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Primo Assaggio d’Italia
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  • Начало поездки
    25 июля 2025 г.
    Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник

    The Day Before

    24 июля, Австралия ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    There is a day before. It always comes, just the day before.

    The end of July sees us heading off to Europe for two months. One month in Italy, and one month in the UK. I am excited about both, and a little nervous about the first. It will be our, and my, first trip to continental Europe where English is not the lingua franca.

    However, I feel I am well-prepared, having studied Italian for ten months straight every day and am now conversing relatively freely with my Italian teacher, a charming and clever man who teaches at the University of Salerno. At this point, I am probably at the top end of B2 level for European languages, out of a Beginners A1 through to Advanced C2.

    Learning a new language was one of my target behaviours for when I retired. From a neuroscientific point of view, keeping your brain healthy and maybe even keeping dementia at bay, is best served by learning something brand new. Something you did not know before.

    I already had University level French under my belt, and it was tempting to just pick that up again, but it does not really fulfil the ‘brand new’ criterion for neurogenesis (creating new brain cells and making new connections with existing ones). I have always wanted to travel to Italy, so I thought, why not. I’ll start learning Italian, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to go.

    And it has become a joy for me. I’ve always had a penchant for language and language play, so learning Italian has thoroughly seduced me into its delights.

    Regardless of my language training, I am very enthusiastic to see and experience Italy for it has many things to offer that I love, to wit, the ancient world, antiquities, the Renaissance, architecture, art, sculpture and music, the Vatican and the Church, glorious food and wine, and more than its fair share of nature in all its beauty.

    Our itinerary covers Rome, Sorrento (Pompei, Amalfi coast, Salerno), Florence, Ravenna and Bologna. We will be staying put in each place sometimes up to seven and eight days as we want to get a feel for the place and enjoy newly discovered streets and people. I am very hopeful for this trip.

    Today is the day before. We are now ensconced in our hotel room at Sydney airport all ready to get up at 2am to fulfil all the requirements that a 6am fight demands. It’s been a big two days just getting here and we are both tired. And I daresay we’ll be tired when we get there, but we’ve pencilled in two free days before we start doing tours and the whole tourist thing in order to give us time to catch ourselves.

    Chris’ folks generously gave us a lift to the airport and had a late lunch with us at Smithy’s bar and bistro before driving home again. We’ve settled in and had a cocktail up in Cloud Nine on the 9th floor overlooking the airport as the sun set and just watched the planes take off and land as we chatted about life. It is very peaceful, and I personally feel very positive about our trip.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    The show of our plane on the water
    The view from our balconeOur glorious streetA cold beer at last, at Bar CaramelleOur local fountain, Fontana dell'Acqua Paola in Piazza TrilussaThe Ponte SistoThe Ponte Sisto showing off her arches

    Getting There is Half the Battle

    26–28 июл., Италия ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    I know I’ve sad it before in Find Penguins, but for Australians who are travelling, getting there truly is half the battle. We live in a world half a world away from anything happening in the Northern Hemisphere, so arriving at a destination up that way is an endurance for Aussies, let no-one tell you otherwise.

    Chris and I had a 6am flight out of Sydney. We stayed at the airport hotel to make things easier. Still, we had to be inside the airport, checking in and going through security at least three hours before that, ie., 3am, which meant getting up and showering and doing the final pack an hour before that. We rose at 2am. The airport stuff went mercifully smoothly. Security was no problem.

    The combined flight however, Sydney to Dubai, Dubai to Rome, took twenty two hours. I used the word endurance earlier. It is an understatement. Arriving at Rome around 8pm, we had been travelling non-stop for around twenty-eight hours. And for me, this was one of our better flights. I did not hurt so much, although I did take paracetamol to help me get through it. When turbulence permitted, I got up and stood around the cabin, loitering around the toilets as there isn’t much else place to go, as often as I could, just to move and to put my body into a different pose than that of sitting cramped. It can get excruciating.

    I could not concentrate on watching a movie, so I watched documentaries instead, two on Great British Cathedrals (three of the six chosen I had been to so there were some nice memories to enjoy), and a ridiculous Mysteries Decoded series on the aliens at Roswell. I am convinced there were aliens. They would not have passed their space ship test though as they crashed it on their first go. I also read a novel that I started before the trip and got through half of it.

    Rome’s airport was likewise nice to us, as were the Customs officers who waved us both through no doubt thinking, ‘how charming these two Australians are’, or, ‘look at these poor bastards, they’ve just flown from Australia’.

    We had intended to catch the Leonardo train into the city and take an Uber or taxi to the apartment but honestly, we were so overwhelmed with the length of time being both awake and uncomfortable and then getting out into a balmy Roman night of 35̊, we decided to just pay the taxi fee from the airport. It is supposed to be a flat flee of 55€, but when we alighted, the driver charged me seventy and I could not be asked to argue with him, so overwhelmed by this point were we. I made my first mistake of the trip when I left my glasses behind in the taxi on the back seat. I am making enquiries as we speak, but I do not hold out much prospect.

    We slept well. We have air con in our room and our fourth storey apartment, despite the challenge of the 59 stairs (yes, I counted them), is a lovely, safe, comfortable and welcoming little place. We can be happy here for a week or so. Outside our door is a bustling restaurant and bar strip, one of many labyrinthine dedicated to endeavours gustatory and drinking. It’s a fun spot.

    This morning, we did a supermarket shop and had out first Italian brekky, a coffee and a cornetto (croissant). When paying, I began in Italian, but the cashier asked me to speak in “English please” so I complied. My Italian teacher told me to insist on using Italian otherwise they will ‘English’ you wherever you go. I don’t quite have the confidence yet to insist. But I’m working on it.

    Today is a rest day, as is tomorrow. We will need another really good sleep tonight like we had last night to return to some semblance of human normalcy and psychological equilibrium. Una passeggiata (a stroll around) this afternoon probably, and dinner out tonight somewhere is almost certainly on the cards. We are spoiled for choice.

    Despite the feat of physical and psychological endurance of the trip here, I am happy to be seeing this amazing city and getting a feel for its people.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    3Travestere Fountain
    Santa Maria in Travestere2St Peter's dome dominates that part of RomeA little bridge to Tiber Island.Il Teatro di MarcelloVictor Emmanuel II on his horse

    Old Rome and New

    27–30 июл., Италия ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    In a sense, today really started yesterday afternoon. With no guided tours booked for a few days, we strolled around Trastevere discovering new nooks and crannies on every street and street corner. Trastevere’s streets are cobble-stoned labyrinthine. There are right turns and left turns and Y shaped turns wherever you look and each one is lined with restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, as well as a bit of retail sprinkled through. I’m still trying to find my way home half the time as they all look alike. But even with the abundant graffiti trying to equate itself with street art, Travestere is pretty. The architecture is old and gorgeous, the doorways, the terracotta gradients of colour, the piazzas and fountains and churches everywhere, are a delight to experience. Unlike the USA, where we travelled in February this year, everyone here seems happy and energetic. People in the US just looked depressed. This is a massive difference.

    After coffee at a local bakery where we introduced ourselves to the main man behind the counter as Austalians, we checked out our first church, a basilica no less in our own neighbourhood. This is Santa Maria in Travestere, one of the oldest churches in Rome, built in 1138-43 on a site of a much older church built in 217-222. It has three naves with columns and a highly decorated wooden ceiling. Along with some incredible artworks in the side chapels, this basilica is much admired and has the bling factor.

    The fountain in the piazza at the front of the basilica is large and cooling. We had a beer and some light food in the afternoon before returning home around 3.30pm. I decided I would take a short nap around 4pm and Chris came and woke me at 10pm to have a morsel of food before showering and off to bed again. Clearly, my body still needed the sleep catch up. I took some pics of our neighbourhood at night from our balcony and with the sounds of life wafting up from the streets below, glasses clinking, laughter, chatter, shouts, far-off sirens, I couldn’t help but think of Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Thankfully, no murders just over yonder. We both slept reasonably well last night and woke early to the gulls honking and the church bells ringing the hour.

    Brekky again at Griselda where the owner recognised us at once, giving us a hearty Buongiorno Australians and shaking my hand. We planned out our trip for the day over cappuccinos and croissants, thanked everyone, and headed out to walk over the Ponte Garibaldi, the next bridge along from our local bridge. We stopped half-way to photograph the island in the Tiber, Isola Tiberina, and then made our way to my first taste of Roman ruins; the Teatro di Marcello. This theatre was started at the end of the Roman Republic, in fact Julius Caesar himself had the land cleared for it, but alas for him, he was murdered before construction could be started. I did feel a little awe-struck and noted to Chris how chunky the thing was and that it was no wonder that these things have stayed up for two thousand years. Yes, do marvel at my architectural descriptions. Next stop, the Egyptian pyramids. Pointy.

    After the theatre we walked to maybe the grandest, most imposing monument in the city, outside the Colosseum, the Victor Emanuel II monument, bult in 1885-1935, and dedicated to the first King of a unified Italy. It is full of steps, colonnades, porticos, columns, marble, fountains, equestrian sculpture and two statues of the goddess Victory. It is huge in size, and we splurged on tickets to ride the lift to the top of the thing which gives unparalleled 360° views of Rome. We strolled quietly through the military museum part and stopped for a cool drink at the monument’s café, located somewhere in the heights of the structure, and which had in Italian and In English, a sign that read, ‘how to order’. From the cafe, you could look down over the Roman Forum and over to the Colosseum, and in the other direction, across to the Vatican and St Peter’s. Not a bad view for a café.

    Our first tram home. Easy. Some lunch at a local bar, un panino per me, and some bruschetta for Chris. Neither of us could resist a cold beer. Resting at home this afternoon. Using Italian is going relatively well, although I could probably raise the bar a level or two. Chris is using it in small ways too which is great. A lovely day out, but wow, the heat and humidity do take it out of you. Italy, so far, I love you.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Early centuries graffiti in narthex of Santa Maria
    Street art in TrastevereSanta Maria from the sideBridge to Isola TiberinaA church I wandered intoViews from the top of the Vittoriano2Lunch in TrastevereAnother church I popped into briefly

    Old Rome and New: Extra Pics

    27 июля, Италия ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Basilica St John Crisogono, sheltering from downpour
    1The Trevi FountainA column with Virgin Mary atopThe Spanish Steps1The Keats Shelley house1Mum and little sparrow joined us for Aperitivo2Vicolo Cinque, our streetDoorway in Piazza Santa Maria

    A Rainstorm Cools Rome

    28–31 июл., Италия ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Last night, we ate out in Trastevere. La Canonica is just around a few corners in a different vicolo or alley. I was quite determined to do all the greetings and ordering in Italian. Thank goodness for Manolo. Other establishments seem to quickly switch to English once they’ve pegged you as a non-Italian, a process called being ‘Englished’, but not Manolo. Manolo was a young friendly man who showed grace and patience with my Italian. He answered me In Italian each time and he asked me for further clarifications in Italian. I was just thrilled at this as it was the first time someone in the hospitality industry has been patient with me. It’s not that I was getting things wrong, I’m just not as fast as a native speaker. Dinner was wonderful. I enjoyed a beautiful pasta and had a limoncello, a drink I had not had before. It was delightful. Refreshing but tart.

