Francesco spots a shark

Laura’s back with her child-centered articles – this time an itinerary for a winter weekend in Genova with activities and museums for kids, including what (and where) to eat!

Last week we took a long weekend in Genova. For children it’s got a famous acquarium, the “city of children” and the Museo Luzzati (cartoons). But it’s also a really fascinating city for adults with its old and modern corners, the melting-pot at the harbor and the noble palaces in the center. And good food based on fish, herbs, pasta, and vegetables. Here’s what we saw and ate!

We went there by train (Firenze-Pisa then Pisa-Genova – about 130,00€ with a Trenitalia family promotion) and reserved at the confortable Cairoli Hotel (via Cairoli, 14) whose very nice personnel suggested excellent places to eat and visit. A room (with a tiny bathroom) was 90,00€ a night, breakfast included.

Dessert at Douce

We arrived in the afternoon and walked to Piazza De Ferrari (a square with a European feel) and to see the San Lorenzo Dome (with a sad lion, according to Francesco). We enjoyed a break at Douce, in piazza Matteotti, with the maître patisser Michel Paquier identified as “Pasticciere emergente 2012” by the Gambero Rosso guide – see the photo for the excellent dessert. Later we had an aperitivo with fried blue fish and ‘farinata’ (made with chickpeas flour) at Friggitoria Carega in via Sottoripa 120 in front of the harbour.

We bought a specially priced combined ticket to visit the Acquario di Genova and Città dei Bambini e dei Ragazzi (Childrens’ City) in the Porto Antico area (it was half price till the end of January otherwise it costs 20,00€ for adults and 5,00€ for children of 3 years).

Francesco enjoys games at Childrens' City

The Childrens’ City appears to be less busy in the morning than in the afternoon. There are areas for children of any age with labyrinths, educational spaces, water games, strange mirrors and musical instruments, etc. For older boys and girls there are many scientific and technological corners. Have a look at the program as there are interactive readings, special initiatives (space, stars, biodiversity, etc) for children of any ages!

For lunch we opted to check out the newly opened EatItaly, with a view of Genova harbor and a lovely selection of Italian enogastronomic specialties, followed by an ice cream at Grom.

In the afternoon we visited the Acquarium. An infinity of pools full of any sort of fish from Piranhas to Sharks, Dolphins, Penguins, etc… But what do all children like best? Nemo (clownfish) of course.

The acquarium offers an unforgettable event that we weren’t able to participate in, the “Notte con gli squali” (night with sharks) for 7 to 13 years old children who have a sleep over in front of the sharks’ pool.

Genova acquarium with stroller, photo flickr @angelagennaro

To relax you can visit “L’albero delle lettere” (via del Canneto il Lungo 38) a bookshop for children and adults any language speaking with a  rich program of interactive readings (3-5 years), creative ateliers, exhibitions and guided tours.

At night a rich starter with affettati and cheese + a glass of wine at Taggiou (vico Superiore del Ferro, 8 ) and then at Gaia restaurant (with high chair) 20 metres far from the hotel (vico dell’Argento), where we had traditional recipes with innovative ingredients.

The day after we walked cross the Magazzini del Cotone (an example of restored industrial architecture) arriving at the Porto Antico.

Then we went to the Luzzati Museum (Emanuele Luzzati is one of the most famous and poetic Italian illustrators – an artist!) with an exhibition of Mordillo (wonderful!), storyboards of a tales illustrated by Luzzati with videos ongoing and a great bookshop. There are also laboratories to book every Saturday at 15.00 inspired by one of the tales illustrated by Luzzati but they are only for children aged 5 and up (5€ each participants with two adults entering the Museum for free followed by a Tigullio milk break included in the entrance).

Francesco tired after the Luzzati museum

We then walked in a different part of Genova: to the old fashioned buildings and streets near the Embriaci square and tower, Teatro della Tosse and Museo di Sant’Agostino, arriving at piazza delle Erbe where we had our last farinata and cheese focaccia with pesto (yum) sitting at Bar Berto. We also stopped for coffee and to pick up some local products for presents (Amaretti di Volteggio di Cavo and chinotto marmalade) at Bar Pasticceria Marescotti (via di Fossatello 35/37).

Bye bye Genova! See you soon… but not too soon because you’re no good for my diet!

Catch up with Laura De Benedetto on the with and within network for women and moms, and read her other Florence for children posts on this blog!

Francesco and daddy fabio at the port

Vernazza, Cinque Terre, 2004 (it does not look like this any more)

On Presa Diretta the thing that shocked me most was that they demonstrated how people are building again on fault lines and flood plains, and that local administrations are issuing these permits. Do we not learn anything from disasters? They showed how the mountains above Vernazza ceded and a wave of mud came down, a wave that would not have happened had there been healthy trees and no development on the hillside (from what I understand, at least).

The folks at Pubblica Assistenza Riomaggiore have set up a “buy a pixel” donation system on the model of the million dollar page. As donations come in, the picture will change from flooded Vernazza to the way it used to look – in the photo above (which incidentally brings more traffic to this website than any article). I purchased 10 pixels right on the beach at Vernazza on the hopes that some day soon I’ll be able to pitch my total shade umbrella there and enjoy a restored town. I know that it will take a lot more than my 25 euros to reach that goal, which is why crowdfunding is a great thing.

This is just one of the many initiatives out there to collect donations, which are added to actual physical efforts on the territory. Last November, after the floods hit Genova as well, I launched a collection, 2 euros at a time, through my work at The Florentine Press, which we then donated to the Red Cross (CRI). Save Vernazza was created by three American women who have lived in Vernazza for years to, in their own words:

Rebuild, restore and preserve the town of Vernazza by raising funds for immediate reconstruction and long-term cultural and environmental projects for the benefit of Vernazza’s community of residents and visitors.

Meanwhile Cinque Terre.com’s blog, that is very active on twitter, seeks to provide information about the Cinque Terre in general and promote continued tourism to the three towns that were not affected by the disaster. Unquestionably, tourism is a two-sided blade that provides much needed funds to the area, but also encourages wild development that harms the earth, unless tourists themselves rise and demand sustainability.

On the topic of sustainability I’ve already published an interview with one of the American women making a documentary on how corruption and development have ruined the Cinque Terre, in which residents themselves propose solutions. I hope that that post encouraged some donations and that the movie will come out soon so that the English-speaking world can be better informed about the plight of this delicate territory.

As for me, I tend to use words rather than my wallet to instigate change; this is a rare donation on my part! Awareness comes first, action next. Let’s all do what we can to help.

The concept of the multi-course Italian meal, as my readers surely know, is reserved for special occasions (like Sunday lunch at my in-laws, or for Christmas Eve menus). More often we’ll just eat a “primo” (often rice or pasta based). The “piatto unico” actually has a historic role in Italian cooking, and is well suited to our current busy lifestyle. As the book summary explains:

The traditional, classic peasant style of cooking known as cucina povera features dishes that are well-balanced with ingredients emphasizing grains, legumes, and vegetables and smaller amounts of costly meat, seafood, and cheese. Piatti unici are also often associated with religious festivals or funerals, times when regular meal-making is interrupted and people rely instead on dishes that can be made in advance and reheated.

Tommaso and I suggested friselle as something we often make for a fast lunch in the summer – in fact, we bring it for picnics at the beach! Friselle are like dried out bagels cut in half, that you dip in water to soften, and then top with oil, tomatoes, and if you want also mozza or tuna. Toni has developed this into an actual recipe, check it out! In my version, the mini tomatoes are cut into 2-3 pieces and touch the bread first, which allows the bread to absorb the flavour and water of the tomato. Mozza I then add in cubes, though I prefer tuna.

The book is one worth having if you’re looking for simple dinner ideas: it includes a substantial number of vegetarian options presented in eight chapters: Prime-Time Pastas; Minestroni and other Big, Bountiful Soups; Mostly Grains and Vegetables; Braises and Stews; Roasted, Grilled, or Sautéed; Insalatone and other Cold Plates; Eggs and Cheese; and Pizza and Panini.

Interested? buy Piatto Unico on amazon.com

Taglionlini with arugula pesto and cherry tomatoes, Photo: Tina Rupp

Giulia Scarpaleggia

AT) Your blog is not only beautiful but provides delicious recipes. How long have you been writing it, and what factors inspire you to write (ie. how do you come up with the recipe or post ideas?)

GS) I started my blog on the 1st day of February 2009, so it’s almost three years now. I started a blog, after mo

re than one year of passionate foodblog reading, because I wanted something to call mine, a place to post recipes, photos and my thoughts about daily life.

At the beginning I was into foreign and ethnic food, so I was inspired by this desire to experiment whatever was far from my daily culinary world.

Then I started to feel the urge to explore the world that everyone – especially those abroad – loves, and where I had the good fate to live: Tuscany. So back to home cooking and family recipes, to discover my roots and my smell and taste memories.

Now my focus is the ingredient. I look for fresh, seasonal, preferably local produce. I’m not a fanatic or a control freak, but my aim is to use the best products of the season, and from there to develop a recipe.

Usually each recipe is related to a story, and the story is inspired by my life, my dreams or my memories of the childhood. I’m quite a romantic person!

Mac and cheese, click for her awesome recipe!

2) Tell us about the services you are now offering in person, beyond the blog.

My first cooking class for foreigners dates back to 2006, and it was a way to spend a different evening with an American friend. I realized there was something special in cooking together with people belonging to different food cultures because it gave us the chance to understand us better, and I managed to show to the fullest what my region was through ingredients and cooking rituals. This is the main reason I enjoy teaching cooking classes.

Now my basic offer is a three hour hands-on cooking class during which we have the chance to create a complete menu, from appetizer to dessert, using only the freshest seasonal ingredients. Every dish is usually introduced by a family story or a local tradition, because this is how I learned to cook, listening to my grandma’s or mum’s stories in the kitchen and watching their movements among pots and pans. The class  can be held in my family kitchen, located in a traditional country house in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, between Siena and Florence or, by request, in a rented villa or apartment.

Along with cooking classes there is also the option to take tours to a local cheese farm, a beautiful and rustic organic podere, and a farming estate producing Chianti Classico wine, Extravirgin Olive Oil, and raising the rare Cinta Senese pigs.

I’m also organizing two week long tours with the Art centre Verrocchio in Casole d’Elsa (Siena), with three hands-on cooking classes, daily trips to markets and local farms, to have a firsthand experience of our production: wine, extra virgin olive oil, goat cheese and pecorino cheese, Chianina, Cinta senese and seasonal vegetables.

The last idea I had was inspired by my friends’ requests: a custom cooking class. Juls’ Kitchen on Demand was the solution:  you choose the theme of the class, you call me and I arrive directly at your doorstep with my car loaded with pots, pans and supplies. I just need a kitchen that may contain from 5 up to 10 people and some basic equipment, the rest is up to me!

zucchini!

3) You’ve taken a big risk during a moment of crises. What makes you think that this business will work?

My dreams, my hopes and a sturdy faith in fairytales!

This is how I face my life, if I have a dream I do all that I can to realize it, and my dream is to have an independent job related to food: cooking food, teaching how to cook food, writing about food and taking pictures of food.

In this serious moment the old style secure jobs are even more impossible to obtain, I think the solution is to invest time, strength and sleepless hours to discover and pursue your passion, because it’s the only richness that doesn’t lose value!

Besides this, you need planning: I’ve been blogging for three years now and teaching cooking classes for more than one year as a second job. So, when my primary job ended I was not left alone in the dark, I had already contacts, skills and ideas for the future, now I have also the time to turn them into reality.

Last but not least, I live in Tuscany and I love Tuscany. Isn’t it one of the best places in the world to deal with food?

4) Big dreams or plans for the future?

My aim is to become a food writer along with a cooking class teacher, because I re-discovered after so many years how I love to write, I’m actually in love with words, and I feel a powerful energy when I tap on my keyboard, telling stories, recipes and episodes related to food. Maybe I am just a wordy person, but, seriously, I feel the urge to write!

Next to my literary ambitions, have I ever told you I love England? Yep, I love England, London, English humour, the English people and even the English rain, oh, and Jamie Oliver as well! So one of my big plans is to teach a few Tuscan cooking classes in England, once in a while, but I’m still working on this project!

5) As you know, I recently failed at making gnocchi. When I sign up for a gnocchi making lesson with you, what vegetarian menu would you propose to go around them?

It will depend on the season, because I strictly use seasonal produce, but there could be a soup – ribollita, pappa al pomodoro, acquacotta, panzanella -, a raw salad with nuts and honey, some roasted vegetables or a vegetable flan (I love spinach flan!), and obviously a dessert, from tiramisu to tiny rice cakes, my favourite as a child.

Catch up with Giulia at her blog Juls’ Kitchen or book a lesson by emailing her at juls@julskitchen.com. I wish her all the best and look forward to our vegetarian cooking lesson!

Other museums included in the initiative are the archaeological museum of Naples, Compendio Garibaldino di Caprera, Museo nazionale etnografico preistorico Luigi Pigorini di Roma, Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche di Urbino, Museo dei Balzi Rossi di Ventimiglia, and coming up soon in 2012, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria in Perugia, Museo d’Arte Orientale a Ca’ Pesaro in Venice, Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra in Rovereto, Armeria Reale di Torino and Museo Archeologico Santa Maria delle Monache, Isernia. There is no question that many of these museums are not just undiscovered but downright obscure, whereas Mantova, Urbino, and Perugia are a bit better known. Many Florentines have never been to Palazzo Davanzati, so this is a good opportunity to bring the museum-goers of the future to this space.

A press conference yesterday was a bit of a change from the usual monotonous presentation because 2 classes of well-behaved 10 year olds were invited, and the representative from the Mibac often spoke directly to them, which was cute. The children were asked what they liked best of the experience and one answered “the scarpetta scaldamano”, a maiolica object whose function – warming hands – was explained in the booklet. This is exactly the kind of information – how things and spaces were used – that I have always said make the museum experience, and that need to be made available in Palazzo Davanzati, a museum that has wonderful potential for families. Participants are asked to write their opinions of the museum visit online or on a handout, offering them an opportunity to reflect on and verbalize the experience. The feedback may help museums develop more projects like this in the future.

Another cute element of this booklet is a drawing of museum staff and an explanation of the people who work behind the scenes: director, conservator, curator, education services (!!), guards, security and technology staff. This reminds children that museums can potentially provide careers. It does not mention the government concorsi and complete impossibility of getting IN to a job like that, but children should be allowed to dream!

This booklet is a great idea, but it could be improved. Part (but not all) of the text from this handout is available online, but it sure would be great if Focus would make a free downloadable PDF available for posterity. Another nice thing would be if a few thousand copies were printed and given out to families for free, even after this special is over, directly at the museum front desk. Finally, I know that it is an Italian magazine, but I would like to see a similar didactic tool produced in English. Encouraging museum visits with children is important on a local and national level, but your typical Italian parent also has good visual training and may be able to guide a child better than a foreigner. Helping tourism by the provision of material in other languages is equally important, and would not have a much larger cost (for example, I would be perfectly capable of translating these twelve booklets into English for a minimal fee). That said, didactic visits to some of Florence’s museums are available upon advance reservation (see servizio didattica).

Improvements are being made in Palazzo Davanzati since I wrote about it years ago. New informative texts are available in multiple languages in most of the rooms. A welcome desk has finally been installed in the front room, with a little bookshop area, after many years of these staff members sitting at a card table in the courtyard.

With kids or not, visit Palazzo Davanzati and read along to understand the context of the early modern Italian family, a fascinating experience for adults and kids. If you can’t use the Italian material from Focus Junior, print out my guide to Palazzo Davanzati and bring it with you!

“The term ‘luthier’ came about in the 14th century, when people played lutes, and luthiers made (and fixed) the instrument. As lutes fell out of favour and people started playing more violins, violas, and the like, the luthier’s business evolved towards these new instruments.” Stefano indicates a twelve-stringed guitar propped up against the wall: “the first guitars had five pairs of strings because they were a variation of the lute,” which, he explained, has a variable number of strings, most often eight. Now you’d be hard pressed to find someone who plays the lute (or Renaissance music), and the luthier in the literal sense of the term is a rare figure serving a niche market.

Stefano defines himself as a modern luthier – his business card says “Liuteria Moderna” and is illustrated with a psychedelic pattern of electric guitars. The more we talk, the more I figure out that his approach to his profession, and the way he got into it, is both modern and pragmatic, and has nothing of the romance that we normally associate with Italian ‘artisans‘ – a term I doubt he’d use to define himself. Stefano did not apprentice to a master luthier at the age of 16, as I’d imagined, nor does he pontificate about perfect harmonics. He does not feel a connection to the Florentine tradition of artisans nor to the Pratese tradition of making tangible products.

“Ci vuole manualità,” he says – it takes manual ability to do this job, and from the way he speaks of it, working on guitars is pretty simple stuff. Although there is one professional school in Cremona that offers an intensive instrument-maker program, there is little specific training available to luthiers. Stefano came to it pretty much by chance. He had been living in the USA for a decade with his American wife and two kids when they decided to make the move back to Italy in 2006, and a friend offered him a job fixing guitars in a workshop in Florence (he’s since branched out on his own). Before this, Stefano worked in home improvement. His main contact with guitars was playing them: he started at the age of 13, was in a few amateur bands, but stopped when he took up the job of luthier. Sad, no? Not to him: “This work is more satisfying, less ephemeral, than making music,” Stefano says.

Garage workshop

Inside the workshop

We get back to my initial question of how one becomes a luthier, and by this time I’ve pretty much figured it out. Like many in this field, Stefano is self taught. “It’s pretty simple. You take apart an instrument, you think about how the parts fit together, their properties, how they work, and you put it back together… Ci vuole manualità.” As if being good with one’s hands is all it takes. Talking with him, you understand that he knows his stuff, he understands good work and good sound, but he won’t bore a non guitar-head like me with the details.

New bone bridge for 12-string guitar

The bread and butter of Stefano’s job is fixing guitars. I look around the workshop and see about half a dozen guitars in various states of disrepair, amongst skateboards, fishing and knife hobbyist magazines, packs of guitar strings, shells for mother of pearl inlay and deer antlers. Work comes in waves – now, January, is a busy time, as was earlier last year when a client’s wife threw his collection of thirteen basses out the window (guess she’d had enough of that riff from “smoke on the water”).

He shows me a few examples of repair jobs and explains the importance of balancing time and cost with functional needs and the cost of the instrument to start. In each case he’ll discuss with the client what needs to be done, and might offer more or less economical solutions. In the case of a break or crack, sometimes the best solution is a simple repair rather than aiming for a perfect aesthetic result which would require stripping and refinishing. This is especially true now that the finishes on guitars are a shiny, almost plastic shell.

Broken head, fixed, no finish

Does Stefano make custom guitars? He could, but he rarely makes guitars from scratch. It’s just not economical, he explains: for every person who dreams of building the perfect custom guitar, there’s a detractor who says it has no resale value. The fact is that the cost of a handmade guitar, even by the most famous of makers (like Sadowsky Guitars in New York), doesn’t go much beyond 4000 dollars. Working alone, it might take 2-3 months to build a guitar, and it’d be hard to survive on the proceeds. As I said, Stefano’s approach is pragmatic. It makes more economic sense to customize and fix guitars than to build them.

Is there a future in this business? Do kids still play guitar? Yes and no. There are always professional musicians and amateur guitar lovers, and there are still kids who take music lessons. Instruments will always be involved in accidents, and Stefano can help with that. But he has no trouble applying his skills transversally: as he moved from construction to guitar repair, he just as easily could be crafting anything else. He showed me a beautifully smooth knife that he was inspired to make with some leftover stainless steel that he recuperated from a friend’s business: the patient shaping and planing of the handmade knife uses the same skills as planing the body of a guitar.

Stefano is a maker. The kind of person who produces tangible objects that are the past of our economy, but also its future. Makers are a new trend (not that Stefano is trying to be trendy), a kind of backlash in a historic moment overly based on intangible monetary exchanges and service industries (including people like me who make a living writing blogs), rather than on manufacture. Long live those with manual ability and the patience to carry it out!

Bring your broken guitars and your customization dreams to Stefano Giusti in Prato, tel +39 3348921598, email stevostevo68@gmail.com.

