Sea

Castiglione della Pescaia, a beach a few miles north of the town of Grosseto, is no hidden secret, but its sandy beach and pristine water are almost unrivaled in the whole of central Italy. It is frequented by Tuscans, Romans, and a few lucky Germans in-the-know, and boasts the coveted ‘Blue Flag’ award every year for its cleanliness and good services. You can walk the entire length of a 6 kilometer (3.5 miles) bay that is mostly dotted with orderly umbrellas and sun beds, rented on a daily, weekly, or seasonal basis, that are part of ‘bagni’ that offer bars, restaurants, and washrooms. Val Bona is one such establishment that is known for its good fish restaurant at lunch. There are two free beach areas in this bay; get there early for a spot in the paid parking lot. The Riva del Sole resort takes up a long stretch of this beach and offers the most services of the whole area; see below ‘Where to Stay.’ It also has a windsurfing school.

The more adventurous should head to Fiumara beach, which is accessed by a sandy road through the woods off the coastal road between Castiglione della Pescaia and Marina di Grosseto (ask for directions). The sandy beach here is deeper than at Riva del Sole, the wind blows harder, and the people look sportier. In the late afternoon, the sky here becomes dotted with the colourful sails of kite-surfers who whip along the water – a sight to see! It’s all free beach here except for the small but posh bathing establishment of the same name, which at sundown becomes an upscale fish restaurant; see below ‘Where to Eat.’

Nature

Maremma prides itself on its attention to sustainability: it has 40,000 hectares of natural reserves, many of which are the lowlands that, until after the last world war, were uninhabitable swamps. Drained only in recent memory, this geography is what lends the area an untouched feeling. Hikers and birders will find themselves in paradise in the reserves, information about which is available on the official website www.maremmariservadinatura.it (only in Italian).

25 kilometers of coast and contingent hillside is allocated to the Parco Regionale della Maremma, where it really feels like you have stepped back in time (and perhaps outside of Italy)! If you’re into plants you’re in for a treat, for the various areas of the park (forest and hill versus sandy coast) present an impressive variety of species. Animals also abound, from the wild Maremman horses to hares, hedgehogs and wild boar (beware of the latter – don’t get close!). In the sky above the woods you’ll see skylarks and barn owls, while in the rocky areas you might see a majestically swooping peregrine falcon. To access the park, you must leave your car in the parking area at Marina di Alberese, where there is an information booth and shuttle service into the park. While it is open year round, service is reduced from December to March and the trails are very isolated. In the Spring you can still park right at the beach and go for a walk along it – see photo above. Get full information at www.parco-maremma.it.

Further south, the WWF Oasis near Orbetello (Via del Ceriolo, Km 148 on the SS Aurelia road, tel (39) 0564/870198) is one of the access points to a natural reserve that offers three main hiking routes. The birding route (open September through April) is a classic favourite; an easy walk with nine huts for resting and optimum observation of wildlife.

Art

In the past 25 years or so, the open views and good air of Maremma, as well as the low cost of property in some parts, has attracted contemporary artists who, in a few cases, have blessed us with art parks. The most famous is certainly Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden at the southernmost part of Maremma near the town of Capalbio. I have written about this park, where Tommaso and I had our first date! The eccentric French artist, who was married to Jean Tinguely, created a fairytale, Gaudi-esque world on a large wooded property. Massive mosaic-covered structures you can walk into and on top of dominate the landscape, while, in the woods, you come across smaller colourful pieces in metal and resin. Open April through October, 2:30-7:30pm, tickets cost 12 euros but are worth every cent.

Mosaic detail from Niki's park

Fewer people know of a private park by a living artist, Rodolfo Lacquaniti’s Giardino Viaggio di Ritorno. Rodolfo’s sustainable living quarters and rental apartments are on an farm property near Castiglione della Pescaia that now appears to grow large, very interesting abstract sculptures with an underlying philosophy. He receives no funding and takes two hours of his own time to show you around, so offers visits about once a month, by reservation (phone or write the artist, who does not speak English, at (39) 0564/948904, r.lacquaniti@tiscali.it).

Rodolfo's Giardino

History

Anywhere you dig in Maremma you’re likely to run into an Etruscan artifact. Take any back road and you’ll see plenty of brown signs pointing to ruins in various states of, well, ruin! Most are now fenced off and some are seldom open. Two of the best preserved Etruscan habitations are Roselle and Populonia, though Vetulonia (closest to the beach at Castiglione) is also very good. Visits to these areas require a lot of walking, so wear sturdy shoes, sunscreen and a hat, and carry water; avoid the hottest times of the day or go in the Spring.

The visitor services and information at Roselle is some of the best I’ve seen; you are given a map and there are informative boards that explain each item along the path, from public baths to once-luxurious private villas. In the summer, plays and tango dance nights are held in the area’s oval ampitheatre.

Populonia

Populonia is the only Etruscan habitation on the seaside (they knew a good thing when they found it). This very large archaeological area has a necropolis at sea level and an acropolis with amazing views on the hillside overlooking the water, next to the current town of Populonia Alta where tired visitors can happily dine.

Where to stay

The area offers an ample range of accommodation from 5-star resorts to comfortable B&Bs and numerous nice agriturismi. You can search for what you need on the official site http://grosseto.toscanaeturismo.net.

Riva del Sole
Loc. Riva del Sole, Castiglione della Pescaia (GR)
(39) 0564/928111
www.rivadelsole.it
The convenience of having it all at this 4-star village. Room price or weekly apartment comes with reserved spot on the beach. Spa, supermarket and restaurants on the property.

Agriturismo La Rombaia
Loc. La Rombaia, Castiglione della Pescaia (GR)
(39) 0564/944012
www.agriturismolarombaia.it
With about a dozen apartments decorated in the Tuscan style, a pool, free bikes and other services, this is a good home base for a week’s stay.

Where to eat

Locanda La Luna
Via del Podere, 8
Tirli (Castiglione della Pescaia, GR)
(39) 0564/945854
www.locanda-laluna.it
Fine linens and modern crystal ware create an upscale atmosphere at this restaurant in the small hill town of Tirli that serves a refined, local cuisine for rather reasonable prices. Try the cinghiale.

Oste Scuro
via Malenchini 38, Braccagni (GR)
(39) 0564/324068
Off the main street of a small town best known for its rail crossing sits an unassuming Slow Food restaurant with a brilliant sommelier and some of the most creative and delicious menus of the whole Maremma. Get the daily fish menu.

Bar Ristorante La Spiaggia
Loc. Fiumara, Marina di Grosseto
(39) 0564/34040
Leave the heels at home for this is dining on the sand. It feels like a secret only you know, perfect for a romantic dinner or a small wedding. Excellent fresh fish. Dinner only, reservation required.

This article first appeared in the May 2012 issue of the Dream of Italy newsletter.

Brussels is a city that suffers from an identity crisis. It is a bilingual capital, speaking both Flemish and French, plopped down in the middle of Flemish territory. Home to many European Union institutions, it is a beacon for people from across Europe, but it also hosts a number of vibrant international communities. This eclectic mix makes Brussels a great city for eating out (Ethiopian, Lebanese and Fish and Chips being some of my favorites), but it can make it difficult to put your finger on what exactly is Belgian.

While enjoying all that Brussels has to offer, here are some unusual, not so touristy cultural experiences you won’t want to miss.

1) WCF (Waffles, Chocolate, and Frites)

Waffles -or gaufres- will find you, whether or not you are looking for them. While marveling at the Grand Place, hunting for the Mannekin Pis, or stumbling to/from Cafe Delirium you will undoubtedly smell the sweet wafting scent of waffles. I once saw a great photo explaining waffles in Belgium. The thick square ones most non-Belgians simply call “Belgian Waffles” were Brussels Waffles, the round, flatter ones Liege Waffles, and the generic ones covered in a mound of fruit, syrup, ice cream, whipped cream, etc. etc., tourist waffles. In Belgium gaufres are typically eaten with powdered sugar or, at the most, chocolate. But, hey, if you want to be “that guy” and take a photo with your sugar bomb waffle, more power to you.

@adactio

At this point Belgian chocolate has earned itself an international reputation. Throughout Brussels you will find a number of chocolate shops that allow you to mix-and-match by the piece. I recommend trying some for yourself-if not also bringing a selection back as gifts. The one thing I would steer clear of are the well known brands you can get at home. There’s nothing worse than lugging a box of chocolates (read in Forest Gump voice) around the world and seeing the same box sold on discount when you get back.

Shamefully, I must admit that more than a few times I have substituted a proper meal with a “petite paquette” of Belgian frites. These fries are a source of national pride, and also some jabs from their French neighbors (How do you make a Belgian spill his frites? Ask him the time). Aside from eating them at the bar while indulging in Belgian beer (see point 3), frites are best eaten standing, straight from the cone at a friterie with one of the many sauces offered (spicy pili pili being my favorite).

2) The Magritte Museum

Maybe you’ve seen the MacBook skin with a man with a bowler derby’s face covered by the apple logo. Perhaps you know it is in reference to a famous painting called Son of Man. You may even be up-to-date on the fact that the painting was done by René Magritte, famous Belgian surrealist painter. Regardless of your level of familiarity with the artist, the museum is worth a visit. While it doesn’t hold Son of Man (the painting is in a private collection) it has many of his other paintings, drawings, photographs and writings.

@Cea.

In a country where protests are a national pastime and the “not my problem” attitude reigns king, Magritte is a perfect example of Belgian creativity and obstinacy all rolled into one. Well placed throughout the museum are quotes that help you understand who Magritte was, something that I so often find missing in museums dedicated to a single artist. A particularly interesting rant of his is:

“I detest my own past and that of others. I detest resignation, patience, professional heroism and all those nice obligatory sentiments. I also detest the decorative arts, folklore, publicity, the voice of speakers, aerodynamics, boy scouts, the smell of gasoline, topical matters and drunkards.”

With quotes like these how can you not be curious about the man, the myth, the one and only Magritte?

3) Belgian Beer

Beer is to Belgium what wine is to Italy. It is plentiful, relatively cheap, and, most of all, good. Explaining all the kinds of Belgian beers would require writing a book, of which many already exist, so the best advice I can give is to sit down in a cafe or bar and sample what you can. (Warning: if you are a light beer drinker the 6%+alcohol by volume may sneak up on you, especially as the beer masks its content with a slightly sweeter taste and thicker body)

@aolin

Contrary to the average beer drinker’s intuition, you won’t find many of the Belgian blonde, tripple or trappist beers on tap. But just because they come bottled, doesn’t mean they’re inferior by any means. Those that are on tap are generally served in 25cl or 33cl glasses, not pints or 50cl. No matter the sample size, enjoy yourself and the fact that you can drink not just a “Belgian style ale” but the real deal.

4) Play “Where’s Tintin”

Smurfs aside, of all Belgian comic book characters, Tintin is probably the most well known worldwide. Like another certain striped-shirt, spectacled comic book character, he can be found in some unexpected places. If you come by train and arrive at Gare du Midi the building opposite Tour de Midi proudly shines his face in neon. From Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert to Boulevard Anspaach near Bourse his comic books are displayed in shop windows. One comic book of his, though, you may find hard to come by is Tintin in Congo. You see, while Belgium has never exactly been politically correct about its relationship with the former colony (its annual Christmas parade features Zwarte Piete, or Black Pete, Santa’s helper who is really a guy in black face), the comic’s depiction of the Congolese as savages drew some criticism at the end of 2012, prompting shop keepers to think twice about carrying it. Nevertheless, Tintin is a celebrated man in town, and is featured everywhere from the Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Arts to the famous Comic Strip Trail.

Flickr @OliBac

5) The Horta House

Art Nouveau, the predecessor of that crazy Art Deco craze that swept America in the 30s, was alive and hopping in Belgium at the turn of the 20th century. One of the most famous architects of the style was Victor Horta who designed other buildings around Brussels such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts (aka Bozar, which is just a stone’s throw down Rue Royale from the Magritte Museum). In St. Gilles, his personal house is open to visitors during the week but only for a few hours in the afternoon (Tuesday to Sunday, 14 to 17:30). Unassuming from the outside, the inside is truly impressive. Every detail from the wood molding to the stained glass ceiling in the center of the house is clearly intentionally and very well thought out. The district of St. Gilles owns the house and has worked to restore it to its original condition with furniture, art work, lighting and even bathroom fixtures from the time when Horta actually called 25 rue Américaine home. The visit doesn’t take very long but leaves you wondering what it must have been like to live in such a decadent residence. Bonus: For those who are students don’t forget to take advantage of your discount (half off admission!).

How to get to Brussels

Brussles airport flickr photo @julesstoop

If you’re living in Italy or anywhere else in Europe, and this article has inspired you to visit Brussels, here’s how to get there. If you’re on a student budget like I am, you can save a night’s hotel stay by taking an overnight Eurostar train – you can use a website like RailEurope to search for routes and tickets. It’ll be an overnight train through Paris, for which I can only highly recommend wearing all your valuables in your pants. If you prefer a low cost airline, Ryanair flies to Brussels from Pisa, Rome and Milan/Bergamo amongst others, while EasyJet goes out of Milan Malpensa as does Brussels Airlines.

About the author

Christina Craver grew up in Silver Spring, MD, where she lived a stone’s throw away from some of the country’s best (and free!) museums. She is, as the Hawaiians would say, “hapa,” and has garnered many confused looks, and some ridiculous guesses, about her background everywhere she goes, from Los Angeles to Riyadh. Christina completed her Masters in EU policy in Florence now resides in Trento, Italy. She works in marketing and communication and writes for the satirical blog More Europe! She enjoys watching formulaic t.v. food competition shows, being mediocre at many languages, and confounding people with who she is, where she comes from, and what she’s doing in their part of the world.

It could have been worse. (A total mis-use of Durer's image of Melancholy)

So. Life for a woman in modern Italy may mean having to deal with more traditional gender roles than in North America, may mean always being the one doing the laundry; it may mean 50% unemployment and total inequality of pay, but just think: it was worse, much worse, 500 years ago.

This month, the Italy Blogging Roundtable tackles the difficult topic of ‘Women in Ialy,’ and this time I have gotten out of the trap of having to write about a difficult topic that would result in me complaining about something I can’t do anything about. Rather, with this short survey of womens’ roles in the past, perhaps we can illuminate some of the sources of present gender roles in Italy.

Disclaimer: the following is not a scholarly paper nor does it contain proper citations or bibliography; rather it is intended as a somewhat sarcastic though thoroughly researched summary of the life of the Renaissance woman in my own words. Think of it as everything you’ve always wanted to know about life in the Renaissance in 1000 words or less.

Whose fault is it anyway?

Christian teaching had a lot to do with the way gender roles were constructed in Early Modern Italy, and unfortunately, women got the brunt of the deal in Genesis, marking us for centuries to come. The evil female serpent that tempted the weak woman resulted in expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the punishment that women would, from then on, bear children in pain and slave as mothers.

Detail of Masaccio's Explusion of Adam and Eve

In the 2001 book Virtue and Beauty, David Alan Brown remarks that the frequently represented images from Mary’s life – Annunciation, pregnancy, the Nativity, Madonna and Child, and finally the Lamentation – mirror society’s expectations for women and provide a model for their behaviour. The only difference is that most women were supposed to be married first! If we look at the lifecycle of women in this pre-modern period, she is at the height of her importance in her childbearing years, and everything revolves around this.

Marriage

Most of what we know about women in Renaissance Italy comes from documents, paintings or other visual evidence that tell us much more about the patrician lifestyle than that of peasants. The lower classes are more often referred to incidentally or we know about their lives through records of institutions. Most of these documents and paintings are by the hand of men, so contain a certain dose of chauvenism that has to be interpreted to find a measured version of reality.

Documents do, however, correctly tell us facts like the average age of marriage. In Renaissance Florence, girls from nice families were usually married to a man of her family’s choice when she was about 16 years old and he might be going on 30, since he should already be established in business. The peasant classes tended to marry between subjects of about the same age who were permitted a certain amount of courting contact to ensure compatibility, since the priority here was a reliable working partner.

Sebastiano Mainardi, engagement portrait, c. 1500, Berlin

Amongst the wealthy, marriage was a business transaction. Her family paid a dowry to his, consisting of money and household objects (a chest full of linens and other items), while he usually gave her bethrothal jewelry before the big day – if you ever see a portrait of a young girl with an important necklace, that’s probably an image exchanged during bethrothal. The dowry that a woman brought into the marriage technically remained hers, but was put in the hands of the man for management. Rather often in this merchant society, a man married when he needed the influx of cash for a major commercial venture like a sailing to Asia, and rather often one reads of dowries lost in this way.

The actual wedding process in this period was not that of the modern church wedding but more of a domestic process of exchange, in which a ring exchanged at home did symbolize, as it does today, a promise. Processions and parties were just as important, as they spread word of the marriage to the whole neighbourhood or city. At the end of it all, the new couple was ushered into a bedroom and expected to perform, while in some cases the festivities continued next door – and in France, the man’s rowdy friends sang lewd songs below the window.

Childbirth and child raising

Bernardino Licinio, Arrigo family, Galleria Borghese, Rome

As mentioned above, patrician women were supposed to produce healthy male heirs – as many as possible, since many of them died young. Licinio’s portrait of a matriarch and her family, the youngest still in swaddling cloths, is a good way of imagining what this family should have looked like on a good day.

To help this result along, there was imagery that scholars believe might have been used to help envisage a happy outcome of a pregnancy, like painted birth trays that show naked little boys (below, one of my favourite exemplars from the Palazzo Davanzati). These were sometimes included in a woman’s dowry, or commissioned at marriage, rather than given as gifts after birth.

Lo Scheggia, birth tray, Palazzo Davanzati collection, Florence

About childbirth and child raising there were as many written manuals then as there are today, including a series of interesting vernacular midwife manuals from the mid sixteenth century onwards that were, at least ideally, intended to also be perused by regular women (not just midwives). The birthing room was a woman’s domain. Birth took place on a horseshoe-shaped chair to help gravity do its job. Men stayed outside, at most consulting the stars to make sure the birth time is a lucky one as in the illustration below from 1583. After the birth, the woman stayed in bed for the laying in, visited by gift-bearing female neighbours.

A seated woman giving birth aided by a midwife. Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images

Sometimes, in images of birth scenes, one also sees the wetnurse, ready to take on the newly arrived babe. Nursing one’s own child was considered inappropriate for the upper classes, in part because it was believed (as some still believe now) that breastfeeding diminishes fertility, while these women had to get pregnant again as soon as possible. The practise of wetnursing (not to mention the presence of another young and attractive woman in the house) brought its own set of social problems that have been the subject of numerous articles. For families that could not afford an in-house nurse, children were sent out to the countryside for nursing and returned – if they survived – at weaning.

As you might imagine, taking care of the kids was up to mom (and her servants). Girls remained in her realm until marriage, docilely practising needlework, while little boys from the age of seven were abruptly removed from their mother’s care lest they end up effeminate, and given a strict formal education.

The rest of the time

When not overly pregnant or lying in, women were supposed to keep control of the household, which for a wealthy family meant tightly managing a budget and keeping staff honest and hard at work. Occasional complaints have come down to us of how hard it is to find good household help. Women actually had a large responsibility, and being a good household manager was a desired quality in a wife. With the husband often away for business – and sometimes in political exile – some women were also stand-ins for their husbands to a certain extent.