    Today was day of doing a few quite famous touristy things. We saw the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, as well as the Keats Shelley Museum beside the steps. The Fountain really is spectacular. I have so so many pictures and vids and reels of Trevi that I anticipated not being particularly thrilled when I saw it. But good reader, I was wrong. I was not expecting the colour palette of the fountain, its creams and its minty green water were stunningly beautiful. The augustness of the thing took my breath, its size, the statuary, the winged horses, the pontifical triple crown atop, and the feel of it was an enjoyable surprise. While we were there, they had turned the water off in order to do a bit of cleaning, but it was nonetheless well worth the visit. When returning later from the Spanish Steps, the water was flowing, but the crowds had increased by then, so only one or two pics of that time.

    What can I say about the Spanish Steps. They are amazing. They climb a long and steep slope up to the Trinità dei Monti church at the summit. The steps are symmetrical and are surprisingly beautiful to look at. I understand that the land back in Newcastle NSW under Christchurch Cathedral was said to be earmarked for a long grand piazza down through Cathedral Park across King Street and down into Hunter Street, along the lines of Rome’s Spanish Steps. I would love it if they followed through on it. At the top, a grifter tried to get something out of me, but I left him behind, then he tried Chris who was being polite. I strode over and just told him to stop, resurrecting my erstwhile teacher’s voice. He buggered off and didn’t bother us again.

    As you look up the steps from the bottom, the house directly next to them on the right was the house of English Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. We paid our money and took a look through the museum and I had a good chat with one of the women who worked there. She was English but spoke fluent Italian. Having an Italian husband and having spent three years at university living with three Italian girls in her twenties clearly went to facilitating her prowess at the language. Keats died in the bedroom in this house at the appalling age of 23 from tuberculosis. The bedroom has been kept as he had it.

    A shared pizza for lunch at a local restaurant saw us satisfied for main meals for the day. We rested this afternoon, tried to have a nap, but after a rain storm this morning, the humidity climbed very high, so napping was a bit difficult. Later this evening, we strolled down to a local bar in our vicolo and had two beers each and a bruschetta. It really was lovely to just sit there and drink cold beer, eat small bowl of crisps, which comes with the beer (I love that) and watch the passing parade of locals and tourists. We felt very relaxed and noted that this kind small snack with a drink in the afternoon, they call it Aperitivo, is not something we enjoy in Australia.

    Then followed a gentle passiaggiata (a stroll) through the various vias and vicolos of our neighbourhood. We ended back at the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere where the basilica of the same name sits open to the crowds of people lolling about in the piazza and around the central fountain. Gelato followed and the guy remembered us and greeted us warmly. How lovely.

    Then a few odds n ends in a souvenir shop where we purchased some bits n bobs. A relaxing evening at home tonight and readying ourselves for our first official tour tomorrow at 8.30am consisting of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peters Basilica.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник

    The Vatican

    29 июля, Италия ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Today was a mixed bag, I must say. It was meant to hold great promise. A tour of the Vatican Museums, a look at the Sistine Chapel, and then a tour of Saint Peters Basilica, all wrapped up in three hour guided tour booked online months in advance. The tour was well organised, easy to follow instructions, and our tour guide Gina, originally hailing from Barcelona but a fluent Italian speaker, was friendly, charming, knowledgeable and fun.

    However, that’s where the positives end.

    Let’s do this systematically.

    The Crowds were horrendous. Good on them for being here, but wow, honestly, what with the death of Pope Francis, the calling of a Year of Jubilee (only happens once every 25 years), a conclave, the election of Pope Leo, the Vatican was packed to overflowing with both tourists (us included) and pilgrims. Today, around 2pm Pope Leo was going to say a Mass for youth in the open air of St Peters Square. A lot of these folk wanted to see the museums and the Basilica too.

    The Museums are vast and like the National British Museum in London, you need a few hours to wander around to try to pick three or four rooms that you’d like to concentrate on and leave the rest for another time. If we’d had normal tickets, we could have done that. However, with tour tickets, we were on a forced march through various rooms but mostly through corridors lined with extraordinary antiquities from the ancient world that we did not have time to stop and see. With a hundred people in front of you and maybe two to three hundred people behind you, all walking through the long corridors of the museums in the same direction, you just could not stop. This meant that the tour was slow. With so many people, there were long waits and the whole things happened in slow motion.

    The Sistine Chapel, I don’t care what anybody says, is extraordinary. It is absolutely not over-rated. There were hundreds of us let in at our time, so we stood in the middle of the chapel looking up at the various panels, surrounded by a throng of other folk also all looking up. This was the only place in the tour where I was able to forget the numbers of people surrounding my personal space. Looking up at Michelangelo’s ceiling and his Last Judgement above the altar, I was quite transfixed by what he had achieved and disappointed when it was time to leave. By this point already, we were three hours into a three hour tour and still had St Peters to go, for me the highlight, a church I had always wanted to see. But we were on the clock due to the Papal Mass where the Basilica would be closed an hour or so before the Mass started.

    The Heat Rome today reached 31°. We were ushed out into St Peters Square, an incredible sight, but immediately pummelled by the unrelenting sun high in the sky, and bouncing off Vatican walls and bitumen, it must have reached the late thirties as we stood among a multitude of other people likewise melting away. The crowd would have been twenty across at least, hundreds in front and thousands behind. We were all cheek by jowl, which is very stressful. I am sure it was the largest crowd I have ever been in. My body was pressed in on all four sides by strangers. And the sun beat down.

    It was not long before heat stress started to overtake some. We inched our way up to the side steps at the front of the Basilica and just stopped. No-one knew what was going on. No-one could see why we had stopped. Pilgrims were moving up to the doors, but the rest of us were just left there to bake. And bake we did. Chris was struggling. I was struggling. In the end, I pulled the plug. There was no way we could stand there with no sense of when there would be movement because no-one was telling us anything. I was feeling weak at the knees and didn’t want to buckle. Chris looked exactly the same and so was with me all the way.

    We headed all the way back down to where we joined the crowd when we left the Museums, where a young Vatican official refused to let us out. I begged, cajoled and got very assertive with him, but to no avail. He told us that we had to follow the line we just left, go up those steps and head out on the other side of the Basilica.

    This is what we did. Of course, we had lost our place, but we pushed our way through to close enough to where we stood before and then miraculously, there was movement. It took about ten minutes to climb those few stairs with the amount of people. But it was all too late. The sun and the Vatical crowds had defeated us. We were over it and just wanted out. We passed open doors into the Basilica and headed for the exit on the other side feeling completely overwhelmed.

    I think the Vatican authorities should have had better crowd control, some public service announcements and should even have sprayed the crowd with cold water as you see in some crowd situations. I am disappointed I never got to see inside the Basilica. The front façade of this immense church was built in the early 1500s to show the power of the church and the power of the papacy in the world as it was then. It still does, even though the institution doesn’t hold the same sway. As a building, it is very impressive as it is meant to be. The Square likewise with its colonnades topped by saints and apostles is very impressive. There is no other word for it.

    But having survived the turmoil and sheer effort of having to get through something extremely uncomfortable, I would not recommend a tour of the Vatican Museums. I would rather buy a normal ticket and take myself through. But so popular are the Museums that finding a low crowd time might be difficult. I also would not attend the Basilica on a special event day. And in the future, if there is another future, I would not come to Rome in the dead of sweltering summer.

    Tonight, dinner (pizza), drinks, a stroll, gelato, a sit on the fountain steps, another stroll by the river and home. My back aches from all the standing and my feet are still on fire. It is what it is.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, now the resting place of Pope FrancisAt Mimi e Coco at the end of our vicolo

    A Restoration Day

    30 июля, Италия ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Today has been a good day. Still hot, still humid, but that’s Italy in summer, and probably ramped up even more due to climate change.

    Today was our day to tour the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We rose early, walked over to the tram and bus stop for a significant tram journey and then made our way on foot to the tour guide offices, effectively next to the Colosseum. We collected our white stickers to identify our particular tour and waited to receive our paperwork like all the other participants. Only, we didn’t get any. I went to the guide and told her that she had missed us. She looked at my voucher and took it into the office and returned red-faced and apologetically said, “you guys are on this tour tomorrow”. Apologies all round.

    I’m quite sure that our brains melted in the Vatican sun yesterday. It is the only explanation I can come up with. With a hearty, ‘see you tomorrow’ we left the area and snapped a few pics of the outside of the Colosseum as went. This thing is huge. I really didn’t appreciate just how big it was. I am looking forward to the tour tomorrow.

    We had a lovely brekky at a local restaurant, just a croissant and coffee, and headed off for a long walk to find a particular ‘profumeria’ where Chris was intent on buying a cologne. We found it after a fairly long hot walk only to find it ‘chiuso’ closed. “Ah well,” we said, “let’s catch the bus back to Travestere and pick up our clothes from the local ‘lavandaria’ laundrette. I was somewhat embarrassed as I had lost the ticket showing I had paid and which bag was ours, so I walked in a little sheepishly.

    The old lady who was not there the day before and didn’t know me at all, was quite rightly suspicious of this off-the-street tourist fellow claiming he wanted a bag of washing. I did my best in Italian to demonstrate to her that I was the real thing. She understood me, very gratifying, and finally relented after I showed her the transaction on my digital wallet, a process that I am not at all sure she understood. Anyway, she handed over our washing and we stepped out onto the street. Chris pulled out his wallet and suggested we go back in and give her a tip for believing us. He waited while I went in and said “grazie per la tua fiducia” thank you for your trust in us, handing her the tip. She received it thankfully and asked where we were from. After telling her Australia, she responded with e the one English word she knew, “Albanese”. “SÌ,” I said, “Albanese”. I gave her the hand gesture of ‘he’s okay’ rocking my hand from side to side, the French ‘comme ci, comme ça’, the Italian ‘così così’, and she screwed up her mouth a little and gave me a knowing nod that suggested she knew all about politicians. And with that, we parted on good terms. Stay tuned for more exciting Italian adventures just like our collecting of washing!