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The theme of this month’s Italy Blogging Roundtable is Crafts. Read what the other writing knights have to say on the subject:

• Rebecca writes of Crafts in Umbria
• Jessica ambitiously has come up with The Guide to Crafts in Italy
• Gloria writes of lovely Wood, Leather and Flowers (which kinda reminds me of a Donatello statue lecture given by an undergraduate prof of mine on what you can do with leather and feathers… but assume Gloria’s post is not about erotic crafts!)
• and Melanie comes in with Marble Run: Shopping for Traditional Marbled Products in Italy

Terraced vineyards in the Cinque Terre

The two independent filmmakers finished gathering material in Italy in September 2010. It was a documentary focused on wine production as sustainable development, though it focused also on sustainable tourism and related environmental themes. Two weeks later, the most interesting people they filmed got arrested. Scandal hit the Cinque Terre. And not too long later, in October 2011, Vernazza and Monterosso were devastated by flooding and mudslides, flooding that also affected Genova, but that might have been avoided – say the newspapers and the carabinieri – had it not been for overbuilding in the environmentally delicate area.

Sharon Boeckle answers some questions from ArtTrav:

AT: What drew you to the Cinque Terre in the first place? Are you sure it wasn’t Rick Steves?

SB: My first visit was over ten years ago, during an organized tour of Italy with a group of Americans. I had wanted to find somewhere “unusual” and “off the beaten path” to discover, and the Cinque Terre was a quick day trip from where we were at that time (in Tuscany.) I fell in love with the area immediately, and almost every year after I returned and over the years I began to know the area a little bit better. It was through those short visits that I began to see some changes… in 2001, 2002, the Cinque Terre was not quite so full with tourists and the park office was fairly new. Over time, the crowds got larger and the organization of the park grew. I shared all of my observations with Krista, and, together, we thought that that this development would be a good subject for a documentary film. Through research we discovered the restoration of the winemaking tradition and it became our first area of focus, but then, with a 2008 research trip, the area of focus grew.

What scandal hit the area that drastically changed the direction of your documentary?

Two individuals interviewed for the film were arrested just two weeks after we got home; one of them was cleared on all charges, the other is Franco Bonanini, who was the president of the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre at that time. Those arrests took place on September 28, 2010. I am sure you can find objective documentation on what happened and how; I would be prefer to simply state that it was that arrest that changed the scope of our film, but we have no comment on anything else regard to the arrests.

Cinque Terre landscape

Hasn’t Cinque Terre done some things to preserve the environment? I thought I read that they did not allow plastic bottles in the area. Was it just a media ploy?

The ban on plastic bottles and some other restrictions were indeed a few of the many programs implemented by the park to try to sustain the environment of the area.

Name three specific things that you think Cinque Terre must do to pull things together and save the area from itself.

We are not environmental experts or experts on sustainable development or sustainable tourism, and so we hesitate to suggest that anyone outside of the community should comment on what the citizens need to do to “save” the area, if it indeed needs to be “saved.” We care deeply for the residents of these villages, their land, and their traditions, and we wish to allow them to tell THEIR story, to highlight THEIR concerns and struggles, so that they may have a voice in our film, and then to allow the audience members to form their own opinions.

You can support the documentary Vendemmia through the filmmakers’ kickstarter campaign, which ends January 31 2012 and has already reached its 2600$ goal! They set the goal low to be sure to reach it (and 48 people so far have been convinced to help them monetarily) but still need more money for plane tickets and equipment rentals.

April 2011 – Official opening of Le Murate

preserved old cells at le murate

Now it's alive!

The former prison (sometimes known as “le Carceri”) has undergone a long period of restoration, and after a preview in January 2010, it opened fully and officially in April 2011. For the first three months, the superintendant of culture Giuliano da Empoli (who in December left this role, unfortunately) asked a handful of associations and media that have been close to him during the previous months to organize events. As I have been involved in le Murate from the start of Da Empoli’s position at Palazzo Vecchio, I was asked to participate with The Florentine to provide some English-language programming for this space. We had a debate called “culture clash” and 2 knit cafes, all of which were quite successful, I think.

Le Murate has been slowly taking off, rather than exploding, but it provides an interesting cultural hub at the edge of the city, along the viali, in a position that promises to become more important in the future. It takes time to populate a cultural center of this type, but the opening of a bookstore and gallery, and more recently the Literary Cafe’, are steps towards the revitalization of the space.

September to December 2011 – The Search for the lost Leonardo

For many years, my old professor Rab Hatfield (Syracuse University in Florence) has been saying that he knows exactly where, in Palazzo Vecchio, Leonardo’s famed Battle of Cascina was begun – only to be covered up by Vasari. He has in fact published a book about this. I remember a particularly impassioned talk that he gave some of us in the Salone dei Cinquecento in which he explained that certainly Vasari valued Leonardo as an artist too much to just paint over his work, so he built a wall with some space in front of it. Another art historian, Dr. Seracini, has also been working on finding the lost Leonardo for many years. Both scholars have pointed out the words “Cerca Trova” (look and you shall find) on the fresco, thought to be a hint as to where to start digging.

This year, the National Geographic Society got involved in the search, thanks to the intervention of an American photographer named Dave Yoder, who figured that using a gamma ray camera (a technology first developed by someone else) could “image” the painting behind the 12cm thick wall. His kickstarter campaign for $265,000 failed. However, National Geographic made a hefty donation to fund the work, which is going ahead without the gamma camera as far as I understand. And most importantly, Matteo Renzi, mayor of Florence, strongly wanted the research to go ahead – and for a discovery to be made.

Scaffolding went up and work commenced on November 27, 2011. The exploration team used an endoscopic probe (kinda like what they use for a gastroscopy, only finer) which they poked through very small holes (4mm) made in the painting. The only thing they determined is that there is an air space between Vasari’s wall and something behind it. Meanwhile, the Carabinieri looked on after some claimed that the research is damaging Vasari’s fresco, and an interesting polemic (it wouldn’t be italy without polemics) began. 400 signatures sit on a petition against the search behind Vasari for Leonardo, names of art historians for whom I have profound respect: Keith Christiansen, Luke Syson, Salvatore Settis, and also the vocal Tomaso Montanari and the polemical critic Francesco Bonami.

Where is all this going? I have no further updates beyond December 9th and believe that this part of the search is over. It may be stopped forever due to protests. The question remains: what would they do if they were to find Leonardo under there, anyway? Bonami says that an obsession with nostalgia and our (italians’) past keeps us from looking and moving ahead. I have to agree: Florence needs a future right now, maybe even more than more past. (On the topic of 2012 being the year Florentines find their future, read my husband’s reflections here).

December 2011 – New Opera House

The Nuovo Teatro dell’Opera di Firenze opened for a short preview at the end of December with a line up of excellent concerts to ring in the new year (unfortunately I am too cheap to have attended any of them). An attractive building designed by Paolo Desideri of Abdr Architetti Associati, it will house three concert halls when finished, including one outside ampitheatre.

2 years and 160 million euros to get to this point and it seems like a miracle, knowing how long major projects usually take around here. Unfortunately only the first phase of the works has been inaugurated, and after this “preview,” more construction is expected. The structure is expected to really open towards the end of 2012. I hope they pull it off. The Maggio Musicale, whose new home this is, says that we will see a 40% increase in programming, including laboratories aimed at children and families – which would certainly help secure the future of classical music.

December 20, 2011 – Uffizi’s Blue Rooms

Eight new rooms to hold a few hundred old paintings – the first lot of the Nuovi Uffizi restoration project that has been going on, and polemical, for as long as I can remember is complete.

Much has been made of the “sale blu“, billed as a heroic step towards a different museum display. True, the Uffizi has always had (boring) white walls and pietra serena accents in the Vasarian vision of this space. But the blue rooms are nothing new, museologically. I admit, I have not seen them yet, but having seen photos, I am immediately reminded of the Bardini museum, whose blue walls inspired Isabel Stewart Gardner. Bardini Blue was thus popular in the 19th century. Why is it, then, that in the Uffizi’s initial proposal for blue walls in 2008 – when Natalini suggested applying them to the Botticelli room (it could use some sprucing up!) – the sh*t hit the fan? This proposal was shifted to the French, Spanish, and Dutch works about which the public is apparently less sensitive.

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So that’s 2011 art news in Florence as I saw it. A bit heavy towards December, which may be fresh in my mind, or may represent a push on the part of administration to get things done by the end of the year! Let’s hope 2012 brings even more activity and fewer polemicized debates. Happy New year, folks.

Flow

Flow Store- photo mens reverie

Tucked in behind the more famous via Tornabuoni, this place looks like the living room of a rich boys’ chalet, with a few racks of super hipster clothing and accessories. One of the few multi-brand boutiques in Florence, the look is 100% hipster – you need to know how to combine their pieces yourself, or be dressed by their staff… which isn’t much of a problem for most Pitti people, anyway. Their dedicated shoe store opened just a few months ago and is perhaps even more exciting than the clothing store.

Brands carried: JFK 68, Gold Bunny, Department 5, Anachronorm, Checkin’ Out, Filson, Jejia, Red Seal, San Francisco, Red Seal, Noodle Park, 2 Men, Htc, Ben’Barek, Soho, Alternative, Golden Age, Ten C, J.Motors, Moma, Pane Tulipani, Destin Surl, Sus, Milano 35, Collection, Privee, Used, L’autre chose, Orciani, Shoto, Buttero, Diadora, Generic Surplus, Walk Over, Prima Base, Numero 10, Riccardo Forconi, Quoddy, Corsia.

Website: www.flow-store.it (in flash – hey Flow, you could hire us at Flod to make you a new website, it’s just one letter away)
Via de’ Vecchietti 20r
Shoe store on via Sassetti (just go straight towards piazza Strozzi from the main store)

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Société Anonyme

Societe Anonyme bag

Store

A beautiful, bright space in which to hang out, a concept store in the fullest meaning of the idea, with an annexed co-working space that encourages sociability. Beyond clothes by international brands that you certainly will not find anywhere else in Florence, the store carries Frietag bags, lomo cameras, and other lifestyle items.

Designers include: Bag “N” Noun, Comme Des Garçons Play, Giulia Materia, Japan Proxy, Jimi Roos, Mm6 By Maison Martin Margiela, Sawa, See By Chloé, and Société Anonyme’s house brand.

Via della Mattonaia, www.societeanonyme.it

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Bottega Quattro

Bottega Quattro

This attractive, large (200 square meters) space opened in September 2011 and is decorated with recycled, reused antiques. Owner Daniele Fiesoli is the Italian distributor for the label Scotch & Soda, found here along with Fiesoli’s own line and brands Wool & Co. and Milkywear.

Via Rondinelli 9 (no website)

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For more hipster boutique suggestions, if you can read Italian, see this article on te la do io Firenze.

I asked friends from Milan down to Sicily to send their me Christmas menus so we can vicariously eat our way down the boot.

Emilia-Romagna / Lombardy: Patrizia and the Nave-Cerutti family

I asked Patrizia, an old family friend from Milan, what their family prepares for Christmas. They now live in the small town of Somaglia in Lodi province on the Emilia-Romagna border so this menu might be “contaminated”. In the north, the 24^th is generally not celebrated, so this is in truth a Christmas lunch menu for the 25^th.

Casoncelli - photo Essenza in Cucina

Antipasti

• Tartine decorate – white sandwich bread with various toppings, including  butter and anchovy paste, artichoke paste, prosciutto, salami, etc.
• Pollo in gelatina – Chicken salad in a gelatin form
• Mixed cured meats

Primi

• Casoncelli – a type of half-moon shaped ravioli from Bergamo filled with meat, grana padano and herbs, topped with grated grana padano, butter, bacon and sage (Here’s a beautiful recipe from Essenza in Cucina, whose photo is above).
• Pasta with wanut sauce

Secondo

• Faraona arrosto – roast pheasant
• Cima ripiena alla genovese – a Ligurian veal and vegetable stuffed meat loaf; the Milanese variant is fried

Dolce

• Panettone

Cima ripiena - photo Donna Moderna

Lucca, Tuscany: Laura, Fabio and the Rossi family

I asked my friend Laura De Benedetto, of southern origin, to poll her mother in law for what their family will be having in Lucca, since I was interested in a Tuscan representative outside of Florence. Here is their response.

Tordelli - Photo Barattini, see link below

Antipasto

• Mixed crostini with liver pate, sliced cured metas
• Polenta with porchini mushrooms

Primo

• Tordelli Lucchesi al ragù di carne – a meat-filled pasta typical of this region, with a meat and tomato sauce (see a recipe by Aurelio Barattini)

Secondo

• Mixed boiled meats is the traditional dish, served with various sauces
• Boiled or mashed potatoes on the side

Dolce

• Fresh and dried Fruit
• Panettone

Acquapendente, Lazio: the Cammilli family

On the border between Lazio and Tuscany, I wanted to see if my sister in law Laura Cammilli’s family meal was very different from Laura De Benedetto’s husband’s family dinner in Lucca. Her Mom, Silvia, says their own menu has been personalized so much over the years that she’s asked a friend for a more typical menu of their town.

The meal does not start with apetizers because the townspeople believe that this is just a waste of precious time that ought to be dedicated to the proper meal! So we go straight to the primi…

Pasta e ceci - photo Spadelliamo Insieme?

Primi

• Spaghetti al tonno – spaghetti with tuna
• Pasta e ceci – pasta and chick peas (See Recipe from Spadelliamo Insieme)

Secondi

• Baccala’ fritto – fried baccala (salt fish)
• carciofi e cavolfiore fritto – fried artichokes and cauliflower
• Roast eel

Dolci

• Tozzetti – dried biscuits similar to “biscotti” (cantucci di prato)
• Ubriachelli – another dried biscuit, served with wine
• Maccheroni dolci – sweet pasta with honey and wanuts

Taranto, Puglia: the Olivieri family (my in-laws)

For Christmas Eve, one traditionally has fish, while meat is served on Christmas day. Taranto is the “city of two seas” and they say if you don’t eat cozze (mussels) you’re not Tarantino; fish in general abounds in their cooking. Although my in-laws’ family moved to Florence in the early 70s, there are traditional Pugliese elements in their menu, and certainly the extent of the hospitality, variety, and amount of food served is 100% southern Italian. Some parts of the menu have been altered to our personal tastes and to my particular, vegetarian diet. The photos below are actual fish cooked by my father in law and shot hastily with an iphone before being eaten.

Spaghetti alle vongole (not cozze, i have no idea what the difference is) - photo Vincenzo Olivieri's facebook page

A big baked fish - photo Vincenzo Olivieri's facebook page

Antipasto

• Mix di frutti di mare crudi (noci, ostriche e cozze) e al gratin (cozze e ostriche) – mix of raw and baked au gratin seafood

Primo

• Spaghetti con le cozze – Spaghetti with mussels (as Tommaso and I don’t eat this, there is usually a second primo, such as ravioli or spaghetti with vegetable sauce, for us)

Secondo

• Branzino, dentice o orata al forno – baked white fish
• Roasted zucchini and eggplant
• Insalata Russa which is called Salad Olivier in English (potatoes, mayo, egg and other ingredients)
• Green salad (I think this was added just for me)
• Cheeses: mozzarella, caciocavallo and ricotta

Dessert

• Frutta mista fresca e secca – display of fresh and dried fruit, including pineapple
• Panettone, cartellate, sannacchiudere
• Spumante, nocino digestivo

Meal duration: 3-4 hours

Bonus: The central elements of the Christmas Day Menu planned by my in-laws are Lasagna with meatballs, prosciutto cotto and provola cheese; Agnello al forno con patate (roast lamb with potatoes); spinach, fried artichokes. Plus all the various antipasti, fruits and desserts.

Taormina, Sicily: Francesca and her mom Silvana

I expected differences between North and South, but not such great difference between Puglia and Sicily. But Sicily is a very special island region with its own cuisine, and the menu that Francesca has sent me is very different indeed. I think they might actually eat more than my Pugliese family.

Cassata - photo flickr @spersper

Antipasto

• Ricotta a forno – Baked ricotta
• Melanzane arrosto – Roasted eggplants
• Caponata – roasted peppers in oil

Primi

• Maccheroni alla norma – a kind of home made pasta with eggplant and tomato sauce
• Pasta con finocchietto selvatico (wild fennel pasta)

Secondi

• Falsomagro – a giant meat loaf that I’m told takes days to digest (it’s name means “fake thin”)
• Involtini alla siciliana (bracioline)

Dolci

• Semifreddo alle mandorle – almond mousse
• Cassata – traditionally a Christmas dessert, it’s now eaten year round

Francesca leaves us with a sicilian saying:

“Panza cuntenti, cori clementi; panza dijuna, nenti pirduna.”

In Italian that’s pancia contenta, cuore clemente; pancia digiuna, niente perdona; or in English, Happy stomach, lenient heart, empty stomach, no mercy.

So fill your stomach til it can take no more… and know that on the 25^th, and again on the 26^th, you’re going to be doing it all over again. Merciless families like mine will stuff you also on Dec 31, Jan 1 and Jan 6, so ready that gym membership and let out your waistbands – temporarily.

I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family… who are all really good cooks! A big abbraccio and much love to Patrizia, Laura DB, Laura C, Enzo and Francesca for participating in this little “project” by sending menus. Buon appetito.

Merry Christmas to all, from my table (or my in-laws’ table) to yours!

NOTE: I’ve chosen to link recipes in Italian because it’s difficult to find these authentic regional dishes on English websites. I’ve aimed for the most attractive photos, understanding that these might not be the most traditional interpretations.

Stumped for a gift giving idea? Look no further than the Medici Archives, conveniently digitalized for us by the Medici Archive Project. This year I was thinking of some Tuscan delicacies in a gift basket, preferably a very large one in order to contain live game animals, a barrel of olives, a Peruvian pig and the rib of a saint. To follow are some of the best gifts given to and from the Medici family, with my suggestions for a modern equivalent. Some of them might fit under your tree.

1) Trout

Francesco I has a predilection for trout, but he didn’t inherit it from his father. At first read, 1575 sounds like it must have been a lean year in Barga, for Baldovini Baldovino sends trout to Florence excusing himself by saying “Here in Barga I have nothing else with which to honour your Highness so I’m sending a few trouts.” However trout appears to be a favourite in this branch of the Medici family and Baldovini must have known it; in 1581 someone else sends trout to Francesco I and in 1587 the Gonzaga’s of Mantua send him more trout. In fact, 48 records reported by the Medici Archive project cite trout; in one case the ducal family went fishing for it in the Seravezza area, but most of the time they’re speaking directly of edibles. In one unfortunate case, the live trout being sent to Cafaggiolo met death en route. All this makes one wonder how the Medici were preparing the fish, although in one instance (1566) we read that the trout were expressly intended for a fountain.

However, the earlier generation of Medici’s did not care for it at all. A very polite thank you note from Cosimo I de’ Medici in November 1549 acknowledges Ferrante Gonzaga’s effort in sending trout pies (by refrigerated courrier?) but says that his wife can’t eat it “because she is on a diet due to a certain disposition, so please don’t go to the trouble of sending any more because she can’t eat them and it is not my nature to be crazy for fish.” As in “thanks but no thanks.” A lesson in tact, eh?

Modern equivalent: Smoked salmon in a wooden gift box. A standard from my family in Canada to my Italian in laws, who love it served with cream on fettuccine. Buy salmon gift box on amazon.

2) Religious gifts

In our modern culture, a scented candle is a standard gift that stocks all Americans’ re-gifting closet (Italians, it seems, do not re-gift, though I have evidence below). In Early Modern Europe, candles were less likely to be scented; it was the thought that counted more. In 1610 someone mailed the Grand Duchess a blessed candle, which surely was worth a lot more than just the wax with which it was made.

A religious gift is always a good gift. In 1611 on December 9, right about ready to put under the tree, the Archbishop of Siena Camillo Borghese sends a small piece of the rib of Santa Caterina da Siena to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Maria Maddalena d’Austria, noting that it was not easy to get. Religious poems and books are also frequently objects of exchange, usually by some obsequeious writer who wishes to garner favour.

Modern equivalent: This Tuscany-inspired scented candle with modern lines and faux leather box. It ain’t saintly, but it’s a nice décor item.

3) Exotic animals

A far cry from gifting a kitten, in the Renaissance, parrots, exotic animals in general, turkish horses and hunting dogs make recurring good gifts. In one case the Turkish horses are procured intentionally for regifting, making it clear that there is nothing wrong with regifting if you are a duke. In the documents we read of grey partriges (though no pear trees), a Tunisian cow, gazelles, falcons, an eagle or two, an ostrich and the fossilized horn of a unicorn (no live unicorns though).