In the ideal sense, though, women were to stay home and do needlework; some also produced textiles in the home, spinning and weaving for the family’s needs or even beyond. Other time was intended to be spent praying using simple illustrated prayer books made specifically for women. Probably in reality more women spent time getting the massive fires going for cooking, and doing craploads of laundry for all those babies, even if servants were hired to do this. Only servants went to the market – proper ladies went out chaperoned only to church and to visit other ladies lying in, ensuring a good stream of visitors on these occasions which must have been a welcome time out to exchange gossip.

Italy roundtable: Women in Italy

So. Although the role of women today, in Italy as anywhere else, is difficult, when I feel laden town by the pseudo-medieval laundry hanging process here or when I spend a day looking after the house, I try to be thankful that I married a modern man and live in a modern world. Had I been born in 1476 instead of 1976, would I have had the knowledge, courage, or even ability to go against the grain? to not have children, to choose my life? to be educated, highly?

On the real topic of what it is like to be a woman in Italy, we knights of the monthly Italy Roundtable have been planning to write for some time. Here’s our chance to read lots of female opinions on the matter. But lately the topic has also inspired two other Florentine bloggers, so I would like to name them honourary knights for this month and have linked their posts below, too.

• Kate: This Woman’s World
• Jessica: Being a Woman in Italy: It’s Complicated
• Rebecca: In memoriam
• Gloria: Wonder Women of Tuscany
• Melanie: also coming soon

• Liz Petrosian in Letters from Florence (part I and part II)
• Michelle Tarnopolosky in Maple Leaf Mamma here

A short bibliography

For a scholarly bibliography of women and art, from a senior level university course I taught on the topic, see here.

For some nice general reading, try the following books that I have selected on Amazon.com as the best of scholar-written general public information on this topic:

Me and my mentor Giorgia

When it gets into you, step becomes an obsession. I have been doing it for three years now, 1, 2, 3 times a week. Finally, this weekend, I participated in my first step convention. These fitness conventions take place almost every weekend around Italy in the warmer months, and there are people, and instructors, who travel continuously to do them all. They usually involve one or more days of step and dance fitness. Somehow, people do this for 7 straight hours without dropping dead. Here is a video of the first class I attended at the Jem Convention in Seano (PO), taught by the world-famous French instructor Remy Huleux.

I stopped to record the video as an excuse because really, I had no chance of completing the choreography without tripping and breaking my ankle.

This obsession all started three years ago, when I went to a ‘surprise lesson’ at my gym that was a rather difficult step class taught by a very welcoming and friendly instructor, Giorgia Baldelli. Although the choreography was very difficult, I was pleased to find that my feet went pretty much where they were supposed to. I have never danced, and am perhaps the worst dancer you will ever see, so this was a really big surprise. I started attending all the step classes my gym offered, I started getting better, and my fitness level and strength have increased to the point that I have been able to start snowboarding again after a period battling with arthritis. Recently, I have joined a second gym that has even more of these classes. Now my only problem is having to go to work, for really, I’d rather be at the gym.

Top Spanish presenter Carlos Ramirez on stage with local talent Martino Raguso

I think this sport was made for me. Where else can you dance to ear-splittingly loud music during the day and without alcohol or cigarettes? The atmosphere at the convention I attended was very friendly. The area’s best ‘steppers,’ all decked out in their best hip-hop wear (Milan-based Moma Studios appears to be the brand), welcomed me as a newbie and some tried to help me catch on to moves that I wasn’t able to follow. Over lunch (apples and energy bars seem to be de riguer) I got to know a few people a bit better. They’re mostly women in their 30s and 40s – this is a real discipline with a mental element that doesn’t appeal to the very young crowd. I am always surprised to find out what people I only see at the gym do in their ‘real lives.’ There’s a lawyer, a press officer for a local politician, a banker, a mom, a journalist, an engineer. The instructors, too, often do this as a second job – Giorgia is a doctor. But when doing fitness we share a passion and energy for something positive for our bodies and minds and discussion of other parts of life is minimal. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Photo: Jem Convention

I recently published an itinerary for one week in Puglia and this town is part of it. I have visited it only as a day trip, but I got the feeling that I would be happy to stay longer because there’s a sensation of youth and livelihood here that I don’t often get in small towns anywhere in Italy, and even less in the south. There is a large public internet point, active graphic artists and a contemporary art museum in this town. But of course there is also the charming sense of age, the people sitting outside on steps, the whitewashed streets punctuated by colourful characters and amusing vehicles.

There are no major historical or cultural sites to visit in Polignano, other than the ones you will stumble upon as you wander around. In the summer, you’ll run into other tourists, but it doesn’t feel too packed, even in August.

There are three interesting things to look out for. In a piazza in the area outside the historical center there’s a state of Domenico Modugno, the writer of the famous song Volare, born here in 1928. He makes for a good picture, especially if you imitate his up thrown arms and get a good shot of the very blue sky…

Then, within the historic center, keep your eyes peeled for an unusual “poetic” staircase with a quote from Torquato Tasso, and other bits of poetry painted on the walls.

Third, look for the tiny medieval church of Santo Stefano (closed) with a funny little bell holder on top.

The beach in the summer

This text is an excerpt from my new guide to Puglia through small towns like this one, trulli, and delicious things to eat. If you’re headed to the area, you can purchase this PDF guide on Unanchor or the Puglia Unanchor Travel Guide – Amazon Kindle version. And let me know if you find it useful!

Coast towns of Cinque Terre, photo: Wikipedia

Travel by Train

To travel to Cinque Terre by train from Florence it is best to take a train departing from Firenze S. M. Novella station, you can purchase tickets from the Trenitalia website or at the ticket window in the train station.

To arrive at Cinque Terre you take the Regionale train to La Spezia Centrale (NOT La Spezia Migliarina).  *Note some trains stop at Pisa Centrale at which point you need to switch trains to make the final destination to La Spezia.  Tickets (2^nd class economy) currently cost 11.30 euro each way. Remember to validate your ticket by stamping it at the box near the platform before riding to avoid a fine.

Riomaggiore, photo: Wikipedia

Once you arrive at La Spezia Centrale, you take a short local train to Riomaggiore (the first town of the Cinque Terre). This train timetable can also be found on the Trenitalia website (departing from La Spezia Centrale and arriving at Riomaggiore). This train departs a few times each hour and takes less then 10 minutes of travel. *Note the fast trains departing from La Spezia do not stop in every one of the 5 towns.  Some only stop in Monterosso (town #5) and Riomaggiore (town #1).

Manarola, photo: Wikipedia

Traveling between towns in the Cinque Terre

The towns of Cinque Terre (Moterosso – town #5, Vernazza – town #4, Corniglia – town #3, Manarola – town #2, Riomaggiore – town #1) are minutes apart by trains departing hourly or by boat, depending upon the season. The train travels between towns in two directions – per Genova (northbound) or per La Spezia (southbound) they depart in hourly intervals which can be viewed on the TV monitors located in the stations. Tickets are about 1.80 euro per ride and are valid for 75 minutes within the region. Be sure to stamp your tickets before hopping on board.

Vernazza, Cinque Terre, 2005

If you are  feeling active you can hike between the towns.  The hiking trails that connect the towns s a great way to see the area and soak in the beauty and colors of the coast. If you choose to hike, be sure you are prepared with sunscreen and water to avoid heat exhaustion if visiting in the hot summer months, and wear proper shoes.

Monterosso, photo: Wikipedia

After enjoying a lovely day throughout the towns of Cinque Terre it is best to make your way back to La Spezia Centrale and hop on a regional train.  A few of the local trains that you used to connect towns within Cinque Terre do travel to larger destinations such as Pisa and Milan however it is much faster to ride a larger train departing from La Spezia. Especially if you have come on a day trip, make sure to write down the departure time of the last train for the evening and all the other connections you need to make. Given that trains are often late, it is best to take the second last train, rather than the latest one.

Corniglia, photo: Wikipedia

Travel by coach or car

An alternate, perhaps slightly more costly way of visiting Cinque Terre is through an organized tour. For about 90 euro per person you can save yourself the trouble of thinking about train connections – most tours include transportation by bus, departing within the city center of Florence, as well as a tour in English and a lunch.

You cannot reach Cinque Terre easily by car because the towns’ historical centers are not accessible to anyone by car, not even residents! If you do have to go by car you’ll need to park in La Spezia. Public transportation is the more environmental, cheaper, and only practical choice in this case.

Digital invasion to the rescue! A grass roots movement called #invasionidigitali is taking place from April 20-28 2013 (during ex-culture week) with a simple yet marvelous goal: to promote our nation’s cultural and artistic heritage through social media. Anyone can organize an invasion of a museum or site, announce it as an event, show up and ‘invade’ the space by taking tons of pictures, video, and posting about it online through blogs and social networks. A forced, open and sharing attitude to culture to counteract its immobility.

The idea is the brainchild of a certain Fabrizio Todisco, who has teamed up with an association of Italian bloggers, an association of small museums in Italy, an important tourism blog and the national instagrammers club. In the past week, I’ve watched the concept explode. 15 days ago I swear there was no sign of it. Without apparent promotion except natural, viral diffusion, invasions are cropping up in hundreds of locations, organized by bloggers, tour guides, photographers, associations, and anyone else who feels like participating.

#invasionidigitali seems to express both heartfelt love for the country and its treasures and an unexpressed frustration for its mismanagement. Or am I projecting my own feelings onto it? I fully subscribe to the manifesto expressed on the site, and appreciate the way it is expressed in a positive manner. It shows people taking matters into their own hands when the state won’t do anything, or can’t due to lack of funds.

The manifesto is worth translating in full for foreign readers (find the original here).

*We believe in new forms of conversation and spreading the word about the artistic patrimony that is no longer authoratative, conservative, but rather open, free, welcoming and innovative.

*We believe in a new relationship between the museum and the visitor, based on participation for the production, creation and promotion of culture.

*We believe that the platforms that create connections between visitors, experts, scholars, and those passionate about art, that permit users to collaborate with museum offerings through user-generated content can help a co-creative process of cultural value.

*We believe in a new experience when visiting cultural sites, not passive but active, where knowledge is not just transmitted but constructed, and where the visitor is involved and able to create his or her own forms of art.

*We believe that internet and social media are a huge opportunity for cultural communication, a way to get more people involved, to break down barriers and help creation, sharing, spreading and creating worth of our artistic patrimony.

*We believe that internet is able to create new methods of management, conservation, protection and communication of our resources.

I could not agree more, and could not have said it better. If you agree, you can use your facebook login to comment on the page liked above and subscribe to the manifesto.

As someone who has taught social media for cultural institutions and consults on or manages social media for museums in Tuscany, this kind of participation through social media is exactly what I have been pushing for years. Other people are even more active than I in this – blogger Hasan Niyazi has made diffusion and conversation about Italan culture his life’s goal.

In a country prone to complaining rather than taking matters into its own hands, finally someone is trying to do something. Will it have an impact? It is certainly visible, but to be honest, I have pretty strong proof that the government will not listen to even much larger and more directly institutional suggestions about how to change the management of the country’s cultural heritage (you will recall that I worked on the social media for Florens 2012, and I have yet to see concrete feedback from the Quirinale on the suggestions made at both editions of this biennial).

But let’s not get downtrodden. Bring your cell phone charger and get ready to invade a few museums. Possibly in disregard for any legislation prohibiting you from taking photos inside (oops I didn’t say that…).

In my corner of Tuscany, the following #invasionidigitali are planned:

Spring is also, conveniently, the topic of April’s Italy Blogging Roundtable. When we decided this theme, nothing had really bloomed yet and I had planned to write about the reawakening of the city of Florence with a ton of exhibits. So after a little eye candy we’ll proceed to a short recap of those, below.

Nothing kicks off the summer season like a trip to the beach, which for us means Castiglione della Pescaia. Just three weeks ago we were happily snowboarding at Abetone, but now we feel quite ready to bring out the windsurfs (a sport we took up 2 summers ago just so I could report it for the Italy Roundtable, but we’ve been too lazy to do since… I swear we will again soon). The beach has yet to be combed of its winter debris, and the tide is too high to walk for long…

A stop in the medieval town of Castiglione is de riguer. We’re far from the only ones walking up to the top of town for a view of the port and beautiful ocean.

With every wildflower in bloom I can’t resist getting up close and testing the macro function of my Olloclip, with which I am seriously impressed. The only challenge is finding things that aren’t moving or being blown by the sea wind… I did manage to catch a bug in a rosemary plant…

We also stop for a photo of the canal and bridge at a nearby natural reserve. [Just a technical note on this photo - it's frustratingly out of focus on the right side because I am using an app called Pro HDR that does a brilliant HDR as long as you can keep perfectly still. But the wind blows strong in Maremma... the colours would be nothing if it weren't for the app, but I need to find a faster HDR solution!]

Back up in Sticciano I snap a few shots from our piazza that overlooks the whole upper Maremma valley before heading in for lunch; I know it will rain again in an hour or so and I can’t let these clouds go unrecorded.

Next week I’ll be back in Florence again, where even in the city, in the few glorious moments that it’s not raining, you can enjoy the warmer season with a walk outside, or the rainy moments with one of the new exhibits that have just opened.

An obvious candidate for an article on Spring would be the Springtime of the Renaissance exhibit at Palazzo Strozzi, which I reviewed for The Florentine. This show is an introduction to the very beginning of the Renaissance, with the sculptures made for the Duomo complex and Orsanmichele. At the Uffizi there’s a show on Spanish Mannerist artists in Florence that is worth a visit if you can get in there before the crowds do, and at the Medici Chapels there is a rather academic show on the life of Pope Leo X.

Italy Roundtable

The knights of the Italy Blogging Roundtable have knighted another female member, Kate Bailward of Driving like a Maniac. Elected for her spunky sense of humour, we hope you’ll take the time to read her thoughts, as well as the others’, on the topic of Spring.

• Kate: Springing to Confusion
• Gloria: Hot Springs in Southern Tuscany
• Melanie: The Roman Spring of Tennessee Williams
• Jessica: A Room Full of Botticellis
• Rebecca. Spring in My Step

(Caprai4Love on Instagram: the 20 best photos of the bracelet displayed here will be part of an exhibit at VinItaly. Photo: Instagrammers Italia)

In Montefalco, one of the most important works of Renaissance art is a fresco cycle by the Florentine Benozzo Gozzoli, who worked alongside Fra Angelico in his workshop at San Marco and was chosen by the Medici to paint their chapel of the Magi inside the Medici Palace. Vasari never mentioned the Umbrian activity of Benozzo, which was rediscovered in the 19th century.

The presence of Benozzo Gozzoli in Montefalco is documented, other than by the actual paintings, by an autograph letter of 1452 that is now for sale. In 1452, as Gozzoli was working on his frescoes in Montefalco, Lord Michele Brancacci (son of Felice who commissioned the famous florentine chapel painted by Masaccio and Masolino) requested that the artist return to Florence for a new prestigious commission – we don’t know what this work would have been, since it never got negotiated. In the painter’s return letter, he informs Brancacci that he is working in Montefalco and soon has to travel to Viterbo (context tells us that this was to negotiate another job), basically providing a series of excuses to the Florentine for why he could not abandon Montefalco. The letter is signed ‘Benozzo di Lese dipintore. Montefalcho In san Francesco.’ (For part of the text, see here, in Italian.) Residents of this city now interpret this letter as testimony to Gozzoli’s love for Montefalco (or at least his esteem for the commission and work he was doing there).

In an effort to purchase the document for Montefalco, Cruciani, famous for its embroidery bracelets, has created a special edition #caprai4love bracelet; available as of April 7th, 2013, proceeds from the sale of #caprai4love commemorative bracelets will be donated to the Academy of Culture in Montefalco in order to purchase the Benozzo Gozzoli letter. The letter sold at auction last year at Minerva Auctions for 18,750 euros and is currently up for sale again.

Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes in Montefalco

The Gozzoli frescoes are in the church of S. Francesco, now the Museo Civico di Montefalco as it is an ex-church, well preserved, with areas dedicated to museum display in the attached convent. Gozzoli had been called to Montefalco initially by a certain Antonio da Montefalco who had met the artist when he assisted Fra Angelico at the Vatican and commissioned some panels from him in 1450. He was then called back by Jacopo da Montefalco, guardian of the convent of San Francesco, for this larger commission to illustrate the saint’s life in multiple scenes. It is his first commission outside of the Fra Angelico workshop and shows spontaneity and skill. The 12 scenes of the life of Francis are based on the franciscan sources Golden Legend and the official biography of the saint.

This is an interesting and worthy project as it shows the human side of family run, Italian industry, which feels connected to its place, its roots and its artistic heritage. Crucciani and Caprai have chosen a social diffusion of the information and asked bloggers like me to participate, which not only helps spread the word but also makes all of us participants in this crowdfunded project.

An absolutely beautiful video shows the beauty of this town and the deep feeling of its people who want to take back this piece of their history.

Please buy a bracelet today to support the movement – it is now available for only 10€ online from Cruciani. Let’s hope enough of these add up to buy  the document! Photograph your bracelet with the hashtag #Caprai4Love on Instagram to share the love!

I stopped at the MART, on the way back from a recent stay in the Dolomites, specifically to see this exhibit. Having seen the photos and material on Facebook, where I have been following the MART for years, I found the objects interesting but wanted a sense of the layout and the overall show, something I could not get online. I also wondered how the museum dealt with the challenge I pose above – not ‘selling out’. As an art and culture blogger, I have often found it frustrating that my writing remains specific to a relatively small niche, while I see food and fashion bloggers crop up and become famous (some with material of dubious quality, others worthy of their fame). I have always said that it is easier for people to relate to food, since we all eat. Communicating art is more of a challenge, and for most people, art and the visual is not so essential (or they don’t realize it, anyway). So is the answer to this problem to write about – or to exhibit – food and art?

Adrien Rovero - Pasta Sedie 1:20, 2007

Progetto cibo is about the conjunction between design and food, explored through various clever declinations, from food itself as naturally designed, to food being used in design, and design for food. The display of this show is very clever: large white, geometric tables at the center of each room display the food and objects, most of which are not protected by glass, playing on a sense of accessibility that is more subject-appropriate than museumifying the objects in glass cases and pedestals. The walls are painted a contrasting black with white writing and diagrams that are part of the exhibit, even if no artist is credited here. The graphic concept of the show is overall really great. With the only negative being that texts are only in Italian.

Museum display - credit: MART facebook page

Working one’s way through this exhibit is like a discovery in pleasure. The food and objects play on the way that memory triggers an oral response, causing often happy associations or watering mouths. In fact, it would have been wise to eat lunch before seeing the show as I risked drooling on the display.

Cordoleani&Fontana - Leccalecca Bulle, 2007

We start out with a hilarious interpretation of the orange by Bruno Munari in his book Good design, which kicks off the idea that food, in itself, is designed. There’s a section dedicated to bread and its many shapes. Then we see how, especially from the 1950s onwards, certain foods are increasingly engineered; this is visible in the food items themselves as well as a series of patent office records showing drawings for things like the perfect drip-free ice-cream cone. A colourful assortment of candies is laid out in a hypnotically repetitive pattern in which we can pick out tic-tacs, Smarties, Baci and other yummy favourites. This is where I started to get hungry.

Elsa Lambinet - Sweet Play

From designed food we move on to edible objects that serve double purposes, like sugar spoons. And from there towards food and play, objects like chocolate rulers and lego-type blocks. Museum-goers stop to point and share their joy with friends as they figure out how the objects work. It’s a social experience, certainly an exhibit to see in good company.

Mario Trimarchi, Il Tempo della festa, 2012, Courtesy Museo Alessi

Humour plays a big role in food-art, where shape and material are unexpected, producing often beautiful but weird effects, like the jelly St. Paul’s cathedral, below.