    This afternoon, we slept a little. I studied some Italian and Chris worked on his laptop. In the late afternoon, we stepped out for aperitivo as is now our custom. O goodness, I am going to miss this when I return to Australia. Today we chose Mimi e Coco at the end of our vicolo. We had passed it many times, but never went in. Tonight, we did. We enjoyed a couple of spritzes each and ordered a trio of bruschetta and chicken skewers with roast potatoes and rosemary to die for. After, we had gelato again sitting on the steps of the fountain at the Piazza Santa Maria just around the corner, a place we have now come to think of as our home piazza. Tonight, it was full of pilgrims for the Jubilee year. Mostly young people. And finally, a visit to a ‘libreria’ bookshop in the piazza where we could not help ourselves. We came out with three new books and a print of the Piazza. I got a new Penguin parallel text of short stories where each story is printed in both Italian and English, a great way to extend vocabulary, and a book by Roman stoic philosopher Seneca (4BC – 64AD) called On the Shortness of Life.

    Tomorrow morning, we do a Take 2 on the Colosseum and Forum tour. We are both in good spirits. Still loving Rome. Still loving Italy.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    The mound with flowers in Caesar's AltarLunch, air con, cold beerEvening by the Tiber

    Ancient Rome

    31 июл.–2 авг., Италия ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Today was our tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. Rome reached a very balmy 31° today, with humidity high. Humidity is still at 51% at 9pm as I write this post.

    The tour was by the same firm as that which took as through the Vatican debacle. However, despite overwhelming numbers in Rome due to the Jubilee youth stuff going on, our tour guide Yuri, who was educated, articulate and friendly, managed to take us through the Colosseum check points, and there are more checkpoints where ticket and passport must be shown than entering Fort Knox, and through the history of the place very skilfully. The start of the tour was the only real human crush on the whole thing, and it was hardly a human crush, more like a whole bunch of people all going through the same metal detectors and stair cases at the one time. So, busy, but not overwhelming.

    If I’m honest, I did not know what to expect from the Colosseum. Would it be grand? Would it be a let-down? Would it have CGI? Would it have cardboard cutout Roman Emperors? Happily for me, I found the thing totally arresting in its size, its scope, in terms of what kind of games they laid on for the masses back then, and how it all fitted together culturally. For example, four tiers of seats. The Emperor gets the best seat in the house down low near the stage. Next tier were the Senators and patricians, next were mercantile and the general populace. The lower your social status, the higher in the Colosseum away from the stage you had to sit. And it really is a long way up there.

    Did you know the Colosseum’s real name is the Flavian Theatre and that Colosseum is just a nickname. During the reign of Nero, he had a giant palace built called the Domus Aurea, the golden house, out the front of which he erected a giant statue of himself in gold about 30 metres high, presented as the sun god Sol Invictus. The statue was a colossus, a giant statue, much like the famous ancient wonder of the world, the Colossus of Rhodes, which was said to straddle the harbour of Rhodes. However, after Nero’s death by suicide after he lost the support of just about everybody, the colossus was torn down and in its place, a giant theatre made up of two giant amphitheatres joined together was started in the reign of Emperor Flavius, who never lived long enough to see it complete. This theatre was built on the site of Nero’s colossus and the Flavian Theatre gradually became known as the Colosseum.

    We had only half an hour to walk through the Forum. Not ideal. But certainly, time enough to give us a taste of the thing. I felt quite moved standing in the middle of it, looking at this building or that, the Senate House here, the altar to Julius Caesar there. Did you know that, to this day, people still put flowers on the mound in Caesar’s altar? The columns, the triumphal arches, the courts, the rostrum of the Tribunes of the Plebs, the palazzos are all incredible and when you look at them as they were then, as we did in Yuri’s coloured picture book, and then look at them now, you can see how Rome paraded itself in glory. It must have been magnificent. The sun was beating down on us by the time the tour ended, and despite being able to stay on and poke around ourselves, we were tired on our feet, hot, sweaty, and felt the need to get out of the day and into some cool comfort, so bade the Forum Romanum farewell and headed for the tram stop.

    A tram home. Some lunch at a local ristorante, a prosciutto and mozzarella toastie with a cold beer, then home to rest and nap. At aperitivo time, we emerged from our burrow, went for a short stroll around the vicolos, then returned to Mimi e Coco for drinks and nibbles, their lovely bruschetta again. We strolled down to the edge of the Tiber and sat on its banks looking at the evening sunlight on the water and then strolled home, but not before stopping at Caramelle for another cold beer. They knew us and the guy remembered our beer order. Very nice.

    A good day today. The last of our tours in Rome completed. I am enjoying this kind of culture, so different to my own Anglo culture, very much indeed. It’s no wonder they call this La Dolce Vita.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    The Villa Borghese
    2Hades forcing himself on someone1The ceilings and wallsA Roman mosaic depicting fighters in the games1Are they real?What a face.Apollo and Daphne1Passionate Singer, handsome too.The busker in Piazza Trilussa

    Villa Borghese

    1 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    After a good night’s sleep, despite Trastevere’s daily night life and the bells of the Santa Maria basilica tolling the quarter hour, we woke with renewed energy, ready to take on another day.

    Today was about two things, three if you count dropping off some more washing to the local lavanderia: a relaxing morning with no tour deadlines, and a 3pm entry to the Villa Borghese, a stunning gallery across the other side of Rome that used to be the house of the Borghese family, including the most famous of that illustrious name, Cardinal Scipio Borghese.

    As a way to demonstrate their earthly power and influence, Scipio Borghese became a collector of ancient Roman art and Renaissance art. His palazzo was turned into a gallery befitting the most extraordinary collection of ancient and Renaissance art that I’ve ever seen; the palazzo itself an objet d’art. Every room has a ceiling and walls painted with scenes from antiquity or Biblical themes much in the manner of the Sistine Chapel. There is trompe l’oeil everywhere you look and sometimes, I had to peer really hard to work out whether I was looking at a painting or a three dimensional model. Every lintel over every doorway is festooned in marble shells or statues of gods or goddesses covered in gold bling. It is completely over the top, unliveable, even for a family as rich as the Borgheses. But as a gallery, it works.

    We had a lovely stroll in the parkland surrounding the Villa before we entered. Our time was 3pm and we there ready to take our allotted space. There are only so many tickets for each time-slot so they control the flow much better than other galleries and museums where they just let in everyone all at one time. It is difficult for me to talk about any of the art in detail, but I know Chris was very attached Bernini’s David, a marble statue of the young man just about to let loose his sling against Goliath. There is a look of intense focus on his face I suppose in concentration on where to target the stone.

    For me, I loved Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. Apollo is intent on taking her, as I understand the story, but Daphne, a nymph, flees from him and is turned into a tree, possibly by her mother Gaia, in order to save her from the ravenous clutches of the god. Looking at how her hands are sprouting into branches is really exceptional sculpture. And Bernini was such a young man, a mere youth. What a talent. I’ll leave the photos to speak for themselves.

    A taxi home was worth the fare for the air-conditioned comfort, followed by a quick beer at Caramelle, then a rest at home before dinner. Dinner was at a local restaurant, Carlo Menta, in one of the many vicolos around us, where I enjoyed an excellent boscaioloa and a nice drop of vino bianco. We walked the area after our meal and ended up back in Santa Maria Piazza where once again we partook of our favourite gelato store whose owner now knows us and offered Chris a free flavour tonight. In the tourist shops, we stopped in, and I bought two Italian themed T shirts, nothing over the top, simple, yet entirely fashionable for the average person who is falling in love with Italy. Another little shop, and we bought a couple of little notebooks with beautiful local cover designs and a new glasses case for Chris who purchased some sun glasses yesterday.

    On our way home, we stopped in at the piazza at the other end of our street, Piazza Trilussa, that of the steps and fountain from my first post on Italian soil. There was a Dublin bi-lingual busker performing and he had the crowd on the steps and in the surrounding piazza in his hand. He really was fabulous, and we sang and clapped along despite not knowing the words of the songs. The main thing was that the crowd did know the words and sang heartily and even danced.

    Tomorrow is our last day in Rome. Wow. Leg 1 of our journey just about complete. We head out on Sunday morning for the south.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    111A flock of young priests or seminarians in our Piazza

    Last Day in Rome

    2 августа, Италия ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today is our last day in Rome. Tomorrow, we board our first of a number of train journeys, this time, to Sorrento. I guess we are going to hear endless interpretations of Come Back to Sorrento (Torna a Surriento) to replace the nightly alcoholised Volare that we here endlessly in Trastevere. The poor waiters. When I played piano at Danilos for eight years, I vowed I would never play The Girl from Ipanema ever again. However, I do like Come Back to Sorrento and given we’re only staying four days, things should be okay. Here’s a link to Luciano Pavarotti singing it if you want to hear it again, and the opening lines:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbUfpQ9Nmbw&amp…

    Guarda il mare com'e bello!
    Spira tanto sentimento
    Come il tuo soave accento
    Che me desto fa sognar

    We planned today to be a slow day. And it was. A late start, or late by our standards, we’re early birds. A coffee and cornetto back over Giselda where every day since we got here the barrista, maybe as old as me, has warmly shaken my hand and said a welcoming Buongiorno, sometimes Buongiorno Australians. Today, we wrote him a nice thank you note and left a tip for him.

    We headed over the river and into the retail district, il centro commerciale, in order for Chris to by the cologne he wanted. We purposely avoided the extremely rude man in the Trastevere profumeria and went to a store called Le Labo, staffed by a sexy young gay man called Rosario, who helped Chris purchase what he wanted. It was fascinating to see him actually make the perfume in front of us. A new experience for me.

    On the way to the profumeria, we chanced upon yet another basilica, this time the Basilica of Saints Ambrose and Carlo. We both went in and sat awhile, just enjoying the quiet and admiring the architecture of the building, its nave and side chapels. It had plenty of golden bling to be sure, but it was a lovely space. No pilgrims in there (they were all at the Vatican ) so the church had only a handful of folk. We both took some photos too and left quietly after ten or fifteen minutes.

    A quick coffee at a local, then a bus back to Trastevere where we stopped off for a cooling spritz only have brought out and set before us a piatto (dish/plate) of cold meats and breads. Super yum. We stopped off at the lavanderia just down the road to pick up a second load of washing we had dropped off yesterday and on this occasion, there were no problems as we had ensured we would not lose the docket this time.