A turkish horse, of course. Source? http://dariocaballeros.blogspot.com

Sometimes these animals were more pain than they were worth. In 1572, Antonio Scaramuccia of Torino thanks Francesco de’ Medici for the lynx received as a gift, saying that the animal is quite nice with people it knows, but with others it is quite vicious, as the bearer of this letter might attest. Other letters note the non-arrival of horses sent via the Poste Italiane. I seem to remember once reading about a giraffe that died at sea but can’t dig up the archival evidence at the moment.

Modern equivalent: I don’t believe in giving live animals as gifts, so suggest virtual or stuffed ones. I recommend the virtual stuffed Webkinz hedgehog or one of the endangered species series pictured below, useful to teach kids who think they want a puppy the real value of a pet that cannot get hit by a car.

4) Game Meat and condiments

Wild boar

Antonio Maria Del Monte, abbot of Anghiari, gives Cosimo I a present of two goats and four jack rabbits for the famed 1565 wedding of Francesco I. He has to apologize for not managing to catch this game in a net since the Duke had requested them live: “Dolghomi di non havere possuto haver gratia (sì come desideravo) di farli dare nelle rete per mandarli vivi.” Speaking of game meat, some ducks met their fate in 1572 and were sent with citrus fruit which probably made an excellent condiment. Ditto the large barrel of olives, excellent for aperitivo parties, that Cosimo I sent in 1540 to Giovanni dell’Antella. But what party would be complete without cheese, fruit, salami and wine? Cardinal Innocenzo Cibo, who lived in Massa Carrara, seems to have been true to his last name, as many of his letters mention sending gifts of food to Cosimo I, including cheese, fruit, salami and Trebbiano wine, as well as an eagle (presumably for hunting) and some marble samples from Carrara.

Modern equivalent: Well, it’s against EU regulations to ship cinghiale and other meats, but the Pratese gourmet food distributor Borgo de’ Medici has some meat-free Tuscan delicacies in their gift baskets which can be purchased by email through their facebook-exclusive christmas gift tab; shipping is by UPS.

5) Imported products

Francesco I de’ Medici’s love for the New World has been object of recent scholarly study; he loved receiving gifts of unique items from abroad as much as your average American today adores gifts from Florence. Some of the objects sent are decidedly bizarre – in fact, they’re noted as such in the documents, such as the 1584 shipment from Seville of “dua uccelli bizarrj, un porchetto salvatico del Perù” – two bizarre birds and a wild Peruvian pig.

The Montiero's Hornbill is a bizarre bird. Source: http://www.zestforbirds.co.za/longbill02.html

Modern equivalent: The term “exotic” depends on where you are! If you’re looking for great gifts from Florence and Tuscany, I’ve written about this for The Florentine newspaper!

It’s not over yet

Don’t forget to say thank you after Christmas! Make like Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici who in 1627 cordially thanks Caterina de’ Medici for a Christmas gift in longhand; now sms and facebook messages are also acceptable. Feel free to type the following Medici text into your cell phone:

“Troppo cortese è meco V.A. mentre ogni anno vuol mandare a regalarmi nel tempo del Natale. La ringrazio però infinitamente di quanto ella mi ha inviato.”

Finally, remember that in Italy, Christmas doesn’t end with December 25, as stockings need to be filled on January 6. “Liberalissima è stata con noi la Befana havendoci così bele cose portate” says the Duchess of Mantua Caterina de’ Medici-Gonzaga who found in her Epiphany stocking a pietra serena table from the Florentine court. If heavy marble tables are not your thing, in my family tradition puts a scratch and win lottery ticket and some chocolates in the stocking.

With best wishes for the holiday season from my family to yours,
Alexandra

Italy Blogging Roundtable

This post is part of a monthly blogging project in which five of us write about a chosen theme. While we usually reveal the theme only on the day we post our articles, December is an exception as we’ve asked other bloggers to participate by writing an “Italian gifts” themed article. Each one of us has picked a few of our favourite contributions and are sharing links to them.

From the regulars at the Blogging Roundtable

• Jessica: 8 of My Favorite Italy Gifts
• Melanie and the gift of Italian culture
• Rebecca writes of the blogging gift (which she certainly has)
• And Gloria has a dang good excuse for not posting her blog on time – she was busy bringing new life into the world. Congratulations to Gloria and Marcel!!

From our holiday season guests – we said we’d pick our favourite five, so with thanks to ALL who contributed, here are just some of them:

• Keith from Velvet Escape talks about Tuscany’s gifts to the world – all the good things that make up my chosen region.
• Letizia aka Madonna del Piatto reminds us that gifts can be non-commercial; in her case it’s the satisfaction of a product well made (organic olive oil) and the appreciation that garners – see her gifts.
• A very nice post on “Cross Polinate” shows firsthand research to find gifts that are 100% made in Florence, by artisans.
• Ashley comes up with some very clever art history geek gifts for Italian Futurists
• Roberta K muses about when we GET our christmas gifts and what to bring to Italian hosts.

Normally we don’t tell anyone the topic in advance, but our post for December 14 is an exception. Why? Because we want you to participate. The topic is “Gifts” (or presents). It’s inspired by the holiday season, but does not have to be limited to “Christmas gifts.” For this month, we’re inviting bloggers to expand upon the topic of “gifts,” somehow connected to Italy, on their blogs.

Here is how to participate:

1)      From Decemeber 1 to 13 2011, post on your blog about “Gifts” (and Italy).

2)      Include in your post a reference to the fact that this is part of the Italy Blogging Roundtable’s invitation to post on this topic.

3)      Include, at the end of your post, links to the roundtable blogs: ArtTrav, At Home in Tuscany, Italylogue, Italofile, Brigolante.

4)      Let us know by tweeting it with the hashtag #italyroundtable. If by chance you don’t use twitter, email it to one of us (my email address is info @ arttrav.com). We’ll each read them all, and retweet some too!

5)      On December 14 2011 we’ll post on the same topic and include links to our favourite posts by the larger community. We’re aiming to link to five posts submitted by others, but that depends on how many people participate!

After years of going to Maremma for our holidays, we decided to buy a house in a small hill town, population 62. House Hunters International accompanied us on this adventure. We wish to protect this beautiful, idyllic town from “the Cortona effect,” so while some of you know what town we’re talking about, we did not mention it on TV.

For a few days, a small and friendly crew filmed our every move, which did not go unnoticed by people in town, though we tried to be very discreet. I wore makeup and attempted not to swear. Tommaso and I developed a good tv-banter mode that was hard to abandon once the cameras left us. Those of you familiar with the show know that the subjects comment on the various things they see in the three houses from which they must choose. You need to give them stuff to work with, so you have to comment on literally every aspect of the house. Now, anyone who has ever looked for a house in Italy knows that you see some very funky things. While I tried to always find something nice to say, sometimes this was a challenge, and I think the real estate agent and a few home owners out there probably hate us now. All we hope is that after the editing process, we aren’t made out to be horrible, picky people that nobody cares enough to watch for 22 minutes.

I am not allowed to reveal anything about the show, so don’t ask me when it was filmed or how it all ends up. But we finally know the air date for the show – which is why I’m posting about this experience now, rather a long time after it actually happened. So… tune in in the USA on December 10 2011 to HGTV (apparently the show airs at 11:00 PM e/p). The episode is listed on the official website and I believe that the video will be made available online there, but again only for Americans. We will have an airing party in Florence for friends once the DVD arrives, if we don’t hate the way we look on tv; and if I’m allowed, I’ll put part or all of the show up on YouTube for you all to laugh at me.

Below: two of the fabulous places we visited with the crew to show off why we love Maremma.

For me, the perfect warm mush is Minestrone. Now you’re going to tell me that this means “big soup” in Italian, and yes, for some people, minestrone is soup. But as I’ve learned, the recipe varies from season to place to stove, and for me, my minestrone is warm, starchy, and mushy. And also contains a big lot of fresh winter vegetables.

Minestrone or minestra is a vegetable soup that is present in every region of Italy, with variations as to what starch or protein you add. That is to say, you might add bread, farro, potato, pasta or rice; pancetta or beans. The vegetables that go in vary with the seasons, and the amount of liquid seems to vary in each household. Looking up what other people call “minestrone” to make sure my concept was aligned with that of the rest of the world, I read that some version of this dish was present in Ancient Roman times. Which prompted me to explore the historical aspects of this excellent Italian soup.

Every good writer has her limitations, and as I’ve said before, I am no food writer, and I sure ain’t no food historian either! But every good writer also has good writer friends, and when it comes to historical recipes, Emiko Davies, with her passion for the 19th-century Artusi, is the perfect person to consult. This pre-unification cookbook is a staple in Italian kitchens (but not in mine, where the Joy of Cooking still betrays my North-American roots), and Emiko has been blogging about a monthly Artusi recipe all year. I asked her what Artusi writes about Minestrone, and this is her reply:

This is one of the most memorable of Artusi’s recipes (no. 47). He tells the story that in 1855, the year of a cholera outbreak throughout Italy, he happened to be in Livorno. He goes to a trattoria where he asks what minestre are on the menu that day. “Minestrone”, is the reply. “Ben venga il minestrone,” says Artusi.

That night, he wakes with “una rivoluzione in corpo da fare spavento” (one of my favourite lines in the whole cookbook) and spends the rest of the night back and forth to the bathroom, cursing the Minestrone. In the morning, he takes the first train back to Florence where he immediately feels better and only then he finds out that Livorno was actually hit by the cholera outbreak and that the first victim was his own landlord. “Altro che minestrone!”

He then goes on with his preferred recipe for Minestrone… He doesn’t give any measurements, times or anything else, as I think he assumes everyone has their own recipe for minestrone or already knows it well enough.

This is one of the joys of Artusi – the story with the recipe – and also one of the joys of Italy, in which it is considered entirely normal to talk publicly about one’s digestive system.

I turn to my own bookshelf. In Tuscany, as Judy Witts Francini notes at the end of her recipe for minestrone in Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen, “this soup is the base of the Tuscan bread soup “ribollita” when it is re-boiled with leftover bread.”

Pamela Sheldon Johns’ recipe for ribollita has four steps for four days. The first day involves making a soup, while subsequent steps make it re-boiled. I asked Pamela if this is what makes it real Cucina Povera: “It was the ingenuity of re-creation… first a vegetable soup, then those leftovers layered with dry bread, then finally ‘re-boiled,’ or reheated on top of the stove. Not a bit wasted and meals provided for days,” she explained to me.

I thought that ribollita had to contain cabbage and beans, and that real minestrone stared out this way too. But the recipe is not at all fixed; this, too, depends on its poor history. Pamela continues: “What we call ribollita today, in poorer times was a way to make a meal of whatever was at hand… a bit of beans, a few potatoes and foraged greens, some stale bread… In reality it was often just dried bread that was softened with a weak broth and a slice of onion to flavor it.” Her recipe suggests some categories of ingredients, but leaves proportions and final choices up to the cook. This is probably why her minestrone looks completely different from mine.

Pamela posted this Minestrone on facebook. It looks nothing like mine. Trust her, she is a chef.

In a small and undated facsimile collection of Tuscan recipes received as a gift years ago from my well-wishing husband, I check out the instructions for minestra di verdura. Like Artusi, no proportions are given. In the case of minestrone, no ingredients are specified at all: “Pulite e tagliate grossolanamente ogni sorta di verdure che possiate avere.” (Wash and chop largely any kind of vegetable that you might have around.) Helpful.

"Ogni sorta di verdura" in a pot.

Minestrone and I met thanks to my mother in law, who is originally from Taranto in Puglia, so don’t ask her about Tuscan cooking. Once she made me a minestra with all the ingredients I can eat. Artusi makes me feel it’s okay to mention that I have some digestive problems, so cabbage and legumes are out of the question. Her ingredients are similar to those listed in Judy’s book: potatoes, squash, zucchini, carrots, green beans, tomato, leek and onion. Judy also includes cabbage and garlic, and my MIL would put in beans and cavolo nero if it weren’t for me. To substitute the effect of chopped greens provided by cavolo nero, I have used bietole, which I don’t know how to say in English. When I make minestrone, I tend to use a rather high proportion of potato as I find more absorbing, starchy foods to be the most comforting.

At the end of this article you’d expect a recipe, right? Okay.

Take whatever winter greens you have around and boil them for an hour or more.

Note: My ingredients are in the photo above. I use canned, peeled whole tomatoes instead of fresh ones in the winter. Tomatoes add colour to the recipe and the acid in them helps neutralize the sweetness of the carrots and squash. There is also rosemary, parsley, oregano and salt, not pictured.

This is what my minestrone looks like. And I find it… comforting.

November Italy Blogging Roundtable

I got so into making this soup, I almost forgot that this is an Italy Blogging Roundtable post, which means I need to post links to other group members’ blogs on the topic of  Comfort Food! Read ‘em all, comment, and share!

• Jessica says “Comfort food is a cultural thing” and I cannot agree more!
• Gloria, our resident Tuscan, tells us about Tuscan comfort food
• Rebecca writes about Eating in the Comfort Zone and I wonder if that’s a clever reference to what I consider to be a very silly American diet book…
• Melanie’s article is entitled Comfort Me With Potatoes: A Tale of Two Tuber Dishes in Italy and I look forward to that (there are potatoes in my Minestrone too!)

Sweater, tops and scarf from BP Studio Outlet

I don’t know if it is because I’m getting old, or because of my job I’m becoming better attuned to good quality clothing, but I find that most of the stuff in stores these days looks like halloween costumes, or costs too much for what it is. In particular I’ve been looking to renew my sweater collection, but have been unsatisfied with the quality at mass-production stores. Around Florence there are a few knitwear outlets like BP Studio and Maglieria di Daisy that have solved my problem.

This year styles have changed dramatically and my stuff from a few years ago makes me look incredibly dated, so hitting the stores was a necessity. This is because in the Italian working world, other than in the more stuffy professions, you can pretty much go to work wearing anything as long as it is very much in style. And as I am in the creative industry and many of my clients are in the fashion industry, all the more reason why I have to show up looking like I have somewhat absorbed the message that I am communicating for them.

Many of you know me as a travel blogger, but I also write blogs and social media content in my job at the communications company Flod. One of our clients is BP Studio, which has been making really nice womens’ knitwear – a bit on the conservative side – since 1959. I already knew the brand because their headquarters and outlet is right next to IKEA, so for years we’ve stopped in after that devastatingly tiring shopping experience. It’s not the kind of outlet where you buy everything in sight, for their prices are not exactly low. But over the years I’ve bought a few pieces and they have always stood the test of time (and of the washing machine).

Now that I know more about BP Studio, I realize that their outlet is an honest deal. Last year’s collection of knitwear is all 50% off. Being high fashion, last year’s style here is this year’s style downtown. If you compare their outlet price to that of a similar item downtown, chances are you’ll pay 10% more here but get something that has quality you can see. For example, I’d spotted a wide cut, thin wool cardigan at Zara for 99 euros and thought that was a bit too much. Don’t get me wrong, I like that store, but I go there when I don’t want to spend a lot but need something quick and cute. I found and bought a similar really wide cardigan at BP Studio in very soft, thin merino wool. The tag price was 107 euros.

quality you can see - if it were in focus!

On a splurge this week I walked out of the outlet with my grey sweater, two lovely cotton tops with boat necks and extra long sleeves (55 each), a huge pure cashmere tube scarf that can be worn an infinite number of ways including as a sweater (99 euro) and a thin leather belt that I’ll wear as a bracelet. At the cash register, an added bonus is that there is a Foursquare special so you can take 10% off the bill if you check in.

In the end I know that I have bought stuff that I’m going to wear almost every day this winter. And I also know that I’m supporting the very local economy, for in the building next door, 30 or so people are at work making these clothes. The threads all come from Italy and the production process is highly manual. Having seen their manufacturing process, I realize that the cost of real Made in Italy fashion is, in cases like this, the real cost of production in this country, not inflated by trends or advertising.

Grey sweater in hand, and with a black one in my closet from last year, I needed something brown to match my new boots and leggings (yeah, wide pants are out – see what to wear for the midseason if you don’t believe me). In the residential area of Le Cure there’s another producer of knitwear that I’ve frequented for years – Maglieria di Daisy. They used to have a store in Prato. In recent years they have stopped making mens’ sweaters (much to Tommaso’s dismay) and produce almost exclusively for other labels. Their t-shirt material tops and leggings are not made here any more, but some of their sweaters are still made right next door, here in Florence. I found a nice long brown sweater in poly/wool/alpaca blend for 60 euros, and once again am happy to have supported a local business.

If you’re looking for a purse, Florentine leather producer Nannini is just steps away with another outlet to satisfy your craving for new things!

Outlet Locations

• BP Studio outlet map
• Maglieria di Daisy outlet map
• Nannini outlet map

Spam non-exhibit poster from http://guerrillaspam.blogspot.com

It’s not easy to do street art in Florence. And there’s not a lot of it. Keep your eyes open and you get to know the few players there are. There’s Clet and his modified street signs and Bue with his gesso masks. And then, occasionally, you see some paste art. Just a bit of rain and it’s gone, so it’s a pretty respectful form, excellent for social commentary (as encouraged by this year’s Ted prize winner, paste artist JR).

Thanks to Clet’s facebook fan page I found out about Spam, an anonymous a collective or a single person who is responsible for much of the paste art around this city. Spam’s work makes strong statements about dis-information in mass media, generally with commentary on current political issues or the general situation in Italy. The visual language used is jarring, stark black and white images of mutated bodies with tv’s superimposed on heads and accusatory slogans. Posters have been pasted not only on walls but on the pavement and in fountains. On one occasion, for-sale signs were put up in broad daylight on major monuments (with light, unharmful tape, not with glue). For excellent photos of past pieces see Gold blog.

Yesterday, in an alley just steps from Ponte Vecchio, Spam installed 193 works. This first (non) exhibit, unauthorized of course, was announced the day before in a (non) press conference and comprises a compendium of previous Spam works as well as some new ones. If you’re interested you’d better go see it before the police get wind of it. It’s all over facebook by now.

Like all street artists, Spam works against the institution, so with this (non) exhibit, Spam criticizes art galleries and museums. An entry sign on the main street and a “title” pasted near the entry mock the typical set up in a gallery. I’d have liked to see a more consistent reference of this sort in the rest of the display, with labels and freshly painted walls that would surprise the visitor who would never expect to see this (but who does expect “graffiti”) in a dark alley.

Spam very nicely sent me press material and photos so that I could write this post, so I don’t feel like I should be critical. All of the press on their site is entirely positive. Nonetheless I have to say it: visually, I don’t much like this work. But conceptually, it’s making important statements in an Italy that is too insensitive to or ignorant of much of what is going on. I see informative art in surprising places in projects like “fuorilegge chi beve,” a crowd-participatory installation of non-invasive hanging signs on fountains around last June’s water referendum; “lo studio nuoce gravemente alla regime,” a true statement printed on flyers placed in 200 books in two libraries in Florence; and even “Big Brother” which decorated the luxurious WC of the Accademia delle Belle Arti (the first art attack, and a possible hint as to the training of said artist/s?).

When it comes to pasting on walls, they use materials that are easily biodegradable and don’t damage the wall or paint, so one really can’t complain about urban degradation. Of the pasted works, I particularly like those that play with the concept of windows, two or more pieces of paper interacting with each other.

On the other hand, I’d like to see more monumental pieces that use beauty more than shock value to attract the viewer. The non-exhibit is a first step in this direction, and I look forward to seeing what’s next.

Street art in Florence is a positive and necessary sign of an urban center that is actually alive and contemporary. Recently we’ve seen more authorized manifestations to encourage this “rebirth” (such as the many events at Le Murate, including motion art and talks organized by FFF), but unauthorized creations are also a necessary ingredient. There may be enough street culture here to count examples on the fingers of one hand, but you can hear Florence raising its head and saying, to quote Monty Python, “I’m not dead yet!”.

Exhibit location

View Larger Map

Pamela at home (with her outdoor hearth)

Like anyone with a good sense of hospitality, Pamela first offered us cappuccino (made by her artist husband Johnny, and approved by my Italian husband Tommaso) and an olive oil cake made by a particularly talented student at the day before’s cooking class, and we got to talking about many things that were not cookbooks. As with any two expats who meet, one goes over “how we got here.” Pamela moved with her husband and daughter (now 14) when the latter was nearing school age and her many research trips to Italy seemed less practical than just settling down here.