Bompas & Parr

The show overall is beautiful and has an appealingly contemporary, designer, and pop aesthetic. Unquestionably it’s an exhibit that has wider appeal than the concurrent show on the aesthetic of the educational reformist, Rudolf Steiner, but in no way does the curator, Beppe Finessi, lower the educational value of the museum here. Quite the contrary, we left having learned a few designers’ names, discovered numerous facts, and looking at food and design in a new way.

Orange peel juicer

I am always attentive to how museums manage their social media, and the MART has always been my number one example from Italy (the competition is sadly not very strong). MART’s communications department has taken advantage of the potential of the web to diffuse images of food and conversation about it to the max. They’ve started a pinterest board and a Tumblr dedicated to the exhibit. On the facebook page, photos, videos and links to press articles receive good interaction. Real world social life is encouraged by a series of events including cooking demonstrations by famous chefs and workshops for kids and adults to make anything from cookies to easter eggs. The museum is alive and well attended, both online and in physical space. And part of that secret, I am convinced, has to do with the food.

Martí Guixé, I-cakes, 2001, photo: Imagekontainer/Knölke

Visitor Information

Progetto Cibo: La forma del gusto
From February 9 to June 2, 2013
Mart Rovereto
Corso Bettini, 43 38068 Rovereto (TN)
www.mart.trento.it
Opening hours: Tues. – Sun. 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

NOTE – thanks to interaction in the comments below with the museum, here is a really beautiful video of the freehand drawing on the wall by young designers from Housatonic.

This luxury boutique hotel in the Dolomites has 90% return customers… and I set out to find out why. I had the opportunity to speak with the owner of this family run hotel, Toni Weisser, and experience for myself the wonder of this place, the fruit of the labour of three generations of a hardworking family following the vision of one man who was crazy enough to build here.

Armentarola can hardly be called a town. It’s a few kilometers outside of San Cassiano in the Alto Adige, and it’s the first inhabited place you hit if you drive over the Falzarego pass on the Lagazuoi summit at 2778 meters. The drive over this mountain pass is a recommended approach, if there’s not too much snow, for it is truly beautiful.

The word “armenti” means sunny pasture, and this was where townspeople took their animals to pasture in the summer. In the 1930s, Toni’s grandparents were looking for a place to set up a hotel and they explored the furthest corners of the Dolomites, finally settling upon this one because it is one of the sunniest spots in the valley. Indeed, there are 7 hours of sun here even on the shortest days, plus mountains on all sides, an alpine stream, and direct access to the slopes. But it was also very remote. This did not stop the enterprising Mr. Weisser, who opened up the hotel in 1938 and went to the bus stop in La Villa every day to recruit guests and bring them back on his horse.

The Weissers are not the type of people to sit still, even now, three generations later. The current owner and his mother can be found performing normal tasks alongside the staff at any time of day – serving lunch or adjusting a flower display (the latter are truly beautiful and are all the creations of Mrs. Weisser). Back in the late 30s and 40s, this was a remote place, and money was scarce, but the hardworking family did everything themselves and earned fame through good service and good food, things that haven’t changed in over 70 years.

Over the years, of course the place has been expanded and modernized, growing into a hotel that blends local tradition with extremely good taste. The public areas are absolutely gorgeous with their modern decor and occasional antiques.

Our suite was huge, comfortable and perfectly silent. Incredible attention to detail is present in everything from the very soft sheets to the lovely personal fragrance developed for the bath amenities.

The Weissers define themselves as Ladinian, the culture of the four valleys of the Alto Adige with its own language and culinary tradition, and this culture shows up in a few ways in the hotel. The first is the food.

The day starts with the most impressive breakfast I have ever seen, and being North American, I have a healthy appreciation for breakfast. I only wish I could have had more time to sit there and eat all those multigrain breads, home-made jams, fresh fruits, cheeses and pastries…

Being vegetarian, I am never able to fully evaluate a chef’s abilities, though my husband exerted himself in sampling meats so I could photograph and show them to you! The hotel’s executive chef prepares an exquisite deer, for example, without a gram of fat and served with beautifully presented sides of vegetables and spatzle. Pasta and gnocchi are reinterpreted with mountain flavours, like watercress ravioli or radicchio gnocchi. Vegetables and fruit are not frowned upon here, and are lovingly prepared with excellent variety.

A dedicated pastry chef creates some of the most exquisite biscuits I have ever tasted (I personally love cookies more than any complex dessert), which are served liberally with tea, though the more complex desserts after lunch or dinner are works of art.

Speaking of art… Another aspect of the Ladinian culture that this place promotes is workmanship. On a daily basis, one sees this in the care with which the room is prepared, but before that, in the craftsmanship of the woodworking that dominates the decor, all in reappropriated fir wood from old local houses. This appreciation for sculpture extends to the opening of Galleria Unika, in 2007, in a part of the hotel previously used for a souvenir shop. The gallery gives local artists an opportunity to show their creations to the public in an area that has basically no art galleries (and few museums, too).

Finally, Ladinian culture, and that of the Dolomites more generally, is about wellness. The hotel’s full service spa is the perfect place to relax, either with a massage or just using the sauna, steam rooms, cold water grotto and relax area.

In a short stay at Armentarola, it’d be easy to never leave the hotel. But if forced to do so, there are plenty of things to do here year round, whether or not you love to ski. We took advantage of the location right on the hills of Alta Badia to snowboard without exerting ourselves too much… the views on a sunny day in this part of the Dolomites are spectacular and I felt just happy to take it in while taking it easy on the slopes. In the summer, hiking is an obvious choice, though the hotel also has stables for horse lovers.

The area’s history can be explored on skiis with a new itinerary dedicated to the first world war. 99 kilometers, of which 43 on skiis, take you to see some of the most spectacular views of the Dolomites and its mountains – Civetta, Pelmo, 5 Torri, Tofana, Lagazuoi, Conturines, Settsass, Sassongher, Sella and Marmolada. From May 24, 1915, to November, 1917, this area was a frontline at which the Italians for a while hoped to win the war. Along the path there are points of interest (trenches, galleries and encampments) constructed by soldiers on both sides during the Great War while fighting the enemy and the extreme elements.

Visitors wishing to learn more about Ladinian culture can do so at two area museums. In San Cassiano there’s a small museum dedicated to the Ursus Ladinicus, a now exinct cave dwelling bear whose bones were recently discovered nearby. The museum – a must for kids – contextualizes this bear within local nature (flora, fauna and the like) and also takes the opportunity to introduce visitors to local culture. About 40 minutes away is a related museum dedicated specifically to this culture which is explained through a series of dioramas and interactive displays (see www.museumladin.it).

One thing’s for sure in this sunny corner of the Dolomites: the service, the food, and the spectacular location steeped in local history makes for an unforgettable experience, one that I hope to repeat in the future.

Point shoes and cracked pavements. Tutus and holes in walls. Graceful poses and graffiti. The abandoned buildings of Area Giardino – an ex tobacco manufacturer, an ex-cinema and other historic structures – become a backdrop for the animation of the ballerini of the Accademia dello spettacolo UniKa (www.unikadanzamusicateatro.com) and the Compagnia Altradanza (www.altradanza.com).

In an earlier stage of the project, about a year ago, the photographers concentrated on another area of Bari, Rossani, site of a large and abandoned military building. The Caserma Rossani is the site of a heated debate at the moment: the very centrally located space, near the train station, has been considered for a requalification project for some time, but administration has to decide between accepting private financing, and thus perhaps private use of the building, or finding public funds in order to create a 100% public space here. The first proposal would open up tourism and central living by offering a shopping mall and condos.

Both series of photographs are of incredible beauty. They are perfectly lit – you can tell that the photographers studied each location carefully throughout the day and picked the right light in which to get their shots. The colours are contrasty and poppy without being overdone. Compositions highlight both buildings and dancers in the contrasting juxtaposition that tells the story they wish to tell. Interestingly, they make little use of details, with the exception of this detail of point shoes on cracked pavement that particularly struck me.

Here’s hoping that Elisabetta and Olga, pictured below, reach their goal through this project: bringing awareness to local administration and to the general public, through blogs like this one and through social media (see their albums on the Bari Urban Action facebook page). Perhaps ten years from now, Area Giardino and Caserma Rossani will be safe and clean, and we’ll be adding them to our list of must-see places in Puglia.

PS – I recently visited Puglia but skipped Bari. Purchase my one-week Puglia itinerary on unanchor or on Amazon Kindle.

How to get to Abetone from Florence

Abetone is located in the province of Pistoia just 1.5 hours away from the city of Florence. Here is how to get there by car (see below for bus). If you are already at the north side of the city or are leaving from Sesto Fiorentino or Prato you’re even closer! To get there, you take the A11 highway (also known as Firenze-Mare) in the direction of Prato, Pistoia, Lucca etc. Exit at Pistoia and you’ll be on a bit of divided connecting road for less than one kilometer. If you need to fill up the tank or use the washroom, there is a Beyfin gas station here that has the best prices in the area, and the last easily accessible washroom until you hit Abetone. Take the next exit which says Abetone and you’ll be on a 2 lane mountain road for the next 50 minutes or so, more if there is snow. The final stretch of this road is quite steep and there is an area to put on chains.

Note that it is obligatory to have chains or snow tires to drive on the highways in Italy in the winter time, and many small roads into the mountains also have and enforce this rule. Chains may well be necessary if you’re arriving at Abetone when it has snowed in the previous 24 hours.

You will pass through a first ski village where there is a chairlift, but don’t stop here. Continue to Abetone proper and you will see street parking on the left side and then a piazza with a few parking spots in it. Try to grab the first street spot you see. Parking is paid at the parcometer by the hour and costs something like 8 euros for the day, so bring lots of 1 and 2 euro coins. If you don’t get a spot in the paid lots, you can park along the side of the road for free. There is a bar and 2 ski rental places here, and just up the hill a bit you’ll find the hut selling tickets and the Selletta chairlift.

If you don’t have a car but prefer to take the bus (be forewarned, the road is pretty twisty), the public bus system COPIT offers a day trip return bus between Florence (near the train station) and Abetone. Here is the schedule in pdf. It costs 21€ return and you get a 3 euro discount on the ski pass. There is one departure time and two return times per day.

If you prefer the liberty of driving yourself, you could consider renting a car with SIXT in Florence, either at the airport or downtown.

About the ski resort

This Tuscan family ski resort has retained more than just a touch of the old fashioned, and not the quaint 50s of Cortina but the kinda ugly 70s of backwoods Tuscany. But don’t let that put you off. Located in the Appenine mountain range, it boasts about 50km of trails and 22 lifts. The 30 trails are mostly ‘blue’ beginner/intermediate trails with a few ‘red’ intermediate/advanced runs. The base is at 1400 meters and the highest point is Monte Gomito at 1892 meters. The ski pass allows you to also ski on runs at Val di Luce, a connected resort. Unless it is socked in with fog, Val di Luce has somewhat better light than some of the slopes at Abetone, especially in the afternoon when the light gets flat on the Zeno runs.

When skiing in Italy you’ll find good food at the chalets (unlike the watery hot chocolate and frozen fries of my Canadian childhood), and Abetone has not suffered price inflation, so you can grab lunch for 8 euros, be it polenta or a plate of pasta! The chalet near the parking lot has a nice selection of pastries and a fireplace by which to sit. Unfortunately these chalets haven’t been updated to offer modern washrooms – the brown tile and limited number of stalls was for me a bit of a revelation. In some ways Abetone seems like it’s just another Tuscan town with a bar or restaurant that just happens to be on a ski hill.

The ski pass is also a pretty reasonable price. If you are able to go mid week, it is discounted on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, costing only 26.50€ (2013). The weekend pass costs 36€.

Where to stay

You can easily make Abetone a day trip, but it’s less tiring if you can treat yourself to a weekend there! We stayed at hotel Abetone e Piramidi, a 4 star adjacent to where the street parking begins. Our room was nicely appointed and quiet and the service at this hotel was very good. I found the restaurant acceptable and the breakfast below average (nothing fresh) but the location and comfort is the best in the area.

Italy Roundtable

This month’s Italy Blogging Roundtable topic is hills or mountains – I’ve shown you the mountain closest to me on which to practise my passion for snowboarding. Let’s see what the other female knights have produced! Read the posts, leave comments, share them with your friends – and tune in next month for another Italy Blogging Roundtable topic.

• Jessica from Andiamo – Italy Roundtable: Why do we love Italian hill towns?
• Rebecca from Brigolante – Italy Roundtable: The Colfiorito Marshlands
• Melanie from Italofile – The Seven Hills of Rome: What Are They & What Can You See
• Gloria from At Home in Tuscany - This is Tuscany too: Monte Amiata

It did not take us long to figure out that most things on the market were much worse than our own home, either for location or space… or cost! New constructions were nice but so skimpy on the storage space that we had no idea where we would put our extensive collection of luggage and sports equipment. But we had to address some major problems here. And thus we decided to tear apart pretty much the whole apartment. I mean, you know, it started small, but soon took on its own life. It’s a job that took about 3 months from the first swing of the sledgehammer to the final layer of paint that made it liveable, with finishing touches lasting another few months. We had to move out, and vagabonded around all summer dependent on friends and family – we moved four times in 2.5 months.

Below, read the story of what we did, see the photos of how it turned out, read my tips for brighter ground floor living, more tips you should know before renovating in Italy, and find links to suppliers I came to love and highly recommend.

Here’s what we had to fix: other than intolerable aesthetic issues, we had: (1) a pitch dark living room (the photo below was a very bright day and a very good camera, photoshopped. It never looked like that), (2) loud upstairs neighbours that I was ready to shoot, (3) a front hall closet full of mold and some other humidity issues and (4) entry through the garden directly into the living room, with no space for shoes or coats.

Before - composite kitchen, living, bathroom - a symphony of tiles and bright colours.

While I have a good sense for interior design, I realized that expert help was required. I called in a designer friend, Stefano Giovacchini, who does colour design consulting and application of designs on walls. He brought along his architect colleague Francesco Fazzi. They listened to our observations, took measurements, and immediately thought of solutions that had never crossed my mind. Francesco noticed the way that what little light entered through the french doors from the garden was blocked by a wall dividing the kitchen from the living room. And so we decided to tear down that wall. A few months went by deciding on a final floor plan, materials, costs, and the contractor who would carry it out. And permits. Waiting for permits.

Here is the floor plan we decided on. The red indicates demolitions, while the yellow is new construction in plasterboard. The intervention involves mainly the ‘day area’ – kitchen, living and dining area. Besides the walls, we also changed the height of the space which had been lowered by drop ceilings.

While waiting for the paperwork to go through, we made our final choices about materials. In this, we were lucky to have chosen an all-in-one contractor, Miro, who was able to provide many of the materials through stock contacts. Mirko found us great stock deals on the grès used in the bathroom, kitchen and entranceways. Here you see Mirko and Francesco holding potential wood samples in natural light. The one I wanted cost 156 euros per square meters. Obviously I had to choose something that cost half that…

Mid June, 2012. We’ve moved out and are trying to monitor the renovation daily while living in an apartment borrowed from a friend, in the midst of a heat wave. My kitchen looked like this (did I mention that that wall was a supporting wall and thus required major I-beam insertion not to mention extra paperwork?). The bathroom wasn’t faring much better. The dust from the torn-out drop ceilings was just settling. I felt strangely calm.

There are two months’ more photos similar to this one but I will spare you the details. The process of stripping the house down to its bare essentials helped us understand that we made the right choice: we have very high ceilings and good space, including lots of storage. The windows are a bit small, but with professional help we were able to make the most of them. When it came time to mount the new drop ceilings we made them as high as possible while leaving space to hide tubes. The previous ceiling actually stepped down lower as one got away from the door/ light source, badly thought out by the previous residents. We made ours flat, except for one corner which forms a triangle and comes down at an angle, made to reflect the light from what is essentially the centerpiece of this project, a custom made LED lamp. The construction guys had a ball trying to make this angle support the weight of the materials.

(Mounting support for new drop ceiling, you can see the height of the previous ceiling where the paint colour ends, and the triangle that was constructed to reflect light)

Finally the time came to see the design made real. Stefano showed me the paint colours in person and proceeded to apply the backsplash of the kitchen, which is a special kind of paint coated with layers of wax that seal and create thickness on the wall. After so much black grouting, I invented a house with no grout. As for the colours, they are all natural, calming colours. Even the yellow, of which I was royally sick, is a natural earth tone very different from the jarring one I had chosen before.

After much micro managing, our house was done. We still have to find solutions for some of the spaces, but all in all, we’re much happier here now. The space is brighter, more functional, and more healthy. How did we address the issues we had before in order to be satisfied with the new/old home?

1) Light: new layout, colours, reflective materials, and more (see below)

2) The neighbours. I hired two guys named Rocco and Vinnie to take them out. Just kidding. Mirko made our bedroom into a padded cell with natural cork boards on the ceiling and the wall that contains pipes that allowed me to hear the signore upstairs making morning pipì at 6:10am. We still hear them fighting sometimes but I am much less homicidal now.

3) The mold. Turns out that, other than residue from a previous flooding problem, water was infiltrating from the hideous tiled shower stall into the wall, causing the whole front hall closet to be useless for the storage of coats. Just in case, a slice of wall was basically cut out and filled in with impermeable materials that block any water that wishes to come up from the foundations of the apartment. Other humid areas of plaster have been fixed and we’ve installed air conditioning and dehumidifiers throughout.

4) The entrance hall was created by sacrificing one square meter of kitchen.

What does it look like now?

Satisfy your curiosity!

The minimalist living room contains only a grey sofa and wall unit. The peek-through window wall is painted yellow ochre. The ceiling and wall decor called 'Origami' is hand painted by Disegno Design (Stefano and Silvia)

The centerpiece of the house is the ERA light, designed by Stefano Giovacchini, a unique prototype produced by Mariplast. It is a dimmable LED tuned to the colour of daylight.

The ERA is powered by its supported cables that are anchored into the drop ceiling. In the future it will be retrofitted with Arduino based controls to respond to our movements.

View into kitchen from the new entrance hall. Sliding glass doors block both sides.

The kitchen by Cesar is in the style of Ernestomeda, very high quality but with few advertising costs. The appliances are Samsung. The Faber vent was chosen as one of the quietest on the market.

The new minimalist shower does not leak. As I hate tiles, the only tiles on the wall are here.

The bathroom has been decorated with the same 'origami' pattern by Disegno Design. The area behind the sink is waterproof. The Grohe taps were bought online from Germany at half price.

Before renovating in Italy you need to know…

You need a permit if you’re making any changes to the inside of your house that involve breaking tiles, and touching pipes or wires. Currently this is a relatively simple DIA, or declaration to the city that you’re starting a renovation and you can start the day you file. However, if you are changing volumes of space in relation to openings, or if you are taking out supporting walls, there is further paperwork that needs to be filed by a civil engineer and that takes time to process. If you’re using a construction company, along with the DIA you need to provide certain certifications and information about the company that must be in good order. Hiring an architect or Geometra to do this is the only way to save the hair on your head. Do find out the costs of all these permits and the processing cost by your architect or geometra and calculate that into your total budget.

Second, find out what fiscal breaks there are for renovation at the time you start. I was very lucky that, while we waited for our paperwork to go through, the deduction for renovation of any type passed from 36 to 50% of the total cost! There are further tax breaks for energy saving elements. This money will (supposedly) be given back as a tax break over the next 10 years. To take advantage of these tax breaks you need to be a resident and you have to pay all the suppliers with a special form at the bank, on which you also declare the permit number of your renno job. For energy saving renovations, you need a further declaration (study) by an engineer, which may cost you more to get than the amount you’d get back on taxes.