    Home for a rest, then this evening, out for aperitivo around 4pm at Caramelle again, including a Prosciutto alla Melone (shaved ham served with rock melon), then that Italian stroll, the passeggiata afterwards, and ultimately heading back to Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere to eat our last Roman gelato and sit on the fountain and watch all the people and handsome Italian men.

    As I always find in these situations, I am a little sad to leave a place I have bonded to, but I also know from past experience that this special bonding is not a one off. You remember it in your thoughts and memories and can form new bondings just as powerful with other wonderful places. Which is what I hope will happen in our next two cities.

    I have gained my confidence in this place in speaking to Italian people and feel greater freedom to dare to communicate myself. That is a good feeling. To date, I have been studying the language for just over ten months on a daily basis, so it is definitely paying off and giving me a positive feeling to boot.

    But for now, the packing up of all our wares into suitcases again and the train tomorrow.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    SkyBar Floor 5 of hotel
    Bay of NaplesCitrus GardenThe top of the cliffsMt Vesuvius1Hotel poolDinnerPasseggiata after dinner down main streetChurch in main street

    A Sojourn in Sorrento

    3 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    We rose early and had a light breakfast in our favourite piazza. It was very pleasant. Packing was virtually finished, so we cleaned up the apartment and left at 10am to take a taxi to Roma Termini, the main train station in the city. The taxi driver had very little English and was quite talkative, so this gave me a chance to really let loose with my Italian. We talked about everything possible, and I managed to not only speak to him sensibly but understand maybe 60-70% of what he was saying. I felt really chuffed by this and when he told me that my pronunciation was really good, he emphasised, “really good” a second time, I may have blushed out of excitement. In fact, the conversation to the station was the most Italian I have spoken at one time since we arrived here.

    Roma Termini is big with multiple floors. We had pre-booked our tickets and seats so all we had to do was find the correct platform, once they posted it, and head for the train, a high speed train to Naples. It was very comfortable, and it took about an hour to do the 225 km. I could not but help think of the Newcastle Sydney train trip of around 165 km that takes just under three hours, surely the snail of the East Coast.

    We only had one problem with the trip. We did not realise that Naples Afragola and Naples Central were different stations. In order to get to our connecting train to Sorrento, which again, we had paid for, we had to get off at Naples Afragola. We did not. The train terminated one station further, at Naples Central, and no trains with that company go to Sorrento from there. After five minutes of consternation, we bought new tickets from Naples Central with a different train company and boarded the not so fabulous Circumvesuviana which travels around the Bay of Naples. It takes about an hour. It was packed to the rafters and pretty darn hot. We stood, along with many others, for the whole journey, protecting our bags and trying to keep positive. A busker with a violin and sound system boarded at one station and he entertained us for a short while but he made very little money from our neck of the woods and moved to another carriage.

    We arrived in Sorrento and headed straight for our hotel, the Hotel Michelangelo. It is super comfortable and is airconditioned wherever you go. I only mention this last, because the humidity here is off the charts. We went to the SkyBar and bought a nice cold spritz each and then took a long walk through a citrus garden and thence down the cliffs to the beach. We photographed the Bay, the volcano, which looms over the Bay like a sleeping giant, and the cliffs. The water of the Thyrrhenian Sea, part of the Mediterranean, was so inviting, we unshod and dipped our feet into the cooling waters with blackish sand from Mt Vesuvius underfoot. I must say, walking back up the cliff-face afterwards nearly did me in. I thought I was fit enough for these kinds of stairways, but in this level of heat and humidity, my body just about gave out by the time I got to the top.

    We showered and went out for dinner at a semi indoor outdoor place and then went for a walk along the main street of Sorrento, along with hundreds of others. It was wonderful. We each bought a belt from a leather store and dropped into a church to check it out.

    It’s been a huge day. The trip here took longer than needed due to our ignorance of the stations. Our feet were sore and on fire, and our bodies ached. We had planned a four and a half hour tour of Pompei tomorrow morning at 7.30am in the heat of the morning sun but after thoughtful deliberations, we decided to cancel. We are heading out of town over night the following day, so we felt like we might be pushing things somewhat. Instead, tomorrow, we will take things a bit easier, discover a little more of Sorrento and swim in the Mediterranean. Pompei can wait till another time. After all, its waited since 24 August 79AD, so it can wait a while longer for us to discover its fascination.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    1The Bagni Salvatore Baths
    1Franciscan Friary of San Francesco, dating back to the 8th centuryRelaxed at apperitivoUp on the cliffsA marketplace vicoloSunset over Vesuvius

    Bagni Salvatore

    4 августа, Италия ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    What can you say about Sorrento? It is lovely, tacky, beautiful, busy, hot, bustling. It’s a mix. But once we caught the lift (ascensore) down to the bottom of the cliffs and made our way to the Bagni Salvatore private baths, any negative feelings from up top, which were few anyway, melted away in a picture straight out of the movies or indeed, a painting.

    Bagni Salvatore has crystal clear green water with plenty of good-sized fish sharing in the fun. It is surrounded by sheer cliffs and is built on the ruins of the Villa Agrippa Postumus from the first century AD. Agrippa was the nephew of Emperor Augustus. Its arches are still there and the large carved rocks are still in the water. There is flowering oleander growing and tufts of crimson bougainvillea sprouting from the edges of the rocks. Swimming around in a Roman ruin idirectly connected to the first Emperor of Rome was a first for us both and was very special.

    The water was warmish, but still refreshing, around 22-23°. The umbrellas and sun bed were pricey (very) but this was possibly a once in a lifetime experience, so we splurged on the brollies and sunbeds and had a very nice time of it. The baths are part of the Bay of Naples so you’ve got the gorgeous green of the water under you, the remains of a Roman ruin at the beach under the cliffs, and Mt Vesuvius continuing to sleep on the other side of the Bay. Quite extraordinary. Boy, did I ever feel retired, as I languidly swam from one end of the baths to the other.

    Since we abandoned our tour of Pompei, today was earmarked at once for rest and relaxation, some time to catch up with ourselves, for with travel, there is always this relentless propulsion to keep pushing yourself. You have to see this. You have to experience that. When you go, it will still be here and if you didn’t go, then you’ll have missed it. All very well, until you realise that the human body and mind are just not made nor equipped for constant, daily trudging from this monument to that museum to this beach to that gallery to this show to that restaurant, from this city to that town. That kind of travel is exhausting and it is something Chris and I now actively avoid. We would much rather put some roots down in a place for a while and get to know it a little while taking a more leisurely pace.

    We both had a lovely nap this afternoon, I read some newspapers from home, and around 4.30pm, we set out for a stroll through the market place vicolos of Sorrento. It was fun and we did end up buying something. At the end of one of the vicolos we found a friendly bar (in Italy, the word bar covers bar, café and restaurant and some of them are all three) where we enjoyed aperitivo, this evening’s made up of a meat and cheese board with Negroni Sbagliati spritzes. They were so nice, we both had a second. Gelato back up in the market alleyways and a gentle stroll home for a further tiny nap and a relaxing evening.

    Things are good. We’ve both slept better, and it is nice to have the luxuries of a hotel over an Air B n B for a change. Our hotel is indeed very nice and is beautifully appointed in every space. I am writing this piece down in the lounge area with leather lounges and tub chairs surrounding me, a good-sized grand piano up one end of the room and a bar, closed at the moment, with its lights on. There is no-one else here in the lounge, so I have the whole thing to myself.

    Tomorrow brings a temporary voyage to Salerno, where my Italian teacher lives and works. We’ll catch the ferry to Amalfi, then take a bus ride to Salerno where we will stay overnight. This stay is necessitated by the schedules of the ferries back to Sorrento. They don’t work for us. So, we’ll stay over-night, probably meet my teacher for breakfast the following morning, before catching a direct two-hour ferry back to Sorrento along the Amalfi coast. I am looking forward to all aspects of this little side trip. It should be very nice.

    Ciao ciao 😊    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    The ferry to Amalfi
    SalernoThe bell tower of the DuomoThe crypt

    Night Stop in Salerno

    5 августа, Италия ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    On 5 August, we travelled for a one-night stop to Salerno. It’s not in the Bay of Naples, but by ferry, it’s just around the corner of the promontory that separates the Gulf of Naples from the next Gulf, past Positano and Amalfi, and nestled on the Gulf of Salerno, a bay in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It has charm, history, a generation of youth, professionals, architecture, bars and restaurants, a beach promenade, swimming, incredible mountains, and as so happens, my Italian teacher and friend, Andrea.

    We knew that Andrea was immensely busy this week at a sporting gathering of some 17 countries as the official translator. He would not be finished press conferences and the closing ceremony until after midnight, so we decided we would meet each other for the first time on the following day just before we left Salerno by ferry to return to Sorrento. Between the three of us, it was the best we could do.

    So, Chris and I made a journey and story of it. We had to catch a ferry (un traghetto) to Amalfi, the glamour pusses of Europe all smushed together in a tiny space and I assume, vying for the ‘who’s the best looking or richest or coolest’ award. We wended our way through tourists to get to the buses so we could get a connecting bus from there to Solerno. The bus was air-conditioned and very comfortable I must say, but it wound its way along the coastal cliffs with terrifying falls to rocks, the sea and certain death on the side we were travelling. I held on to the handle of the back of the seat in front of me for grim death. Heights, and more specifically, plummeting over high cliffs, are not my strong suit. But we got there, with a lot of honking of the bus horn from the driver as we went around a hundred hairpin turns. I was glad when we arrived.

    We found our digs for the night, a modest Air B n B that was comfortably appointed and had air-conditioning. We walked the length of the main street, very long, and after, believe it or not, a burger, my first since coming to Italy, ended up walking all the way to the Duomo with the imposing title of Cattedrale di Santa Maria degli Angeli, San Matteo e San Gregorio VII. It is classed as a minor basilica and was built from 1076 and 1085. Lots of Norman invasion of England stuff going on at the same time. It was built in the Romanesque style but was modified a few times in later years in the Byzantine style.

    It is very very old to look at from the outside, but the inside is quite beautiful, with an antique cream colour for columns and ceiling, and Byzantine Islamic influence for the tiles of the pulpit. It is a basilica without bling. Quiet, reflective and lovely. It is grand but at the same time, simple, and captures the magic of that mixture exquisitely.