In this big open kitchen made for conviviality, she showed me some of her books. For a woman who has written over a dozen books and runs one of Food & Wine’s top ten culinary workshops in Italy, she’s extremely modest and down to earth. As I flipped through Pamela’s books i found that some aspects that had struck me about Cucina Povera turn out to be present in her earlier books too, especially Italian Food Artisans, though this latest is a real masterpiece.

“Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking” – translated literally as “poor food” – has a printed hard cover, rough edged heavy pages, and warm photography. If you judge a book by its cover, this one’s already a winner. And when I got it, I wondered how I, far from a foodie, would review a cookbook beyond its cover. Yeah, I can cook and bake (I’ve even posted a few recipes on this blog – see Tommaso’s grandma’s crostata for example). But I am not one who can evaluate if one ribollita is more authentic than the next. No problem here; I have been saved by the bell book.

Cucina Povera is a book to have, to read and to look at, even if you have no idea how to make soffritto or skin hazelnuts (the book tells you how to, anyway). It’s not a reference book to use to look up recipes – though you could do that – but rather one that merits a proper read before shelving it in the kitchen or displaying it on the coffee table. The 40-page introduction could be expanded into a whole book, in my opinion, and it’s primarily about this part that I asked Pamela during my visit.

As we sat at the large table that Pamela uses for cooking classes, I asked her my first hard, critical question. Cucina Povera, I said, is this a manifesto? Why should we be eating this way, now? It didn’t seem to me that the book stated that all essential “why”, and as a good scholar I was taught that every essay or book had to do so. “It’s not a manifesto.” responds Pamela. Her own interest in thrifty cooking came from her mother’s Depression-era habits; here in Italy she found a kindred approach in many peoples’ kitchens. Many Tuscan dishes, it turns out, come from humble ingredients and embody a concept of re-use and saving.

Cavolo nero in Pamela's garden

Rather than a manifesto that says we should all eat this way – which I’d suggest would be pretty impractical for your average American, or for anyone who doesn’t have time to cook a soup for three days – the book is a preservation of an important phase in Italian culinary history that will be lost with the passing of the elder generation. Pamela traveled to every part of Tuscany to gather these tales. You get the sense that she probably ate her way through a lot of country kitchens in the process, so it may not have been terribly arduous.

Jokes aside, Pamela sat down with some of the oldest people in Tuscany, the real preservers of tradition, the best cooks in the land, and asked them what they ate in hard times. It’s not a question you can casually pop to anyone who survived Nazi occupation. She drew out a lot of hard stories; almost every person in front of her was in tears at some point. Writing the book, she had to make some difficult choices about length and content, knowing that the cookbook genre requires recipes after a short introduction, but her heart was so involved in telling these peoples’ stories.

Elena Servi, one of Pitigliano's last 3 Jewish residents

These grandmas and grandpas generously share their recipes, which have been adapted to American measurements and ingredients when necessary. Each dish is beautifully photographed, displayed in an impressive array of appropriately rustic tableware and settings. Some recipes show the versions cooked by the interviewees. My favourite photos are those of the old people themselves. They’re in typical Tuscan settings and photographed with wonderful natural light.  Although photographer Andrea Wyner was not with Pamela during the whole process of her research, you get the impression that they traveled together for a year, for both people and food are captured in such a natural way.

Ilvana and Diana, Pietrasanta

There’s no doubt that Pamela’s a good talker and a good listener. We quickly wiled away hours and I started to understand how she got all these stories out of people. What’s her modus operandi? “Taxi drivers and bars,” she says. A small town barman might direct her to a patron, to his mother, to someone who will introduce her to the right person to get the story. It takes time and patience. With all this time spent talking, our stomachs are quite ready for lunch.

Lunch in Monticchiello

We went to Enoteca La Porta in nearby Monticchiello, where owner Daria is a somellier and friend; Pamela often takes groups here for a wine tasting experience. I had the most generously dressed tagliatelle al tartufo ever, while Pamela and Tommaso enjoyed the steak “tagliata” with shaved raw porcini mushrooms on top and perfectly matched wine by the glass.

What I ate

Daria, owner of La Porta

The weather was changing that day so we ate inside, missing out on the restaurant’s gorgeous terrace. When the rain stopped after lunch we explored the very cute town and I took a few photos (see the flickr gallery below).

Book giveaway

The publisher has generously offered a copy of this book to give away to one lucky, hungry reader.

How to win? Just comment on this blog post. Sure, I’d appreciate it if you’d like my facebook page and share this blog with your friends, but I can’t force you.

What should you write? Anything. Tell me why you want this book, tell us your best money saving kitchen tip, recount your best tuscan eating or cooking experience, say what recipe you hope to find in this book, or what you’ve learned from Pamela in the past.

A few rules. Comments close at midnight european time on Halloween, October 31 2011. Contest open worldwide. You must register your comment with a valid email address and respond to the winning notification within 48 hours. Winner will be chosen by random draw.

Hey if you don’t win you can always buy the book here!

Your options are: The Firenze Card for 3 days that costs 50 euros and gets you into almost all museums in Florence; or the Amici degli Uffizi card that lasts a calendar year, costs 60 euros for adults, and includes only state museums.

Firenze card features

I was at first critical of the Firenze Card because 50 euros seems a high price to pay for only three days. But, if you are visiting Florence for this amount of time – which is just a bit more than the average stay – this card actually is a good deal. Here is why.

• costs 50 euros per person
• lasts three days
• includes public transportation on ATAF bus – excellent if your hotel is outside the historical center
• now 50 museums are included in the card (up from the original 33)
• includes all state musems like the Uffizi and Accademia, the Boboli gardens, the Medici chapels; plus Medici villas outside of town
• Includes city museums like Palazzo Vecchio and Brancacci Chapel (Masaccio paintings)
• Now includes Palazzo Strozzi who has excellent temporary exhibits (this Fall, see Money and Beauty)
• skip the line at the uffizi, don’t need to reserve or wait.
• You know exactly how much you’re going to spend on museums and are unlikely to spend any more

The Firenze Card was a gamble on the part of the city. You purchase the card for 50 euros and they pay each museum you enter anywhere from 50-100% of the entry fee, depending on the agreement they have. The card has recently been in the news because tourists have been managing to visit more museums than the city planned on, thus the city is actually 100,000 euros in debt because of this. Criticized by some as a “flop,” mayor Renzi rightly assures us that the card is an important service for tourists and that the loss is not a problem.

Amici degli Uffizi card features

I have listed this before, but repeat it here. If you are staying in Florence for the long term or studying abroad for a semester, it’s good to have this card so that you can stop into museums for short visits.

• Costs 60 euros per adult, 100 euros for a family of four (2 adults and 2 kids), or 40 euros for students under 26.
• Lasts one calendar year, so best if you buy it in January!
• With this card, you skip the line at the Uffizi and Accademia
• Access to all state museums in the city, plus the Medici villas outside of town.

Further resources

• If you’re heading into museums you’ll need my Uffizi Guide!
• Plan your trip with this Three Day Florence Itinerary for puchase – I wrote it for unanchor.com
• Prepare for your internet access while traveling – where to get free wifi in florence

Printable map and guide to the Uffizi

This is one of my biggest gifts to the public. You can read this post online or print it out for your visit: a map and guide to important works in the Uffizi. This list works like a do-it-yourself guide. Follow the map and the list so that you stop in front of the most important works in this museum. You wouldn’t want to miss these! But this is not just a list – I ask questions that will help you start looking for interesting things in these paintings.

Free Uffizi podcasts

Designed for children and their families, these four podcasts are pretty fun for anyone!

• Introduction to the Uffizi gallery podcast: download this brief introduction to the building by Vasari and the logic of the collections.
• Uffizi podcast: the Giotto Room: the Giotto room is the first room you enter in the galleries. With large Madonna’s by Giotto, Cimabue and Duccio, this room demonstrates the Tuscan proto-Renaissance. This guide helps you understand the subtle differences between these paintings.
• Uffizi podcast: International Gothic room: When you leave the Giotto room you go into a room with some very important and beautiful paintings that are in a different style. This podcast explains what the International Gothic style means and how it is a pre-cursor to the Renaissance.

Uffizi with children

If you are visiting a major museum with young kids, follow the tips in my post on how to take children to the museum. This is designed for kids of all ages, even toddlers. It IS possible to do this even if you’re not an expert and they’re very little!

Uffizi card

Remember, if you’re planing on visiting more than three or four museums while you’re in Florence, there are two discount museum cards available. One for tourists that lasts three days, and another – just for state museums – that is best for longer stays.

Fall in Italy is the topic of this month’s Italy Blogging Roundtable and frankly, the topic has been killing me. The linguistic escamotage of writing about “falling in love in Italy” did cross my mind, as did the use of the verb to fall, as in falling on one’s face. Why? Because for the city dweller, Fall does not really mean chestnut picking, harvesting vines and chopping firewood for the hibernation ahead. At most, it means that the workday seems longer because it’s getting dark earlier and it gets harder to find a day to hang out laundry due to risk of rain. This year Italy’s had an extended summer, though finally this weekend I was able to dig out my favourite sweater and jacket. Now we will have two months of midseason.

There is a funny expression in Italian that my mother in law and consequently my husband enjoy saying: “non ci sono piu’ mezze stagioni.” It means “there are no midseasons any more.” I asked Tommaso about it and he explained that it’s not really a truism, but rather just one of those things that people say. Italy actually has long and pleasant midseasons. Spring, which I like a whole lot better than Fall, usually takes place in April and May, while Fall may be from mid-September through November. In these seasons there can be surprise thunderstorms, major temperature swings, but also really hot days where in the sun it goes up to thirty degrees.

My mother, when she visits during these months, always asks me what to pack for her trip – and then says “and don’t tell me ‘midseason clothing’ because you know I don’t have anything of the sort.” Well, what should I tell her? The reason Mom has no “midseason clothing” is that she lives in Toronto, where I grew up. I fondly remember Fall in Toronto. The leaves turn such a brilliant red, and in a valley near our house we would always go for walks and take pictures. As a child I’m bundled in a winter jacket, and as a teenager there are photos in which I ham it up in a shearling coat. Fall, apparently, is cold like January in Florence. As I will tell anyone willing to listen, I remember having to plan halloween costumes to accommodate a snowsuit throughout my childhood, foiling all attempts to dress in leggings and pretend to be a cat.

Thankfully in Italy I can enjoy a long midseason and, should I so desire, wear leggings and a cat costume, for it’s not too cold out.

What to pack

If you come to Florence in October you’re going to need to pack:

• Midseason pants. Yup! not linen, not summer pants, and not wool yet. Something in between, like jeans or heavy cotton.
• Layers. Maybe not a tank top, but a tshirt or light shirt should be your bottom layer
• Thin sweaters. It may not be time for a bulky sweater yet, though you could use one as a jacket. Rather this is the time for thin cashmere.
• Scarves. Because the Italian will cover his or her neck against any breeze, and they make for good accessories. Not a heavy wool winter scarf yet, but a pashmina or a big cotton scarf.
• A hat for evenings.
• A leather jacket or a trench coat, OR a big belted sweater.
• Boots if you want to look chic.

You’d never know it but I enjoy playing with Polyvore, so I’ve put together this suggested midseason look

Italy blogging roundtable on the topic of Fall

photo: Repubblica.it

Dear Mom,

You must worry about me living in Italy at times like these.

I know that you are horrified, like I am, of the death of Allison Owens. I only thank god that she was not abducted and abused, although being hit by a car on a busy road is absolutely awful. To think that some driver is out there who killed a girl on impact and left her at the side of the road really does not reflect well on Italian drivers. But this could have happened anywhere. This poor girl was terribly unfortunate, crossing the road while wearing an ipod in an unknown country – probably she didn’t see the car, and the car didn’t see her. She had arrived just the day before. My heart truly goes out to Allison’s mother. What must she think, this poor woman who flew over from Ohio hoping to find her daughter alive.

But this, right in the same week as the absolution of Amanda Knox, must have you and other moms worried that they ought not to send their daughters to study in Italy. Luckily I already did that over a decade ago, when things were safer, or so we thought. There have always been rapes, suicides, stalking of American girls in Italy, and probably everywhere else. In Tuscany this year there have been five disappearances of foreign girls, but around here, if they’re Romanians nobody cares. The Americans make the news, the diplomatic issues, the economic repercussions.

Diego della Valle bought this page of the newspaper to say BASTA

You must worry about the political “unrest” in Italy, if it could be called that, for in any other country there would be popular uprising against a right wing leader who is so totally incompetent that even professional associations of businessmen have declared “BASTA.” But if Italians were to start using clubs and rocks instead of words, you surely worry that I’d end up injured in a riot. I promise, I will not go out in the streets against Berlusconi, although my heart will be with those people. I will stick to words.

You must worry that I will lose all the money in my bank account when Italy defaults. Luckily my salary is really low.

You must worry that Italy will be kicked out of the eurozone and the money we converted to buy us a house here will never be recovered. At least I have a good roof over my head, even if it’s one that is devalued and unsaleable.

You must worry that the country I chose twelve years ago, the sunny, crazy place in which my husband was born, will become a place that nobody will want to visit, either out of political protest, or because the things they want to visit will become dilapidated because of lack of funding for their maintenance. Luckily the basic infrastructures should hold up for another few years, as long as we don’t get hit by natural disaster.

At times like these, it’s hard to have a daughter thousands of kilometers away. It’s hard to have a daughter in the place that is the object of international ridicule, for it’s hard to justify being here at all. It looks really bad from the outside. I must say that right now, it looks pretty bad from the inside too. The only thing that holds it together is the whole insieme of what put this country together in the first place: the people (not the politicians, who don’t reflect them), their creativity and furbizia and ingenuity; the amazing produce which still thankfully comes out of the ground, the landscape, the history. I wish I could finish this letter with a sentence like “all they need is to get it together and…”, but sadly I don’t know, and I fear nobody knows, truly what this country needs.

Love, me.

The portrait of Anselm Keifer, Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, by Sophie Fiennes, looks mildly depressing but interesting.

I’ll be getting an all-film pass for November 19-Dec 13… and you?

Press release

Florence, November 19 – December 3, 2011

British artist SARAH MORRIS will be the protagonist of the festival’s opening evening, on Monday, November 21, at the Cinema Odeon in Florence, with the Italian premiere of two of her recent films: Chicago (2011) and Points on a Line (2010).

Israeli artist OMER FAST will present his video-installation TALK SHOW on Saturday, November 19, at Cango-Cantieri Goldonetta (Florence).

The Fourth Edition of LO SCHERMO DELL’ARTE FILM FESTIVAL will be held in Florence from November 19th to December 3rd. Directed by Silvia Lucchesi, the Festival features films and videos in which contemporary arts are the subject. As in previous editions, the Festival is divided into three sections: Sguardi (Glimpses), Cinema d’Artista and Festival Talks. This year, a new section has been added: Mobiles, a new exhibition program which will present, in various locations other than the cinema, single works by international artists; pieces linked with moving images and new media. “Mobiles” takes its title from the sculptures of Alexander Calder, and, like these, it is a mobile, light project, adaptable to different needs.

In this year’s particularly rich Cinema d’Artista program, Sarah Morris, best-known for her documentary films and her broad, square canvases covered with colorful geometric designs (featured in her one-man show at MAMBO in Bologna, in 2009), will be the protagonist of Lo Schermo dell’Arte’s opening evening, with two Italian premieres: Chicago (2011), a picture-portrait of the American city from dawn to night; a look at the daily life of a great metropolis; such as Robert Towne creatd for Los Angeles and Beijing in his previous films. Next up is Points on a Line (USA 2010), devoted to two extraordinary pieces of 20th century architecture: Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson’s Glass House. Soundtracks by British artist Liam Gillick, who was the protagonist of the German Pavillion at the Venice Biennale in 2009, add texture to the two films’ extraordinary images. Sarah Morris has recently been selected, alongside other famous artists such as Tracey Emin, Bridget Riley and Howard Hodgkin, to create a symbolic poster for the London Olympics, in 2012.

Included in the Cinema d’Artista program is Armin Linke’s film Alpi (Alps) (Germany, 2011), the result of his seven-year research on contemporary perception of alpine landscapes, in which he filmed places and situations in the territories surrounding the mountain range.

Omer Fast is the guest of this year’s new Mobiles section, which he will inaugurate on the evening of November 19, at 6 p.m., with the presentation of his three-screen video installation TALK SHOW (2010, 65’, courtesy Arratia Beer Galerie, Berlin) at CANGO-Cantieri Goldonetta; the piece will be on view until Dec. 3. TALK SHOW is a live recording of the performance Omer Fast did in New York for Performa 2009. Set on a TV set in front of a live audience, a character tells a story based on his personal memories linked to events from global political news. The principal character, Lisa Ramaci, tells actress Rosie Perez her own personal

experience of the Iraq War. At the end of her story, Lisa leaves and Rosie re-tells what she’s just heard to a third character, who in turn repeats the story to yet another. The sequence in which seven different characters participate is therefore made up of six different narrations born from the first, by Lisa Ramaci: a non-written story which spontaneously transforms itself from an individual memory into a recitation personalized by various characters; a recitation which runs from intimate memoir to tragedy to comedy.

A protagonist of the most recent Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial in New York, 2009, Omer Fast is considered one of the most important international video artists. His works are in major museums around the world, including the Tate Modern, MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Hamburger Bahnhof ,and the National Galerie in Berlin. Inauguration on Saturday November 19; the artist will be present.

Sarah Morris, Omer Fast and Armin Linke will be guests of the Festival and will give lectures within the Festival Talks program.

Among the not-to-be-missed documentaries featured in the Sguardi (Glimpses) section are the portraits of Swiss artist Urs Fischer (who was a protagonist of the last Venice Biennale), by Iwan Schumacher (Switzerland, 2010), and of the Danish couple Elmgreen & Dragset, in the film How Are You? by Jannik Splidsboel (Denmark, 2011), and the story of a piece by Anselm Kiefer, one of the most famous contemporary artists: Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, by Sophie Fiennes (UK, France, Holland 2010), presented recently at the Cannes Festival. In addition, an interesting and up-to-date look at the art world in Russia: Oligarques, Art et Dollars: les Nouveaux Collectionneurs Russes, by Tania Rakhmanova (France, 2010).

Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival was created in Florence in 2008; it’s an original and unique project in Italy, directed by Silvia Lucchesi; among the very few in the world to deal specifically with the theme of the relationship between contemporary art and cinema. Since its First Edition, the Festival has been included in the series “50 giorni di Cinema Internazionale a Firenze” organized by FST, Mediateca Toscana Film Commission, with the support of Regione Toscana, Provincia e Comune di Firenze.

Lo schermo dell’Arte Film Festival – Fourth Edition

Odeon Firenze, Piazza Strozzi November 21 – 24, 2011 Talk Show by OMER FAST Cango-Cantieri Goldonetta, Florence, Via Santa Maria 23-25 November 19 – December 3, 2011

For information:

www.schermodellarte.org

Gold Florin, 1252-1303

You’d have to have been dropped on the head when young to not notice the fortuitous timeliness of this Fall’s exhibits at Palazzo Strozzi – upstairs “Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities” and downstairs “Declining Democracy“. The headliner show addresses the beginnings of modern banking and the consequent fortune of Florence which happily resulted in the commissioning of a lot of art (mostly out of guilt or fear). Now we’re plunged in the depths of an economic recession, and Italy’s in the headlines for being the latest country that might bring down the Eurozone, a harsh downgrade that happened just days after this exhibit opened.

Whenever possible, as the director of the Strozzina, Franziska Nori, explains, the Strozzina attempts to address parallel themes in a contemporary manner. Since the economics of contemporary art was already the topic of an exhibit in 2008, curators took a step further back in time to what allowed the Medici and other banking families to make so much money in Florence: Democracy. By grouping together contemporary artists and theorists from various parts of the world and showing their visual results to the public, the exhibit contrasts positive acts of collaboration with more negative ones that embody the sensation more typical of the Italian resident: a feeling that it’s pointless to try to do anything about our current situation.