If you have money set aside, renovating during this moment of crisis can be advantageous. We found that Miro, especially, was very happy to take on our job even at the expensive of commuting from Lucca to Florence each day. They were 30% cheaper than suppliers in Florence and 100% more dedicated because they sent a whole team each day to our home, rather than local companies who often have contractors on multiple projects at once. Good prices can be found now on supplies, either through stock or online. The fiscal advantage is also good right now. For the cost of moving, considering transport, taxes, notary etc, we have made our house the way we always wanted it.

Tips for happy ground floor living

• Use natural, light colours. Bright colours create false happiness. The whitewashed wood floors I chose make a huge difference.
• We also painted wooden doors white. Despite the fact that they were good quality solid wood, they made the place look really old fashioned, while the white makes it seem new and bright.
• Use lots of glass doors. Frosted glass is nice.
• Buy good quality lamps. We used to have a ton of built-in lighting (badly thought out by the previous owners) plus an assortment of cheap lamps from Ikea and Leroy Merlin. Out with the cheap, in with Artemide. Above our couch we have the Artemide Talo with a bright halogen bulb, while the globe-like kitchen lamp is also Artemide, the Dioscuri, used also in the hallway in a smaller size. Above the table is a custom made lamp designed by Stefano Giovacchini.
• For security gates on the external french doors, we had the classic ‘Spagnoli’ accordion type that most homes have in Florence. Changing to hand-forged iron bars made a huge difference in the amount of light that passes through.

Recommended suppliers

• Design by Disegno Design, Lucca (Stefano Giovacchini)
• Architecture by Francesco Fazzi (no website)
• Construction by Miro, Lucca (Mirko) – good prices, precise work, reliable workers and very very patient!
• Kitchen by Cesar, bought at Personal Cucina, Lucca – best price for quality and style
• Artemide lamps from Design Luce (excellent prices)

The laboratories are called La città laboratorio (the city as lab),  Florario (Floral) and Masquerade (dress-up). The first takes kids out into the city surrounding the museum to look at the sheilds and symbols of the medieval town’s families and corporations. A kind of historical brand awareness that ends with children making up their own heraldic symbol.

Florario, inspired by the historic floral collection by Gucci, displayed in the museum, takes children on a fascinating storytelling trip through the legends and symbols of plants and flowers. Using art from the Renaissance to the modern day, they’ll look for the secrets of plants and their messages.

Floral world exhibit at Museo Gucci, Photo Richard Bryant / Gucci

Finally, Masquerade takes advantage of the current contemporary art show of Cindy Sherman’s Early Works, allowing kids to conjure their own self portrait.

The age group of the children is not specified, though my guess is aged 6 to 12.

The dates scheduled from now until May 2013 are:

• LA CITTA’ LABORATORIO – sabato 23 febbraio
• FLORARIO – sabato 23 marzo
• MASQUERADE – sabato 20 aprile
• LA CITTA’ LABORATORIO – sabato 25 maggio

The Cappella Rucellai, also known as Santo Sepolcro, was quickly executed and concluded in 1467, as is attested to by the date inscribed in Latin above the entrance door, and is a scale copy of the building in Jerusalem (said to be Christ’s original tomb) which circulated in numerous drawings in the Renaissance. It was the modest tomb chapel of the patron, Giovanni Ruccellai, who was pretty much the second richest man in Florence at the time.

The idea to have a chapel in this shape occurred to other rich men too, like to Georg Emerich who, after having become knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in 1465 (thanks to a pilgrimage there), had a scale copy of the building made in Görlitz (Germany, eastern border). Other copies in Germany and Poland followed. (See this book, page 120) Differences between the Northern and Italian reconstructions of the tomb in Jerusalem are chalked up to the idea that Alberti’s version is an ideal reconstruction.

The marble decorations are attributed to Giovanni di Bertino, and consist of finely sculpted gigli up top, thin fluted pilasters, and numerous geometric and floreal intarsiated insertions in the building’s square units. There are, in fact, 30 squares and each holds a symbol that is related either to the patron and members of the Medici family (to whom he wished to suck up), or to astrology. For a detailed analysis of the musical symbolism in this work see the study by Angela Pintore here.

The interior consists of a single altar and painting (I was unable to find out who the painting is by).

Visiting this chapel was very important in the 15th century – in 1471, a papal bull accorded an indulgence (5 years!) to anyone who visited it over Easter.

The visit to the museum and chapel will be FREE on the weekend of February 16&17. Concurrently there is the launch of an app that uses QR codes to explore Marino Marini’s life and works, that also includes an Alberti itinerary through the city. The museum has activated free wifi to allow visitors to use the app.

For other works by Alberti for the Rucellai family, see Palazzo Rucellai or visit the facade of Santa Maria Novella, which features the puffed sail, the patron’s symbol.

For offline reading, see a list of Books by Leon Battista Alberti on Amazon.com

Visitor information

Entry via Museo Marino Marini
Piazza San Pancrazio, Firenze
Opening hours: 10:00 – 17:00, Closed tuesdays, sundays and holidays
Ticket cost: Museum + Cappella Rucellai: €4
www.museomarinomarini.it

25 people will be permitted to enter every 30 minutes.

Photo source: Press photos, credit Dario Lasagni – not for reproduction

Let’s look at the room and the works it now holds. I’m going to start out with a description of the new layout, and then proceed to list the works in the room, with an analysis of these works written in partnership with fellow blogger Hasan Niyazi.

New room

The decision to move the Doni Tondo to a larger room is a sane one, as anyone who has ever competed with crowds to see it in the old space will confirm. The old Room 35, just next door to the new one, was a shallow room with the entrance and exit doorways to the right. Crowds had to push in to the left and there wasn’t much space to see the Tondo from a distance, nor could the room accommodate more than one tour group at a time. Other paintings in the room were all but ignored. And the visitor flow was terrible as you had to go out on the same side as you came in.

The new space chosen to house the Doni Tondo is a large, independent room right next door, which in the 17th century was where the nucleus of the self-portrait collection was housed, and more recently held Barocci’s Madonna del Popolo and other counter-reformation works. A large double door permits visitors to enter and exit, while the room, with marble flooring and natural lighting, provides a natural visitor flow around the large piece of Roman statuary in its center.

Another view of the room, photo: stamptoscana

This statue of Ariadne, on permanent loan from the Archaeological Museum, and the red walls are the most striking and innovative elements in the room. I asked the museum’s architect, Antonio Godoli, about the choice of colour – was it intended to match the reds in some of these specific paintings? He joked: “Well, of course it’s very studied – you can’t change the paint on the wall of the Uffizi every few years, on a whim!” “These are the colours of museum walls,” he continued. He refers to the blue rooms on the lower level, that he designed and opened last year, and the red of the Tribune, the same tone used here. Although the Uffizi Gallery has always had white walls, unlike the Pitti Palace, which in later centuries was decked out with damask and velvet fabrics in rich colours, the red and blue walls here are in line with the tastes of the Dukes, who might well have chosen the most expensive pigments to decorate their walls. Furthermore, the colours are in line with those used in other international museums, although Godoli says, with some regret, that the more neutral tones employed in some of the rooms at London’s National Gallery simply would not be appropriate here. He also encourages us to visit in the evening, as he says the lighting is dramatic and the red looks even better then.

The preparation of this room and moving the works cost 130.000 euro and was entirely financed by American charity, Friends of the Uffizi (and its Italian sister organization Amici degli Uffizi). You can see a video of restorers moving the Doni Tondo at night.

The paintings

Take a look around with this short video I shot during the press preview of the room.

The following are the works now in Room 35. To better explain what each has to do with Michelangelo, I have asked fellow blogger Hasan Niyazi to place them in context. He is an expert on Raphael and so is familiar with a number of the subjects represented here, about which I know very little. If you don’t already, you should read his blog 3 Pipe Problem.

Hasan’s contributions are indicated by a shaded box (like this).

Please note that while we have done our best to make sense of conflicting and incorrect material online listing the entire contents of this room, this list may still contain errors. We have both scratched our heads trying to figure out what all of these works have to do with the Doni Tondo, or how the various artists are connected. Hasan has done an incredible job pulling out some rather tenuous relationships between them. Which leads one to ask how likely it is that the average viewer will ever come up with this kind of understanding, which seems to be intended, but not explicated, by the curators of the Uffizi.

Front wall facing entrance to room:

1) Doni Tondo, Michelangelo, 1504

Commissioned by the merchant Agnolo Doni (either for his wedding to Maddalena Strozzi or for the birth of their first child), it is the only certain painting by Michelangelo. It entered into the Medici collections in 1594 at the death of the last member of the Doni family. In the 17th century, it was located in the Tribune, on the wall facing the entrance. This is interesting if one considers that the red chosen for the walls is the same as that of the Tribune; probably this historic location is thus directly correlated to the modern paint choice.

Rather a lot could be said both about this work’s iconography and its stylistic influence on all subsequent art, which would be a whole other article.

2) Arianna Addormentata (Sleeping Ariadne), 3d century Roman copy of a Hellenistic original

It is believed that Michelangelo admired this work of Roman art, a copy of a Greek Hellenistic sculpture, which was discovered in Rome during his lifetime. The figure’s hefty arms may be reflected in the raised arm of the Madonna in the Tondo. See the photo below for comparison.

On account of the snake armlet around its left arm, the “Sleeping Ariadne” was referred to as a “Dying Cleopatra” by early writers. A version was owned by Pope Julius II, purchased for the Belvedere fountain in Rome in 1512 -  and is now in the Vatican Museum. Some authors note Ariadne’s pose may have influenced Michelangelo in his later fresco “The Conversion of St Paul” (1542-5). It is however,  difficult to find any known version of the Ariadne statue as a source for the posture of the Virgin’s arm in the “Doni Tondo” The Ariadne now in the Uffizi can be traced back as far as 1572, and later became part of the Medici collection in Rome. It was removed from Rome in 1787, and until recently was located at the Villa Corsini,  outside Florence.

Same arm?

3) Francesco Granacci  “Joseph Led to Prison,” 1515 and “Joseph Presents His Father and Brothers to the Pharaoh,” 1516-1517.

Joseph led to prison

Joseph Presents His Father and Brothers to the Pharaoh

Born in Volterra, Francesco Granacci is described by Vasari as a lifelong friend and confidant of Michelangelo. Both were exposed to the arts in Lorenzo the Magnficent’s sculpture garden, and trained in Domenico Ghirlandaio’s workshop.  Granacci was later to assist Michelangelo during the early stages of his work on the Sistine ceiling. The scenes from the story of Joseph (Book of Genesis) are related – again, by Vasari – as being painted on the “head board of a couch” for Pier Francesco Borgherini for his palazzo on the Borgo SS. Apostoli in Florence, now known as the Palazzo-Borgherini-Roselli del Turco.

Right side of room (if facing the Doni Tondo): works from the Scuola dell’Annunziata

4) “The Risen Christ Appearing to St. Mary Magdalene,” 1509-1510 by Andrea del Sarto

Andrea del Sarto, Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen

Why is this work here? Perhaps it is because Andrea del Sarto worked with Franciabigio (see below) for a short time; or because he had works in the Palazzo Borgherini in the same room as the Granacci “Josephs,” according to Vasari.

5) “Madonna with Child and Young St. John” by Franciabigio (early 16th century).

Franciabigio, Madonna and Child with young saint John

6) “Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St Job,” by Franciabigio (early 16th century).

Franciabigio, Madonna and Child with saints

Franciabigio worked with Albertinelli and later had a brief partnership with Andrea del Sarto. He traveled to Rome around 1511, his later works displaying the influence of  Raphael’s Roman manner in composition and color. He is now mostly noted by scholars for his distinctive, naturalistic portraits.

Left side of room (if facing the Doni Tondo): works from Scuola di San Marco:

7) “Mother and Child,” by Giuliano Bugiardini

Giuliano Bugiardini also spent his formative years in the sculpture garden of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and was among the group of painters that assisted Michelangelo in the early period of the Sistine frescoes.

8 ) “Visitation,” 1503, by Mariotto Albertinelli

Mariotto Albertinelli is recorded by Vasari as the “compagno” of Baccio della Porta (later known as Fra Bartolommeo). They met in the workshop of Cosimo Roselli, and later worked from the shop located in della Porta’s home, near the San Pier Gattolini Gate. Albertinelli was influenced by Raphael and later trained Bugiardini (see below) and Franciabigio . The “Visitation” is considered to be his Albertinelli’s greatest work.

There are three small predella panels below the “Visitation” – depicting the Annunciation, Nativity and Presentation in the Temple

9) “Vision of St. Bernard” by Fra Bartolommeo (aka Baccio della Porta)

Fra Bartolomeo

Fra Bartolommeo’s “Vision of St. Bernard” is arguably his finest work, commissioned for a chapel in the Badia in Florence in 1504. It is a pleasing addition to the new Michelangelo room, reflecting the great innovation of Florentine artists during this period. Like the Doni Tondo, Bartolommeo’s “Vision” had a tremendous impact on the young Raphael, working intermittently in Florence before 1508.  The combined influence of both these works on Raphael culminates in the altarpiece created for Sigismondo dei Conti for the Franciscan Church of Santa Maria in Araceoli, now known as the “Madonna di Foligno”, and one of the signature Raphael works in the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Rome. Also in Florence (at the Galleria Palatina), the pose of Raphael’s “Madonna del Granduca” was derived from Fra Bartolommeo’s unique work. Writing in 2011, Professor Alexander Nagel describes how the “Vision of St Bernard” allowed Raphael to infuse the modern, naturalistic style into the ancient tradition of icon painting:  “It is not just that Raphael begins with a modern source and pares it down. It is as if he recognized in Fra Bartolommeo’s visionary “proposal” a path back to archaic models of the image, and specifically to the format of icon painting.” In essence, Fra Bartolommeo’s use of colour and dynamic positioning of figures had a dramatic effect on Raphael, whose innovations resonated in Western art for centuries.

10) “Portia,” 1495, by Fra Bartolomeo

Portia

An allusion to Portia of Cato, the second wife of Brutus, one of Julius Caesar’s assassins. Scholars believe this to be a pendant painting to the “Minerva” at the Louvre.

Entry wall:

12) “Salomè with the Baptist’s Head,” c. 1518 by Gonzàlez de Berruguete Alonso

Berruguete, Salome with the head of St. John

“Madonna and Child,”c. 1517 by Gonzàlez de Berruguete Alonso

Berruguete, “Madonna and Child"

This Spanish painter, sculptor and architect studied sculpture under Michelangelo.

Fra Bartolommeo, Annunciation (grisaille scene on front) / Circumcision & Nativity on back, circa 1500

Annunciation dyptich - photo Friends of the Uffizi

A little gem in a glass box to finish off our visit. The grisaille scene of the Nativity on what is presumably the front of the work (based on narrative sequence) and the two scenes on its back are divided by a frame with somewhat odd ‘stepped’ inserts that lead me to believe that the frame is not at all original and that some parts of the painting have been lost over time. (See another photo here)

—–

Sources

Friends of the Uffizi, Press material

Nagel, Alexander. The Controversy of Renaissance Art University of Chicago Press, 2011, pp. 74-75 (quote from p.77); The sections “The painter’s new profession” and “Raphael extracts the icon” detail Fra Bartolommeo’s impact and influence, particularly on Raphael.

Langdon, G. Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal from the Court of Duke Cosimo I. University of Toronto Press. 2006. p.129

Haskell, F & Penny, N. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900. Yale University Press. 1981. pp.186-187

What’s the difference between a Maker and an artisan? An artisan is a traditional tradesperson who uses traditional and often hand-operated tools to produce items on a small scale that may be classic or modern in style. The definition of ‘Maker’ differs a bit between what some people are calling Makers in the USA and what the Italian community understands it to be. While our American counterparts associate Makers with the general DIY movement (cfr ‘Make Magazine’), the Italian and, I believe, more correctly specific definition, limits the term to those who use certain digital means to produce tangible objects – thus calling them artigiani ditigali gives a pretty good sense of what we’re talking about. Furthermore, there tends to be a difference in mentality between Makers and artisans that is a defining element of the movement, and that is a belief in openness and sharing. Open source hardware and software, as well as collaboration, are a big part of this movement, in part out of necessity since, being new and mostly promoted by young people, there’s a need to teach each other how to use machines and materials. The artisan tradition involves a more structured and single-disciplinary process passed from teacher to apprentice. This is a simplified definition so any open artisans can hold their protests for now, okay? I know you exist and you’re just great. Really.

So what exactly do Makers… make? Well, they like to use mainly three technologies. The first is the one that receives the most press these days, and that’s 3D printing. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, but chances are you haven’t had the chance to see a 3D printer or its products up close. It’s like an ink jet printer, except that the ink is melted plastic that is laid down in layers that are defined by a 3D modelling program (like Google sketchup, which is free). In the past few years, major progress has been made in bringing low resolution desktop versions of these machines on to the market. For 600 euros or so, you can have one in your house and print out anything plastic you put your mind to. This technology has been used on an industrial level for years to make prototypes, but only recently has it been considered potentially useful for finished products. In particular, it allows independent young designers to have ideas and print them out right away, giving them an immediate and physical feedback for their ideas, and permitting, in some cases, direct commercialization on a small scale. An example is the Block Lamp made by Stefano Giovacchini, a young designer friend of mine from Lucca. Low cost, simple, with minimalist lines but a new kind of ‘handmade’ texture, that of the melted layers of plastic typical of 3D printing.

Block lamp, 3D printed and designed by Stefano Giovacchini

3D printers are controlled by a computer chip that is a kind of open-source hardware called Arduino. Arduino was developed in Italy, and is still made in Italy, and without it, probably the Makers movement would not exist. With this cheap piece of equipment, you can make things in the physical world respond to digital or physical input. For example, you can set up a Christmas tree in Florence and have people around the world send a tweet to turn it on, make it blink, etc. You need some basic programming, but mainly, you need an idea and a sense of the logic that needs to be applied to make it work. There are Arduino workshops being held regularly around the world; I recently attended some in Florence (you can read about that here). When asked to give an example of what you can make with Arduino, one of the most typical examples is a device called Botanicalls that allows your plant to send you a tweet when it needs water.

The third technology that Makers love is lasercut. Again, this is not new technology, but smaller, cheaper machines have recently made it available to a consumer public. Many crafters use small lasercutters to make cards and cutouts that they once would have attempted with an x-acto knife, only you can now cut incredibly complex patterns and with less risk of missing the line… or cutting yourself! But most of all you can cut thin strips of plywood and plexiglass with these machines (commercial ones cut thicker wood and metal too). Anyone able to draw a vectorial image in photoshop, or hand draw something flat and then scan it, can design for lasercut. The technology is particularly suited to making colourful acrylic jewelry and home accessories. One example I love combines technology and fashion: this lasercut USB ring by Annaluisa Franco, a professor at the IED design school here in Florence. Strips of lasercut acrylic are combined and clip together to hold a thin 8GB USB inside, so you can wear your memory!