    The Duomo has a crypt. It is the opposite, ornate with ceilings and walls painted, and tiles for columns and walls. There is not a space left untouched by the artist’s hand. It is really hugely busy in its style but its soft pinks and creams and little cherubs atop the columns are quite wonderful.

    Dinner was more aperitivo than dinner and we enjoyed a small bill of fare with some spritzes. A passeggiata along the beach front after eating was the perfect way to end the day before retiring to the hotel. The beach is gentle, the city being inside a Gulf, the mountains were spectacular and the clouds over them became pink as the sun set. Just magic.

    Both Chris and I felt strangely drawn to this city. As vibrant as Sorrento is, it does not capture the relaxed atmosphere with beaches, mountains, the university, in fact everything you could need to live a happy relaxed life. Sorrento is chipper, Salerno is chilled. Sorrento is revved, Salerno is relaxed. We feel that one day, we will return here for a more expansive visit.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    111

    Meeting Andrea

    6 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    When we came south from Rome, I had always thought that there might a chance to meet Andrea, my Italian teacher. We initially came to Sorrento to use it as a base to see Pompei and a little sight-seeing around here. I knew Andrea was around here somewhere, but I wasn’t sure exactly where. Turns out he lives in Salerno and that with a bit of effort we could go there to hello. And yesterday, we did happily make our way to this lovely city on the Gulf of Salerno and had a thoroughly good day. We ended up discovering a new love. A new city.

    But this morning was our time, albeit brief, to meet Andrea. We had tickets on the 8.25am ferry back to Sorrento, stopping off at the island of Capri, where Emperor Tiberius built himself a palace to get away from Rome, so we decided to meet at 7.30am at a bar near the ferry terminal.

    Sure enough, as we approached the bar, Andrea was outside waiting for us. His face lit up the moment he saw us and with arms outstretched he gave us both huge hugs and many welcomes and so good to meet yous. I did the same. We have been meeting online weekly for around five months where we have extremely engaging lessons about all manner of things in Italian, and yes, including grammar, so the opportunity to be with each other face to face was a huge thrill for me. I think it was for Andrea too.

    He bought us coffee and we sat outside. I introduced Chris to him properly and I gave him a gift I had bought with me from home, a limited-edition print of a watercolour by a local Newcastle artist of Nobbys Head and lighthouse. It’s quite lovely and I am confident that he liked it. He messaged later and told me that his wife also loved it. I wrote a meaningful card to go with it, and Andrea exchanged with me a letter he wrote for me which I read when I got back to Sorrento.

    Our meeting, like our lessons, flowed smoothly. He is such a lovely man, kind, thoughtful, intelligent, articulate. And a superb teacher, always positive, reassuring and encouraging, even when mistakes abound. He is very easy company. It was a shame we had such little time for I would loved to have talked about life a whole lot more with him. Still, we had our meeting, and it was a positive and lovely thing to do. Andrea accompanied us across the road to the ferry terminal where we said our goodbyes with hugs and many smiles and goodbyes.

    The ferry ride to Sorrento was uneventful apart from the fact that we had to change ferries at Capri. We waited all of five minutes to board another, effectively empty ferry. At that time of the morning all the tourists are going to Capri not coming from Capri.

    We caught the lift up to the top of the cliffs and to the township where we had a drink, then back to Hotel Michelangelo to rest up a bit and have a nap. We had a quick swim in the hotel pool then I did some writing and Chris had a bath.

    As this was our last night here, we decided to splurge on dinner as we hadn’t eaten anything all day. We found La Basilica, a lovely restaurant where I enjoyed a cannelloni in some profoundly wicked cheese sauce, and Chris had squid. A nice cold beer washed it all down, before we did a passeggiata through the vicolos again where the markets are situated. Chris bought two linen shirts. Very nice. Finally, a small tub of gelato each to round out the evening and head on back to the hotel.

    We leave tomorrow morning to return to Naples where around midday, we’ll hop on a fast train and head up to Florence. You probably know that Italians call it Firenze, so Firenze it shall be.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Our Italo fast train to Firenze
    The apartmentThe view from the bedroomPiazza della RepublicaThe Duomo, surely, like the Sydney Opera House, one of a kind.Piazza Santa Trinita, home.1

    A Travel Day to Firenze

    7 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    At this very moment, I am sitting at the end of the dining room table in our apartment in Firenze, staring out of the window in front of me at the cupola of the Duomo lit up under floodlight at night. It is at once both extraordinary and surreal. And also, very interrupting. I am trying to write, but I keep looking at it.

    Today has been a day of travel. From Sorrento to Napoli, from Napoli to Firenze. The extra money we paid for the Campania Express to avoid the dreaded Circumvesuviana was a waste. It was exactly the same rolling stock and the only difference was that it stopped at fewer stops. At least we had a seat this time, although there was no storage facility for luggage, a fault I would have thought for a tourist-based railway. Still. We got to Napoli and hopped on our sleek Italo fast train to Firenze that would do the job in three hours. It was cool, comfortable, they fed us drinks and snacks, and both Chris and I settled back to read and snooze. Oh for trains like this in Australia.

    Arriving at Firenze just after 3pm when it was 33° was something of a shock and we had to learn the hard way that you cannot hail a taxi in Firenze, but must walk to a taxi stand. Although, I am not certain this is hard and fast rule. The deal done, our driver was good to us and took us to Palazzo Santa Trinita where our top floor apartment is situated. This building has a tiny lift, a floor to ceiling mirrored thing, that takes you to the floor below us and we take the stairs for the last bit. Compared to Trastevere, this was a walk in the park.

    Our host Susanna gave us a full and very informative induction to the place and offered some helpful advice too. First thing to do was find a local lavanderia to take our washing. We did this easily enough and walking there was our introduction to walking through the medievalisms of Firenze. Nothing prepared me for it. More on this later. Once the laundry was organised, we stopped at a local bar and had a beer for we were much parched after our long journey. Then home for a shower and a quick rest.

    We went out for dinner tonight and ended up in Piazza della Republica, a giant historic square that had restaurants surrounding and a merry go round in the middle. It was lovely. We shared a pizza, so good, and both had a drink, and then headed off toward the Duomo. Nothing prepared me for seeing this cathedral. It was a genuine jaw-dropping experience. Its architecture and art work makes the Duomo an objet d’art itself. We will take a guided tour through it on Monday. We stayed until the light faded and saw its floodlights come on, and tired as we are, slowly walked back to Piazza Santa Trinita where there were two buskers playing very expertly. We took a quick peek at the River Arne from our local bridge and saw the moonlight and streetlights reflected.

    On our way back to our external door to the street, we commented that every turn, every direction, everywhere you look, there is something extraordinary to see. We’ve only ben a few hours and we are completely blown away. Lots to come, I am sure.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Basilica Santa Trinita
    Basilica Santa Maria NovellaCloisters2After dinner passeggiata1Our home piazza

    The Day of Two Basilicas

    8 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    Today has been a day for trying to take it easy, as we had nothing planned, but Firenze turned on a 38° day today, and apparently, according to my phone’s weather widget, will do so every day for the rest of the week, so it was a bit of a trudge doing anything. But trudge we did, and do things, we did.

    It ended up being the day of two basilicas. Santa Trinita is a minor basilica built on the site of an earlier church of the 1000s. This second church, across the piazza from our front door, was built in the 1250s and belonged to an offshoot of the Benedictine Order, the Vallombrosans, a rather austere order of monks. Suffice to say that the Basilica of Santa Trinita is very old. It still has 14th century frescoes on its walls, many in disrepair, but many also, surviving to this day. Frescoes of course, are painted straight on to the plaster, so over time, when the plaster ultimately and inevitably begins to crumble and decay, there goes your precious fresco. Think Leonardo’s Last Supper in Milan.

    We just poked out head into the basilica after a brekky in a small bar next door to us. It was wonderful. We breakfasted, paid our bill, then crossed the street to enter the basilica. It screamed ‘old’ as soon as you entered it. But it had a serenity and a beauty that I found enchanting and we stayed longer than we intended.

    After the Santa Trinita, we decided to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, the Dominican cathedral, because tomorrow Sunday, there would be Masses being said. It has the look of the Duomo, marble and tiles, and the same colour scheme, but not as large. We lined up in the sun and paid our money to get inside, which gave us access to the basilica, the cloisters, and the museum. The basilica was built from the 1240s.

    I had an ambivalent emotional response to this basilica. It was very large on the inside, a vast vacant space in the nave as you first walk in; no pews or seats, just standing room. A large cross hung from the ceiling about three quarters of the way down the nave with multiple side chapels. A vast panel surrounding the front altar around which you could walk had floor to ceiling panels, painted frescoes, that were alive with colour and life.

    We took our time in the basilica, even going into the shop where we purchased a few odds n ends, then took a slow walk around the cloisters, and a little of the museum. But by that time, we had had enough and felt the need to leave and get something cold to drink. We visited a local side street bar and partook in bruschetta and a beer each.

    On the way home, we stopped off at the lavanderia to pick up our washing, only to find that were on a break until 3pm. This is quite common in Italy. It is called ‘pausa’, and is earlier than the Spanish siesta. It lasts for an hour or two and then businesses re-open until 6 and 7pm at night. We headed home, tired as we were. Don’t forget the heat. We rested and both had a nap too. Chris decided he wanted a walk so he went back and collected the washing.

    This evening, we had a lovely pizza back in the Piazza della Republica, a different establishment this time, then a passeggiata until we found an up-market bar where we had another spritz.

    Tomorrow will likewise be extremely hot, but we have nothing planned so we will take it easy and keep it limited to save our energy for some booked endeavours on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Two basilicas in one day. That’s gotta be some kind of record, doesn’t it?    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    The view over Firenze
    1Reflections on the ArnoThe Ponte VecchioView across the riverThe Uffizi GalleryGallileo's House1Giardino Bardini1Palazzo Vecchio1Coffee at Palazzo Strozzi1The Odeon Cinema Bookshop1Writing my Penguin under the watchful eye of the tower over Palazzo Vecchio

    Keeping Up with the Bardini and Strozzi

    9 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 30 °C

    We knew ahead of time that today was going to be a hot one. It probably reached 40° at the hottest part of the day and when Chris and I sat down tonight to start writing tonight around 7.30pm, it was still 38°. We therefore decided we would venture out in the morning before midday and the hours just after, to do whatever sightseeing we could manage and then return to the burrow to avoid the sun.