I had given myself the formidable task of trying to write a review article of the two exhibits together, but once I saw Declining Democracy and heard Dr. Nori’s answer at the press conference to the question of how the two shows are related, I realized this was a far stretch. The best I can do is this: both exhibits are equally contemporary, and they will make you reflect upon our current, collective situation whether you’re an Italian resident or a visitor from abroad.

A brief summary of the “Money and Beauty” show is in order. To kick things off, we meet the almighty florin (distant ancestor of the almighty dollar), a diminutive little sliver of 24k gold that jump-started the Renaissance in Florence. The Florentines realized that a recognized, high value currency was just what was needed to make trading possible between countries – kind of like today’s euro. Thanks to this currency, and to Florentine bankers’ and merchants’ skill at manipulating its exchange, a lot of money flowed into the city and was reinvested in beautiful things like art and architecture.

What better place than Palazzo Strozzi to address this moment in history! A statement by Giovanni Rucellai, not mentioned in this exhibit, comes to my mind. Rucellai married his ally Palla Strozzi’s daughter, and he sums up either family’s values with regard to what we would now call “conspicuous consumption:”

“I think I have given myself more honour and my soul more satisfaction by having spent money than by having earned it, above all with regard to the building I have done.”

Inside the biggest 15th-century palazzo in town, the exhibition treats the following themes: the monetary unit, usury, exchange, merchant activity, sumptuary laws, bankers and artists, beauty, and crisis. The last section refers to Botticelli’s personal crisis that led him away from Neoplatonist thought and into a personal yet very public religious crisis, not to the crisis in which we find ourselves today, though the parallel is too tempting not to draw… All the rich consumerism of the 15th century culminated in crisis in the 1490s, one of a different sort than today’s, but in neither case was crisis able to stave the flow of consumption on the part of those who could or can afford it.

We are led through the exhibit with the help of texts by the two curators. You can just imagine the discussions (fights?) that author Tim Parks and scholar Ludovica Sebregondi must have had before coming up with the unprecedented solution of giving each his or her own, signed, voice. Parks’ text remarks upon the irony that has always attracted me to both Italy and the Renaissance, while Sebregondi provides necessary historic facts. The childrens’ text is useful to get us thinking about some items from a more contemporary viewpoint.

The school of art history in which I studied is the social-historical approach, primarily associated, at its start, with Michael Baxandall in California in the 1970s. I so internalized texts like his classic Painting and Experience that many parts of this exhibit felt very familiar to me. Merchant life, religion, art and beauty co-existed in the Renaissance, each conditioning the other. Many books have attempted to illustrate this relationship in a visual manner, but none so successfully as this exhibit – with the only problem that exhibits generally don’t have extensive footnotes. Sources, however, are made rather clear, and more can be intuited by the scholarly visitor.

Botticelli, Madonna & Child, 1465, MUDI

Some items in the exhibit, and their related texts, point to the beginnings of our current crisis. A beautiful domestic Madonna and Child by Botticelli (from the Museo degli Innocenti) is of a type that might be the first true “consumer product.” It’s also product placement for the luxurious clothes and jewels that its worshippers could not wear due to sumptuary laws. Like a Renaissance version of the tv show Gossip Girl, which, along with Sex and the City was created exclusively for product placement of clothing and accessories aimed at women who would like to be able to afford them.

A document recording the creation of a Medici holding company that provides the family security from personal bankruptcy is an early example of the structure of companies today. In Italy it’s like the limited liability S.r.l. Probably the Medici were the first furbi to set the base for the “scatole vuote” that are more common in Italy than anyone knows – fake companies created in order to push around money and evade taxes.

Renaissance bankers and merchants -and those fortunate enough to be in the productive circle related to them – financed everything you see in this show, including the palace that contains them. From a taffeta belt with a precious niello on the clasp and the illustrated manuscripts from the Biblioteca Laurenziana that we call “decorative arts,” to what we call “art” – altarpieces, domestic paintings, portaits and more. The rich were great patrons of what we think is art, which they funded for two main reasons: religious works to excuse themselves from usury, and anything else (portraits of themselves, etc) to show off how smart and cultured they were.

Lorenzo di Credit, Portrait of a woman, 1485-90

The question beckons: why is there little to no funding for the arts in Italy today? (i.e. if this whole practice started here…) Should not the banks and the wealthy take it upon themselves to sponsor artists and promote culture? One reason that this does not happen as often as it should (with the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi being one lovely exception) is that “art” now is not “art” then. Renaissance “visual matter” was made almost exclusively upon the request of a patron, who had control over the content if not the style of the final “product.” Only some works were made without a specific patron, such as stock productions of birth plates and decorative items ready to be personalized for the buyer. But seldom did artists make things for themselves. Even Leonardo da Vinci, who filled sketchbooks with marvels, did not make large panel paintings of plants or rushing water. And artists on the payroll, like Mantegna, might have had a secure job but they were at the service of a master. A portrait by Botticelli, or to be specific, the one by Lorenzo di Credi of a young woman (above), serves a specific purpose – to communicate something flattering about the sitter, like one’s facebook stream might do today if well curated.

Michael Bielicky & Kamila Richter, Garden of Error and Decay, 2010

Hop on downstairs with me for a moment, to the Strozzina, where what is on display is a far cry from the eye candy upstairs. It is difficult to imagine who – especially a bank – would want to fund a cartoon wall of ideograms based on a twitter stream that you can shoot, but in which you cannot make a real difference. Or video art (so in fashion), or a website that encourages you to smile at Berlusconi for sixty seconds. All of these works are striking and interesting, but they are produced by independent-thinking artists. This is the hallmark of art today: the creativity of the single person or the group (which actually started in the Renaissance…). Art in the service of corporate interests verges on advertising, and is frowned upon. Yet everything we saw upstairs was advertising. Advertising for patrons’ piety, intelligence, generosity and beauty.

When Damien Hirst titled his diamond-encrusted skull “For the Love of God,” did he know that most Renaissance Florentine account books are prefaced with the phrase “in the name of God and profit”? Perhaps it was not what his mother uttered when she found out what he was doing, but a literary reference to the intrinsic themes of both exhibits – when the day of reckoning comes, what will YOU have done that makes you a (good) citizen?

The right question (interactive exhibit).

Exhibit Info

Money and Beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities
Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze, September 17 2011 to Jan 22 2012
Tickets: 10 euros max, 8 euros reduced – and remember the foursquare 2×1 special!
The catalogue is available in Italian from Amazon.it: Denaro e bellezza. I banchieri, Botticelli e il rogo delle vanità. Catalogo della mostra.

And

Declining Democracy. Rethinking democracy between utopia and participation
CCC Strozzina, Firenze, September 22 2011 to Jan 22 2012

Opening hours
Tuesday–Sunday 10.00–20.00
Free Thursdays 18.00–23.00
Monday closed

wifi points with the paas system

From September 28 2011, the city of Florence will be adding 14 new wifi hotspots to the existing network. Beyond the wifi provided free by “Firenze wifi”, there are a few other places in the city to get free internet.

Italian law (thanks to the decreto Pisanu) requires users to register to use internet services, so all of these systems require some form of authentication. Firenze wifi, available most widely in the city, requires the insertion of an Italian cell phone number; a code then reaches you by sms so that you can log in. Paas, on the other hand, has a human authentication system that foreigners can more easily use.

Free internet in Florence with Paas

If you do not have an italian cell phone, you’ll want to use this system to get free internet for a few hours a day. The Paas system is active in various closed spaces that are open to the public, such as libraries, associations, circoli, etc. Paas is set up by the Regione Toscana and the same access data can be used in points across Tuscany.

The most central place on the paas system, and the best place to sign up for a user card, is the Biblioteca delle Oblate on via dell’Oriuolo. You need to go to the desk on the first floor and sign up for a free library card, and then to another desk that will take a photocopy of your ID and activate your internet card. This service works very well, and you can enjoy excellent study spaces, open til midnight, with free wifi.

Search for Paas locations – free internet in Tuscany

Free internet in Florence with Wifi Firenze

With the city’s wifi service you get one free hour per day. Registration is via italian cell phone. When you find yourself in a wifi zone, connect and point the browser to any page, and you’ll be asked to enter your name (nome), last name (cognome) and cell phone number. You’ll receive (hopefully) an sms that asks you to phone the following number with that same cell phone: 0554650034. Doing so authenticates you to use the system, and you get a password via sms.

These piazzas in florence have active internet service: Piazza Signoria – Piazza S.Croce- Piazza S.Spirito – Piazza SS Annunziata – Parterre – via Canova c/o Anagrafe – Piazza Ghiberti e Annigoni – Piazza Alberti Villa Arrivabene -Piazzale Michelangelo – Piazza Bambini e Bambine di Beslan – piazzale delle Cascine – Parco di San Donato

As of September 28 2011 the following locations along the arno will be inaugurated: Obihall (ex Saschall), Anconella park, Albereta park, Piazza Ferrucci, Lungarno Pecori Giraldi, Bellariva Garden, Torre San Niccolò/Le Rampe, Lungarno Torrigiani, Piazzale degli Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, Lungarno Santa Rosa, Piazzale Kennedy, Piazza dell’Isolotto

Other sources of wifi

-Wired.it map of wifi spots – the best resource for italian wifi locations, search your location in the map and click each point for info

-Cafe’s with free wifi – this map and app shows bars and restaurants where wifi is free. I’m not sure how up to date it is.

-free wifi firenze app for iphone appears to be a homegrown app, I don’t know if it is reliable

One of this app’s writers, Rebecca Winke, once said that I hate Assisi but that she’d convince me soon enough that it is a great place worth visiting. Rebecca, make the beds at Brigolante cuz I’m coming to visit. Your app has gotten me excited about seeing some of Umbria’s hidden secrets.

Part of what makes this app great (and worth buying for under 3 euros) is the fun writing style by Alex Leviton and Rebecca. Being familiar with Rebecca’s blog but not with Alex’s writing, I find the entries to be very uniform in their style and sense of humour, which seems to reflect good team-work… you get the sense that they had fun writing this app. Their enthusiasm for the region is contagious; their casual frankness (parking evaluated as “plenty” or wifi as “spotty”) makes you feel like you’re being guided along by a friend. I can easily see myself traveling around the area with this app on my iPad. No internet connection is required, which is perfect when exploring things that are off the beaten track.

San Felice di Narco, relief. Photo: Rebecca Winke.

This app does not tell you everything there is to see in Umbria. Rather, it takes you to places that other tourists have hardly discovered. Which is why I suddenly want to go there. I want to go to Southern Umbria for some river rafting and to check out the medieval carvings at San Felice di Narco that represent the locals’ “bit of trouble with a dragon”. Closer to Assisi (and thus a more doable weekend trip for me) is the Brufa sculpture garden that Rebecca wrote about in a guest post on Contemporary art in Umbria, and the appealing little votive church of Madonna del Bagno (if I pray, will a clean public bathroom be always near to me?). For travelers sick of “regular” art museums, Umbria boasts a fishing museum along lake Trasimeno, and a wine museum at Torgiano.

In terms of functionality, the app works very nicely. I particularly enjoy browsing by map view, with little pictures that zoom up with a title and witty subtitle that gives you a good sense of what the place is before you click through to the full listing. You can comment on the “posts” in the app, which I assume show up once approved, adding a social dimension akin to a blog. One improvement I’d suggest is an opening page that highlights the “about” pages (about the authors, umbria, accommodation types, and each area of the region), which you might easily miss if you don’t start by browsing everything alphabetically.

Conclusion: buy this app. Don’t be a cheapskate, you really cannot see Umbria properly without it.

(Disclosure: they sent me a free app code, but did not ask for a review. This post comes out of my spontaneous enthusiasm for a job well done.)

Photo by Emiliano Mancuso, at Palazzo Medici Riccardi Sept 6-12

A short list of what’s on in September 2011 here in Florence.

EVENTS

Sept 6-11, Emergency, incontro nazionale. Talks every evening and all weekend on diverse themes related to world issues, from doctors to journalists, plus some awesome free concerts.

Sept 10: Open studios at Villa Romana, the german think tank for contemporary art. This appears to be a very cool opportunity to see what they’re up to, as well as participate in some special activities and talks.

Sept 11: Mukki Day is a fun day for kids and adults to explore the new Mukki milk plant, with kids’ games, milk product tasting and who knows what else!

September 15-17, Nextech Festival at Stazione Leopolda, purported to be an electronic music extravanganza of european proportions. Explore www.nextechfestival.com.

FREE state museum access on September 24 and 25 (for the Giornate Europee del Patrimonio 2011) and Tuesday September 27 (for Martedi in arte – last tuesday of each month, museums are open late too)

Sept 24-25 is Wine Town Firenze, an event that provides an opportunity to taste numerous wines in some interesting places in Florence, some of which are usually closed to the public, others created for the occasion with temporary stands, etc. (Last year I critiqued the promotion of this event as a drinking fest; I cannot say what the quality will be this year, though invite comments – such as the one by “Rif” below – to let me and you readers know if it’s a good time or not.)

EXHIBITS OPENING

Sept 6-12, exhibit “Stato d’Italia” at Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Photos by Emiliano Mancuso tell the story of the last three years in Italy, from economic crisis to the Lampedusa immigration camps (see photo above)

Opening September 6th (until Nov 8 ) at the small OTTO art gallery is Oh! Nirica (beds and tools for dreaming) with the whimsical sail bed designed by Mauro Lovi, and other design objects of interest.

Mauro Lovi, letto a barca

Opening Sept 17 at Palazzo Strozzi is Money and Beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities, the much anticipated Renaissance themed exhibit of the year.

Opening September 23 at the Strozzina is the contemporary exhibit Declining Democracy. Rethinking democracy between utopia and participation

FILMS

Thursday September 8: The Big Chill (1983) is being projected in English for free at Le Murate (see here)

Sundays from Sept 4-25, animated art films at EX3. This line-up was on in the summer, but the gallery was closed for August. Now for Sundays in September you can see short animated art films by international artists, free. Full details here.

The more famous Giuseppe Mazzini

If you’ve been reading about the 150 year celebrations here in Italy you will know that Giuseppe Mazzini was an important revolutionary. Well, he is also a farmer with property at one end of the Lattaia, a country road not far from Sticciano, and one of seven brothers who are all farmers (though this I found out later). I have been admiring his peach trees as they change with the seasons, and especially as they recently bore plenty of fruit that looked quite ready to eat. At the same time, another of his fields presented some lovely sunflowers, which I stopped to photograph (and posted on this blog). As luck would have it, the farmer pulled into his driveway, which we had blocked with our car, while I was snapping pics, so I complimented him on his sunflowers and asked him about his peaches. He said that he’d have happily sold me some but they were not ripe, however that he sends them over to a central collection area when they are ready. He then described how to find this place. For good measure, we exchanged names. I will certainly not forget his.

What I will call the “centro raccolta agricoltori” is the first middleman in the area’s farm product distribution system. It is located on the road that takes you from Montemassi to the fiera area near Braccagni, along the vecchia Aurelia, and is owned by one of the Mazzini brothers. I have added it to foursquare for your convenience. This centre concentrates, apparently, on just a few fruits, and has a monopoly on peaches, including signor Mazzini’s. These can be had at 5 euros per case, ie around 80 cents per kilo! It is open to the public Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 3pm to 7pm. (Click this button to see where it’s located.)

Loaded with peaches, we asked the signora where to get vegetables, and she said to go to her sister’s just one street over. Here, there are actually two farms that will sell you whatever is on hand. On the left is the larger and cheaper of the two, and at key afternoon hours you are likely to see other customers outside this large warehouse. In august prices are very low, everything about 80 cents or a euro per kilo, and Rita generously rounds down the price while chatting you up. We got a bit of everything, from onions to watermelon that you can see growing in the field right there. They provide to stores and supermarkets in the area, and sell a few things on the side to passing customers. As they don’t have cold storage, everything is picked and sold same day, which means you get real sun-ripened tomatoes. If you don’t see what you want, ask, and you will learn when it grows, or perhaps they’ll step out back and pick some for you. The exact location can be found now on Foursquare. (Click this button to see where it’s located.)

It’s a pleasure to know of these resources now, as we’ve been eating well, and cheaply too!

I’m happy to post some information about this event that will be held September 16-30, 2011. The festival is taking place off center for Tuscany, in Pistoia, and it’s run by locals who wish to invigorate the town with alternative music, graphics, street art and other forms of creativity.

Two days of alternative music (Sept 16 & 17) represented by ten groups I’ve personally never heard of, but that look really cool, including Brunori Sas, Une Passante, Ex otago, and Thank you for the drum machine. 20 artists’ work will be on display in and around the city, with light installations, sculpture, photography and more. One of the artists featured is Sara Berti (see work below), who was chosen to represent Italy at the Biennale in Venice this year. Another is local graphic artist Jonathan Calugi, chosen by Print Mag as one of the most promising graphic designers under 30 (see his funky work posted above). You can check out the full programme on their website.

I often think about a post on the blog Traveler’s Tales that explain why not all years are “sunflower years“, so I am happy that this year there seem to be more sunflowers than ever on my weekend drive to the Maremma area of Tuscany. Below, some totally gratuitous photos of a big field of sunflowers in early july, when some were still opening up.

Project by Prof. M. Ruffilli, Prof. G. Morolli, and Natali Multimedia s.r.l.).

It hit the news yesterday and the debate has exploded in the press: Matteo Renzi has declared that there will be a referendum to allow Florentines to decide if the facade of the Church of San Lorenzo should be finished according to drawings by Michelangelo. This is not a joke post but a summary of what is in the news, I swear.

In 2007 I wrote about a projection of Michelangelo’s drawing on the unfinished facade and presented a few points to consider against finishing the facade of San Lorenzo.  At the time it was just hypothesis. In past years I’ve enjoyed talking about this concept with art history students, who surprisingly often argue that we should finish it. In the meantime a proposal to create a temporary facade was almost approved, and funds raised. The project was also part of an elaborate joke in November 2009, in which I participated by posting this article claiming that the facade would receive a new ceramic design (see Firenze 2059).

Now, I’m afraid, there is no joke. Renzi wants to spend public money to make people go to the polls to say yay or nay to spending 3 million euros in donors’ money (though some scholars estimate that it would cost tens of millions of euros to do it the way Michelangelo had in mind, with marble from Seravezza and bronze inserts). It is possible that this call for a referendum is just a provocation, and in fact the opposition charges that the mayor is simply attempting to distract attention from other issues around San Lorenzo with this “embarrassing proposition.”

The provocation (perhaps serious) about the facade came towards the end of a press conference about the requalification of the San Lorenzo district. The vice-mayor Nardella has suggested longer opening hours for the central market and improved vehicle access. Renzi’s plan includes removing 250 licenses for “ambulanti” (vendors). The opposition (PdL) retaliates with a statement that this puts 1000 peoples’ jobs at risk. The discussion amongst politicians has little historical or art historical in it, except the one by Valdo Spini who rightly points out that there are plenty of unfinished structures and open debates that we could just as easily dig up; he reminds us that this isn’t just your average unfinished building but one by Brunelleschi, hardly ugly.

Voting systems have been activated on the websites of the two major newspapers Florence areas – Corriere and Repubblica – asking citizens to express their vote of yes or no for the facade. I am surprised by the results which so far show the “yes” side winning on the question “should we do the facade up the way Michelangelo intended?” Maybe some did not understand the question!

How would you vote… and why? Your answers… below!

Sources: La Repubblica di Firenze, Corriere Fiorentino, Comune di Firenze press releases.

We opted for the luxury of a stabilimento (bathing establishment), preferring to pay for the beach in order to have parking, bathroom, umbrella and lounge chairs. There is, however, free parking in the woods (if you arrive before 10am and snag a spot) and plenty of free beach around. The strong wind at this beach makes it difficult to make an umbrella stay put, so bring a sun tent or if you’re the type who likes to tan, this is the place for you.

The stabilimento in this area is called Fiumara Beach and is known for its excellent fish restaurant and particularly nice decoration. It is beautiful and the staff is friendly; umbrella costs 25 euros per day. The bar serves take out food while the restaurant has fancier fare. Open also at dinner a full meal with wine will run 50 euros pp. The down side of this, as a beach spot, is that there is only one bathroom and it’s the only one for many miles around, so beyond servicing clients of this bathing establishment, users of the free beach for miles around come to the bar and bathroom.