USB ring by Annaluisa - for sale on MakeTank

The real revolution of the Makers movement is the consumer to consumer model it allows. That is, single producers – i.e. guys with garages, or you with a computer – can design and make things and sell them to single consumers. The first successful website to make this happen is Etsy, where crafters of all types can offer things for sale. Etsy sold 895 million dollars worth of merchandise last year, and it takes a listing fee and cut of each sale. There are lots of beautiful things by what we are calling (digital) Makers on Etsy, but they’re hard to find amongst the more traditional crafts. Which brings us to MakeTank, which I said at the beginning of this article would like to become Etsy for Makers. Starting with Italian Makers we know, and moving out towards a European and eventually international set of vendors, MakeTank offers a space to help single people make businesses out of their passion for designing and producing great stuff. It’s also a blog that keep tabs on the entire movement, published both in Italian and English to help Italians access some of the information out there that is only available in English.

The store is currently (Feb 2012) in Beta launch mode which means I am writing about something that is online but not technically ‘launched’ just yet. You’re likely to see a few mistakes in the shop, and we’re still waiting for many vendors to insert their products. But in a few months we’ll have a big launch party, and if you see the shop at that time, hopefully what you’ll see is a good range of the kind of products Italian Makers are creating these days. We think that the historic Italian sense of design, the manual skills present from the artisan tradition, and the desire, on the part especially of young people, to start one’s own business despite all the associated challenges is going to result in a boom of this movement in Italy – a new kind of ‘handmade’ that will be treasured worldwide.

Italy roundtable on the topic of ‘handmade’

Each month, the female knights of the roundtable publish on a given topic. Check out they have interpreted the topic of handmade in Italy.

• Gloria: Nonna Ivetta’s traditional cantuccini
• Jessica: Crafting a “Handmade in Italy” Travel Experience
• Rebecca: Italy Roundtable: Umbria’s New Brews

Let’s catch up with Valentina, one of the two authors of the project, to find out more about it.

Valentina, you and Mattia created this project – not a big DMO like the country of Sweden, who started the trend. Who are you and… what made you do it?!

Valentina and Mattia in a 'recent' photo

Mattia and I are  long-time neighbours and friends who spent their childhood in Forlì, Italy. After College graduation, I moved to Berlin, Germany where I found a nice job and an awesome finnish boyfriend. Mattia is still living in the same building where we grew up, in Italy, but soon he might move abroad too, for new adventures.
The idea for the project came from a friend of mine: one day she wrote on Facebook “Next week I will be representing Germany on Twitter!”. Following her week of tweets for the german account, I got to know the entire network of #RotationCuration projects and I found out that, save some exceptions like Sweden, all the accounts were born spontaneusly from normal people. The odd thing for me was that Italy was not active in the network (along with most of the south european countries). I had a conversation with Mattia about it and the decision was unanimous: Italy must be in the list, and if nobody want to do it, we should do it!

Well, this account comes from the basement, with no budget in promoting it and no media coverage: this is a bigger challenge for us but it is still worth it. As for now, the number of the followers on Twitter is raising along with the general interest in the project and the volunteers are coming in quickly.

Until now we had five volunteers, ‘curators’ as we call them. All of them applied to the project when we didn’t even start to tweet: they are our heroes! The first curator was Alen, a sardinian living in Cologne, Germany, who was already a follower of the Germany account, like me, so it was easy to call him in. Then Valentina from Italy, Federica from the UK, then Giorgia and Marta, both currently in Italy. They, along with the future curators already in our official list, are very interesting people and I would say that the thing that bring them in common is a certain affinity with Twitter and a lot of curiosity to get to know the international network of projects (see a complete list here). Honestly, we would be happy to welcome as many different people as possible, in terms of experience and points of view, this way we will have the chance to show Italians and Italy in as many ways as possible and keep the conversation always interesting.

Curators will enjoy being followed by people from all around the world truly interested to know their opinion about different aspects of our country. And at the same time, they will have the possibility to interact with many different people curating the other countries’s accounts: from Pakistan to New York, Melbourne, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and many others, and engage in a global conversation.

* * *

If you would like to apply to tweet, or wish to see curators’ bios and learn more about the project, click here.

Please follow @I_am_Italy right away, and tune in in April when I am taking over the account. But first, what would you like to see Italy’s unofficial rotation curation curators tweet about? What fascinates you about our life in Italy that you hope to see more of through this project?

Perhaps that’s why Castiglione della Pescaia has ditched the traditional notion of an art gallery and created a space that interacts with both visitors and the environment instead. It’s called the Strada del Contemporaneo and it opened in November 2012.

Whale by Rodolfo Lacquaniti. Photo: Paola Bernardini

For the residents of this coastal Tuscan Maremman city, the museum is a step away from what they’re used to. Castiglione della Pescaia is more than a thousand years old and all its other art galleries display masterpieces of the medieval and Renaissance religious kind.

The first exhibition at the Strada del Contemporaneo is a 20-metre long whale. It’s made entirely from recycled materials and is by local artist Rodolfo Lacquaniti. [Editor’s note: I wrote a long article about Rodolfo for Tuscany Arts some time back, if you wish to read a more in detail analysis of his work.]

Rodolfo is renowned for his recycling. A bio-architect, he created the nearby Giardino Viaggio di Ritorno – a spectacular garden filled with contemporary art installations that are made entirely from the bits and bobs Rodolfo has found.

Photo: Paola Bernardini

The whale takes up the entire exhibition space at the Strada del Contemporaneo. But its breathtaking detail and beautifully sculpted shape is so captivating, you won’t want for any other eye candy. The Balena is all the artistic stimulation you need.

When you visit, don’t be alarmed if you see people climbing into it… When creating this piece, Rodolfo was adamant visitors be like Moby Dick and go inside the belly of the beast to better admire the intricate cohesion of the recycled pieces and their steel frame skeleton.

Inside the whale. Photo: artist

‘Balena’ is the perfect inaugural piece for this exhibition space. Naturally, a sculpture the size of four small cars wouldn’t fit into your traditional white-walled gallery. But the Strada del Contemporaneo takes its name from its surroundings – a peaceful strip of cleared forest just outside the city.

The road was once a route connecting Macchiascandona and Ponti di Badia, but has been long abandoned. In part, this museum endeavours to transform an abandoned space into beautiful tourist attractions. But mostly, it’s a fittingly grand end to the La Città Visible tour that was held throughout the Maremma late last year.

As part of the tour, a handful of towns hosted an exhibition of paintings, some from their own artists and some from out-of-towers. At the end of their turn, the tour would move onto another town, where a whole new set of paintings would be on display.

Rodolfo’s whale is a nod to the museum’s environmental message. The Maremma’s drawcard is its untouched and unspoiled landscape, and recycling is something most residents do religiously.

Beyond this, the Strada del Contemporaneo is, partially, the brainchild of Rodolfo himself. It was his idea to create an outdoor art gallery immersed in the landscape of Castiglione della Pescaia. With a little help from the Provincia di Grosseto and the local city council, he joined forces with three Castiglione architects who hoped to build a monument to modern art. And so the Strada del Contemporaneo was born.

View of Rodolfo's Garden. Photo: Alexandra Korey

The  ‘Balena‘ is the first stop on a path that will eventually connect Rodolfo’s garden with these architects’ dream – the yet-to-be-built Centro di Documentazione per Architettura Contemporanea della Provincia di Grosseto. Along the way, curators will constantly add and change installations to ensure visitors feel like they’re at a new gallery every time.

For now, there is no specific calendar, or even idea, of what’s to come. ‘La Balena’ will remain where she is until the start of summer at least. But chances are whatever joins her will reflect the museum’s perchance for unusual, experimental installations, which are as far removed from the traditional Maremma notion of art as you can get.

The Strada del Contemporaneo is in Castiglione della Pescaia, Provincia di Grosseto. It’s open all the time and is free to visit. For more information, call +39 0564 484323.

Elisa is an Australian journalist who came to Tuscany for a year, fell in love ( how cliché?) and decided to stick around. Not one to keep paradisiacal holiday destinations to herself, she now writes a blog and online travel guide about the infinitely beautiful Tuscan Maremma, so that others can get a taste of la dolce vita.

Cindy Sherman, Bus Riders

Florence’s Gucci Museo is hosting an exhibit of Cindy Sherman’s Early Works. As I stood there at the opening, looking at the small-format black and white photographic series, I had a flashback to first-year university. The two series shown here, Murder Mystery People and Bus Riders, are from 1976, the year Sherman graduated from college at Buffalo State. 1976, while she was experimenting with a photographic concept that would set the stage for her entire career, I was born. Roughly twenty years later, actually in 1994, I was in first year university at York University, and one of the first lessons in that first term of art history was on – you guessed it – Cindy Sherman. Fast forward another roughly twenty years (well, to be precise, 19) and I’m confronted with memories of how I was forced, that first year, to deal with my own sense of identity as an art historian and as a photographer.

The art history course in question was not memorable. I don’t remember the professor’s name, nor many specifics, only that everything she taught had an either feminist or semiotics angle, and neither these nor any other form of theory ever appealed to me (so much that I chose my subsequent universities on their very lack of theoretical instruction). But, for some reason, certain facts about Cindy Sherman stuck in my head. She has always photographed herself, but does not do self portraits. She leaves deliberate traces of the photographic process in her early works, like the cords and shadows we see in the series exhibited here. Her work questions reality, femininity, and the self.

The post-university photographs exhibited at Gucci Museo are textbook illustrations of what I retained from that long-ago lecture. As with almost all of Sherman’s works, the single photo is often nothing spectacular (this is very true of these youthful experiments, while later works are technically much better); significance and value comes from evaluating the work as a whole, that is, the series. Let’s look at these two series, with the words of the curator to guide us. I have selected my favourites and assembled them to give you a sense of their serial nature.

Murder Mystery People, 1976 (reprinted 2000) is a story narrated through stereotypical characters based on an imaginary crime movie. The story is centred on a 1930’s has-been actress who falls in love with the movie’s director. The immediacy of photography conveys the characters with a mixture of delight, cruelty and humour. The initial body of work was storyboarded as a film and the characters were shown as cutouts, which included 82 scenes, hung around the exhibition space like a mini movie.

Bus Riders 1976 (reprinted 2000) was originally created for the first Photo Bus exhibition exhibited on Metro Bus 535. Acting out the typical every day characters found riding a bus, Sherman’s use of detail persuades us to confront and absorb her narrative. By transforming herself with the use of facial expressions and poses she creates an immediate distinction between each character. The link between film (which she studied at college) and performance is not to be underestimated and was crucial in developing her unique working narrative.

A third work is represented in this exhibit with some reprinted stills from a film that Sherman made in her last year of university, shown in its entirety below.

For anyone interested in reviewing Sherman’s entire career, I suggest dedicating an hour to the website of the recent retrospective at the MOMA (Jan-June 2012), where this film was projected.

If Michelangelo was such a great painter that – if you believe Vasari – anyone who came directly after him struggled with an inferiority complex, the same can be said of studying photography any time after Cindy Sherman.  For the faculty at my college, who had come of age with Cindy Sherman, she provided a unit of measure for all contemporary art, and especially for photography. Unfortunately, all first year photography courses include the dreaded “self-portrait” assignment. No undergrad could ever get a high grade in this because any attempt to photograph ourselves in costume and then back it up with theory would fall short of the depth achieved by Sherman in twenty years of this process. (Students photographing themselves nude fared not much better, for other reasons.) Perhaps it was this trauma that made me remember Cindy Sherman all these years.

The temporary exhibit at Gucci Museum is part of a series of small, contemporary shows curated by Francesca Amfitheatrof from the collection of Francois Pinault. Unlike in past exhibits, the small dark space of the ex-chapel has been revealed to have windows onto Piazza della Signoria and has been painted minimalist white. As always, the number of works offered is small, though worth going in to take a long look. As I enjoyed the Paul Fryer exhibit last year, reviewed here, I also recommend going in to see Cindy Sherman – just a few photos, but ones that require quite some time and reflection to digest.

Visitor Information

Cindy Sherman: Early Works
January 20  – June 9 2013
Gucci Museo –  10, Piazza della Signoria – Florence
Opening hours: seven days a week from 10 am to 8 pm
Admission is 6 Euros with 50% of each ticket sale benefitting to help the City of Florence preserve and restore the city’s signature art treasures.
www.guccimuseo.com

With thanks to Yigit and the social media department at Gucci for the invitation to see and review this exhibit.

All photos courtesy of Gucci Museum, used with permission.

Italy is, unquestionably, a true consumer society. You see it in their new purses, fashionable clothes, and in their pre-teens who own iPhones that I, myself, cannot afford. But, at least traditionally, Italians tend to buy less than their American counterparts, and again, traditionally, of better quality. Thanks to the global presence of H&M, this is no longer the case, although it is technically possible to buy good quality, Made in Italy knitwear, leathers and more as I’ve described in this blog post about my client, BP Studio.

But it seems to me that Italy is slightly less of a disposable society than, say, America. There is still a culture of fixing things. It’s dying out, but it’s still there. We have to hope that it will be able to continue.

I recently brought a bag to Ofelio to be fixed and I asked him what his opening hours are, since his shop has no sign and no posted hours. And he says “orario di bottega”. Workshop hours. I asked for further specification, and he said he comes in around 8:30, unless he has to prepare the grandchildren for school, and he closes around 1 or 1:30, and goes home for lunch, and reopens in the afternoon, when depends on what he ate, and leaves again around 7:30pm, but sometimes later, since he has a lot of work, and he has no help to do it. I asked him why he didn’t take on an apprentice, and he explained that due to the type of “company” he is registered as (I didn’t ask for details), he can’t hire anyone, not even an apprentice to learn his trade. Ofelio is not exactly a youngster and I wondered who would take over for him when he was gone (but didn’t dare ask). He read my mind: he said that when he can’t do the work any more, he will have to close down the shop, because nobody wants to do this trade.

There is still demand for artisans who can fix things, but the difficulties of running a business in Italy, with its various taxes and limits, perhaps does not appeal to young, potential artisans. Go into any besoke cobblers’ these days and you will see Asian trainees. The shoemakers’ shop on my street, in fact, recently changed hands; I noticed that the new owners are Indian, and they immediately improved the shop greatly by adding a sign and being open on weekends (the previous owner hadn’t thought of these modern marketing things that might guarantee sufficient income to beat the tax man). Asians seem to be thrilled to learn Italian craftsmanship and carry on traditions that are not theirs.

When there are people who fix things, you save money and also contribute less to landfills. Beyond shoes and purses, people who fix small appliances are hard to come by in America, but here in Italy, they still exist. A little neighbourhood store called Speranza gives a last grain of hope (speranza) to blenders, vacuum cleaners, fans, coffee makers and irons that might otherwise be thrown out. The store’s back room is just seething with dusty, dinged machines waiting to be fixed. There’s always a line, and I keep going back with broken things despite Signor Speranza’s distinctively unpleasant personality.

Maybe there is a little speranza for people who fix things, though. Two related factors could contribute. The first is the economic crisis, which makes us think twice about buying new things if we can maybe fix the old stuff first. The second is that vintage clothing and accessories have become very trendy again in the past two years – this phenomenon actually stems from economic need but then was promoted by trend-setters so that now there’s some rather expensive used clothing shops that have nothing to do with Goodwill. But if we’re currently appreciating older objects, we’ll also need to mend or fix them, so we’ll need people like Ofelio and Speranza, and hopefully their descendents, to keep doing their jobs.

Hey, this was an Italy Roundtable post!

Every month, a few awesome female Italy bloggers write on a given theme. The theme for January is “the beginning” and it wasn’t at all easy to come up with what to write for it, despite seeming like an obvious theme for the New Year! This month a few of us had other things to do so the other two bloggers who have written on the topic are:

• Gloria: “The image of Tuscany begins like this…“
• Jessica: “The uncertain beginning of Italy”

So we were thinking… if you write a blog about Italy, or if you write a blog in general and want to participate, how about trying your hand at the topic “The Beginning” and letting us know by tweeting it with the hashtag #italyroundtable. Maybe link to one of our posts, or tweet at us so we find you. We’ll retweet and share your posts from the Italy Roundtable’s accounts! Deadline: the end of January, let’s say.

Unknown painter of the 16th century, Francesco I de Medici, Galleria degli Uffizi (Photo: Francesco Del Vecchio)

“L’alchimia e le arti: la fonderia degli Uffizi da laboratorio a stanza delle meraviglie”, in the Uffizi Gallery’s Sala delle Reali Poste until February 3, 2013, is a small but highly intellectual exhibit that reveals a part of Medici history that is little known to the general public. The presentation of material both in the physical space and in the exhibition catalogue (published by Sillabe) is complex and rather Italianate, perhaps of more interest to the specialist than to the casual museum-goer, though without a thorough reading of the texts it is possible to enjoy the exhibit simply for the strange objects it contains. But we’re going to read the text, just a little bit.

Alchemy is not an easy topic at all; thankfully this exhibit does not try to explain the entire phenomenon but rather concentrates on a local aspect of alchemy: the reconstruction of the ambience present at the Medici court at the end of the Cinquecento. In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, alchemy involved primarily the distillation, first, of herbs and plants, second, of metals and elements. Especially the first, had an impact on pharmaceuticals, and made progress towards one of the goals of alchemy – the elixir of life. Whereas the distillation of metals had as its goal transmutation into gold, and made its contributions in the fields of sculpture, ceramics (especially porcellain), glass, and jewelry.

The very utility of the many products of the study of alchemy made necessary the creation of a series of laboratories refered to as the Fonderie Medici. From the introductory article to the catalogue I learned that there was a laboratory in Palazzo Vecchio, but Vasari complained was making a mess of his frescoes, so it was moved to the Casino di San Marco (the long dirty building opposite the Church of San Marco on via Cavour), and then moved closer home again into the Uffizi in the 1580s. A map of the Uffizi from 1742 shows the “Stanze della Fonderia” right behind the rooms that now house works by Michelangelo.

Monkey Skeleton, Firenze, Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze, Sezione di zoologia (Photo: Saulo Bambi)

Numerous documents conserved in the State Archives in Florence attest to the activities that took place at the Fonderie through orders for things like minerals and test tubes, and there is an inventory from 1771 (reproduced in the catalogue’s appendix) that lists everything in the Fonderia degli Uffizi when it was dismanteled at that date. The inventory reminds me why I love reading documents: it lists funny things, described in a burocratic and uninformed manner, that are also highly revealing because in some cases it also says where something was located in relation to another. Am I the only person here who gets kicks out of reading a list that bundles mummies with monkey skeletons (see above), fruits and taxidermied fish?

Portable pharmacy from the Medici Fonderie, Roma, Museo dell’Accademia Nazionale di Arte Sanitaria (photo: Baggieri-Boccassini)

Amongst the things produced here in the late sixteenth century were neat cases of medicine, which were sent off as gifts to illustrious types like the King of Poland, various cardinals, and one lucky soul in Mexico, via Spain, all of whom probably appreciated the anti-poisoning oil and the “olio da spasimo,” the precise function of which was illustrated in a multi-lingual instruction book that is sadly not detailed in the catalogue (I bet it’s a fun read).

By the seventeenth century, it appears that the rooms of the Fonderie in the Uffizi had also become a brilliant cabinet of curiosities, and this aspect is nicely recreated in the center of the exhibition space, with an intimate showcase containing the obligatory crocodile suspended from the ceiling (every good wunderkammer had to have one, though I have no idea why). There were also Egyptian mummies, bezoar balls (basically an exalted hairball), and other strange objects, which have been reunited for modern viewers to marvel at as once did visitors four centuries ago.

