January 14-20

Well, dear faithful readers, my best intentions continue to elude me... I keep letting the blogging slide and if I let it go much further, I'll be so behind it may not continue! No, I don't think I'll let it get to that. But I've had a bit of writer's block, or at least, I'm feeling resistance to just sitting down and doing it. So, here goes...

Monday, January 14th

Monday was a typical gray winter day in Germany. I walked to the grocery store. It's cold and the melting snow had refrozen into slick, uneven ice. I have to be extra careful that I don't slip or fall and my balance isn't quite what it should be while my arm is in a sling.

In the afternoon I took the bus into town and went to my coaching session with Stellario. He's assigned me Zerbinetta's aria, Grossmächtige Prinzessin, from Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos AND "The Jewel Song" Margueretta's aria from Gounod's Faust. The Strauss is a technical atomic bomb with incredibly acrobatic coloratura and ranges all the way up to an E above high C. I've got some work to do...

After dinner I went to Frauenchor rehearsal, again by bus. I'm certainly getting the most out of my monthly subscription transportation pass!

Glad for sturdy treads and warm winter boots!

Icy crossing over the canal beside our apartment building.

Tuesday, January 15th

I joined my first Munich International Women's Club German conversation group this morning. They meet every other Tuesday at the café on the top floor of Oberpollinger (a department store in the Altstadt). There were five other women (two German, one Armenian, one Brit, and one Colombian). We talked about politics (!), local history, and literature. Quite interesting!

HR finished the book, Boy in the White Room, a novella she's been reading in German for her Deutsch class. Now she has to work with two other girls on a poster project and presentation for class about the book. When she first told me about the assignment, I was worried she would find it too difficult to read. But I ordered the Kindle book with audible auf Deutsch and she was sucked in... Sometimes I'm really thankful for technology.

The blue sky fought its wait through the clouds today, but it remained very cold.

The girls called me to the window to see the sunset in the evening.

Wednesday, January 16th

I had a pretty quiet day, doing my usual shopping and some food prep for this coming weekend. After school, GE went home with a friend to play for a couple of hours. I picked her up at 6:15. After setting the kids up with supper, I took a bus over the river to meet my book club group for supper at a Greek restaurant, Mystikon.

Yum! Greek salad with grilled veggies and feta cheese.

Thursday, January 17th

J has been in Florence, Italy since the beginning of December at the European University Institute (EUI). In December, we decided that we shouldn't pull all the girls out of school for a visit, but that I could get away for a long weekend in mid-January. It's quite acceptable here to leave your kids, especially if they are older, unsupervised for a few days--how long depends entirely on how you expect your kids will behave; ours are pretty self-sufficient and well behaved. Worst case, they might eat too much junk food, but I spent enough time on Wednesday making sure there were already cleaned and sliced fresh fruits and veggies in the fridge, that they'd have to make rather elaborate excuses not to eat them while I'm gone. Instructions were left to make scrambled eggs, sandwiches, frozen pizzas, and prepared soups, et voila! Mom gets to travel ohne Kinder...

Rather than fly over the mountains or have the stress of renting a car, I booked a train ticket instead: EC (Euro City) train from Munich to Bologna, Italy with one transfer to a regional Italio train to Florence (one stop further). It was a beautiful trip! I left cold, snowy Munich (although the sun decided to come out that morning) and rode directly south through Austria into Italy.

Morning sun hitting a building across the street... ah, finally, blue sky.

On my Gleis (train platform), waiting for my EC train to pull in.

Southern Bayern lakes and Alps...

Crossing into Austria!

Mountains and buildings of Innsbruck, Austria.

Passing through Brenner valley, Austria.

After the sun and blue skies of southern Germany, the clouds and snow started as the train traveled through Austria and into the Italian Alps.

Castle on a hill.

The train took a long break at the Verona main station.

As we got out into the Italian countryside, the clouds broke up as the sun was going lower in the sky. Gorgeous!

Welcome to Florence! Just as the sun was setting...