Fiumara beach bar

The beach at this point of Marina is sandy and very deep, with the pine forest behind you and a long stretch to either side great for a long walk at water’s edge. Marina is known for its wind, which means that the water tends to get less clear and more sandy, with some floating algae, in the afternoons. This also means that it’s perfect for wind water sports!

At 3pm the kitesurfers came out in droves, like a flock of birds who all know when to fly south together. Kites of every colour filled the sky, attached to surfers of various levels who either zipped or hesitantly floated along the water’s surface. Some tugged on their strings to perform impressive jumps. Here’s a video, my apologizies for the quality but all i had with me was my cell phone.

Given the heavy traffic in the water, you probably wonder how the kitesurfers manage to not collide or get their strings mixed up. In fact we saw two such incidents, which cause the kites involved to come crashing down. In one case this happened scarily close to the water’s edge and two kites smacked down right near a family that was swimming. For this reason I would stay out of the water while this sport is being performed nearby, and you need to stay alert even if you’re on the beach near the edge, too.

How to get there: Getting to Fiumara is not entirely obvious. You need to take the coastal road between Castiglione della Pescaia and Marina di Grosseto. The access road is not indicated on the map but you can see it in satellite view. It is a sandy road that cuts through the pine forest. The road is a right turn from the main road if you’re driving south towards Grosseto. If you’re driving north, you’ll need to go over the bridge and make a U-turn to enter.

View Fiumara in a larger map

La Bottega di Morello

Above Sesto Fiorentino (well, really, above Quinto), this pizzeria and ristorante has a large patio and garden. You can order a hearty tagliere at aperitivo time in the bar area, or sit down for a full meal. The menu isn’t very summery, with polenta and mushrooms or bistecca year round, but as you’re freezing for the first time in weeks, you might actually want to eat this stuff. Location: Via Di Gualdo 1, Sesto Fiorentino, www.labottegadimorello.it

Le Lance

In San Domenico di Fiesole, this huge restaurant and pizzeria seats hundreds of people in its terraced olive grove. While food can be pretty mediocre, it’s a good place for large groups. Pizza is the light, thin Florentine style. A tagliere or wooden board of pizza by the meter is available with the mystifying price of 9 euros per person. You get half a meter of pizza whether you’re 1, 2 or 3 people who order the pizza together, not a good deal unless one person gets the pizza, and another just gets a salad! (Here, a photo of my brother in law who took the challenge of eating the whole half meter of pizza by himself; having failed, he got a box to bring it home.) Location: Via Mantellini 2/b Fiesole, www.lelance.it

Half a meter of pizza for one.

Lo Zocchi

Above the park of Pratolino, renowned walk and picnic location, is this large restaurant with indoor and outdoor options. Typical tuscan fare or pizza is served, often with live music, in a rustic and somewhat tacky atmosphere that is lots of fun with a group of friends. Location: via Fiorentina 428, Pratolino (FI), www.ristorantezocchi.it

Ristorante Mario alla Querciola

One of my perennial favourites despite the never-changing menu, the outside space is limited so reservation is a must. The pear filled pasta with gorgonzola sauce is my fave while meat eaters say that the steak is particularly tender. Location: Via Faentina n.428, Caldine (Fiesole), www.ristorantemarioallaquerciola.it

Piccolo Trianon

In the hills above Careggi, alarge outside terrace perfect for cooling off while eating typical tuscan ravioli or pasta; the specialty of the house, though, is anything fried. Good also for a sunday lunch. Location: Via dante da castiglione 20, Sesto fiorentino (FI), T 055 402007

The purpose of this article is to affront something huge – the internet – with another huge thing – the printing press – to show how some of the problems of the present have been dealt with in the past. This is an article that I submitted in 2009 to Wired Italia, who neglected to send me a rejection letter; when I came across it today while cleaning house I thought it was still pretty good and worth sharing here on my own information channel. (NB: long post, 2500 words, 10 minutes reading time.)

In preparation for an undergraduate lecture on Renaissance prints, I was looking over the standard texts for a “take” on the material. I paused upon William M. Ivins Jr.’s characterization, back in 1953, of the fifteenth century as a moment in visual communication in which the “road block” was finally broken. The printing press, thus, was a kind of paving machine for the transmission of text and image. It occurred to me, not very originally, that in the infancy of our theorizing about it, the internet was also a kind of road – the “information superhighway”. In fact, a youthful Bill Gates hinted at this metaphor by posing on “The Road Ahead” for his 1995 bestseller, in which he also observes that “the information highway will transform our culture as dramatically as Gutenberg’s press did the Middle Ages” (p. 9).

The web is now more an intergalactic space travel route than a two lane highway in Arizona, but the printing press versus internet comparison deserves a deeper look. When each of these technologies hit the market, we faced two main interrelated issues: creation and control. Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europeans grappled with the legal and social issues created by the printing press on the local and personal level that was available to them before our unified countries and continent. After the initial growing pains, they developed positive solutions to deal with their new technological products. Some of these solutions may not be applicable in the internet age for a range of reasons, but we can learn from their approach.

Creation

We all know that on the internet everyone’s an author, and some of us question whether or not that’s a good thing. With both the printing press and the internet, the ease, speed, and low cost of technology produced first an explosion of material, and soon, concerns about accuracy and quality of content. While the new types of books to hit sixteenth-century shelves were not quite as offensive as badly spelled blogs on medieval fairs or as obscure as niche-market sites, the sudden availability of perhaps a few hundred titles in a range of subjects was a lot to handle for a market previously dominated by hand-copied Bibles and medieval scholastic texts. And that’s just to speak of books! Images, too, were reproduced in great numbers with inexpensive, wide distribution. The printing press also permitted the development of new subject matters not found in other media due to functional or cost restraints, like board games and humorous or erotic scenes, which were created by a new category of content-producers called printmakers and print-publishers.

The much hyped February 2007 ban on Wikipedia by the Department of History at Middlebury College in Vermont [i] is a concrete response to a legitimate concern about the accuracy of information made available through a technology that encourages authorship. If everyone’s an author, everyone is also a scholar and a teacher, so we have finally fulfilled the 1564 prophesy of Leonardo Fioravanti that, thanks to the press, “forse un giorno verrà tempo, che tutti saremo Dottori a un modo”.[ii] The Middlebury history professor in question was, however, worried that said “doctors” were unqualified, as was Filippo da Strada, who already in the 1470s lamented the decline in quality of Latin instruction thanks to book-learning: “ora gentaia che ignoran’ [i]talliano / te insegnaranno il parlare Tuliano?” Some professors suggest a pro-active solution to misinformation on the internet – one that I have employed myself – by having students craft correct information to be posted on Wikipedia and other popular sites like YouTube. This is the 21^st-century version of the errata corrige slip that takes advantage of the speed and flexibility of the internet.

The new generation – and that’s all of us – simply needs to learn how to recognize reliable information. Banning Wikipedia is a good rule of thumb, but it does not teach a skill that can be applied five years from now when there is a new, presently unimaginable type of information-diffusing network. With greater access to material comes the opportunity to develop analytic and evaluative skills that are not unlike those formed by our predecessors. Early Modern readers could easily determine the type of a book “by its cover”, through paratextual elements such as size, paper quality, typographic font, and layout. The sixteenth-century essentially had its equivalent of the Harmony Romance with a hunky guy on the cover, printed tightly on cheap paper. Inside the book, unlike now, the interpretation of any given title would differ quite a bit between editions. Astute readers knew that for quality they could rely on certain publishers, like Aldus Manuzio of Venice, more so than on others; in fact, applicants for permission to publish already extant texts often cited the need for a corrected version due to errors in earlier ones. The skills developed to recognize a quality book have remained pretty constant, although we may now be more easily fooled by slick cover designs. As for quality publishers, education and experience helps us prioritize university presses and peer-reviewed journals while also forming the critical skills to evaluate other types of sources.

When it comes to knowing if a book is reliable, we’re not doing too badly. So why can’t we apply similar tactics to websites? We can, both in terms of written and visual content. Students and researchers can take advantage of the opportunity to evaluate both the qualification of the author of a site and the correctness of its content through cross-reference. They can assume that, until further notice, they may only cite known authorities. Meanwhile, the casual browser searching for information on how to store tulip bulbs may find the information provided by a range of site types to be perfectly logical and thus acceptable regardless of author bias and qualification. Enforcing our evaluative capacities, like the book-buyer, the “surfer” learns to instantaneously read graphic cues that help differentiate and qualify the information provided. We can now easily distinguish a corporate website from a personal blog by the cleanliness of its layout, choice of font, and lack of animated GIFs on busy backgrounds. And while the internet regularly evolves to provide us with new information within new design templates, in the end those templates aren’t all that different from the textual versions that preceded them. Our experience with books, newspapers, and magazines has prepared us with interpretative codes for the visual and informational onslaught of the internet.

Control

All this information makes us want to control it in some way. Two of the issues we currently face are control of moral content and protection of authorship. Not surprisingly, sixteenth-century Italians had the same problems. Print widely spread lascivious, anti-Christian, low grade reading like Ovid’s Metamorphosis, the Arthurian Romances, and Boccaccio’s Decameron – oh how our standards have changed! Savonarola begged Florentines to burn their copies of these books back in 1497. Some decades later, in a speech given in Perugia in 1567, Giuliano de’ Ricci blamed the printing press for filling the world with the licentious books that ended up on the Index of Prohibited Books of 1559.[iii] While our predecessors tried to remove offensive books from the market through censorship, modern society’s free speech prohibits this, relying thus upon social pressure and correct judgment on the part of consumers. Technology, however, assists us by electronically shielding our web-browsing eyes from the pornographic content that the majority of society considers inappropriate.

Beyond protecting consumers, we also face the problem of protecting producers, a concept that derives from an inherently modern corporate model of production and revenue that began during the Renaissance. The German printmaker and painter Albrecht Dürer was mightily pissed when the young Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimondi ripped off his woodcuts of the Life of the Virgin in 1506, just one year after their production. In the ensuing litigation, which was one of the earliest “copyright trials,” Marcantonio was prohibited from using Dürer’s signature on his own works, but not from reproducing the images. Dürer issued a second edition of his prints in 1511 with a nasty warning to “envious thieves of the work and invention of others,” demonstrating his proprietary sense of authorship in a world that did not respect it.[iv] Artists today in visual, audio, and written fields copyright their work and expect fair retribution for its sale. The law is on their side, which is why iTunes is booming and Napster is dead.

But technology twins multiple resources with ease of production, resulting in a difficult to enforce grey area with one stunning advantage: both the printing press and the internet encourage creative, interactive forms of reception that range from personalization to reappropriation.

Interaction and intervention

image source: Parshall, Origins of European Printmaking

The internet offers seemingly new opportunities for the personalization of information. You can subscribe to a news aggregator or personalize your Google homepage at the click of your mouse, thus guaranteeing that you get what you want and eliminate the superfluous. Pre-digital consumers had similar desires that they resolved with less technological but more active solutions. Some literate men of the Renaissance approached printed images with an eye to pasting them into manuscripts either as embellishments or as illustrations, as was the case with the notary Jacobo Rubieri in the 1470s and 80s (see photo: Biblioteca Oliveriana, Pesaro).

Furthermore, early modern readers aggregated information in commonplace books, a collection of notes on readings kept under category headings for quick reference and later re-use or quotation. Sometimes these books were published in print, which rather defeated the educational purpose of compiling one yourself. By the seventeenth century, some other types of printed books specifically indicate their fitness to be chopped up and reconstituted into commonplace books, like A Brief Method of the Law, Being an Exact Alphabetical Disposition of all the Heads Necessary for a Perfect Common-Place. Printed in this Volume for the conveniency of Binding with Common-Place-Books (London: Richard and Edward Atkins, 1680).[v] Readers who cut up text and categorized information in loci communes trained themselves in the highly regarded practises of recognition, quotation, and imitation.

It’s only a small step from commonplace book to Creative Commons, the less restrictive copyright license that helps identify works available “for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing” by an active public (http://creativecommons.org). While certain artists like Dürer and various early publishers must have lamented the economic loss (as well as artistic damage) of a lack of copyright control, the age of the printing press was by definition an age of copying that not only accepted but encouraged creative reappropriation of printed text and image. Sixteenth-century artists frequently cited each other through stylistic or more direct means, and audiences enjoyed feeling clever when they identified these references.

Xanto Avelli, Innondazione del Tevere

The greatest master of Renaissance cut and paste is the maiolica artist Xanto Avelli da Rovigo, active in Urbino from 1530-42. His skillfully painted plates successfully adapt elements from multiple sources, re-combined to create new meaning. A large plate of 1531 depicting the Innondazione del Tevere now in the Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Applicata di Milano would, in fact, have been recognized by contemporaries as a humorous re-presentation in classical guise of some very smutty prints designed by Giulio Romano, cut by Marcantonio Raimondi, and explicated verbally by Pietro Aretino.

I Modi, image source Talvacchia, Taking Positions

The original engravings of twenty explicit sexual positions, called I Modi, were successfully purged by papal decree in 1525. A daring Venetian printer ignored the threat of death in order to produce the surely lucrative clandestine volume illustrated with woodcuts that comes down to us today. Two figures in the foreground of Xanto’s plate are clearly extracted from the composition that illustrates Sonetto Terzo: the man on the left thrusts into a void as his sexual partner lies separately in empty receipt at the base of the orange column at the right. The thin veil of classical subject matter and the more controlled audience of the maiolica plate (versus the wider distribution of print) allowed Xanto to totally flaunt his references, while the owner of this plate must have gotten a kick out of the fact that he could get away with displaying this splendidly coloured, remixed lascivia in his home.

Renaissance consumers really appreciated – and paid for – works in a recombinant or derivative style, and artists working in this mode were praised, not punished. Xanto read obscure Latin texts which he cited proudly in his art, and was in close contact with the Duke of Urbino, for whom he wrote a long collection of ingratiating sonnets. Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, another important maiolica artist who often copied motifs from Marcantonio Raimondi, was praised by Pope Leo X as “an excellent master in the art of maiolica and without equal in it… whose work brings honour to the city, lord and people of Gubbio…”.[vi] In 2004, Danger Mouse’s recombinant Grey Album encouraged a lawsuit, but was also called “ingenious” by Rolling Stone.[vii] Well, ingenio, along with invenzione, is perhaps the highest praise available to a work of art in the language of early modern art criticism.

image: wikimedia commons

Have we finally evolved, or digressed, to the point that we can again appreciate intelligent re-use and reappropriation of motifs? Like Xanto Avelli, mashup artist Girl Talk (Greg Gillis) “blurs the boundary between creator and consumer,” and his audience, recognizing each citation, “Diggs it”.[viii] This audio example is the poster child for remix approaches in various media in the film RiP! A Remix Manifesto, a documentary about the practise of mash-up that also encourages viewers to actively participate in its re-production.[ix]

While we currently laud the interactive nature of the internet, which allows every person to feel involved to a certain degree through commenting, producing, or remixing, these examples from the past put our experience into historical context. It would be tempting to say, at the expense of printed text, that internet is the technology with greatest potential for human interaction. But the way we treat the book, the newspaper, the printed informative flyer of today is a result of twentieth-century individualism and commodification that has almost entirely overridden earlier centuries’ understanding of this medium as a point of encounter, development, and creativity. Get out your scissors, your journal, your wordpress blog; by remixing your multi-media, you participate in the past, present, and future.

Footnotes

(sorry, despite my best coding efforts, the links don’t actually work.)
[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html

[ii] This and the quotations that follow are drawn from Brian Richardson, “The Debates on Printing in Renaissance Italy,” Anatomie Bibliologiche (Firenze: Olschki, 1999).

[iii] Richardson 1999, p. 146.

[iv] See Alexandra M. Korey, “Creativity, Authenticity, and the Copy in Early Print Culture” in Paper Museums (University of Chicago, 2005), pp. 31-50; and Lisa Pon, Raphael, Dürer, and Marcantonio Raimondi. Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print (Yale University Press, 2004), p. 39.

[v] http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/collections_az/RenCpbks-BL/editorial-introduction.aspx

[vi] Patricia Collins, “Prints and the Development of istoriato”, pp. 224, 312.

[vii] http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5937152/dj_makes_jayz_meet_beatles

[viii] Larry Hardesty, “Bootleg Battle Lines” in Technology Review, Feb 2009, p. 70. (Available online: http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/21843/)

[ix] Written about at www.wired.com/underwire/2009/05/brett-gaylor-talks-rip-remix-manifesto/. Download and purchase at www.ripremix.com,

As you well know, July 4th is independence day, and so the Tuscan American Association puts on their annual shindig, which this year will be on Saturday July 2 and Sunday July 3d. I place bets on sunday being the more busy of the two, with fireworks slated for 10:30pm after you stuff yourself at the BBQ. Held at Parco d’arte Pazzagli, full info here.

On July 4th itself, the much disputed Hard Rock Cafe Firenze opens in Piazza della Repubblica, and the American restaurant’s contribution to the city, other than overpriced burgers, is a free Simple Minds concert in the Piazza. Yeah, I’ll go to that. Hold the fries, though. 7-1opm, free, expect a big casino.

On July 5th, just to keep the week busy, Telecom’s Working Capital is coming to Palazzo Vecchio with their tour dei mille. At 17:30 a series of talks, including astrophysicist Margherita Hack live by video connection, followed by a free aperitivo. In Italian, good for the business minded, sounds interesting.

Cinema Odeon’s English programming is almost over for the summer, but first, the Harry Potter Marathon. Check their listings for complete show times – the marathon starts July 7th, and all films are in English with Italian subtitles.

Now, I expect you all to come out on Monday July 11, 2011, for the third annual English Night organized by ToscanaIn with the support of The Florentine, i.e…. organized by ME. Every year this event keeps getting bigger… and more fun. This year we’re holding it at Syracuse University in order to be sure that there is room for everyone, because last year’s location only fit 80 people and there was a waiting list! The topic is “A Tavola: Cultural experience through conviviality” and, you guessed it, we’re going to tell funny personal experiences about food. The talks, in English, are by some native Anglos but this year we have also opened up the “expat” night to members from China and Mexico! 10 euros gets you an evening out and an ample aperitivo (enough to call it dinner). Come out and meet some nice new people. Registration required at http://toinatavola.eventbrite.com.

Until June 9th, FESTA, an english speaking theatre troupe, is putting on “Dracula at the Bargello,” part of the museum’s summer events that also include Florence Dance Festival and concerts by the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina. See the pdf estate al bargello.

Meanwhile, there are almost nightly free concerts by international youth orchestras playing in Piazza della Signoria under the Loggia dei’ Lanzi – a lovely gift for tourists and residents alike. All concerts are at 9pm, the dates in July are 1, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 21, 24. Full details here.

The second half of the month is looking a little bit lame, unless you think the Campi Beer Festival is a good time (July 27-28). If you know anything I don’t, please comment here!

Since I am vegetarian, I have always made lasagna with tomato sauce and vegetables. Recently, my father in law made a “white lasagna” or “lasagna bianca” with spinach and ricotta filling and bechamel sauce and it was surprisingly light and delicious. This is his recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 package dry egg-pasta lasagna (works also with fresh egg pasta)
• 2 containers ricotta (500 grams total)
• 400 grams boiled and chopped spinach or similar greens
• 1 ball of mozzarella
• Salt and pepper to taste

And for the Bechamel sauce I followed the recipe provided by my friend Oriana at Tuscanycious

• 1 litre PS milk
• 60 g butter
• 60 g flour
• salt and nutmeg to taste

Prepare the bechamel, making sure to stir constantly.

Meanwhile, par boil the lasagna leaves and place them on a damp, clean tea-towel.

Mix your greens and ricotta together in a large bowl, add salt. (That’s not just out of focus, it’s a photo taken while Tommaso was dutifully whisking these materials together…)

Simply layer your parts into your lasagna dish, with a little oil on the bottom: pasta, bechamel, ricotta mixture, more bechamel, repeat. On the top, a layer of white sauce and a few slices of mozzarella to make a nice brown effect.

Apologies for the finished product photo – it was dark and we had guests eating outside in the garden…

The itinerary provides an hour-by-hour plan of what to see, taking into account opening times and locations of each highlight. We mix museums and churches with shopping and eating. I’ve listed my favourite restaurants for lunch and dinner each day, and lots of special tips for a great visitor experience.