Philips Galle, The Alchemist

Prints play an important role in the exhibit because they illustrate aspects of the information collected here: cabinets of curiosities in other parts of Europe, and alchemical instruments as well as concepts. Although few of these sources are Italian, they circulated in Florence at the time and illustrate pan-European philosophies that help us understand certain parts of Medici iconography and thought. But the negative moralizing of Northern prints like The Alchemist by Philps Galle, in which alchemy leads to poverty and folly, is not present in the glorification of the science found in the Uffizi grotteschi by Antonio Tempesta.

Blowfish, Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze, Sezione di zoologia (Photo: Saulo Bambi)

Exhibition curator Valentina Conticelli notes that the presence of the Fonderia at the Uffizi reminds us that the gallery of paintings we see today is quite different from the initial desire of the collectors to create a rationally structured “collection as theatrum mundi” that appears in the Studiolo of Francesco and less so in the Tribune. Our modern day distinction between art and science, instruments and painting, animal life and sculpture, is exactly that – modern. In the Cinquecento, a preserved pufferfish might have been put on the same level as a Bronzino, a hairball or a narval horn could be as valuable as an ancient sculpture.

Visitor info:

L’alchimia e le arti: la fonderia degli Uffizi da laboratorio a stanza delle meraviglie
(Alchemy and the arts: the Uffizi worshop from laboratory to cabinet of curiosities)
Curated by Valentina Concicelli
December 15, 2012, to February 3, 2013
Galleria degli Uffizi, Sala delle Reali Poste (separate entrance)
Open daily except Monday, 8,15-18,50.
Free!

Agnolo Gaddi, the official heir to the school of Giotto (son of Taddeo Gaddi, who was Giotto’s godson), received the commission to paint the high chapel at Santa Croce around 1380 from the Alberti family. Although the chapel is the largest and arguably the most important in the church, it was the last to be painted – around it were 5 chapels painted by Giotto and his school. Why it was done last remains a mystery. The topic is the Legend of the True Cross, as told in the Golden Legend by Jacopo da Veragine. It is told in eight scenes, reading from top to bottom, first on the right side (looking at the altar), then on the left. The artist followed the text closely, guided likely by the Franciscans, while also working to satisfy the Alberti patrons and, as much as possible, to satisfy his own interests in running a large workshop. That the huge fresco was used as grounds for teaching may begin to explain the inclusion of numerous features that otherwise would appear to be “art for art’s sake” – the details mentioned above, that could not be seen from the ground.

High Chapel, Santa Croce - diagram of frescoes (source: Opera di Santa Croce)

In 2005, scaffolding was erected in the high chapel, so view from the ground has been blocked for almost seven years, but since Easter 2011 and until approximately June 2013, the structure has remained installed while restorers complete final work on the wooden crucifix above the altar and on scenes on the exterior of the chapel. The restoration of the frescoes inside the chapel is complete, thanks to funding by a Japanese patron of the arts, Tetsuya Kuroda, who donated 1.2 million euro; the rest has been financed by the Opera di Santa Croce and a small amount by the state (MiBAC provided 285,000 euro). The restoration involved consolidation of the frescoed surface, including removal of dangerous inserts of gesso and metal that had been used in the past to fill cracks that naturally occur with ground shifting; cleaning of the entire surface from centuries of dirt, using water and some neutral chemicals; and conservative neutral infilling of large lacunae in the iconography.

Our guide, Marco

When Gaddi and his workshop set out to paint this massive chapel, of course they first planned the iconography (along with the patrons) and decided what was going to be painted where. Cartoons were drawn (and probably approved). And perhaps at the same time, he thought about how he would reach the walls, and planned the design accordingly. Each scene, which is delimited by decorative borders, is divided into an upper and lower part, usually consistent with landscape or architecture in the upper/background and figures in the lower/ foreground, with the top right lunette as the only real exception. Gaddi set up his scaffolding at the division between these areas. The modern restorers did the same, when possible using the same anchor holes made over 600 years earlier. In the photo above, you can see one such dividing line near Marco’s feet; below is another example, shot downwards where the scaffolding floor has been lifted – the upper scene is of a hospital, and the lower scene shows the Cross being sawed to pieces.

Note the line that divides upper and lower scenes

From this angle, the upper and lower scenes seem very abruptly divided, but from below I honestly would have never noticed how rigidly those heads are lined up. Of course, the “giornate” or days of work of the fresco are also very easy to note in these massive divisions of space. You can see these outlines around the heads of figures or groups of figures, such as around the beard and nose in the image below. (If you need a refresher, see my article on how to paint a fresco the Renaissance way, and relevant vocabulary.)

Note the "giornate" division around his nose and beard

Of the other things that can be seen from up close, three involve what is now (mostly) lost: blue pigment, wax relief, and gold and brass applications. As you may know, blue pigment and fresco don’t get along, so ultramarine or less expensive blue pigments were applied “a secco” – dry, at the end of the process. Where blue was to be applied, they put a dark red base so help set off the colour (it was more effective, ie. cheaper, to paint blue over red than on white plaster). Over time, fresco remains, but a secco does not. The only blue left at all in this chapel is in the vault frescoes depicting the four Evangelists, plus Saints Francis and John the Baptist.

The vault

Saint John the Baptist

In the rays coming off Saint John here, you can see a bit of gold leaf, which was also used in decoration on clothing throughout the frescoes. In some cases this is intact or has been helped along by previous restorations, and the presence of gold is altogether to be expected in a commission of this sort. An element that one sees less of, unless one spends a lot of time up on scaffolding I suppose, is wax applications that were subsequently gilded. These provided relief and thus were more visible from below – I think later artists built up using gesso rather than wax, as I seem to recall seeing this on a scaffolding tour of the Lippi frescoes in Prato (years ago, pre blog!). On the left side of scene photographed below, see how the horses’ apparel were decorated using this relief technique.

The dark dots on the horses' reins are wax that was gilded

The third lost element in these frescoes is the application of brass “gilding” rather than gold, which was used amply in the battle scene on the left wall, where robbers are stealing all sorts of things (incense holders, reliquaries, etc.), and all of these things once shone with metallic splendour. Now, we don’t have the bling, but we do have… underdrawings.

Where brass is lost, drawings are gained. See the stuff under the robbers' arms?

The other great marvels of this fresco cycle are: the delicate technique used, the variety of facial types, and the unusual details that nobody would ever see until they climbed up as we have.

For example, the ear of Queen Helen. If you’ve ever tried painting in fresco, you will have discovered that transparency is not something easily achieved. That’s why they invented oil painting (just kidding, sort of). So to see a transparent veil, and under it, a perfectly shaped ear, somewhere near the top of a chapel is certainly spectacular. Marco, our guide, suggested that this is one place where Gaddi used the fresco to teach his pupils the secrets of the trade. In the case of the head of one of the major figures in the painting, which probably took a day to paint, I presume that the master painted it himself. (The crown also included gilding and relief.)

Queen Helen

... and the Queen's ear.

In the case of other details, the Master’s hand may not be present: little things painted far up in the fresco, representing details of the landscape background, were probably added by students. These adorable scenes of animal life indicate that very few people in a 1380′s city had seen a squirrel in real life. The ducks are cute, though one looks somewhat like a mini dromedary.

Finally, a quick nod to another feature that is very present, though not so unusual for a fresco of the Giotto school: every face is different. Well, that is, except for a few that were done with the same cartoon. Like Giotto, Agnolo Gaddi characterized every figure with facial shape, intricate hairstyles, clothing, and gesture. Here are just a few examples of such detailed figures in the “crowd” parts of the fresco.

Of course, the regal figures received even more attention…

And at the end, Gaddi included his own portrait, something that was to become common in the Renaissance – but does anyone know if, in the 1380s, other artists had done so?

Portrait of Agnolo Gaddi

This video by my colleague Brenda Dionisi at The Florentine for LdM news includes an interview with the director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, responsible for the restoration, and points out some of the work’s unusual features.

To find out more about the restoration of this work, or to zoom in and study the frescoes if you can’t go in person, you can use the Modus Operandi online interactive documentation system.

If you’re visiting Florence before June 2013, put this tour on your schedule. It runs almost daily, is available in English or Italian, and costs only 10 euros per person for a once in a lifetime experience.

To reserve a tour

Contact Opera di Santa Croce – the tour costs 10 euros per person and includes access to the entire church.
Book by phone – Monday to Friday (9.30-17.00), Tel. +39 055/246 6105 (ext. 3)
Book by email – booking@operadisantacroce.it
For questions in English, you can ask Paola Vojnovic at vojnovic@santacroceopera.it
Website: www.santacroceopera.it

PHOTO RIGHTS: All photos COPYRIGHT arttrav.com 2013, used by permission of Opera di Santa Croce. Photos may not be reproduced.

If you wish to obtain copies of any of these photos for educational use, only for classroom projection, please write to info @ arttrav.com.

A beautiful table setting

The table was beautifully set with a linen tablecloth purchased in Vilnius in Lithuania, a centerpiece of boughs, orchids and a single candle, and white china with blue edging.

The Menu

Starters

• Smoked salmon
• tuna mousse
• toast and bread
• Leek and spinach flan (see recipe below)

Primo

Risotto al limone

• Risotto al limone (see recipe below)

Secondo

baked fish

Salad

• Baked Branzino fish (Mediterranean sea bass)
• Mixed salad dressed with oil and lemon
• Eggplant and artichokes “sotto olio” (in oil)

Cheese course

Vegetable dish and cheese

• Fresh mozzarella and ricotta
• cacio cavallo and pecorino
• scamorza fresca
• to go with the cheese: thistle honey, crab apple jam, mixed berry mostarda
• bowl of raw vegetables: fennel, carrots and catalogna or puntarelle (strange green vegetable related to chicory)

Dessert

pastries

Fruit

• artisanal chocolate panettone
• small pastries from Bar Tripoli in Martina Franca including cassattine, cannoli, mini eclairs and others.
• soft torrone
• chocolate from Vestri (Torino)
• Ricciarelli from Siena
• oranges, clementines, bananas, persimmons, grapes

To drink

Anna serving panettone and liquors

• cocktail: spritz (aperol and spumante)
• Falanghina white wine from Campania
• Liquors: grappa, rum, amaro Lucano

Recipes

I asked Anna to reveal a few of her secrets for us – here are two of the highlights of our meal, which are old favourites from the magazine La Cucina Italiana.

Risotto al limone

Slightly adapted and translated from La Cucina Italiana, November 1992
for 4 people, prep time 30m

• 300g arborio rice
• 70g cream (15% fat)
• 1 chopped onion
• 40g grated Parmesan
• 2 organic lemons – zested, and one half lemon juiced
• Parsley
• Organic vegetable broth, 1.1 litres
• Dry white wine
• Olive oil
• Salt

In a large saucepan, Finely chop the onion and sautee it in olive oil. Add the rice and toast it on high flame with a bit of wine. When the wine has evaporated, add the warm broth, prepared in a separate pan, by ladlefuls while cooking for 13-15 minutes or as per the instructions on your rice’s packaging.
When the rice is al dente, add the cream, Parmesan cheese, the juice of a half lemon, the lemon zest and some salt. Garnish with a bit of chopped parsley and lemon curls.

Leek flan

Slightly adapted and translated from La Cucina Italiana, November 1990
For 6 people , prep time 1 hour

• For the pasta brisée (quiche crust)
• 250g 00 flour
• 120g butter
• Salt

• For the filling
• 400g chopped leeks
• 100g boiled chopped spinach
• 100g milk
• 65g ice water
• 80g emmenthal cheese
• 3 eggs
• Olive oil, salt, pepper

Make the pie crust: on a pastry board or large flat bowl, put the flour in a pile, and cut in the butter (softened and cut into pieces). Make a crevice in the center and add the ice water and a pinch of salt. Knead until unified. Wrap and put in fridge for half an hour.

For the filling: sauté the chopped white part of the leeks in olive oil. Add the spinach, salt and pepper, sauté together.

Prepare a pie dish by buttering and flouring it. Roll out the dough and put in the container. Prick with a fork or use weights to keep it from bubbling. Put in the preheated oven at 200c for 10/15min.
Remove from the oven. Lay the cheese along the bottom of the crust. Then add the sautéed vegetables.
Mix together milk and eggs, salt and pepper, and pour into the crust.
Bake for further 20m or more until cooked, still at 200c.

We’re off to bed without dinner now. A wonderful time was had by all. Happy 2013, everyone!

An entire itinerary through the Sassi – the historic rock dwellings in the area of Sasso Caveoso – have been animated by locals in evocative costumes. Modern signage has been covered up with burlap and intrusions kept to a minimum, making this an incredible photo op. Rather than still-lives, the nativity is interpreted as a historic village, with traditional craftsmen and food preparation, and women doing needlework. Some passersby in costume mingle in the crowd, carrying baby bundles. Men and women of all ages participate.

There is little to say that photos cannot express better (I took over a hundred, and narrowed it down to 23 for you). We went at 4pm – it will be even more beautiful at night, but then the photos would require flash, of which I am not a fan.

How to see the presepe vivente: The 2012 edition was the 3d annual nativity in Matera, and ran from December 27 to 30, for just four evenings, from 4pm to 9:30pm. Tickets can be reserved in advance for scheduled entrance times at www.presepematera.it. However, individuals and families are only allowed to advance book slots from 6:30pm onwards. Rather, we tested our luck and managed to buy tickets for the 4pm entry just half an hour before. Tickets are on sale in a booth near the entry to nativity scenes.

Here is a day by day calendar of Florence events for kids for over the holidays. While we usually list things for kids Francesco’s age (4 years), this list also includes a few activities for slightly bigger kids.

December 23 2012

Florence’s Planetarium (Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica, via Giusti 29) presents stories under the stars for kids aged 5 and up with their families, at 3pm or 4:30pm. See here for details.

Monday December 24

Florence Winter Park at Obihall (Lungarno Aldo Moro) presents “Waiting for Santa” – saint Nick will be welcoming children with small gifts and souvenir photo. From 10.30 to 12.30 and from 15.30 to 17.30

Or for kids who’d rather sit still, go to the theatre for the timeless classic Il Piccolo Principe (the Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry! At 4:45pm at Teatro Puccini (Via delle Cascine 41)

Tuesday December 25

Christmas Day at home can be boring after all the gifts are open! Skip the traditional going to the movie theatre and go see Cappuccetto Rosso (little red riding hood) at 4:45pm put on by our favourite puppeters, Pupi di Stac, at the Teatro Puccini (Via delle Cascine 41).

On the same day, Teatro di Cestello presents The Jungle Book (Il libro della giungla) the musical (in Italian, but sung), 4pm

Saturday December 29

Oblate Library (via dell’Oriuolo 26): 4:30pm Reading and workshop in Italian for 3-6 year-old children “A sweet little man” –by Scioglilibro Association. Starting from the traditional tale “The GingerBread man” written by Stefano Bordiglioni you will create a soft and sweet puppet with coloured cloth and felt. We love the Oblate’s Cafetteria for its healthy snacks and good view of the Duomo, too.

La Bottega dei Ragazzi (Istituto degli Innocenti, piazza SS Annunziata 12): workshop (limited numbers, age 3-5): 11am “Hunting Innocents.” To book send an e-mail to: bottega@istitutodeglinnocenti.it

Teatro di Cestello presents The Jungle Book (Il libro della giungla) the musical (in Italian, but sung), 4pm

January 1, 2013

Not much to do on New Years’ day, but there is some theatre for kids:

Teatro di Cestello presents The Jungle Book (Il libro della giungla) the musical (in Italian, but sung), 4pm

Saturday January 5 2013

Oblate Library (via dell’Oriuolo 26): 4:30pm Animated reading “Run the broom” –with puppets for children and families by the cultural association Teatrolà.

Sunday January 6 2013

In the afternoon a Marzipan workshop at Ikea (Sesto Fiorentino) from 17.30 to 18.30 for children aged 4 to 10. They can knead, mess, create their own Epiphany marzipan cakes (and we can go shopping with Ikea sales just started). Sign up here.

Florence Winter Park at Obihall (Lungarno Aldo Moro) “W W the Epiphany” with entertainment, games and sweets gifts for children from 15.30 to 17.30.

Teatro Puccini, 4:45pm, The Wizard of Oz. A theatre show for slightly older kids, it’s on also Jan 4 and 5 at 9pm.

January 12, 2013

La Bottega dei Ragazzi (Istituto degli Innocenti, piazza SS Annunziata 12): workshop (limited numbers, age 3-5):  h.11.00/12.30 “Investigators at the Museum”. To book send an e-mail to: bottega@istitutodeglinnocenti.it

Until January 27

Florence Winter Park at Obihall (Lungarno Aldo Moro): The winter park on the banks of the Arno River is in full operation: from December 21 to January 6 it hasextended hours from 10am to midnight. Skating on a small ice rink overlooking the arno, or skiing on a tiny slope, perfect for kids who have never skiiedor snowboarded before, plus a winter market and other fun activities. See www.firenzewinterpark.it for costs and times of various activities.

In January, on the 10, 11 17 and 28 we’ll be going to Snowboard 4 kids – free snowboard lessons for kids and youngsters by Burton and Verticali from 16.00 to 18.00

Until January 8

Ice skating rink at the Parterre (near Piazza della Liberta) – this is Florence’s traditional location for the ice rink, ever since it moved out of downtown. Last we looked there is a free rink in front of the Coop in Gavinana (the skates cost money to rent, though).

Have fun and relax during these holidays! We’ll be back in 2013 with more Florence for Kids!

The mercato vecchio (old market)

Giuseppe Moricci, Il Mercato Vecchio di Firenze, 1860, Firenze, Galleria d’arte moderna

Is that the column with the statue of Abundance there? Then this must be piazza della Repubblica. How different does it look! For indeed, this was the heart of the medieval city (not to mention of the Roman one). Of this space, we know that Poggi “restored it to its former glory” out of “secolare squallore”  in the 19th century renovations of the city of Florence as capital of Italy (1865).

Moricci’s painting shows the market on the eve of its destruction – this space was also home to some guild headquarters, palaces and churches. Was the artist aware that he was documenting something that, in five years’ time, would begin to be dismantled? Was he aware of the campaign presenting this space as so dangerous and seething with undesireables? Perhaps yes, perhaps his choice to put a lady daintily picking her way into the muddy but paved space as the focal point of the painting was a form of commentary about the bourgeous invasion of a market that was to become a contested, sanitized and heartless center of a modern city.

The same area, painted from a different angle by Signorini, one of the most important Macchiaioli painters, in the representation below is just one of many that he executed in a fury of conservation, for he did know that this space was on its last legs.

Telemaco Signorini, Mercato Vecchio, 1882-1884, Firenze, Galleria d’arte moderna

Ponte alle Grazie

Adolfo Belimbau, Il convento del Ponte alle Grazie, 1930, Firenze, Galleria d’arte moderna

Ponte alle Grazie today, photo: Flickr user Andrew J Ferguson

We all know that the Ponte Vecchio is the last remaining bridge with houses on it, right? So this is proof of the excellent use of space until Ponte alle Grazie was bombed in WWII. When it was reconstructed (finished 1953), they omitted the buildings.

Duomo and Florence’s rooftops

Alfonso Hollaender, Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore, 1910-1915, Firenze, Galleria d’arte moderna

Seen from above in the painting by Hollaender, Florence seems not to have changed much at all since 1910. Still terracotta roofs, inhabited by cats, and green shutters through which one can just see evidence of human life.