Friday, January 18th

We packed it in! J has been making impromptu explorations into the city whenever the weather or his mood suited and has found little treasures, as well as the famous spots. He took me on a walking tour that touched on his favorite spots and I prompted a tour of a church that appeared only mildly interesting, but turned into one of our favorite stops of the day. We soaked in the good weather, enjoyed good food and good coffee, and thoroughly wore ourselves out.

View from the stairwell window out into the villa's courtyard. The wall-enclosed property has several buildings with multiple rooms that they rent out. J was the only tenant at the moment though, so he had the run of the place, and his choice of the rooms in the main house.

I brought my breakfast with me (J keeps a spartan kitchen) and made coffee in the stove top Bialetti espresso maker.

From the villa, we took a bus up the hillside towards Fiesole, a "suburb" of Florence, exited the bus part way up and walked over to the Badia (former monastery with baths) which is now part of the EUI.

Olive trees and Tuscan rolling hills in the morning sun.

The view from the Badia across the valley to the other EUI buildings. A small shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes or so on a circuit through the valley, picking up and dropping off folks at various locations. J usually takes a city bus from the villa up to the Badia and then the shuttle from there to his "office" building.

J's "office" is in this building...

Florence from afar.

We stopped in the café inside the Badia where J often works on his laptop while sipping a cappuccino and looking out over the valley. I had an espresso and he got his usual.

Waiting for the shuttle to take us across to his office.

The driveway leading up to his "office" (sorry, I can't help but put it in quotes. The building is the most amazing "office" building I've ever been in.)

Stopping on the ground floor to pick up a book he ordered from their extensive library.

The inner courtyard of his "office" building...

Seminar room.

The view from the terrace outside his assigned "office" which is up under the eaves!

The terrace goes all the way around the top of the building, offering amazing views and a good place for J to pace and walk while he's working out his ideas...

There is an elevator... but we took the stairs to go back down.

After the tour of his work space, we walked to another bus stop and took a bus into downtown Florence, getting off at Piazza San Marco.

Piazza San Marco

From Piazza San Marco, we walked into the pedestrian zone of central Florence.

The Medici Riccardi Palace on the left. We skipped the museum, but learned more about the former residents, the Medici family, when we toured the Basilica di San Lorenzo.

We first went in to check out this church (Basilica di San Lorenzo), which looks pretty benign from outside, just to see what the historical significance was... Little did we know...

Donatello is buried in the basement.

Cosimo the Elder is also buried... in the center column supporting the marble floor, at the center in front of the altar.

The museum in the basement also featured multiple church relics, including this one containing the skeletal remains in an ornate metal coffin. J: "The Catholic church is a bone cult... just sayin'..."

When we asked about the entrance fee for the church, the greeter asked if we wanted to upgrade to the guided tour in English. For just a couple more Euros each, we had a tour with an art historian... Absolutely fascinating! You can read more here: Basilica di San Lorenzo

The Sagrestia Vecchia

Altar created by Donatello for the Sagrestia Vecchia (the old Sacristy)

Cosimo the Elder's tomb (inside the column below the floor) is under the ornate circle in the center of the floor. The column can be viewed when looking through the grates of the floor.

Statue of Giovanni di Medici in front of the Basilica di San Lorenzo

The tour included special access to the balcony at the rear of the church. To get there we had to go up past the library and up a narrow stone staircase.

Every year at Easter, the church would parade their collection of relics from this balcony so all the people could see.

Oranges on the tree in the courtyard!

Panel on the wall outside the church. One thing of note: this exterior wall was never completed. It was supposed to get an ornate marble facade, but wars and politics got in the way. I guess some things haven't changed much...

Leather works stalls...

Leather market!

J took me to one of his favorite hangouts, an indoor market with two floors of stalls, some restaurant style and some like bakeries or butchers. Tables fill the walkways of the upper level and you can bring your own food or get something from one of the vendors.

