environment, but I’ve chosen a pair of Madonna and Child paintings by Giovanni Bellini because next to it, is one of the occasional plastic reproductions that intrigued me. I finally asked a guard what they were. “For the visually impaired,” he told me. I’ve never seen that in any other art gallery. Perhaps I just haven’t looked.

The decorative battlements on the Ponte Scaligero and the Castelvecchio are swallow-tail merlons, characteristic of the Ghibellines, the political party that supported the Holy Roman Emperor and to which the della Scala family belonged.

The bridge is very popular because you can climb up to look over the battlements in places and there are numerous selfie photo opps. Tourists rarely seem to step off the far end, which is a pity because the other side of the road is an uncrowded outdoor bar, an ornamental wading lake, and a children’s merry-go-round and playground. The bar is my favorite place to spend an hour or so with a macchiatone and a book.Read more
3 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Via Dietro Listone, 5a
September 18, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Once again, I’ve been extremely happy with my AirBnB rental. It’s comfortable and equipped with everything I need, and more. I haven’t had the urge to make a pie, so the rolling pin has gone unused. For the first time in a rental, the shower is big enough to turn around in and has a door that doesn’t leak.

This flat is one of two in the small building; the other is above me but I rarely hear anything from upstairs, even from the two-week-old baby that is now there. It's very secure. Just look at the lock!

Small as the flat is, there is a lot of built-in storage space. However, when you can’t build out, you build up, so to hang my clothes, I have to use a pole with a hook. The ceilings are very high and very beautiful, and other than in the dining room, the lighting is on the beams. Changing a light bulb would require a very tall stepladder.

When I first arrived, in the narrow entryway were a washing machine (non-functioning, obviously), two bicycles, and couple of plant pots. About a week later, I was met by a very strong smell of rubber when I opened the main door: eight new tires were piled on top of the washer. Two weeks ago, along with the baby, a baby carriage appeared, and all of it or at times parts of it (three of them), since it apparently takes apart and perhaps serves other functions, now lie in wait to trip the unwary. The photograph doesn’t do the clutter justice because I can’t get far enough back to get it all in.

Today my friend Myra came in by train from Milan for the day. She’s the person I’m sitting with in the double selfie that we got after three tries with the self timer, balancing the camera on various bits of furniture.Read more
3 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Arrivederci, Verona
September 19, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
There is no world without Verona Walls,
But Purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence banished is banish’d from the world
And world’s exile is death.

Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Sc. 3

Tomorrow morning I leave Verona for England, fortunately without Romeo’s sense of doom, since I am first spending five days with my cousin in Essex then the last few days in London with my university friends.

As is always the way, when I arrived on August 24, time seemed to stretch ahead of me for so long; now that I am about to leave, it seems to have been very short. I am closing this part of the travel diary with some random shots of Verona, no explanations needed. The next post will be from Essex.Read more
0 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Cast Courts at the V&A
September 26, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
The Cast Courts at the V&A opened in 1873, allowing people who hadn’t the means to travel to see such wonders as Trajan’s Column, Michelangelo’s David, Florence Cathedral's Gates of Paradise, the Giovanni Pisano pulpit from Pisa Cathedral, and much more. The galleries were purpose-built to display the museum’s existing collection and constructed to a height of 25 metres to accommodate the casts of Trajan's Column, which had been acquired in 1864.

Renovation of the Cast Courts began in 2014 and is still going on to restore the original decorative scheme and colors of the galleries.

Plaster casts were made in sections (often hundreds of separate pieces) from the original structures and sculptures then assembled and finished to create complete and faithful reproduction of the original work. Sometimes the casts show details that can no longer be seen on the original as a result of poor restoration or weathering. In a few cases, the original has been destroyed and the cast is a unique record of a lost work.

In all cases, the pieces look not like plaster, but like whatever the material of the original was: stone, marble, bronze. It's hard to believe, looking at the photographs, and even harder when you the pieces in reality. Trajan's column, unfortunately, was impossible to photograph.Read more
2 likes
VERONA 2019 Traveler
On the Water
September 27, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
We took the London Transport River Bus from Westminster to Greenwich to visit the Cutty Sark, which is in dry dock there. It must be 50 years since I last went on board.

Built in 1869 in Scotland, the Cutty Sark was one of the last tea clippers built and one of the fastest. Her maximum logged speed was 17.5 knots (20.1 mph). The ship was named for the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns's 1791 poem “Tam o' Shanter,” whose nickname was Cutty-sark.

Cutty Sark is now a museum ship. Once on board, we visited the crew quarters, galley, and the hold where the chests of tea and later bales of wool were stored for transport. The various exhibits inside the ship included replicas of the kind of food that would have been cooked in the galley for the surprisingly small crew of 26. Ship’s biscuits looked especially unappetizing. The crew kept chickens and pigs on board for eggs and meat.

After a fire in 2007 and restoration, the hull was sheathed in copper alloy and the entire ship lifted three metres above the dry dock. Under a glass ceiling from which the part of the ship that would have been under water rises, there is a gift shop; and under that are a café and museum space housing the largest collection of merchant navy figureheads in the world, the Long John Silver collection. Because of his interest in all things maritime and the eye-patch he wore, having lost an eye in a childhood accident, Sydney Cumbers, the collector and donor, assumed the pseudonym of Captain Long John Silver.

Among the 93 figureheads are those of many famous people, real and imaginary. Among them: Sir Lancelot, Hiawatha, Garibaldi, Florence Nightingale, Abraham Lincoln, William Gladstone, and -- of course -- Nannie Dee herself, the white bare-breasted figure holding the gray horse's tail.Read more
1 like
VERONA 2019 Traveler
Chihuly at Kew
September 28, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Kew Gardens is a UNESCO World Heritage site and, as its website tells us, home to the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world.”

I’ve been visiting Kew Gardens since my early childhood, when you put a penny in the turnstile to get in. These days it costs a great deal more, but I’m lucky because my friends Di and John are members and can take me in as a guest. At present Kew is hosting an exhibit of works of Dale Chihuly, most of which have never been seen before in the U.K. We took advantage of what was forecast to be the only dry day of the weekend, to visit.

Chihuly’s work is always stunning and inspirational to see, and Kew (in my opinion) is the perfect place to show it. The organic design of his magnificent glass sculptures is in harmony with the various plantings and landscapes. The installations are outside, dotted around in the grounds, and inside in the Temperate House and the Waterlily House. The Temperate House (the largest surviving Victorian glass structure, in the world) will be permanent home to a new, specially designed sculpture.Read more
1 like
Trip end
September 30, 2019