Paintings that are, and yet are not, snapshots of a recent past. For photographers – like Alinari – also documented these spaces, but it is the artists, the painters, that captured them with a particular vision

Related events:

• Until January 6, 2013, the exhibit “Firenze negli occhi dell’artista – Da Signorini a Rosai” is at Palazzo Pitti, Galleria dell’Arte Moderna
• Free Guided tours at 4pm (in Italian, with museum entry ticket) “Firenze negli Occhi dell’artista. Da Signorini a Rosai”: December 22, 29 2012: January 4, 5, 6 2013
• For info and reservations of the above activities please call Firenze Musei, +39 055 294883

1) Water: I am not an authority on drinking of any sort, except, perhaps, on the consumption of water (in Italy, and elsewhere). One thing I’ve always told visitors is that the tap water is perfectly safe to drink anywhere in Italy, even if in some areas it has a funny taste. In Florence, they’ve recently installed purified water distributors which I’ve blogged about here, and make a point of using to avoid wasting plastic. But water, in any case, is pretty much the only liquid I drink. And I can’t think of anything more boring about which to read.

2) Coffee. There are some bloggers who are authorities on coffee, like Sara Rosso, who has actually written a book about How to Order an Italian Coffee in Italy. I, on the other hand, don’t drink coffee. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I would love to. Just that stimulants have been pretty much cut out of my diet for medical reasons (I still can’t say no to chocolate, but out with coffee).

3) Wine. A post about wine in Italy would be wonderful. The problem is, I don’t drink any alcohol. See section 2, stimulants. No-go.

4) Juice. I don’t make juices, that’s too lefty-vegetarian-time-consuming for my lifestyle. But I do drink juice occasionally. It’s a good alternative to water, when you don’t drink wine, coffee, or anything with fizz or added sugar… Luckily in Italy all bars carry yummy juices like pear juice, which I sometimes use as a substitute for an afternoon snack. But you can’t make an article out of that.

So, I don’t drink (alcohol). In Italian they say “sono astemia” which means “I am a teetotaler“, a word that probably 80% of the non-UK English-speaking population has never heard. The very fact that there is a word in common use to describe the condition of not drinking, that does not conjure up images of an auntie with a doily-covered armrest, is a positive thing.

Generally I say this phrase – “sono astemia” – with an apologetic smile while turning over my wine-glass at a dinner table or refusing a handout of spumante at a toast. Used to the routine quip “but it’s bad luck to toast with water”, I have a standard answer (“I toasted with water at my wedding and am still married”). Anyway, at my age, a woman who refuses a drink is assumed to be pregnant, so I figure I can run with that for the next 15 years or so. Many, upon learning that I don’t drink and am not pregnant, think I am a virtuous health nut (combine this with my vegetarianism and you can see where they might think that), but I do my best to dispel this myth and encourage them to eat steak and drink red wine as much as they wish.

There are cultures in which not drinking is easier than in others, I believe, and Italy is not too bad for a teetotaler like me, despite what you might think about the country’s love of wine. In fact, while Italy and France produce a lot of wine, the number of adult Italians who declared, in a recent survey, to be “astemi” (who do not drink) is a whopping 39% (source). And although their young people are starting to catch on to binge drinking, the consumption of alcohol pro-capita is lower than the European average (8.02 liters of pure ethyl alcohol per person per year vs the EU average 11.6 – the UK is at 11.67) (source). This low average is likely related to the tradition of pairing (good) food and wine at table, where the majority of alcohol consumption takes place in this culture, rather than away from meals.

I don’t want to get into stereotypes or a discussion of the merits of one or another culture, but rather wish to make just one, small observation: not drinking in Italy is much less remarkable than not drinking in the States, Canada, or England. The announcement engenders little surprise, some good humour, and total respect, and the conversation continues.

Italy Roundtable on Drinking

Read the posts, leave comments, share them with your friends – and tune in next month for another Italy Blogging Roundtable topic.

• Jessica – When “Il Solito” is Italy’s Sweetest Phrase
• Gloria – Alchermes: the taste of the holidays
• Rebecca - Italy Roundtable: A Drink for All Seasons

If you want activities for kids between Christmas 2012 and Epiphany 2013 click here.

Nativity Scenes in Florence

It’s the second year that in Piazza Duomo you will see a terracotta nativity with life-sized statues of the Holy family plus the ox and the donkey that Cardinal Betori wanted as a cultural and religious answer to the commercial Christmas tree with Florentine lilies commissioned by Matteo Renzi, Florence’s Mayor. At the Epifany during the Magi procession the terracotta figures will be replaced by living persons and animals. The traditionally Tuscan sculptures are hand-made by Luigi Mariani at the historical furnace Mital and donated to Santa Maria del Fiore.

From December 8 to January 6 in piazzale Donatello 28 local artists have made a Nativity with life-size modern figures such as laundress, fire-fighter (Francesco and I saw the artist, Enrico Bandelli, in via Sarpi while he was producing some of the figures in his studio!), hairdresser, baker, etc.

An animated presepe is what you can find at Don Orione Institute (via Capo di Mondo 34 in Florence): from original sin in the Resurrection, through the birth of Christ. The history of salvation is all represented, with various scenes, in a glass case. This scene of the birth of Christ includes 60 moving figures: the ox and the donkey, the fisherman on the lake, etc.

Nativity scene at Don Orione

Exhibits, workshops and special openings

Four Seasons garden

The Four Seasons Hotel (entrance from via Gino Capponi, 54 or Borgo Pinti, 97 or piazzale Donatello, 12, 10am to 4pm)  in Florence provides an annual opportunity that I won’t miss to visit their gorgeous garden and have fun with the family. This year it’s on Sunday December 16 (it’s also my birthday!). With a small donation (starting from 1€), you and your children have the chance to participate in many fun activities – they will meet Father Christmas in flesh and blood (the famous Italian actor and TV presenter Flavio Insinna) in the fantastic Gherardesca Park, the biggest private garden in the city, which from 2008 is part of the Four Seasons hotel. Children and their parents will walk among the Christmas markets, taste chestnuts, sausage and polenta or a hot chocolate, spiced ‘vin brulè’ and a good glass of Tuscan wine. Children will join “La Bottega dei Ragazzi” workshops “Animani” for the youngest and “C’era una volta un gioco” for the bigger kids. There’s make-up to transform your children’s faces, Pasticca clown, zia Caterina with her famous taxi and, at 12.00, a children choir followed by balloon launch (children will add their father Xmas letter). Things to buy at La Bottega dei desideri (The wishes shop) and Marangoni students will photograph you for free in a real professional set. Last year more than 4.000 people joined the Open Day but this year we have to be more!

For children (and adults) Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia (piazza Santa Maria Novella, 14 in Florence) will be open till 22.30 every Saturday until the 6th of January, animated with workshops and events related to the exhibition “Gli archivi Alinari e la sintassi del mondo. Omaggio a Italo Calvino”. On Saturday December 15 at 18.30 lights and dance performance and installation “Improvvise conseguenze” powered by Animation Lights Project, Axe Ballet e Fiabesque while on Saturday December 22 and January 5 at 19.00 animated readings from “Il castello dei destini incrociati” acted by Fulvio Cauteruccio of the Kripton Company. Have a look at the website to know more about booking and prices. Workshops for families are: “Foto-racconti in omaggio a Italo Calvino” are held at MNAF on Sunday Dec 16, Thursday 27 December, Thursday 3 and Saturday 5 January at 10.00 and at 11. while on Sunday December 23 and Wednesday 26 December and Sunday 6 January from 15.00 to 19.00 “Castelli Incrociati” will take place at Fiabesque La città delle fiabe in Peccioli (FI)

Santa Claus and Christmas music in Florence

Yesterday we visited Santa in Florence. He asked Francesco what he wants for Christmas and if he has been good, and gave him a candy… Write your letter with your wishlist and give it to him (and then be good at school and in your family). He collects the best ones and prints them, making for an amusing book to read! Here is the list of days, times and places where you and your children can find Father Christmas in Florence and Tuscany:

Santa’s appointments: December 10 h.15.30 Center of Prato with the sled, December 13 h.15.30 – December 17 h. 10.00 and December 24 h. 10.00 Confectionery “Cesare” via D’Annunzio in Florence, December 15 h.16.00 Newsstand in piazza Beccaria Florence, December 16 h. 16.00 La Tazzina Viola and Fantasy Shoes via De Gasperi in Florence, December 17 h. 15.00 Centro Naturale La Rondinella with sled in Florence, December 18 dicembre h. 9.00 Centro Commerciale Punti di Incontro with sled via Datini in Florence, December 19 dicembre h.15.30 Confectionery Erika via Manni in Florence, December 20 dicembre h.15.30 Benetton shops via De Sanctis in Florence, December 21 dicembre h. 16.00 Parco Giochi Paci con slitta a Limite sull’Arno (Firenze), December 23 dicembre h.15.30 Pubblica Assistenza Caldine with sled Caldine (Firenze) then at h. 21.00 Circolo ACLI Faella a Pian di Scò (Arezzo) and December 24 dicembre h. 16.00 Tensostruttura ProLoco di Pian di Scò (Arezzo).

Santa will also be arriving by BOAT between Ponte Vecchio and Ponte delle Grazie, on December 22 and 24.

Christmas Music Together (held by Deborah Conquest) workshops – is a place where kids under the age of 6 can sing and dance to all the most famous Christmas songs (some in English, some in Italian) with a lot of joy. Prices 8€ per child (4€ for sisters and brothers) max 12 children per class on Wednesday December 12  h.17.00 and Saturday January 5 at 10.00 in the Methodist Church (via de’ Benci 9 in the city center) and on Saturday 15^th December at 11.00 at BabyPanda (via Baracca, 1 in Novoli Florence). And an invitation to the Christmas Concert to benefit the non-profit cultural association Music Together – the Director, Deborah Conquest, and friends will sing Puccini, Mozart and Christmas favourites with some little musicians joining for the Grand Finale! A buffet snack will follow on Saturday December 22 after the workshop.

Pitigliano, a hill town in Maremma, is known for its unusual tufa structure, being built right out of this soft rock, and its Jewish history, with a museum and synagogue. On a warm fall Saturday we visited the town with an eye more to getting a feel of the place than to its history – also because, of course, the Jewish museum is closed on Saturdays. It’s a town that is most often photographed from afar, and today was no exception – we parked before entering the town in order to view the earth-coloured stone down contrasting with the conveniently blue sky and its cute clouds.

In the town itself, we admired the Renaissance palazzo and its square flanked by Baroque fountains and architectonic frames for the landscape.

But we had one major goal in mind before we were to head to the nearby via Cave for a long walk on this impressive Etruscan road: lunch. A real lunch. Something local, but not too heavy, somewhere to sit down, but in a light atmosphere. Certainly nothing touristy, so we eschewed the trattorie lining the entrance to this town. And then, with luck and a good nose for these things, we found it. Enoteca La Corte del Ceccottino.

Attracted by the limited menu listing reasonable prices, we headed down a set of stairs off the street and found ourselves passing through a room lined with books and wine, before proceeding down into a charming courtyard that might seat twelve at its outside tables. We knew immediately that the Corte and we would get along by the tables, chairs and decoration, which you can tell were carefully chosen to avoid the usual, obvious suspects.

Our host, Maria Giovanna Sarti welcomed us and explained the day’s menu. For starters we had a beautiful plate of cheese and cold cuts, and all this was of course washed down with the local Bianco di Pigitliano.

While waiting for more food we explored the location – they have an impressive natural cellar carved out of the rock, a small internal room, and the room we saw upstairs.

For our main corse we ordered a local kind of crepe filled with fresh ricotta; the girls had this with a zucca cream while the boys had theirs with porcini mushrooms that were displayed in a basket on the table behind us. Both were exquisite in their own way, with delicate texture and flavours.

Extremely content to have found a place that so nicely corresponded with our own tastes, we got talking with our host: she and her husband run (but don’t own) this place, which opened just last year. Then I notice the books on the bookcase. Not your standard stuff… I recognize Italian tomes on Lotto, Pordenone, Veronese, Titian… I point these out and she says that she and her husband are art historians. When I reveal that I, too, am one, she says they both specialized in art of the Veneto. She knows well the book on Pordenone written by my dissertation advisor, Charles Cohen. We reminisce about obscure churches in Fruili and find we have a common love of Lorenzo Lotto – Tommaso and I once went on a pilgrimage to see numerous Lotto pantings in their original locations, all down the Adriatic coast of Italy. She says she wrote a childrens’ book about Lorenzo Lotto, and gives me a copy.

The food, the place, the people… La Corte del Ceccottino is a place after my own heart. Dedicated to wine, culture and “territorio” (best translated as “the place”), the owners also host literary and artistic events and are passionate about Pitigliano, a town they chose to move to and make a life in after living in Rome.

After a lunch like this, you spot the keenest, most artistic corners of a town. Pitigliano appears to favour Lambrettas over Vespas, and like most Tuscan towns, is home to many cats. And to one particularly beautiful old-style barbershop.

The book “Intervista a Lorenzo Lotto” is written for fifth-graders but it makes for a good read as its protagonists, two middle school kids, meet Lorenzo Lotto and he talks about his art while they use iPads and other modern tools to quickly illustrate what he’s saying. What’s unique about this book is that amongst those that introduce art to children, it’s the only one I have ever seen that doesn’t concentrate on a famous artist (say, Michelangelo or Monet). For the same reasons that Lotto is interesting to us (or at least, to me), he can be made to be so to children: he traveled a lot, and painted some rather unusual things. Explained in a clear and fun way, as the authors Alesandra Uguccioni and our host Maria Giovanna Sarti do, and illustrated as well (by Paolo Marabotto), Lotto is indeed fun for kids. I know I would have loved this book when I was 8 or 10 years old! If you’re interested you can purchase it through the Amazon link below.

Info:
La Corte del Ceccottino
via Vignoli, Pitigliano (GR)
tel (+39) 0564 615423, cell (+39) 334 7841967
Open on Friday nights and weekends only, weekdays upon request.

I am in love. Nothing special, if this love wasn’t a city. A city that many people associate with the adjectives grey and boring. How sad, to hear such accusations! With this article, I would like to invite you to take another look and to hopefully intrigue you to have a little flirt with my love: Milan (of course, I mean the city center, not the outer districts which indeed are horrible and grey).

But how can I make you see what I see?

Imagine you are in love with the man/woman of your life, and someone asks you: what is so special about this person? You will look at the beloved with kind of confused incomprehension, and say: well, it’s simply all about him/her. And if the other insists in asking you, and you start describing his/her features with poetic words, you might hear: well, there are plenty of other men/women who have also these features. And you will then try to describe the way he/she is. But how can one describe the essence, which makes a person unique? Or, in our case: how can one describe what makes a city unique? What makes us feel a certain atmosphere? How can atmosphere be described? and will this feeling of atmosphere be subjective or can atmosphere be described also by objective elements?

While this might remain in your reflection, put on a comfortable pair of shoes; open up your mental eyes; allow for the curiosity you had as a child, and jump into my 10 reasons Milan is not just a grey and boring city.

1) Colour

Discover the magic of beige, especially in the evening, when the facades are illuminated. While grey appears cold, and creates a sort of distance and boredom, you will find that the dominant colour of the “palazzi signorili” in the center of Milan is a light beige, which is a warm, vivid tone, most atmospheric and soft when illuminated at night. Look at Porta Venezia in the evening light, and you will see what I try to say, or visit the very center, Piazza del Duomo. If you choose daylight, you will discover that many houses have warm pastel  colours with a touch of light beige, conferring vivid individuality but at the same time granting for soft harmony. You might stroll around streets like Via Stoppani, Via Melzo (where you will also find several magnificent liberty buildings), or the district around via Tadino (all close to Porta Venezia), to find out, and to feel the beauty of Milan’s colours.

2) Facades

Milan is dominantly built in the elegant eclectic style. Also typical for Milan, the rustication-style (bugnato), which allows both for eye-distraction and calm harmony. There are purists that hate eclecticism; or others that prefer the Spartan Bauhaus style. Well, those might not feel happy in Milan. But if you are one of those like me who would have preferred to live in the end of the 19^th century, with sophisticated circles of Bohemians where Chopin is played and Heinrich Heine read, and if you imagine the spirit of this period transformed into architecture, then you might fall in love with Milan.

Most of the houses in Milan centre have wrought-iron balconies, or balustrades made of stone columns, decorated with exuberant Mediterranean plants. There are also plenty of roof gardens; just look up.

Also the windows deserve attention, usually adorned with shades and tympanum, making me think of the glamorous eyelashes and stylized eyebrows of a Milanese “signora”. Could ever walking between such female houses  feel grey and boring? For the balancing masculine touch, you will see huge wooden doors, enabling you to enter even with your horse carriage. Passing such a door, you will feel important like an emperor.

Don’t miss the interiors: at evening, when  aristocratic palaces are illuminated inside by their magnificent chandeliers, you will discover amazingly decorated ceilings and walls (e.g. Corso Porta Venezia).

While walking alongside the palazzi, make sure to have a look at the courtyards. You will be surprised to find behind wrought-iron gates little oases, with sculptures, palm trees and other exotic plants. Internal doors and windows, beautifully made of stained glass which elsewhere could be seen in churches, show traces of liberty.

3) Proportion

Study the proportion between the height of the houses and the width of the streets: like a picture that you see best from a certain distance – standing neither too close, nor too far away -  streets like Corso Buenos Aires, or Corso Venezia gain elegance by the fact that the width of the street is more or less equal to the height of the houses (3 floors). You might find out how this distance-height-ratio effect feels to you. You have free sky above you, which gives a sensation of freedom, and a panoramic view, while the other side of the street is still easy to reach. For the panoramic view, Milan has a “trick”: the width of the streets changes. Looking from Corso Buenos Aires to Corso Venezia, the latter is narrowing to the end, with the effect that you can see the whole line of “palazzi”; in a straight, equidistant street this is not possible. You find this playing with distance also in Via della Spiga, creating a slightly curvy line of buildings, without the street being so curvy. As straight streets tend to feel boring, the variation of street widths adds balanced vividness to the street feeling.

4) Historic tram

The nostalgic charm of the inside wooden trams of the 1920s with all the squeaking, shaking and bell ringing will make you feel like in golden ages. Do you remember the little trains in amusement parks for small children? It’s like that. Just enjoy. And think of how sterile feel modern trams.

5) Green

Milan is rich in alleys (on your tram ride, you will see). Roof gardens, balconies and courtyards were already mentioned. But the most beautiful & romantic green, are the “Giardini Pubblici” (close to Porta Venezia), and here again, a visit will bring you back to the time of your grandparents, or your childhood. A small lake, an old fashioned carousel (the one with horses and carriages), romantic paths, and on weekends pony riding or carriage for children; an old man with a puppet singing old Italian songs, accompanied by a gramophone and his humble wife, selling balloons. This is the ideal place for taking sun in the summer, on a large meadow in front of the ponies and the puppet-singer, with many children playing peacefully around, having the Gallery of arts behind. Just delicious. But now, from colour to culture…

6) Cinema

For lovers of art-house films, you have the fantastic cinema “Spazio Oberdan” (again, at Porta Venezia), but also several (!) other art-house cinemas. Kim Ki-Duk, Fassbinder, Bertolucci, or recently a focus on Picasso; all what is “cinema-art”, you will find here. There is also a small space for expositions, which are also special.

7) La Scala

Of course, if you can, you should visit the opera house; not just for the spectacle, but for the building itself. From outside, it does not reveal any of its beauties. These are inside. Those who cannot afford access: there are introductions to the events, by famous choreographs, critics and professors, for free, IN the Scala.