I brought my own lunch, J got his later, but we did get some more coffee... because, Italy. Espresso. 'Nuff said.

P.S. neither of us slept the best, but it was totally worth it... <insert eye roll>

The "New" Market.

Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

Larger than life... J had previously waited in the long line to enter, but found it to not be that interesting inside (unlike the pleasant surprise of Basilica San Lorenzo) although the exterior is magnificent to see. So we enjoyed the outside and skipped the inside.

Amazing how many tourists there are, even in January.

Be sure to look for the "finished" work at the end of the day...

Il Porcellino

Stick your fingers in for good luck!

One of J's favorite lunch spots: I Fratellini

""The best quick lunch in Florence is this hole-in-the-wall, old-school sandwich shop serving panini and wine by the glass to sidewalk patron. Just off the busiest tourist thoroughfare in the city, halfway between the Duomo and the Uffizi, lies one of the last of a dying breed: a true fiaschetteria (derived from fiasco, Italian for a flask—i.e. of wine). It is the proverbial hole-in-the-wall, a doorway about six feet deep with rows of wine bottles against the back wall behind the counter and two extraordinarily busy people fixing sandwiches and pouring glasses of wine up to the brim—either a basic rosso (red wine), or just point to any bottle to try un bicchiere (a glass). The patrons—Florentines on their lunch break and a few bemused tourists—stand around on the cobblestones of the narrow street out front, munching and sipping and resting their glasses on a Roman numeraled slot on the wooden shelves flanking the doorway. There are about 30 stuffing combinations. My favorite panino: cinghiale piccante con caprino (spicy wild boar salami spread with creamy goat cheese in a split, crunchy roll)." [Reids Italy]

Around every corner... Gelateria!

Palazzo Vecchio

The Arno river.

Ponte Vecchio over the Arno.

We window shopped along both sides of the bridge. All jewelry shops with loads of SPARKLE! ME would have loved it.

We started off our marriage almost 20 years ago (June 1999) and promptly got on a plane to Paris for 3 months for J's summer internship (J was in law school). Since then we've never stopped adventuring together! We've been to Scotland, Italy, France (twice), Germany (three separate times), Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland (three separate times), and now Italy again!

Here's the 20 more years of adventuring!!

From the window of the little café, Il Ristoro dei Perditempo, where we enjoyed an afternoon coffee.

The seagull kept his eyes on us...

The Ponte Vecchio from the café window.

From there we walked up the hill opposite the city center.

Steep cobblestone streets of the medieval part of the city.

Old walls and giant wooden doors.

We tried to go into the Forte di Belvedere gardens, but they were enclosed and part of the museum which had already closed for the day. So, we walked along the wall and went to the Piazzale del Michelangelo instead.

Oh the view!

We timed it just right... Sunset!

After walking back down towards the city center, we spied a cute little Pizzeria, I Bastioni di San Niccolò.

The food was fabulous!

Ponte Vecchio shops shuttering their doors and windows for the night.

Finished!

Saturday, January 19th

After breakfast in the basement kitchen, off to the first stop of the day: the Accademia to see the real David sculpture. After we wrapped up there (it's pretty small), we headed over to the Palazzo Vecchio, then found a small café on a tiny side-street off the beaten paths for our lunch stop.

Antique mirror in the stairwell.

He impresses.

Veins in his hands! Wow.

Such detail...

From all angles...

This room is a collection of plaster copies of sculptures from all over Florence by many different artists over centuries.

Then there was the church art...  Some of my favorites:

I forgot to take a picture of the plaque so I could identify this later, but what captured our attention were the halos around the heads of the all the figures! Where did that idea come from...

Saints Michael the Archangel, Bartholomew, Julian and the Donor, 1360-1365, "from the Nunnery of Sant' Ambrogio in Florence. It is from the youthful phase of painter Matteo di Pacino who probably painted it prior to working on the decorations begun by Giovanni da Milano in the Rinuccini Chapel in Santa Croce." [Accademia plaque]

Madonna and Child between Saints John the Baptist and Bernard and Eight Angels, detached fresco, 1356 from the tabernacle of via del Leone in Florence. "Among the most important masterpieces of fourteenth-century Florentine painting, the painting is one of the very few we can attribute with a good degree of certainty to the painter Giottino." [Accademia plaque]

Saint Agnes, panel 1365-1370, from the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence.