I put many, many hours into creating this itinerary that includes maps, walking directions, opening hours, contact info and more for each location. It offers much more than you can find on my blog (or on any other website as far as I know). For this reason, it is not free, but rather for sale for the very reasonable price of $4.99 USD. If you’re planning a three day visit to Florence, buy this itinerary. Trust me, you’ll like it.

For those of you not familiar with Foursquare, it’s a location-based social network with which users “check in” to places on the system and share their location with their friends both on Foursquare and on other social networks. The driving factors in this gamified system are collecting points, badges, mayorships (being the person who checks in the most at a place), tips from others, and special offers. Locations are either automatically “in” the Foursquare system or are added by users, but to add a special, the venue owner must first “claim” it online. You can tell if a venue has been claimed if you look at it via browser and see that there is a website link and description available. Businesses, such as bars and restaurants, can reward customers who check in or are the mayor at their location by giving something in return – something free, a discount, a membership, etc.

Museums in the States have been quick to catch on to the possibility of rewarding return visitors with this system, but Italian arts institutions have lagged behind, likely because many are state-run. However, the MART, always very ahead of things when it comes to social media, already claimed their venue in late 2010, permitting them to add a special (three checkins got you a free ticket). Perhaps because at that time there were not many Italian users of Foursquare, the museum chose to not continue with the special. Rather, their staff curates the venue’s and city’s tips while they focus on other social networks (and do an exemplary job at it, too).

Readers of this blog already know that Palazzo Strozzi is my favourite hangout in this city. Working as social media project manager at the communications agency Flod, I was interested in testing out the process of claiming a venue and setting up a special… but I needed a client to test it on. I offered this to the team at Palazzo Strozzi, who was immediately interested in the potential of this niche social network in the context of museums. Flod thus offered Palazzo Strozzi the consultancy and service necessary to get a Foursquare special online and functioning. All the staff at the museum is now aware of the location-based application and their participation in it.

Being on Foursquare is right in line with Strozzi’s social approach to the museum visit, as well as with the current offerings, exhibits on the youth of Picasso, Miro and Dali, and in the Strozzina, Virtual Identities which is about how we construct ourselves on social networks (see my review). Visitors frequently check in at Palazzo Strozzi (on average two per day) and share their experiences on social networks; now the Florentine institution wants to reward loyal museum-goers. People who check in at Palazzo Strozzi using Foursquare will now unlock a Special Offer which, by showing this screen at the ticket office, entitles them to a 2×1 ticket for the current exhibits. The museum hopes that by encouraging visitors to bring a friend to the museum for free, they will have an extended social experience, both online and in person. You can see Palazzo Strozzi’s special offer on Foursquare via browser, or check in and check it out in person!

I made crostata with Vignola cherry jam the other weekend and photographed the process for you.

Crostata Recipe

• 1/2 kilo ‘00′ flour
• 200 grams sugar
• 4 eggs – of which 1 whole and 3 yolks
• 250 grams unsalted butter
• 2 jars of jam or a kilo of fruit to make your own jam

Using a pastry board or large shallow bowl, pile up your flour and sugar. Cut in the softened butter using two knives or a pastry cutter.

Create a depression in the center of the pile and pour in the eggs. Smush this with your fingers to integrate all the dry ingredients, and then quickly knead it into a solid ball. Handle it as little as possible. Separate into two balls, one larger than the other, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Take the larger ball out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface with a rolling pin. Fit it to the bottom of a buttered container. Pour the jam right in there on top of the uncooked pastry.

Take your second ball of dough and roll it out. Using a ridged pastry cutter, cut strips and place them diagonally onto the jam, alternating directions for a latticework effect. Use any leftover dough to make a few little cookies.

Bake in the oven for about half an hour at 180 degrees celcius. Eat.

Is it that hard to see?

This stop sign, and others in its category, is optional. I know it looks just like the obligatory ones you learned about in driving school at age 16, but in Italy, stop signs before roundabouts or at merge points are really a matter of choice, and it’s up to the intelligent driver to decide if to actually stop or to consider it more like a yield sign. To confirm this, I stopped at a stop sign the other day where two streets merged and got honked at; last night, on the other hand, my father in law ran a stop sign at a similar intersection in front of a stationary police car and did not receive a ticket, not get honked at.

It’s not just stop signs that require a choice on the part of the driver in Italy. The red light, for example, may be of different shades and thus meanings. There’s rosso pieno: “Quel coglione ha preso il rosso pieno” – “that jerk ran a totally red light.” But, note the difference, there is also rosso pallido: “Beh, non c’era nessuno e non mi sono mica fermato, era rosso pallido” – “well, there was nobody around and I didn’t bother to stop, it was only lightish red.” Why is this?

Some of Clet's signs in his studio

Last year in Florence, we started seeing silhouette figures of a man appear on no-entry and other signs. The work of French-born street artist Clet, these figures alter the meaning of street signs without diminishing their readability. Clet said to me in an interview that street signs are fair game because they are part of urban blight, offensive human interjections in the landscape. He pointed out that there are way too many signs in Italy and that they are patronizing: “The omnipresence of street signs, other than being a sign of the [Italian] culture of “anti-responsibility”, can verge on the absurd.”

And so, being a lover of the absurd myself, I started looking out for massive groupings of signs. And it’s true. There are some intersections at which you could not possibly read all the signs even driving past at 8 km/h, like this one on the Grosseto-Siena superstrada.

Too many signs!

Know your road signs

Technically, you should know the meaning of all these signs in order to get your drivers’ license in Italy. After rather too many years of driving illegally on my Canadian license (after declaring residence, you’re allowed only one year with an international drivers’ permit), I decided to suck it in and get an Italian license. As there is no reciprocal agreement between North American and Italian licenses, I had to to through the whole rigamarole of applying for a learners’ permit, attending driving school, passing a grueling theoretical test and finally a humiliating driving exam.

The driving schools have a monopoly on every part of this process because one trip to the DMV to get a learners’ permit without an intermediary reduced even my Italian husband to near tears. For three months, I spent Tuesday nights from 6-8pm in the company of zit-plagued teenagers with first time-driving-angst. I beamed with pride when complimented by the teacher for my excellent driving skills – I had only a few hundred thousand kilometers of experience in heavy snow conditions, after all… And I learned the right multiple-choice answers to the correct meaning of some of the most intriguing signs.

It’s really hard to memorize all the signs, speeds, and rules of the road in this country. I swear that the Canadian drivers’ test was Mikey-Mouse in comparison. I actually think I came out a better driver. I know the proper speeds for each type of road, what to do if someone has glass stuck in their eye, and if I’m allowed to pass an Ape on a country road when the line is solid (yes, if I can stay on my side of that line). It is probable that a recent driving school graduate knows more than your average Italian driver or even police officer. In an episode of the comic show “le Iene” last year, they demonstrated that Roman vigili urbani did not even know the basic rules of the codice della strada!

Did you know that there are three different signs for “bump” in Italy? Yup. There’s the sign for speed bump or similar raised lump in the road, the very similar sign for bumpy road, and yet another for a depression in the road. Knowing this will have little to no consequence in real life, other than to the underside of your car, but it could mean the difference between a pass and a fail on that dreaded theoretical test.

There are other signs that, if you have to think about their meaning, it’s already too late. This is the case with the sign titled “Sbocco su molo o su argine” that warns you that the road ends, without barrier, in water. You ought to memorize this sign should be consider driving anywhere near Italy’s coasts.

Other signs seem to be just jokes for the driving test’s multiple choice section in which you are given three statements about a sign and you have to say if they are true or false. Some answers that seem really absurd are actually the correct one. Take the example of the sign indicating the presence, nearby, of domestic animals. Of the three proposed statements, you must mark “vero” – true – the statement “slow down or stop if the animals danno segno di spavento” – appear to be scared. I ask you: how can I tell if the cow is scared, or surprised, or just happy to see me?

In the end, amusing signs are a universal phenomenon, although in Italy we do have a good share of them. Fittingly, I shall end with the sign for via libera – which essentially means “anything we’ve said until now, forget about it.”

Italy blogging roundtable

This post is the second in the Italy blogging roundtable series (if you missed it last month, the topic was “why I write about Italy“. Here are the other knights of the roundtables’ contributions to the topic of “driving in Italy”:

• Gloria’s “To drive or not to drive. That is the question“
• Jessica’s 3 dream drives in Italy
• Rebecca’s Ruminations on driving
• Melanie’s Tips for driving in Italy

Trulli in the valle d'itria + hay bales.

A 4 day weekend is long enough to take a road trip down the boot to Puglia, a land that in my experience is polarized between beauty and blemishes: unfinished “abusive” construction not far from beautiful beaches, polluting industries, amazing trulli, cacioricotta on orecchiette, friendly people, and natural beauty that in some parts would be better without some of the aforementioned elements. This long weekend’s trip to the Valle d’Itria, however, showed me the real beauties of Puglia and we’re already thinking about a return trip to see what we’d missed.

A Baroque church in Locorotondo

Puglia is dang trendy these days. Rapper Caparezza is from Molfetta (province of Bari), which probably has contributed a lot to the region’s image. So has Nichi Vendola, the region’s gay president and national leader hopeful. The Italia Wave music Festival has abandoned Tuscany for Puglia, for some time now touted as “the new Tuscany,” though I wish no such thing upon them. There is no question that this region has a lot to offer, from culinary delights to nature. There is also a significant art historical element, from Taranto’s Magna Grecia and good archaeological museum to the Baroque whiteness of Lecce. But a visit to Puglia in the summertime usually means it’s too hot to realistically visit any of these things: we tend to opt for the beach and anything we can see, or eat, on the way.

We booked a stay in a luxury trullo resort called Il Palmento with Groupon – 2 nights for 179 euros. We had pretty low expectations, having heard terrible things about Groupon (from bad quality on the consumer’s part to the fact that these deals have put many people out of business), so were pleased to find that the place exists at all.

This trullo is ours.

We received no lesser treatment for being “Grouponers”, and were indeed very, very thrilled to stay in a large two-cone trullo. These structures are traditionally thick-walled and a bit dark due to their single opening, designed to be cool year-round except in August when they become unbearable. Our trullo was of the modern type: it had large double-glaze windows and air conditioning! We took advantage of the resort’s swimming pool (a double oval, one for kids) and tennis court (nobody else used it). The place is frequented primarily by families with 2.2 kids who probably liked the convenience of the facilities which also included a restaurant and after-dinner poolside activities that we avoided like the plague.

Bina Ristorante

The nearby towns of Martina Franca and Locorotondo are popular summer dinner destinations for residents of Taranto, who go there to escape the heat of the city and take in a good meal, often dining al fresco. I have to share one of our dinner experiences with you as we found Bina (via Dottor Recchia 44-50) in Locorotondo to be a very special, modern reinterpretation of Pugliese food. First of all, the decor of this tavern space is very much our style – modern, all white, it incorporates traditional elements like ceramics from nearby Grottaglie but uses the most modern versions available. Bina cooks with traditional Pugliese ingredients and recipes, refined with some modern combinations and artistic presentation.

I photographed all my food but spared Tommaso this vice as he appeared quite ready to devour his. I loved the presentation of the antipasti (on the house) – a bowl of olives and another of fried bread balls with mint and cheese inside that are the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.

I moved on to my primo, described on the menu as follows: “spaghetto fatto in casa con fagiolini verdi, pomodorino fresco del pendulo e falde di cacioricotta della Valle d’ Itria.” The combination of green beans and pasta is typically Pugliese, a poor food that hugs long pasta when cooked to the right point.

For secondo I had the cheese plate (note the mini burrata and ricotta) while Tommaso had mixed roast meat that looked as appetizing as possible given its nature.

Service was at a leisurely pace, perfect for a romantic meal or for eating with a group of friends. My only complaint is one that I often hear echoed by American tourists – too much salt. I load tons of salt on my food, and this was even a bit much for me. Prices are slightly above average but we are convinced that anywhere else a restaurant like this could easily charge triple and still be full every night (we spent 58 euros for two, with one glass of wine and no dessert). Easily the best meal of the year 2011. Go Puglia!

The historical costumes in imitation of Risorgimento Italy were executed with minute detail and skill, but honestly it was even more fun to see how these young people were inspired by the past to invent new and elegant forms. My two favourites are a grey silk and lace evening dress – totally wearable – and an absolutely huge white tulle evening dress that would be the perfect princess bridal dress. Both modeled by particularly attractive teens.

Here are the best of my photos:

Don't miss Culture Clash on June 9th!

I’m sorry for not writing much these days – there’s a lot to do at work, a million events to attend, and some that I am organizing. As I scribble into my calendar I see that June 2011 has a lot of good stuff to do in Florence so here’s a list of some of my top picks – events that I certainly won’t be missing!

June 5: Cricket Festival in the Cascine Park: this is how Florence has celebrated Ascension Day since the 19th century, with a kind of carnival in which there are crickets in cages (now fake ones due to animal rights’ activists’ intervention). All day in Cascine park, see comune.fi.it for info.

June 8: Personal Branding come aumentare le proprie opportunità formative e professionali col web 2.0 (in italiano) with ToscanaIN at Le Murate, 7pm, 10 euro aperitivo. This looks interesting as it will be an interactive workshop on how to make yourself look good online. See www.toscanain.org for info.

June 9: Culture Clash with The Florentine (and yours truly) at Le Murate, 7pm. We’re putting a young Italian journalist, Edoardo Lusena of the Corriere Fiorentino, up against Deirdre Pirro, an Australian born expat lawyer of another generation, for a moderated discussion about the aspects that unite and divide the expat and Florentine populations. Without getting too pesante, we will address issues of multiculturalism, integration, civic pride, work life customs and more. Free aperitivo to follow – come meet me and pick up a copy of the paper too. Full info here.

June 11: For the love of Contemporary: from 2pm to 2 am the next day Palazzo Vecchio is opening its doors and mind to contemporary art. A lecture series (in italian) in the salone del Cinquecento and various late night openings at museums and galleries, with special activities all night. See comune.fi.it for calendar forthcoming.

June 13: Google and Architecture: Firenze GTUG (google user group) presents a special guest from Google’s offices in the states (who will speak in English). See tinyurl.com/4yazgpc, RSVP required.

June 20-21: Frontiers of Interaction at Otel. This is an important “geek” conference that I’ve been gearing up for all year. Last year we attended it in Rome and it was a real rush to hear about truly cutting edge research and technology. What comes up at this conference usually comes out in mainstream news a few years later. The Florentine is a media partner; subscribers to their newsletter get a discount to this important conference, email events@theflorentine.net for how to get your discount code. For conference info: frontiersofinteraction.com

June 23: KnitLounge2 with The Florentine (and me) and BettaKnit at Le Murate: A reprise of the April knitting event that was a huge success. This time we’re making just necklaces, 15 available + 15 free bring your own spots. Email me at bettaknit@gmail.com to reserve your spot.

June 28: Martedi ad arte free tuesday night opening of state museums in all of Italy, including, for Florence, Ufffizi, Accademia, Medici Chapels, Bargello, etc.

The theme this year is “La Moda Unisce l’Italia” – Fashion Unites Italy. Every part of this fashion show is organized and put on by the students and teachers of the Istituto Cellini- Tornabuoni di Firenze. Students from the fashion studies program have created these historic reproductions of costumes from 1861 to now, made in silk, wool, and lace. These are based on various drawn and photographic sources. There will also be modern pieces inspired by the Risorgimento. Teachers have, of course, directed them in their work, instructing them on the fineries of design and sewing using antique techniques. The same school’s graphic arts program has been in charge of the invitations and posters, while the mechanics area has been busily making souvenirs for the crowd.

The Istituto Tornabuoni has been operating in Florence since 1919; fused with the B. Cellini school in more recent years, the school offers a programme whose roots are in the artisanship upon which this city is built. This creation of physical, quality objects is not nostalgia but a way to understand the present and create solutions for the future.

First published in 2007 by The Florentine Press, it’s out in an expanded and updated edition. This book is being presented by the author and publisher at a brand new bar/social space in Florence: called “Ideal Firenze”, it’s in the landmark rotonda located near Porta a Prato (via il prato 4b).

From the press release:

The Florentine Press presents the second edition of Jane Fortune’s book To Florence con Amore. First published in 2007, Fortune, The Florentine’s own culture editor, suggested 77 ways to love the city. The expanded 2011 edition now includes 90 unsung treasures and fascinating art and cultural gems, as well as great food and drink to help you best explore the city. The new chapter that expands the book suggests thirteen ways to spend an afternoon that you won’t want to miss!

I have some insider information – one, or maybe two, new and interesting websites will also be unveiled that evening!

Aperitivo to follow the book presentation; 7 euros per person including drink and buffet, but FREE if you purchase the book – a good deal, eh!?

A park in Raval

When planning what to see in Barcelona, I made a list of some of the essential museums and monuments, but excluded many others because I wanted to find some things that were off the beaten track. I consulted a friend who did her “Erasmus” studies here and she suggested some hidden Roman ruins and a nice area for dinner. I was loaned the le Cool Weird and Wonderful Guide to Barcelona from my boss, Marco, who is a hipster himself, and although from 2006, it’s so advanced it proved helpful now. We cross-checked references in Time Out Barcelona 2011 and with current reviews on TripAdvisor. This led us to some excellent food as well as to funky things to do. Here’s our favourite six list.

Photograph street art in Raval

Raval used to be gritty and dangerous, or so I understand. People have been bitching about its gentrification thanks to the presence of the new Contemporary art museum (MACBA) and the influx of a few luxury hotels, but it seems to me that this progress means you can safely wander around there (in the daytime) with a big camera and not get robbed. So here’s my hipster tip: go find the coolest street art and photograph it (big zoom lens always good).

Love these little gesso men.

I saw a few works by an artist who is sticking little painted gesso figurines of men on walls and doors. I’m not sure who the artist is (if you know please comment below!), but I like it. Barcelona street artists seem pretty respectful; I get the impression that this is because of a strong enforcement campaign a few years ago (recounted in this post that declares BCN street art dead), but what’s left IMO is the GOOD street art, the graffiti art that is not tagging and just “urban decay”, and it’s done on the metal grated doors that pull down over closed stores, and sometimes on doors, but never on walls. These decorations often are in line with what the store sells – perhaps upon commission of the store owners who figure they’ll get painted anyway? One very nice example of respectful street art is a big intervention of tape art that I’ve photographed for you! Perhaps street art was more alive 5 years ago, but compared to what we have in Florence, even this watered down version is truly superior.

Tape Art Barcelona

Lunch at Bar del Convent

Eat a big salad or a quiche in the cloister of a monatery turned seriously alternative bar/café while reading a childrens’ book in Catalan about “diverse families”. Take a short nap on the couches afterwards. Recommended in the Time Out Guide yet frequented mainly by locals, including groups of young parents who take advantage of the kiddie play area. Catch a concert or performance at night, or run into a community center fair on the weekend. You’re just steps away from the Picasso Museum, yet mentally worlds away. Location: Plaça de l’Acadèmia, area Born.

Alternative family childrens' book

Buy Campers in Spain

What to say: they’re cheaper than in Italy! Campers are cool shoes, they last a long time and they don’t change style too often.

Go to Parc de la Diagonal Mar

Designed in 2002 by husband and wife team Enric Miralles & Benedetta Tagliabue (although none of the signs or books give HER credit!) this is probably Barcelona’s most recently built park and it incorporates sustainable design and architecture features. Visiting this area is interesting as it’s an example of planned development at the northeast end of the city (see this drawing from wiki architecture).

Diagonal Mar

The park is the unifying element in the ex-industrial area that is now home to a few thousand luxury condo dwellers. Say what you will about luxury condos, but I have no issue against them, and would happily live here near this beautiful park that has so many different features. Developed to be like a really big backyard, it has different areas like a duck pond, play area with ping pong tables, and seating areas under the shade of plants that refuse to grow out of gigantic suspended pots decorated with mosaics (one would say Gaudiesque, but I’d hypothesize that it’s possible to be an architect in Barcelona while ignoring this ancestry). Everything is connected by various above- and below-ground irrigation systems, and the lake is fed by rainwater – little lobsters are fed in there, off what I do not know.

Next door, the mall of the same name has some pretty good stores! And if you follow the park to the far end from the subway exit, you hit the beach, populated by locals who insist on lying in the sun even if it’s well hidden behind the fog that seems to rise off the sea.