    We headed up the Arno, Firenze’s beautiful river, and crossed the Ponte Vecchio, a jewellery store clad ancient bridge which was the only crossing I understand to survive the Nazis’ bombing. The Ponte Vecchio looks old. Its name says it is old. There is a narrow roadway across it but either side, there are jewellery stores, glistening with gold and silver, rings and chains and precious stones. They take up the whole bridge and there are no other stores there, just the jewellery stores. When I first came upon the Italian word for a jewellery store some months ago, it vexed me seriously due to its successive vowels. Gioielleria. It still does.

    We had breakfast at the Café Ponte Vecchio on the other side and then set off on foot through this district known as the Oltrarno. The Oltrarno is where the locals go for food and drinks and coffee. It is replete with alleys and shops and bars and laneways and lots of discoveries to be made. Just one of those discoveries was finding Galileo’s house on our way to discover a garden. In truth, there is not much to Galileo’s house, and I don’t know if it is the one where he stayed when he was under house arrest, but there is tiny plaque over the door, and two doors down, a more worthy plaque designating the place where he took measurements using his telescope.

    The garden we went to find was not any old garden. In fact, it was the Giardino Bardini, a garden attached to a historic villa of a 17th century wealthy Florentine family. It is high up over Firenze and layered in winding paths with fountains, ponds, trees, shrubs, flowering plants and terraces. It is very beautiful. They have an open-air cinema there too and a little bar. The views over the city are wonderful and although the Boboli Gardens are more famous, there are many voices that say that the Giardino Bardini is the better garden. We stopped at the caffe house for a rest and just took in the gardens and views. Stunning and very restful.

    After walking down the hill, we stopped off at the Palazzo Vecchio, the great castle-like tower that we see from our living room. We didn’t go in. Perhaps another day. For three hundred years, Michelangelo’s David stood proudly outside the Palazzo Vecchio. Now there is a life-size replica in the same spot, all 17 feet of him, while the real one is in a museum here. There were many other statues there of the Roman and Greek gods and we marvelled at how wonderful they looked and how well they represented their own unique stories in the ancient world pantheon.

    Lunch at a side street bar, and a walk home. We stopped off at a bookstore where I bought a history of the Medici, then a coffee in the Palazzo Strozzi which is virtually next door to us. We walked in their massive doors. Have I mentioned the doors in this city? They are really something else. Massive. Decorated. Statued. Gated sometimes. Inside was a huge atrium, where no doubt in the 15th century, the Strozzi horses would clip clop across the cobblestones and enter the palazzo, stopping in the atrium. Beside this is an up-market bar and I wanted a coffee, so we stopped in.

    Home for a nap and a rest. The heat out there at this time of day was vicious. People were sticking to the shady side of the streets and scurrying off. I was very glad to be home.

    Come 5pm, we emerged and returned to Palazzo Strozzi for an aperitivo. My aperitivo discovery on this trip has been Campari Spritz. Campari, soda, prosecco, a slice of citrus. A little bitter, but somehow sweet too. Very refreshing.

    After the evening passeggiata, we happened upon the Odeon, a gorgeous old cinema, whose stalls have been turned into a fabulous bookshop, and whose circle upstairs, remains as seating for cinema. They play movie trailers quietly while you’re browsing for books. It was very cool. We both loved it. And, hand on heart, I couldn’t help myself. Italian publishing is so lovely, I bought three crime stories by the same author, Death in August, Death in the Tuscan Hills, and Death in the Olive Grove, all by Italian author Marco Vichi. They look a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to them. Some good conversation about life when we got home to the air con. A lovely day. Tomorrow starts off with a bang. A full tour of the Duomo.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    The Uffizi Gallery
    The Baptism of ChristThe AnnunciationLamentation over the Dead ChristPrimaveraThe Birth of VenusThe Calumny of AppellesBeautiful statue in local sreet1Local street views

    The Uffizi Gallery

    10 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 33 °C

    First up, I have to correct the record. For the last two days, Chris and I have been a day out in the week in our minds, ie., we thought it was the following day rather than the actual day it was, and we did not tweak to it until bedtime last night. So, some of our plans have had to change. For instance, in my last post, I indicated that today would begin with a tour of the Duomo. No, that’s tomorrow. Today was a ticketed time to go through Firenze’s most famous gallery, the Uffizi.

    Showered and scrubbed up, we were very glad that our ticketed time was 8.15am because today was forecast at 40° which it reached easily. The maximum is not reached until after lunch, so we felt that going through a large gallery like the Uffizi before the worst of the heat of the day could only be a good thing.

    The Uffizi was opened to the public as a gallery in 1769. The building was built for Cosimo de Medici in 1560 and completed in 1581. Cosimo wanted it so that it could be the centre of the Medici’s commercial enterprises and to focus the city’s agencies, guilds and committees in one place. The offices, In Italian, uffici. Uffizi. It is a square U shape, the two legs of the U, very very long and multi-storeyed. After the end of the Medicis regnum, the last of them, heiress Anna Luisa negotiated for the family’s art collection to be gifted to the city of Firenze.

    The two long legs of the gallery have painted ornate ceilings their entire length. It is incredible to see. On each wall of the legs, there is a vast array of ancient and Renaissance statuary. Hundreds and hundreds of busts and statues line both walls of both legs of the U. There are rooms off the legs that you go into to see the paintings.

    The Uffizi is filled to overflowing with Renaissance masters. A couple that I enjoyed were Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Baptism of Christ (1475), Da Vinci’s The Annunciation (1472-75), Perugino’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c1400) and Botticelli’s The Calumny of Appelles (c1495). Of course, Botticelli’s two most famous paintings were there to see, the Birth of Venus and Primavera (Spring). I had a hard time with young women posing flirtatious shots in front of these masterpieces taking up the space and blocking the view of other patrons. No doubt, these ‘sexy’ poses are all for their Instagram followers, but it did nothing for me, old curmudgeon I apparently am.

    The crowds grew as time went on, but it was a controlled entry, probably about 100 I would estimate each half hour. It was never a crowd crush and all in all, I found it manageable. Overall, I found the Uffizi an incredible gallery and I am certainly glad we went to see its priceless treasures. It was to be honest, a bit of challenge to emotionally connect with the gallery, what with heat and the numbers, but I think I managed it ultimately. The building and its contents are very special and worth preserving for the generations to come.

    A beer in an Italian beer garden type of establishment was followed by a wander through the streets around the Uffizi where we came upon a lovely stationery shop. Chris bought some odds n ends, and I bought three miniatures of Firenze to go on the wall over our bedhead. Then home to get out of the heat. Survival mode kicks in for everyone once it reaches later thirties and early forties in temperature and people just naturally do what they can to get themselves out of it. I had a nap and read my novel under the air con at our apartment. It was a very pleasant afternoon.

    We went out for dinner tonight to a local ristorante, a little family affair around the corner where we bought two antipasto plates, a prosciutto and a bruschetta. Dolce of the day for Chris, and tiramisu for me washed down with a couple of spritzes. Home for the evening now and more relaxation. Tomorrow, we do our tour of the Duomo. Finally.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Before the climb
    Our entrance doorThe climb begins as I follow ChrisOur first stop. They don't know how these giant statues came to be hereI'm up here. I made it. Clearly, it's been a struggle.1Beginning to settleSettledA view1The dome from the roof on the way down1View from home out our living room window in the early evening. I was one of them this morning

    In Which We Climb to the Top of Duomo

    11 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 32 °C

    Another scorcher today, 39°. What better day to climb the steps of Firenze’s Duomo, its incredible cathedral. All 463 of them. It’s not for the faint hearted. And I do not mean that figuratively. It’s really not for the faint hearted. The climb can be very steep in places and when you’re doing it in the dead heat of an Italian summer, the challenge is much greater. Although there are two stops on the way up to rest, most people were drenched in sweat at both, and absolutely ready to stop.

    We had a 10am ticket. Our guide was pint-sized Laura, an expert, very knowledgeable, thoughtful, very articulate, a wonderful command of English. She does the climb three times a week. Laura is very fit, and she looks it.

    I confess, I did interpret our tour as being of the cathedral itself with an optional climb of the dome at the end. Alas, that is not what I signed up for, despite careful reading of the ‘What You Get’ section on the website, apparently. Anyway, I was up for the climb regardless so I thought it would be nice to have an expert take us up.

    Speaking of experts, I sought out some statistics on the Duomo and decided to include them as a good psychologist would:
    • Length: 153 meters (502 feet).
    • Width at crossing: 90 meters (300 feet).
    • Height (floor to base of lantern): 90 meters (300 feet).
    • Dome height: 114.5 meters (375.7 ft).
    • Dome construction: The dome is a double-shelled structure with an inner and outer dome, built using a unique herringbone brick pattern.
    • Dome diameter (external): 54.8 meters (180 ft).
    • Number of bricks in the dome: Over four million.
    • Estimated weight of the dome: 40,000 tons.
    • Construction period: The cathedral was begun in 1296 and completed in 1436, with the dome taking 16 years to build.
    • Baptistery: The octagonal Baptistery of St. John stands adjacent to the cathedral and is known for its bronze doors, including the "Gates of Paradise".
    • Giotto's Bell Tower: Standing next to the Duomo, it is a separate structure, renowned for its rich sculptural decorations and polychrome marble.
    • Interior: The cathedral's interior features numerous works of art, including frescoes, sculptures, and stained glass windows.

    Now to my experience of the climb. Some readers of this little piece may recall that in my adult life, unlike in my youth, I have been quite wary of heights. That is to say, I don’t like them. I’m not fussed on them. At times, I am scared of them. This all started in New Zealand many years ago when I was climbing Paritutu, a very high pointy promontory that juts up out of the sea in New Plymouth. Three quarters of the way up unexpectedly, I had a freeze response twice, where I could not move. Since that time, my brain goes into full-on fear mode when I am up high. I understand fully the psychology of what is happening, indeed I have treated people with acrophobia. I also understand the neuroscience of this process thoroughly, which parts of the brain are being activated in these moments and even which neurotransmitters are being produced in vast quantities when this fear is triggered.

    However, and this is a big however, none of that contextual knowledge is any good to you when you’re actually having an anxiety attack. You have to know what to do and how to manage it. Fortunately, for the last twenty-five years, I have also been teaching people how to do just that. And on the climb to the dome of the Duomo, I had to summon those energies and put them into practice myself. I was not expecting this to happen.