Saint Domitilla, paired panel with the previous: "Originally, the works were perhaps the lateral panels of a triptych... The two paintings belong to the artist's mature production, are dated between 1365 and 1370, and are characterized by considerable formal elegance, especially in the decoration of the garments. In terms of quality, they can rightfully be considered among the best works by Andrea Bonaiuti, a painter of notable importance in the formation of the late gothic style." [Accademia plaque]

Madonna with Child, Eight Saints and Four Angels, from the Church of San Donato in Polverosa, 1380-1385. "For stylistical reason, this small characteristic devotional altarpiece can surely be attributed to Cenni di Francesco, a Florentine painter and illuminator. He played an important role in the spread of the late gothic style in the last quarter of 14th century. The Tornaquinci and the Bardi families' coats-of-arms are visible at the base of the painting." [Accademia plaque]

This one and the next two are some of the panels making up the Vision of Saint Bernard and Saints (Benedict, John the Evangelist, Quentin and Galganus), c. 1365, from the Badio Fiorentina in Florence. "It was the work of Matteo di Pacino who completed the decorations begun by Giovanni da Milano in the Rinuccini Chapel in Santa Croce. It can be dated to around 1365, and combines the monumentality of its characters with elements of a great naturalistic credibility." [Accademia plaque]

After we finished in the Accademia, we had time for another museum before it was time for lunch and the Uffizi in the afternoon, so we settled on the Palazzo Vecchio with a tower tour.

One of the many narrow streets in the center of the old city.

MK would have loved this shop.

Our destination: Palazzo Vecchio

This huge central room, the Salone dei Cinquecento, has quite an interesting history. Read more here.

One might acquire an inflated ego living here a while...

Notice the little shields with dots in them? We were told by the art historian who led our tour of the Basilica San Lorenzo that this is the coat of arms of the Medici family. Once she pointed it out, we saw them everywhere. Sometimes there are five dots, sometimes six, seven, or even eight. Most are all red, but some also include a blue dot with the French Fleur de Lis, representing the Medici family's alliance with French royalty. There are many theories about what the dots meant, but our guide's theory: that the dots are representative of medicinal pills because 'medici' also means medicine. See if you can spot them in other photos...

Apartments of Leo X

From the Room of Cosimo il Vecchio

Fresco on the ceiling of the stairway.

Room of Ceres and Study of Calliope

 

Apartments of Eleonora: the Green room, Eleonora's study.

Inside the Chapel of Eleonora

Ceiling frescoes

J explaining the old testament story, the adoration of the bronze serpent.

"Leonora"

Judith and Holofernes by Donatello, c. 1457-1464

Hall of Geographical Maps. Pretty amazing... what they thought they knew then.

Putto with a Dophin by Andrea del Verrocchio undergoing restoration work.

Climbing the tower stairs.

Coffee and lunch at Il Vinile Caffé Art Bar

After lunch we met up with J's former colleague (from his year teaching at Columbia Law in 2004-2005) who also happens to be at the EUI on her sabbatical. Coincidentally, she was assigned the other desk in the same office at the EUI! Her husband and two kids joined us at the special exhibit in the Uffizi featuring Leonardo da Vinci's Leicester Codex.

I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves...

He really did write backwards... You read about that, but it's hard to wrap your head around until you actually see it!

Da Vinci, the first environmentalist?

 
After we finished the special exhibit, we headed upstairs to the second floor gallery where some of the "great masters" are featured. It was easy to spot the rooms with the most famous works--usually packed with people despite this being the "off" season for tourists.