Hang at the Barcelona Architects’ Association

After a cursory visit to the cathedral just to photograph the geese in the cloister (have you ever seen anything like this before? I haven’t!), go to the architects’ association just across the square. You can’t miss the facade frieze designed by Picasso. Upstairs you may find an interesting temporary exhibition (free) – we saw some really cool models for a semi-utopic housing block. In the basement, the architects’ cooperative bookstore stocks everything from design-geek objects to hardhats and survey tools! Location: Plaça Nova 5, across the street from the Cathedral.

Model at Architects association

Pick up a souvenir at Vinçon

Vincon is a huge designer home store for anyone design-minded or kitchen-supply loving. Hipster parents will like the assortment of buggies with price-ranges similar to that of my car, and the designer wooden bikes and molded plastic hobby horses intended to raise baby to be as much the consumeristic aesthetes that we are. Foodies will love the assortment of silicon bake ware alongside more traditional pieces.

It’s not just what’s IN this store that’s cool, it’s everything about it – the artistic and engaging window displays, the sheer size of the whole, the logo and package design. It’s been around for many decades, but it’s greatest expansion was in the 1980s, while in 1973 La Sala Vincon opened on the first floor, an important gallery space for emerging Barcelona artists in the fecund swinging 70s – many of the artists involved here now have works hanging at the MACBA. The big gallery space is currently being used to show… outdoor furniture. Sit on it (or, when they change exhibits, sit in the furniture section) and rest up before going back out.

This ‘hipster’ couple stayed at Eric Vokel Gran via Suites while in Barcelona, and also visited lots of museums.

MNAC

Wherever I go, I tend to visit a lot of museums. It’s a good thing that Barcelona has a museum discount card called “Articket“ that costs 22 euros and gets you into 7 museums! I absolutely recommend this card to any visitor to Barcelona: if you go to only two or three of these, you will not only save money but time, since having the card allows you to skip the long lines outside the most popular institutions like La Pedrera and Museu Picasso. This is a better deal than the integrated Barcelona Card that bundles transportation and museum discounts, but just a few full museum entrances (and not to those listed below).

Here’s my take on the museums we visited in Barcelona.

MNAC: Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

We started our 5-day trip here because I figured that this museum would give us a good base in Catalan history and art. The Romanesque collection is closed until 2012, but the vast Gothic section and the moderns (meaning 18th century to WWII) was worth visiting.

Mnac gothic collection display

This newly renovated museum gets an A+ in museology! Friendly staff greet you and answer questions in any language; you can store your belongings in lockers with 1 euro that you get back, you get a free map with the highlights indicated on it, and if you’re deaf, there’s even a visual guide in sign language! The airy spaces have been divided to provide good flow and to highlight important works. There are plenty of places to sit down and relax. The collection is just the right size to make it digestible in one visit of a few hours, but you can also divide up your visit as the ticket allows you in twice over a certain period. Best of all, we had the museum almost to ourselves.

Casa Mila (La Pedrera)

Start your Gaudi here, not at the much-trodden Sagrada Familia, because in the building’s attic there is an excellent exhibit (renovated in 2006 by the bank Catalunya Caixa) about the modernista architect’s forms and techniques. There are models and well-planned and executed videos that actually made me regret not having taken the audioguide to accompany them. Architecture geeks and engineers will enjoy the references to biomimicry in the juxtaposition of Gaudiesque forms with corn on the cob, sponges, and animal skeletons.

The attic of La Pedrera contains a useful museum about Gaudi

I'd dine in this room!

Oh yeah, the apartment itself is nice too! The flow is remarkably natural and the curation is minimal but clearly well thought out: small details, like a maid’s outfit, suffice to communicate the function of each room without resorting to invasive signage. Having seen the videos in the exhibit upstairs, we found ourselves attuned to the functional and architectural details of the architecture.

Tip: arrive early in the morning to avoid the crowds, and remember that with the Articket you don’t have to wait in line. There is a free exhibition gallery (with access from just down the street) that is currently showing “The Art of Eating” (until July 20 2011), an interesting mix of early modern and contemporary artists’ interpretations of food. Worth stopping in, for free!

Fondació Miró

Miro museum

This museum, located in the green of Monjuic not far from the MNAC, provides an overview of the Catalan artist’s painting, sculpture, textiles, and graphic works. To be honest, I rather prefer the Fondation Maeght near Nice as it better integrates architecture with Miro’s sculptures and the works of his contemporaries. However, you can’t help but love Miro’s adorable figures who seem to speak an alien language…

On the other hand, the temporary exhibits of contemporary art may be fun to visit. We enjoyed “Genius Loci” (until May 29 2011), a series of participatory stage sets accompanied by music that we heard on personal headphones, featuring various artists from the alternative scene in Barcelona.

Museu Picasso

Is it wrong to say I didn’t really love the Picasso Museum? Perhaps it was the crowds, or it was my high expectations: they are very innovative online (they won the Museums on the Web prize for their use of social media in 2010) while at the museum itself there was no wifi and nothing that struck me as terribly innovative. There is an iphone guide that you can download from the website – we didn’t see that before going though. Photos are not permitted (it’s not their fault, copyright legislation), so no photo for this part of this article!

The collection focuses on the development of the artist, with a lot of his early works in which you might search for signs of future genius in scribbles done on cocktail napkins. I particularly enjoyed the 58 paintings in which Picasso deconstructed Velasquez’s Las Meninas, none of which I’ve ever seen before elsewhere. Perhaps this section of the museum is what makes it worth the visit, since nowhere else would you ever get the opportunity to see a complete body of works that really demonstrate the artist’s thought process.

MACBA: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona

MACBA

Ingredients for a contemporary art museum. A good acronym: check. A big white building by a starchitect: check (Richard Meir). An assortment of prankster material from the 70s? I’m afraid the collection rather let me down, as is often the case in contemporary museums. I do love the Gorilla Girls, whose critiques of the art establishment are right on, and there is a wall dedicated to them, but otherwise I’d say there’s a too-heavy concentration on video art in this museum. We got a good laugh out of the temporary exhibit, co-curated with Rome’s Maxxi, on the Otholit Group, which we really did not understand. Fun gift shop.

Next door is the CCCB - center for contemporary culture – near the faculty of philosphy of the University too. The current exhibit at the Center didn’t appeal to me (an artist from Trieste – we get that at home) but it’s worth checking out what’s on and hopping in if you’re interested. They also do films, performances, and other events.

The whole area around these contemporary museums seems to have blossomed – some would say the Raval is being quickly gentrified and that’s a bad thing, but I saw creativity and youth that couldn’t have been negative. Skateboarders congregate in the wide piazza out front.

Skateboarders outside MACBA

Disseny Hub Barcelona

The skeleton of a fetus, printed in 3d

Across the street from the Picasso museum is Barcelona’s modern design museum. The 5 euro entrance is not included in the Articket but we came out with enough ideas to launch a multi-million euro start-up so it was worth it, even if we never quit our jobs in order to make 3D printed solutions for the Italian market.The current exhibits close soon (May 2011) but I get the feeling that anything here is cool, so go in.

We learned about 3D printing solutions for everything from in-vitro diagnostics to jewelry making, and then proceeded to an exhibit that dug up 100 ideas for sustainable living from the 60s and 70s and put contemporary spins on them. Plenty of ideas here. Downstairs there’s one free exhibit, beautifully curated and oh-so-funky.

While in Barcelona we stayed at Erik Vokel’s Gran via Suites (read my review here) – very comfortable self-catering apartments in a great location near Rocafort Metro station. The following museums listed above are easy walking distance from where we stayed: MNAC, MACBA, CCCB, Fondacio Miro.

8th-floor premium apartment at Eric Vokel Gran via suites

I’m just about ready to call Eric Vokel Gran Via Suites home… it’s only for five days, but we’ve very comfortably moved in and nothing’s missing, so we could stick around pretty much forever!

It’s been a while since we’ve taken a good “European city” trip, so Tommaso and I searched for a good excuse to take a cheap flight to Barcelona and stay in a luxury apartment rental. Our 7 year wedding anniversary is in a few days so that’ll do as an excuse. Barcelona makes a great long-weekend trip from Florence, Italy – there’s a direct flight with Meridiana that costs around 200 euros return – like going to Milan and back twice on the Eurostar – and the flight duration is about the same as taking the ATAF bus downtown and back, once, at rush hour.

From our home in Florence to our adopted home in Barcelona, via flight, airport train and metro, we arrived at Eric’s Gran via Suites in about 3.5 hours. Although this just-renovated apartment-hotel building has reception service until 6pm and then an automatic check-in service (plus security/doorman), manager Marc and reservations manager Florencia stayed late to greet us. We have booked 5 nights at a special “blogger rate” that I negotiated based on the fact that this chain of designer apartments is super social and very attentive to reviews. Being so web 2.0 has paid off for them: their other 2 buildings are ranked #2 and #4 on TripAdvisor… I wanted to check it out for myself and can confirm that everything you read on TA is true: this place is great.

The building and the area

Gran Via Suites is the third building by this Danish designer who likes design furniture and calm spaces in the middle of a bustling city. While the first two buildings are a gaudiesque stones’s throw away from the Sagrada Familia in the chic Eixample Dreta area, Gran Via is on the wide street of the same name in the Eixemple Esquerra – which used to be the left side of the tracks, but is now a bustling upper-class residential neighbourhood (not to mention the heart of the city’s gay area).

The whole area of Eixample was designed as an expansion plan in the 1850s by the social idealist and military engineer Ildefons Cerdà. It’s characteristic form is best seen on maps: each block of apartments is an octogon. Beautiful avant-garde buildings, original to this building plan, alternate with a few more modern ones. Gran Via is a main thoroughfare but traffic is not very heavy, and there is a bike lane and pedestrian path down the center, plus the whole thing is mitigated by decades-old trees that, when seen from above, make the street disappear.

Gran via from above: the top floor of Eric Vokel's building

My first concern was that this was not the best location from which to visit Barcelona, but we saw that there is a Metro station (Rocafort on the red line 1) just 2 doors away, so we figured that with a transport pass we would get anywhere we needed to go. Upon arrival we were pleasantly surprised to find that we’re walking distance to a number of things, including the area of Montjuic (at least the lower part) – it’s only 20 minutes by foot to the Fundacio Miro and other museums in Barcelona!

The second concern was that this area would be loud, as the building is on a big street. I am super sensitive to noise! No problem, again: our apartment touches interior courts on BOTH sides, and we’re on the 7th floor, way above the street. It’s perfectly silent and we slept like logs.

Bed in which we have been sleeping like logs.

vintage elevator!

The building itself, from the turn of the century, has been totally gutted, leaving only the wrought iron entrance door and the antique elevator (truly funky). It opened just one month ago, on April 4th, a few days earlier than planned, and everything is finished and functioning – wifi, tv, phones, etc. I say this with wonder because I feared that they’d not open in time, but Florencia assured me that everything would be ready – and it was. I guess that’s one difference between Spain and Italy!

The apartment

I’m a veteran at staying in tourist apartments or short term rentals: I like to cook for myself most of the time, I usually try to stay a longish period in any city, and I’ve done a few extended stays in my dissertation-research years, so I have a good sense of what is usually missing from these places. Eric and his team have done a great job of providing just about everything you’d want in a home, as well as in a 4 star hotel.

You do get: pots and pans, knives, cutting board, small appliances, a kitchen sponge and soap (rare), a hairdryer, shower gel and soap (but not much else in the bathroom), and hotel-style crisp sheets. You don’t get slippers or bathrobes – if you want that, go to a hotel – nor do you get throw pillows or blankets, or big tea mugs – for those things, I guess I just have to stay at my own home ! My one “design” criticism: there ought to be an extra light over the mirror for make-up and mens’ shaving.

View from my balcony, down to two units that have courtyard-gardens

There are 29 apartments in this building, with different floor plans from the one bedroom that we have to the super duper four-bedroom (whose kitchen/living space I’ve photographed above). Some have terraces; ours has a balcony with a table for two overlooking an inner courtyard, where the sound of children playing rings out during the day. I got to peek into some of the “premium” units which are very nice indeed, though I’m very happy with our basic unit that has the very same finishings. You can tell that the renovation was done to last with good quality tiles, doors and taps, so I think this place will wear well. It’s the first time I’ve stayed in a hotel that has design features I’d actually choose for my own home.

We’re excited about our stay here in Barcelona – a good night’s sleep, a comfortable kitchen, and a great location are, for me, the essential factors upon which the rest of the experience is built. And having started out right, in such a central location, we are enjoying Barcelona a lot.

See more Barcelona on arttrav: my take on Museums in Barcelona & more photos on Flickr & 5 hipster things to do (upcoming).

Me in Venice

This is a kind of personal post. And it’s so rare and out of character that there is not even a category on this blog into which I can easily slot it. But I have to write it. Here’s why.

Today is the first post in an “Italy blogging Roundtable” to which I have been invited. Five of us will be writing assigned topics each month. Depending on how you look at it, I’m either in really good company or I have some stiff “competition”.

The topic chosen by Jessica of Why Go Italy is “Why I write about Italy“. I assume she has a good answer. Rebecca “at Brigolante” is sure to come up with something self-deprecating, hilarious, and terribly profound that has me saying “why didn’t I write that”, until I realize that our experiences and personalities are so different, I simply could never have written it. Gloria known as “Casina di Rosa” will have an ironic, Italian take on the matter and it will be well thought through and perfectly written on At Home in Tuscany. From Melanie of Italofile Blog, I’m not sure what to expect. As she’s not in Italy right now, I’m really curious to know what her answer will be.

And me? Why do I write about Italy? What do I get out of writing this blog? Is there any possible non-narcissistic excuse for wanting to document everything I see?

Because it’s where I am (and I like it)

Had I married a man from Iceland and not from Florence, would I blog about Iceland? Maybe. It depends how much there is to do in Iceland. After 12 years here, I still have plenty left to see, experience, and learn (unlike Rebecca, for example, I have not attended a pig slaughtering, nor one of Gloria’s dad’s grape harvests). There’s no need to remind you that Italy boasts a ridiculous range of territories, climates, and regions and I haven’t seen half of them. But even here in Tuscany, I find myself constantly amazed.

A google image search for Monet + Rouen

Recently I co-hosted Slow Art Day in Florence; we picked paintings in the exhibit “Picasso Miro Dali” at Palazzo Strozzi that participants had to focus on for 10-15 minutes. We looked at how Dalí painted numerous views from his family’s summer home in Cadaqués and I wondered why he kept painting the same place. Or why Monet kept painting the same Cathedral at Rouen. The two artists had similar goals of capturing light, though for the Catalan artist it was also an issue of capturing a sense of place.

For each of us, there are some things we never tire of looking at. For me, it’s the view from our summer home in Maremma that I find myself staring out at and photographing frequently. The slight changes in the trees and valley as the seasons and days progress continues to hold my attention. Whatever your medium, if you’re trying to get a grip on the true essence of something, repetition seems to be a good approach. So I keep writing about Italy and Tuscany.

Yet another sunset in Sticciano

Because it makes me go out and do things

Hard at work posting information on the go.

Having a blog is a commitment. If you don’t write for a while, you feel guilty (even if probably nobody else really notices my absence). And so comes the Saturday that I say to Tommaso “we have to go out and ‘fare le cose’…” or “do things”. This is code for blog photo/story mission. Most of the time these things are within an hour’s drive of either Florence or Sticciano and are chosen by looking at a map and cross-referencing it with the Touring Club red guide. My husband will tag along on any artistic mission so long as he gets properly fed, preferably at a Slow Food restaurant. He generally documents the voyage with his iphone, posting on facebook as we go, while I check in on Foursquare using my Android.

The way I travel when I have to write about it is probably different than how I’d experience a place “just for myself”. There’s pressure to remember to photograph not just what’s beautiful but what I realize needs to be documented. And I find myself constructing posts on the fly, making sure I get the story or information necessary to recount it to my readers. There’s no question that I benefit from this process as I pay much more attention to what I see when I know that I have an audience who will enjoy my sharing it.

Is this terribly narcissistic? Is it wrong to go out and do something (like waking up at a ridiculous hour to take photos for the blog) just because you can share it. Maybe, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.

Because of the community

And speaking of sharing… Arttrav’s been around since 2004, but things really picked up in 2009 when I started using social networks and “met” other Italy bloggers. We “like” each others’ posts on facebook, and probably consist of a lot of each others’ traffic, too. Knowing that I’m not writing in a vacuum but that I’m part of a great, generous community is one of the factors that keeps me going. So Jessica’s idea to start a blogging roundtable fits perfectly into this context, allowing us to create an even stronger link (pun intended) to each other.

Blogger roundtable posts

• Because it’s not Florence everywhere… and because it’s home. from At Home in Tuscany
• What Can I Write About Italy That Hasn’t Been Written Before? from Italofile
• Why I Write About Italy from WhyGo Italy
• Why I write about Italy by Rebecca “Brigolante”

Coloured lights along the arno

100,000 Florentines and tourists alike flooded the streets of Florence’s historical center last night for the Notte Bianca “Insonnia Creativa”. The creative (and apparently low-cost) solution of interventions in the city’s piazze, on the bridges, late openings of museums and private institutions spread crowds out at every corner of the city and made everyone a part of something positive. People were generally good natured and polite, although it was hard to even walk in certain areas due to the crowds. The city was well organized with portable toilets and emergency staff on hand.

Here’s my account of what I saw, liked, and photographed.

We started out with dinner with my inlaws at Trattoria il Pennello near via del Corso (traditional but good Florentine restaurant well frequented by locals); then walked from there over to Ponte alla Carraia (transformed into a forest), along the lungarni, stopping in piazza santo spirito and piazza del Carmine.

The Arno was protagonist of the evening, a joining feature of the city beautifully lit on both sides with the installation “No Dump: pimp my river” (no artist name given). The photography exhibit “Riverboom: Firenze vs. il mondo” edited by Valentina Gensini was projected on the facade of Santo Spirito and can be seen all month as giant posters in 100 of the city’s advertising spaces; this was probably my favourite installation, I could have watched it for an hour.

Riverboom projection on Santo Spirito

In Piazza del Carmine they set up luminous coloured stages for people to sit and watch “Blah blah blah night” with a series of performances and concerts. We stuck around to hear (and photograph) our friend Gianpaolo d’Amico on guitar accompany sound designers Lorelei & Pulse for a beautiful multi-sensorial electronic music show.

Lorelei & Pulse + Gianpaolo d'Amico

Apparently we also missed a lot of things – I wish we could go out again today and take it all in. A few installations in the city’s piazze will be available for a few weeks, including the “Orto-grafia” in Largo Annigoni (the piazza in front of Dada and La Nazione). There were architectonic elements added to Piazza Duomo that I am really sorry not to have seen, and I don’t know if they’ll be staying up.

I know we can’t do a “notte bianca” every week – and frankly I’m not a late-night person – but I hope that we can continue to produce “creativity” with this kind of energy. What I saw was a lot that could be termed “Authorized Street Art” produced by some of the city’s best collectives and associations. Many of the producers of the White Night are the same as those involved in animating the new spaces of Le Murate, the ex-jail that is finally open daily noon to midnight for a calendar of activities from theatre to installations and conferences. Both the success of the Notte Bianca and that of the first few events at Le Murate (amongst them one I organized with The Florentine and BettaKnit) demonstrate that Florence is a city that knows how to have a good time.

I received notice of two interesting events, both related to bicycles (a coincidence?) that will be held on the white night.

Postcards from Beirut presents SCI-FI – storie della scienza a Firenze (history of science in Florence)

A kind of treasure hunt on a bicycle/ itinerary to complete as a group at night – a discovery of the locations of weird science and art, and the best errors made in both, in Florence. Like how (and where?) Antonio Meucci invented the telephone but also a prepared sauce for the brand “Star” and various fizzy drinks. For this strange event, you have to reserve: 3334589278 – info@postcardsfrombeirut.org

Radio Papesse presents Radio on Wheels

The appointment is for 8pm in piazza dell’Indipendenza and the instructions seem pretty simple: show up on a bike with a radio and tune it to FM97.0. But the effect and importance of the project is more profound: It is a bike-speed choreography that will carry the sound wave of a radio army all around the city of Florence. Radios will air the live concert being held at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino:Beethoven and Liszt interpreted by Daniel Baremboim on piano and directed by Zubin Mehta. This is an invitation to consider the benefit of art and culture in public spaces as well as the importance of sustainable forms of transportation.