    I started out directly behind Chris in good spirits. I thought the heat and the number of steps would be my greatest challenge. However, around five minutes into the climb, spiral staircases, my brain started telling me how high up I must be. When I attuned to the thought, my legs started feeling shaky. I knew what to do. I breathed through using breathing techniques I have been teaching for decades, and I changed my self-talk to safety messages. This worked well. The anxiety receded and I was easily able to go on. However, as we ascended to the base of the dome itself, we came out onto a gallery inside he cathedral that allows the viewer to see the frescoes on the ceiling of the dome. You’re right there. You could almost reach out and touch them. Of course, to your right, is a drop to the cathedral floor.

    Allow me to quote Meta AI’s description of this special place.

    “As you ascend the 463 steps to the top, you'll reach a ledge near the base of the drum below the cupola's frescoes, offering an incredible view of the 38,000 sq ft frescoed dome interior. This spot allows you to see Giorgio Vasari's frescoes of the Last Judgment up close.”

    Frescoes? What frescoes? Somebody in front of me is saying frescoes? Georgio Vasari? I hate him. Odious man. What was he thinking putting these frescoes all the way up here? The anxiety hit me full force and I turned to the inner wall instinctively. Chris clearly saw what was happing to me from behind and I heard him say, “just look at the wall”. There was no need for him to say it twice. My eyes were fixed on the wall, I was bent over, and I made my feet keep shuffling like a decrepit Methusaleh around this tiny narrow pathway that Georgio Vasari had made me take. I felt that I was scaping my hand along the internal wall, and the thought struck me that I would scratch my watch face clean off. I then had visions of going into a watchmaker in London to get a new face for my watch. The things that go through your head in the midst of full-blown anxiety.

    I do not know how long the gallery revolution took us. Laura told us not to stop, but that to take in Vasari’s frescoes, we could walk slowly. My brain was wanting to board the Concord and get off this gallery at super-sonic speed. But I had to wait for the fellow in front of me, and he had to wait for the person in front of him. I still don’t know if we went around the gallery half-way or all the way and back to the starting point before we exited to more spiral stairs. There is no way I could know, as I could not bring myself to look at the gallery, the plexiglass, the frescoes, anything. If I had, I think I would have gone to ground. Not good in that situation when no-one can pass you or get to you. But exit we eventually did, and I got out and started climbing again, this time, all the way to the top.

    I spent the next part of the climb trying to calm myself as before. The last ten or twenty steps before your head pops out into fresh air are almost vertical, and we were all sweating profusely and out of breath. I made it up those steps and out onto the balcony where once more, I went straight to the wall and stayed right away from the fenced edge. I inched my way around to a bench which was fully occupied. However, one dear soul, a lady in her late fifties perhaps early sixties, who shall be blessed forever in Paradise, took one look at me and gave me her seat, nodding at me in an understanding way. I gratefully accepted it and sat there for five minutes breathing and calming myself.

    The worst was over. I had done a balcony just like this at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, so I knew I would eventually settle and enjoy the experience. In the fullness of time, I could stand and take a few laps around the top of the dome and look out across Firenze which I am happy to say, looked stunningly beautiful from up there. I didn’t take any photos while up there. I was not able to, so there’s few from Chris and something from tonight from home. Before we started the climb down, I made myself go over to the edge and touch the fence for a moment and look out. A small moment of triumph.

    The climb down was just as long but uneventful. It was a different set of stairs, so we did not have to retrace our steps along that dreadful gallery. The heat of the day at midday when we stepped out of the cathedral was pretty unbearable, so we headed to small local shop where the lovely lady sold both beer and gelato, both of which we partook. Chris went to a profumeria where he bought a bottle of something, then home for a nap and a rest. I slept for over an hour after I had a shower and freshened up. A cold beer this evening just at a local bar around the corner and we ate in tonight, some salad and prosciutto.

    Had it not been for that one moment on the Duomo gallery, today would have been a near perfect day. But, I chalk it up to experience and will not let heights stop me if there is something I want to do. Last night, I finished my novel, which I am giving four stars. I think I might start something new tonight.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Palazzo Pitti
    'Ecce Homo' Fra Bartolomeo'Ecce Homo' Carlo Dolci'Ecce Homo' Cardi LodovicoJohn the Baptist in the Desert Cristofani AlloriBoboli Gardens

    Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens

    12 августа, Италия ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Italy continues to go through its inferno of a summer. Today reached 39°. We were prepared and set out relatively early. We decided to wind down our Firenze visit with only a visit to the Palazzo Pitti and its attached Boboli Giardini, the Boboli Gardens.

    Palazzo Pitti is now part of the Uffizi complex, so it is now a gallery and museum, but in its heyday, it was a massive palace built by Signore Pitti as a way to outdo the Medici. They made it so huge that you could fit the entirety of Palazzo Strozzi in its courtyard. These Renaissance Florentine aristocrats certainly knew how to compete with each other. Ultimately, Pitti ran out of money and the Medici took over the palazzo regardless. Now that had to burn. Ouch!

    I really enjoyed my visit to the Pitti gallery. There were no crowds, the people who were there were all well-behaved and I only saw one young woman doing a sensual pose in front of an art-work. The rooms were ornate. Incredibly so. Baroque chandeliers hung in many rooms. You would not think they could fit any more gold bling or painted surface anywhere in those rooms to house the treasures. And the treasures were wonderful. All the famous names were there. Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Artemisia Gentileschi, whose work I came across in the movie Artemesia (1997), and others whose works were equally skilled and arresting.

    I discovered three renderings in the gallery of the scene from John’s Gospel 19:5 where Pilate says, “Behold the Man”, in Latin ‘ecce homo’. Some have suggested this was said with an air of triumph. I have always thought that Pilate was drawing attention to the piteous creature brought back in before him, having been tortured and dressed in mock kingly robes, where Pilate is perhaps trying to dissuade the crowd from their murderous intent. His words were dismissive, as if to sway the crowd that their accusation was baseless. In today’s parlance, it’s as if Pilate is saying, “just look at this guy for goodness sake, he’s not a king”.

    There was Fra Bartolomeo’s rendering of ecce homo, where Christ is depicted in an almost dissociated state. There was Carlo Dolci’s rendering, where Christ, after being flogged and having received the thorns pressed into his scalp, looks cowed and beaten, utterly forlorn and almost hopeless. And finally, there was Cardi Lodovico’s portrait, where Christ seems to have turned inward and is perhaps asking himself the great existential questions pertaining to life, and more specifically, his own life. Powerful renderings all three. There was also a very muscular John the Baptist in the Desert by Cristofano Allori that was eye-catching among all the Annunciations and Adoration of the Magi paintings.

    After a cold drink at the gallery caffe, we struck out to walk a little of the Boboli Gardens. However, by that time, the sun was high in the sky, and the shadows appeared to be concreted in place. It was vicious and there was really no escaping it, so we didn’t last long. The gardens, like the Palazzo they belong to, are huge and sprawling, and on another day in another season, no doubt, we would have stayed longer and ventured further.

    Home for a nap and a rest. Then a rather hot passeggiata around the Duomo area finishing at a local bar for a spritz. We ate in again tonight and caught up on MediaWatch on You Tube, and watched an episode on Netflix of The Roman Emperor, a docudrama with scholars talking in between scenes. Very good.

    A good day today, I think. I enjoyed the Palazzo Pitti and felt my time there was easier in a major gallery with no crowds where I could wander, read, ponder and take my time. Tomorrow is our last day in Firenze. We will go out for dinner here tomorrow night. And come Thursday, we’re off again.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Medici Chapels
    1Tomb of Cosimo de Medici (the Elder)Tomb of Lorenzo and Guiliano de MediciThe Chapel of the PrincesMaria LudovicoDessertSunset over the Arno

    Final Day with the Medici

    13 августа, Италия ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    It feels like we have been here a long time. The door of our loft apartment in the Palazzo Buondelmonti, the former residence of Florentine patrician family, the Buondelmontis, who bought the place in 1517, opens onto a small entrance from two flights of stairs that lead up from the third floor. The tiny lift (ascensore) walled by mirrors that says it can hold three people (it can’t, it can hold two people if one stands sideways), the cool interior of the ground floor entrance that leads to the front door onto Piazza Santa Trinita. It’s felt like home for a little while.

    We’ve entered and exited this old palazzo multiple times a day for seven days. We’ve gotten to know our streets, our bridges, our restaurants and bars, our neighbourhood, even some lovely people who have served us more than once. Despite Italy’s heat, it has been a delight to live here for a week. Tomorrow, our eighth day, we leave for Ravenna. I will miss this. I will miss Firenze, and I do wonder when in reflective moods whether I will ever see this extraordinary city again.

    To mark our departure, we decided today to visit Firenze’s most famous citizens, or at least their tombs, the guys who are everywhere in this city, either in name or in legacy, the Medici. It was actually our Duomo tour guide Laura who reminded us that Cosimo de Medici and his two grandsons Lorenzo il Magnifico and Guiliano (murdered by the rival Pazzi) are not buried in splendour in any of Firenze’s basilicas, but in the Medici tomb, essentially their family mausoleum. Google Maps informed us that the tomb was a nine-minute walk from home. We stopped off at Palazzo Strozzi for a coffee and cornetto on the way, as you do when you are adventuring in mausoleums.

    For the fame of the grand family, I was surprised to see the line for tickets was surprisingly short. We were inside and putting our bags through security in about five minutes and buying our tickets in six. There was not a crowd by any means, but we didn’t have the place to ourselves. We discovered that the whole thing was divided into different sections.

    Down under everything and from a significant stairway, we found the tomb of Cosimo de Medici (known as Cosimo the Elder), sitting in the crypt designed by Brunelleschi and known in these parts as The Old Sacristy. As I understand it, he is actually entombed as part of the central pillar of The Old Sacristy. There is a short inscription in Latin that does not actually mention his name: “Petrus Medices patri faciundum curauit”. This translates to “Piero de Medici had this done for his father”. As much as I liked the late Julian Sands playing the gouty sickly but harmless Piero in the Netflix series The Medici, I think real Piero might have mentioned his dad’s name on his tomb rather than his own. It’s just a thought.

    Above, in another room, we found the boys, Lorenzo and Guiliano. Their tomb is a simple affair, well as simple an affair as you can have when your resting place is designed by Michelangelo. They are buried together now, having previously been separated in the Church of San Lorenzo, in what is known as The New Sacristy. The tomb has a statue on top of the Virgin and Child in the middle, flanked on either side by Saints Cosmas and Damian, the patrons of the Medici family. I make a serious point here. Given their incredible power, influence, patronage to the arts, the church, the Duomo and dome etc, their quiet tomb has little bling and virtually no pomp at all. You contrast this with the Medici Grand Dukes that followed them and wow, what a contrast.