Adoration of the Magi, Leonardo da Vinci - "Leonardo never finished this large altarpiece, leaving for Milan shortly after making a start on it. Some figures are barely sketched, as though he were seeking to capture an idea, while others are more complete, those around the Virgin appearing to be in the grip of intense emotion. The friars paid Filippino Lippi to paint another altarpiece on the same theme and placed it on their altar in 1496."

Madonna and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist; "Madonna of the Goldfinch" by Raffaello, c. 1505-1506, oil on wood.

Holy Family with the Young St. John the Baptist, Michelangelo, c. 1505-1507

Sunset from the Uffizi windows.

The Palazzo Vecchio from the upper gallery of the Uffizi.

Madonna and child, "Madonna of the Pear" by Albrecht Dürer, 1526

Adoration of the Magi, Albrecht Dürer, 1504

 

Perseus Freeing Andromeda, Piero di Cosimo, c. 1510-15

... the details: "One of Cosimo's bests-known works, the composition is rich in inspired detail ranging from exotic costumes to imaginary musical instruments that could never be played." [Uffizi plaque]

Adoration of the Magi, Filippino Lippi, 1496

Adoration of the Magi, Ghirlandaio, 1487

The halls are emptying... almost closing time.

Head of Old Man, Boccaccino, 1525-1530

Read more about this room here.

I'm struck with the modernity of the later works of some of the Renaissance masters. It's like they stopped caring what anyone might think and followed their own path. This one: The Flagellation of Christ by Botticelli (compare it to his earlier Venus, for example), c. 1505-1510

Detail from Madonna and Child with Archangels Michael and Raphael and with the Sainted Bishops Justus and Zenobius by Ghirlandaio, c. 1486

see previous caption

The Calumny of Apelles, Botticelli, c. 1495

"Repentance looks at the naked Truth, who raises her eyes to heaven." (left side of The Calumny of Apelles) [Uffizi plaque]

The Birth of Venus, Botticelli, c. 1485. I remember studying this in one of my gen ed seminars at EMU... Never thought I'd get to see it in person!

Madonna and Child, Botticelli, c. 1487-1488 (the following photos are all of different figures included in this painting)

Madonna of the Pomegranate, Botticelli, c. 1487

Spring, Botticelli, c. 1480; Another painting I never dreamed I'd get to see up close. It's amazing. There are 138 different species of plants that have been identified, each one of which Botticelli meticulously reproduced.

detail from "Spring"

Judith Returns to Bethulia, Botticelli, c. 1470-1475

Stunning: Portrait of Ortensia de' Bardi di Montauto, Alessandro Allori, 1533-1534

Another masterpiece: Venus/Venus of Urbino, Tiziano, 1538

Night has settled over the city and the museum intercom is repeatedly reminding us to head toward the exit...

Medusa, Caravaggio, c. 1595-1598

Judith and Holofernes, Pieter Paul Rubens, 1626-34

My favorite artist... Rembrandt: A Rabbi

Portrait of a Young Man, Rembrandt, ca. 1639

Self-portrait, Rembrandt, ca. 1669

After making our way through the main galleries, we rejoined CF and her husband and kids outside to search out a restaurant for dinner. Since we all needed to take buses from the Piazza San Marco, we settled on a restaurant on the plaza, Ristorante Accademia. Great food and conversation! We finally headed home sometime after 9 p.m.

J ordered the rabbit...

I had fish with the seasonal veggies. YUM!

Sunday, January 20th

We ate breakfast together again in his little cellar kitchen and then called a taxi to get to the main train station since the buses on Sundays run very infrequently. I packed a lunch for the ride and was thankful for blue skies and sun again as I departed. All of my trains were on time with one transfer in Padova, near Venice.

Ruins on a hill...

Espresso break at the Padova train station.

Another castle or fortress on a hill. Fun to imagine what life was like when these were occupied...

Crossing into Austria.

Full moon rising (was the night of the blood moon; unfortunately it was cloudy in Munich so we couldn't see it or the eclipse)

Snowy Alps as the sun went down.