    The third and final place we visited was the Chapel of the Princes. You walk through a bare corridor and out into a cavernous octagonal chamber of marble, precious stones, high vaulted painted ceilings, columns, giant statues and massive sarcophagi. Makes me wonder whether Napoleon had this in mind when he organised his tomb in Paris much later on. Incidentally, we saw his bathroom yesterday at the Palazzo Pitti.

    Florence became a Grand Duchy in 1569 when then Cosimo I (different from Cosimo the Elder) became grand Duke of Tuscany. The octagonal chamber is honestly, a wonder to behold. My jaw dropped when I walked into it as I had not anticipated going into something so large and so grand. It houses the tombs of some of the Grand Dukes, and again, honestly, has to be seen to be believed. Chris and I walked around it this way and that speechless for quite a while, just gazing at it, trying to process the sight. I guess, just what the Medici Grand Dukes had in mind.

    In the bookshop, I bought a book of short stories in English called Stories from Florence. It looks fun. I also bought a Firenze T shirt this afternoon too. We have rested and napped this afternoon and we’re off to dinner tonight at Colle Bereto Lounge Bar which is a lovely cool place we found not far from us.

    We splurged on our last meal here, completely fabulous, and went for a quick walk over the Ponte Santa Trinita and caught the sunset over the Arno, a glorious show that was a fitting goodbye to this wondrous city.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Casa MASOLI, the entry and downstairs rooms
    1111The staircase to our floor1Our residence for four days1111Our own leaning towerPiazza del Popoli where we had dinner tonight

    Ravenna-A Day on the Trains

    14 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    We are sitting ensconced in our beautiful new accommodation in Ravenna, Casa Masoli. It is full of antiques, gilt, chandeliers, paintings, objet d’art, mirrors, candlesticks, large staircases and everything one could want for a comfortable stay or a grand murder. Marple would be very at home here. However, our day has not been blessed other than at our destination.

    Here’s the reader’s Digest version. We exited our palazzo in Firenze early to get to the station on time. Our taxi did not show up so we walked. Our cases are by now, quite heavy. Firenze train station is not a beauteous architectural masterpiece by Michelangelo. It is a giant shed for a waiting area that is not air-conditioned where people look up at the digital noticeboard for train arrivals and departures, and if they are boarding a train, which platform to go to. Our train trip to Ravenna was in two legs: a passage to Bologna, then a passage to Ravenna on a different train. Our train to Bologna was almost two and half hours late. So, we sat in the waiting area, already hot from our walk, and watched and shrank as the mercury climbed in to the high thirties. We were wet through, sticky all over, completely enervated and fast losing the positive outlook that gets you through these times. In a word, it was absolutely dreadful. There is only so much time spent in an oven that can be classed as positive.

    I lined up at the Trenitalia ticket office for an hour before being served to find out what we would do with the connection we had bought at Bologna, which we had missed. All good, he said, just catch your train, then get on the next train to Ravenna, your present ticket will be good for it. And he spoke the truth. The two train journeys were pleasant enough. Both trains were air-conditioned so we were able to cool down somewhat, but not fully. We walked the eleven-minute journey to Casa Masoli from the station in the heat and were fairly dripping again by the time, Anna, the proprietor opened the door and let us in.

    The pics that go with this post are of our new residence. The rest of the day was a write-off. We’ve had about four travel days so far this trip. They’ve all gone smoothly. By the law of averages, I suppose today was always going to show up at some point. But we’ve showered and have been out for aperitivo and then dinner and are feeling relaxed and positive about our visit here.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    1Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
    Basilica of Saint Vitale111National Museum

    Ravenna Storico - Mausoleum and Basilica

    15 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    We woke early and attended breakfast in la sala colazione across the hallway. It was a bigger brekky than what we are used to but out of politeness for the effort in preparing it, we availed ourselves, one of four couples this morning.

    We then headed out for the day to begin our Ravenna history adventure. The Emperor Claudius came here to celebrate his triumph in Britannia, so Ravenna has a history in both antiquity and in the medieval period (and still going). After purchasing tickets that would get us into the five main sites, we headed straight to Galla Placidia’s Mausoleum that she herself had had built. Galla Placidia, wife, daughter, sister and mother to emperors and Queen of the Visigoths no less, died in in Rome and sadly her remains were lost to time. She never ever rested in her extraordinary mosaic mausoleum. It is a dark space but beautiful with alcoves and arches and cut translucent stone. And of course, the mosaics. Out of this world.

    After the Mausoleum, on the same grounds, we visited the extraordinary Basilica of Saint Vitale. Construction began in 532 and ended in 547. It is a UNESCO World heritage site as an example of Byzantine art. Walking in from outside, I had the fourth jaw-drop moment of this trip. Wow. It really does have the wow factor. The mosaics are gorgeous, the columns and capitals are massive, the painted ceiling launches skywards forever, the polygonal nave and sanctuary area more Byzantine than Roman. Beautiful in every vista.

    We had a wander through the National Museum afterwards, not part of the big five, and were delighted by 1st and 2nd century artifacts, steles, capitals, funerary figures, tools and implements. Just amazing. We spend a few euros in the gift and book shop after. A cool refreshing drink was needed, then into another bookshop, this one associated with the basilica. We bought T shirts each, some odds n ends, and I bought a little mosaic-like jug as an objet d’art.

    Dinner tonight again in the Piazza del Popolo after a restful afternoon back at Casa Masoli, and then home. It’s still hot outside, so we’re not venturing out again. A lovely day.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    The Arian Baptistery
    1Basilica of Sant'Apollinare NuovoBasilica of Sant'Apollinare NuovoRavenna Cathedral and Orthox BaptisteryOrthodox BaptisterySide chapel CathedralChris at Sant'Apollinare

    How Many Baptisteries is Too Many?

    16 августа, Италия ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    After yesterday’s shallow dive into the world of Ravenna’s antiquity, today we decided at breakfast that we would dive right into the deep end and see for ourselves what all the fuss is about concerning Ravenna’s great claim to fame: the mosaic capital of Italy.

    We started our on-foot tour with a small local monument, the Arian Baptistry, or as it’s called here, Il Battistero degli Ariani. It’s ocatagonal, and its ceiling is a mosaic of delight in greens and pale turquoises with a central image of Christ’s baptism by John in the Jordan River. Arianism was an off-shoot of orthodox Christianity, deemed a heresy at the First Council of Nicaea (325), but this gorgeous baptistery, probably built at the order of Theodoric who reigned 493-526, is old, very old. Interestingly, apart from modern art, this is the only artwork I have seen where Christ is naked. Generally, he is always modestly covered. The colour of the mosaic work is as fresh as if it had been put up there last week.

    From the Arian Baptistery, we headed into the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo. This church was also built by Theodoric, in 505, as an Arian place of worship, but was consecrated in the 6th century and given its present name in the 9th century. It had a refurbishment although the highest of the Byzantine Arian work, the apostles and prophets, were left untouched. In 1916, the basilica was bombed and suffered immense damage, the images of which caused outrage around the world, so I believe.

    The mosaics are once again, extraordinary. Two long rows of images atop marble columns go down either side of the nave, again green and gold being the preponderant colours. The nave is left open with no pews, just a grand space.

    After a sojourn in a nearby park, we made our way to the Orthodox Baptistery. It is also called the Neonian Baptistery after Bishop Neon who worked on it in the early years of the 5th century His predecessor started it and completed it in 450. Neon took over in 458 and did important structural works including the dome. It is called orthodox in the sense that it was not a building of the Arian heresy. Like other Byzantine works, it is octagonal and inside, the whole dome is covered in mosaic consisting of three concentric circles: Christ’s baptism by John, the twelve apostles togate, and four altars with open Gospels and empty chairs for the future saints triumphant. Viewed as a whole, the ceiling is very striking. Its dominating colours are blue with gold. The font in the centre of the room is a 16th century addition, but the stairs to the font are original.

    We stepped into the Museum associated with the Baptistery and adjacent cathedral. We saw, among many artefacts, a mosaic masterpiece in the Cappella di Sant’Andrea, a modest little chapel lined with beautiful mosaics.

    Our history day ended with a cold beer at a local bar. While it has been hot all day, the maximum reaching 34°, we did not have to endure the oven heat of Firenze of 39 and 40°. A rest and nap back home in the afternoon at Casa Masoli and to save a bit of dosh, we’re eating in tonight.    Читать далее

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaПутешественник
    Mausoleum of Teodoric
    1Afternoon rest1Afternoon restDinner Mercato CopertaPiazza del PopoloWriting Penguins

    Last Day in Ravenna

    17 августа, Италия ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Our last day in Ravenna started slowly, proceeded slowly and ended slowly. It was just the ticket. After breakfast, we made our way to the Mausoleum of Teodoric, built in 520 by Teodoric King of the Ostrogoths. It is a grand monument but bare on the inside. Decagonic in shape with two levels, the upper held Teodoric’s sarcophagus which sits there today, large, substantial and imposing. No-one today knows what the lower level was used for, perhaps a tomb for family members? There are no mosaics, no frescoes. The dome I understand is made from one piece of stone. And that, ladies and gentlemen was the sum total of our history tour today.

    We then had a coffee back in town, walked around the shops for not a long time, then high-tailed it back to Casa Masoli to escape the heat and to give ourselves a really good down day. We read, we napped on and off, we looked at the newspapers, Chris drew some, and we generally just took the rest of the day off. It was very welcome for us both.

    Tonight, we’ve been to the Mercato Coperta, the air-conditioned Covered Market to have dinner and drinks and a short passeggiata.

    Ravenna has been kind to us. Although a brief visit, we have felt safe here, and we have been genuinely interested in the Byzantine history of this place. I like Ravenna. It has a nice feel. I am now about a quarter of the way through the new book I am reading, historian Mary Hollingsworth’s treatment of the Medici of Firenze, called the Medici. It’s written really well, and I am finding it interesting as I go, especially since I have been to some of the places that she mentions. I first heard of this book as one of the main sources of Tom and Dom when they covered the Medici period in The Rest is History podcast of which I am a great fan. I did not think then when I listened to those episodes that I would be reading Hollingsworth. Cosimo the Elder is making his appearance after about two hundred years of earlier Medicis as a young man. Lots of fun.

    Tomorrow is a travel day. My glass half full temperament says it should go smoothly. Tomorrow morning, we say farewell to Anna and her wonderful guesthouse Casa Masoli and head to our final destination in Italy, Bologna.    Читать далее

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