If you love classical concerts: the offer is so huge, that it is sometimes difficult to choose. Milan is still (luckily for me) “conservative”, so if you like a repertoire of classic to late romantic/impressionist music (i.e. from Mozart till Debussy), then you are in paradise here. What is special: there are plenty concerts with renowned artists, for 0 – 5 EUR. And it will not be overcrowded.

8 ) Art exhibitions

As many as you want. My personal favorite: Galleria d’Arte Moderna (free entrance), which however is not modern art, but a gorgeous villa, in a romantic park with a temple, and as only very few people go there, the atmosphere is special. Extraordinary expositions with the typical Italian mise en scène (which guaranties a full immersion into art, combining paintings with writings of the artist or philosophers of his time, atmospheric light/video installations and background music of the epoch), you will find in Palazzo Reale.

Also to mention, the many book presentations of La Feltrinelli; the open air theatre la Verdura (Via Senato), offering spectacles in a romantic park with a temple, for free,  or the many other presentations, lectures, often held in the splendid halls of the many historic buildings. Also, all for free. Lovers of poetry might go to Palazzina Lliberty, a splendid liberty construction, with almost weekly poetry readings (again, for free).

9) Shop windows

In Milan to be considered “art”, as each shop window is somehow an aesthetic composition, like a “Stillleben”, where the exposed articles are only part of a scene in theatre. That brings me to:

10) Women

The way they appear in Milan, they could be part of a live performance: the theatre of life.  You will immediately note the top-fashioned women with short skirts, high stilettos and make-up, which transform the streets into a reality catwalk; and you will see them wearing these catwalk outfits even when they go for a ride on a motor bike! It’s like looking at the front page of Vogue, or participating at a glamorous photo shoot – but turned into a reality movie. Personally, I like being spectator of this street theatre (even I will always just remain spectator). But it is vivid. It looks colourful. And it feels full of life.

There would be plenty of other things to mention, from the Navigli, the channels with the many art galleries and pubs, when on the “Navigli in fiore” day they are all over decorated with flowers, till the group of flamingos, which live voluntary in the garden of one of the villas close-by. But I better stop here.

What remains: take the chance to build your own, independent opinion. Not everyone has the same taste. But to me, my love will always remain: beautiful. Simply, for what it is, and gives to me.

About the author: Patricia Gomez-Diaz (born 1968), a German living in Milan since 2005, graduated in both  Ancient Greek, Latin & Philosophy (M.A.) and in Business Administration with focus on applied mathematics. She works as a freelancer, linking analysis with creativity and the development of strategic concepts; which however remains subordinated to her main interest: Italy and it’s beauty in landscape and fine arts.

How Passports with Purpose works

Passports with Purpose is a charity founded by (female!) travel bloggers who every year since 2008 have raised awareness and money to fund something worthy in the world. Travel bloggers participate by getting people they know to donate prizes and promoting that prize on their blog. Anyone can enter this “sweepstakes” with a 10$ (USD) entry and can bid multiple times on multiple prizes. All that money goes to charity, and you have a great chance of winning in the random prize draw. Please look at their website for full rules and information.

Pisa prize description

I teamed up with my friend and fellow blogger Gloria (you all know her from At Home in Tuscany and our Italy blogging roundtable, right?) who owns two fabulous vacation rentals – the fantastically well located Behind the Tower in Pisa and the cute little Casina di Rosa in Civitella in the Maremma area. We chose to offer 4 nights in Pisa because it’s a great weekend break from the UK, or a starting point for a longer trip in Tuscany.

If you win this prize you will get 4 nights at Behind the Tower:

• This one bedroom apartment sleeps 4 (2 in the bedroom and 2 on the pull-out couch)
• It is made up of three rooms: a kitchen with sitting area and pull-out couch, a large bedroom with a queen-sized bed, and a bathroom.
• The kitchen is newly renovated and fully equipped
• There is heating and air conditioning
• There is also free internet! You can use the city’s free wifi system or, if you have a laptop, your host will provide a cellular internet key for your use during your stay. Internet’s so important, we know it!
• All linens and final cleaning are included
• Free airport or train station pickup upon request

Please note the following important things:

• NO weekend check-in – i.e. you cannot check in on Saturday or Sunday (because our hosts are tending to their place in Maremma), so you can only arrive on any weekday (and eventually leave on a weekend day). Like we said, that’s perfect for a long weekend!
• Guests must only pay the city tax for Pisa: 1.5 euro per person, per night, payable upon arrival.
• You may claim your prize in the year 2013. There are NO blackout dates or exclusions, and no extra charges.
• Booking is subject to availability; if you win you will be put in contact with Gloria right away and the earlier you book, the better it is.

For full information on this apartment and its features, see here.

See posts on Gloria’s blog for things to do in Pisa.

How to donate and win this prize

To participate, go to Passports with Purpose’s DONATE page. You can bid on this prize, and also take a shot at many other great prizes.

Drinking water is important!

This is my first time participating in PWP. I heard about it from one of the founders while at a travel blogging conference in Umbria earlier this year and I was particularly impressed at the scale of the project and what we bloggers are able to do when we work as a group for a common goal.

This year’s charity is Water.org and the goal is to build a well for a community in Haiti. Water has been on my mind a lot lately, since it’s November and here in Tuscany there have been terrible floods (November’s a bad month for flooding in Italy, as you may know). Gloria’s Maremma – which I now consider also “My” Maremma – has been hard hit (she writes about that here).

Flooding in Maremma - photo: http://altracitta.org

Right now, these places have too much water, and with that comes mud, mudslides, ruined houses, and ruined water supplies. The communities affected are already at work cleaning up, and clean drinking water has been restored in most areas.

In Haiti, which was also recently hit by natural disaster, nearly half of the population do not have the luxury of drinking water and sanitary toilets, things we take for granted. In the information provided about water.org in this post on the PWP website I was struck in particular by one thing: women and children are the hardest hit by this lack:

Children are the most susceptible to water-related diseases like diarrhea, and women and children bear the primary responsibility for collecting water and for the domestic chores associated with its use. [...] Can you imagine facing the impossible choice of giving your thirsty child contaminated water or no water at all?

Children carrying water in Haiti - photo: water.org

The answer to this problem is relatively simple, and has so many positive ripple effects. With clean water and a healthier population comes more opportunity for schooling and progress. I personally will be bidding on a few prizes and am happy to know that I can contribute both promotion and money towards the goal:

The $100,000 goal will enable Water.org to work with communities in Boucan Carre and Mirebalais to build five new wells. Each well will serve an average of 370 people.

Please bid on this or another prize at Passports with Purpose… and spread the word!

We went in February 2012, and are publishing our experience now to help people plan for their winter holidays. Before leaving, Laura did research to find out what to do with a three year old child in Corvara. She does not ski, but wanted Francesco to start (aged 3 years and 4 months), and intended to place him in ski school while she would relax, read, and enjoy spa treatments. Unfortunately, things did not work out as planned. Here is what we ended up having to do, and our advice for anyone traveling to Alta Badia with a child under five years of age. The rest of this post is team written.

Can he ski?

As you know, Laura does a lot of research to find fun activities to do with Francesco (see her Florence for kids articles summarized here), and traveling is no exception. She wrote to the Corvara ski school for information in advance and found he could be signed up for classes, but upon arrival we were told a different story. Here’s what happened in her words.

Laura explains:

I wrote in advance to the ski school in Corvara (close to the Boe ski lift), and told them not only Francesco’s age but also his height, weight and shoe size (as I know that he’s smaller than average). They told me he would be able to attend the ski school every day, Monday – Wednesday – Friday from 10.00 to 12.45 and Tuesday – Thursday from 10.00 to 16.00 including lunches. I planned my own activities accordingly.

We arrived on Saturday and went to the ski school to book but, surprise, they say Francesco is too little to start skiing. The next day,  I went to get information about the Ski Kinderland (day care service) but they told me children would stay indoors and as Francesco is always at school I felt sorry to be on holidays and leave him at a school similar to the one he attends every day in Florence. So on Monday we went shopping around Corvara together but coming back home I noticed that actually children having ski lessons were as little as Francesco.

An attempt to ski. See how he can't hold a snowplow?

We decided to take matters in our own hands – after all, I taught kids to ski all through high school. Towards the end of the day, we got a set of rental skis for me and a little pair for Francesco, whose feet were a size smaller than the smallest boot available. And we did a little test on the bunny hill. And the big, bad grooming machine started cleaning up nearby and scared little Francy to death. And he cried, and cried, and cried. Here is what that looked like.

I tried taking him down in a snowplow hug, but he was quite hysterical. Ski boots are hard and uncomfortable, and skis are scary. And although he trusts me, he could not be comforted until the skis were put away and he was moved away from the noisy machines.

In general, it’s possible to start skiing at age three and up, though it depends on each child. Francesco is small for his age and may not have the muscles and coordination necessary to hold a snowplow position. If your child is in this situation, try enrolling him or her in tennis or basketball, two sports that require very precise movements and develop hand-eye and muscle coordination. Next year Francesco will be ready!

Another important step towards skiing is getting the child used to snow and outdoor sports, especially if you live somewhere warm. This was Francesco’s second trip to the mountains; last year Fabio and Laura took him sledding (which he didn’t like much either). Try sledding, carrying the kid in a backpack, short walks outside, snowman making and any kind of games in the snow to get them used to being bundled up and outside.

Laura: “Alexandra was so sweet as she made a test to see if actually Francesco was too tiny to have ski lessons!”

Finally, it’s useful for kids to see their parents ski equipment as they want to imitate mommy and daddy. So we placed Francesco on Fabio’s snowboard and guess what? He LOVED it. Maybe it is a sign… can we skip skiing altogether? Check out the video – at the end he shouted “ancora” (again)!

Too small, try day care

If your child is too small to ski, most ski areas have a day care center that takes advantage of being in the mountains by having kids play outside, part of the important “getting used to the snow” process. So Francesco went to the all day day-care (asiloneve) center at Corvara. And here’s how that went.

Laura: The second day of our stay, I brought Francesco to the day-care center, as another person guaranteed that they would, in fact, go outside to play in the snow. At the end of the day, we went to pick up Francesco and the teachers complained that he’s too vivacious and had bit another child. Then they told us that the day after there would be 50 children with only two teachers, so Francesco was not welcome to return. Nonetheless we brought him back on the last day of our trip, and while they refused to take him, I insisted, and left him there! This time he behaved and the teachers did not complain.

I was very disappointed about the service in Corvara for children of this age. I planned my winter holidays thinking I would  have three morning and two whole days on my own relaxing, having massages, going shopping, etc. but then  not only Francesco could not learn how to ski, but I had to find things to do with him all day long! In Corvara itself we did our best to walk around, have tea and cakes, and use the public playground in town, where we had fun on the slide, swings, etc on the snow.

Supervised play area

Having failed at ski school and day care, we tried taking Francesco to a supervised play area that I discovered at the top of Piz la Ila. It’s a privately run center (Dolomites Fun Park Piccole Canaglie) and owner Gian Carlo is a ski instructor specialized in working with small kids (he also confirmed my approach of trying out a pair of skiis with Francesco). Parents can accompany children aged zero to ten for 6 euros an hour in the enclosed play area (or 12,00€ unlimited time). A babysitter (15€ for 1 hour or 35€ for 3 hours) can usually be reserved if parents want to ski in the meantime, but this needs to be done in advance. Francy played in the snow for 3 hours and liked that.

Family hotels

We came to a conclusion: Corvara is not the best place for small children. If you have a child who is just about to start skiing, we would suggest staying at La Villa and using the ski school there because it has many more children and more possibilities for each age group.

If there is a chance, like in our case, that your child is not going to be able to ski (due to undeveloped muscles or simple dislike!), make sure you have other options to keep him or her busy. Staying at an apartment rental may not be the best option, although it does have a kitchen for family meals. If your budget allows for it, consider staying at a Family Hotel with day care and organized activity services as well as a good spa for mommy.

Laura: In the post “January events for kids” you will find a couple of suggestions for family friendly hoels. We tried a few with nursery facilities like the Biancaneve at Selva in Val Gardena, a 4-star luxury design hotel where you can leave your children in the morning and see them again after dinner! Try also Bad Ratzes at Alpe di Siusi with a nursery where children play, eat, etc and there are special walks and activities for families.

Restaurants and food

Francesco liked the local cuisine! Here is Laura to tell us about what he eat, and where we found good, child-friendly service.

First of all Francesco really appreciated Alexandra’s vegetarian lasagna that we had as first dinner in our flat (he got that for leftovers too the next day!). We discovered Seppi Bakery in Corvara and every day I bought bread (very good with muesli, cereals, etc) and Francesco had a couple of crispy breadsticks (while I had coffee at L’got Bar – tiny but posh.

For a sweet break don’t  miss Hotel Villa Eden chocolaterie and Tablè Hotel bar. For take-away close to our flat we tried delicious apple strudel and cream krapfen at the Konditorei on the way to Boe.

For dinner, Alexandra already wrote about the restaurant at Armentarola hotel, where children were welcome and were given an embroidered bib; Francesco really loved the soup with speck canederli.

We also loved La Sieia in strada Berto 61 – San Cassiano (Fanes hotel group, the same as the posh Las Vegas located on the hill) a beautiful historical sawmill restored according the Ladino tradition (with modern touches). Here is a photo of Francesco eating his ragout pasta while Fabio had a special cheese plate and I had a knuckle of pork with potatoes. The meal ended with a ricotta cheese canederlo with hot chocolate inside and raspberry marmalade!

A local Museum for children

We visited the Ursus Ladinicum Museum in San Cassiano where Francesco had fun taking pictures close to brown bears and skeletons. This Ladino Museum is dedicated to the prehistoric bear of the Dolomites and opened in July 2011 with a permanent exhibition of remains and skeletons found 24 year ago and also explains the geological formation of Dolomites with fossils of each rock layer. The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday 15-19 (different days and times according to the different months of the year). The ticket, 8€ for adults, can also be used to visit the Museum Ladin Ćiastel de Tor in San Martino in Badia (on the way back to the highway).

If you’re still thinking of going to Corvara – if your child is older, for example, check out our related posts:

• Corvara practical travel advice
• Corvara in Alta Badia best and worst snowboard runs
• Snowboarding in Corvara – four great things to do

The 8 meter diameter cupola allows kids and adults to see the night sky in simulation. While activity concentrates on school groups, there has been a regular weekend appointment for years. Now with extended hours and a host of activities for both adults and families, the planetarium might be something to add to your calendar.

In the same building, a collection of scientific instruments and a library complete the didactic function of this institute.

Opening hours: Saturdays from 10am to noon and 3-6pm, with visits every half hour to the collections.
Sundays at 3:30 and 5pm, guided family visits of the planetarium by resident astrophysicists,. for children aged 6+. Activities cost 6 euro for adults, 5 for children.
Info: www.fstfirenze.it

I want to reflect on the work itself, briefly, and on its use by the population and impact on the way we might think about the piazza in general, and piazza Santa Croce in particular.

In the piazza, which has been filled with white pebbles that provide a snow-like effect on a grey day, there are huge blocks of marble, some cut and sanded down to a smooth finish, others in a rougher state. These gigantic blocks are laid out in the shape of a cross, but you can’t really understand this unless you see it from above, as in this film shot from a helicopter.

The shape of the cross fits into the visual symbols chosen for Florens by Sergio Risaliti, who also contributed to the curation of the “ostension” (solemn display) of three crosses in the Baptistry and the installation of olive trees in Piazza Duomo. All three installations were present only during the 10 days of Florens. The cross here fits rather obviously in with the piazza itself – Santa Croce – and is intended to be in dialogue with the church. When Paladino was invited to speak on the theme of art and public space during Florens in a roundtable discussion with Risaliti and others, it was suggested that this cross is a contemporary and ephemeral open-air church, the first contemporary church in the historical center of Florence. On that we’ll talk later…

The cross is also a recurring symbol in Paladino’s other works, for example in large works on paper in the Madre museum in Naples, the via Crucis of 2008, about which the museum writes “Memory and quotation, figurative mimesis and a fantastical recreation of reality. Mimmo Paladino’s art sinks into the unconscious of Mediterranean culture, to capture its symbols and legends, left buried beneath the veil of Reason that reduces the world to profits and losses, saints and sinners. His stylized heroes and Don Quixote are mythic simulacra of a nocturnal universe that moves behind, in front of and beyond the usual evident and reassuring social identities.” If that helps you understand Paladino’s symbols better, you are clearly more informed about contemporary art and language than I.

Photo: @elpavon on instagram

Amongst the blocks are shapes and elements found in works by Paladino in other media: empty-looking armless figures, one of which seems to be banging its head against the marble; a multi-faceted geometric star, a circle incised with symbols, birds and shoes, fluttering gold leaf…

Most of the information I can find online refers to these recurring elements as archaic symbols; one critic writes that these symbols “are conceptualized from a basic image, reduced to a fundamental expression, and in the end create an alphabet of simplified and elegant signs.” Although these look as much like symbols as anything I have seen, and most critics refer to them as such, the artist has been quoted specifically as saying “There are no symbols in my works”. I prefer to take this statement as my way out for not being able, for the life of me, to explain what they mean. They are no simple alphabet. One thing is for sure – the symbols, or non-symbols, reflect and frame elements of the church’s facade, indicating a careful consideration of the space by the artist.

What did people think of it?

Ok, this work of art was in the piazza for just over a week. How was it used, and what did people think of it? First off, the critical reception was good. The outspoken critic Philippe Daverio said, in video by ArtTribune, that the work was a bit rhetorical but that it was positive because it created “clamore” – essentially, it makes noise, makes people talk about it, or go out to visit it. The press was also generally positive.

Unquestionably, even in rainy weather, it got people out of the house to take a look. In the many photographs I’ve seen shared on facebook and instagram one thing is very clear – lots of people visited it. In this instagram, @Maraina81, a young archaeologist/blogger, writes that the piazza looks like a painting by Brueghel!

Photo: Marina Lo Blundo

One thing people seemed to like was that this was art made to be touched, climbed upon, even… written on. A photo posted on the facebook page of Florens by photographer Mauro Sani shows kids passing from block to block of marble, asking if this is safe.

Photo: Mauro Sani (www.maurosani.it) posted on Florens facebook page

For others, the sculpture became a training ground for parkour. Is this a respectful treatment of art? I am actually inclined to say “yes,” because parkours is also an art that requires training and sizing up space.

Paladino intended the work to be lived and experienced, and specifically permitted people to leave their signs on it. At the opening ceremony, people were allowed to trace their hands on the marble with chisels; this practise continued with pens and pencils. Unfortunately, people also took this as an opportunity for stupid graffiti – though I note that nobody dared think of spray-painting it, and in one case the graffiti was a poetic statement about art, written in pencil. No guards, no rules, just art open to the good sense of people who had to decide what was allowed, or what was appropriate. So, it’s public art that asks citizens to think about what to do with the public art they’ve been given.

Returning to the interpretation of this work of art by its curator and artist as a contemporary, impermanent and open-air church, I wonder how to resolve this interpretation with the actual use of the piece by the public, which in some cases is more that of a playground and photo backdrop than that of a church.

A man gazes at the art

The cost of an operation like this is high, and a sticky point is the money spent at a time of crisis – many comments I’ve seen around the net asked how much Fondazione Florens spent for this. I can answer: zero. It was sponsored by Fondazione Henraux, a marble company with a history of sponsoring marble art, and although I can’t find it written in the press information, I am quite sure I recall overhearing that the artist himself worked for free. Some might say that Henraux should have instead donated the money to schools or other worthy projects, to which I can only say that private funding of the arts is also necessary – in fact, that was one of the major themes discussed at Florens 2012.

You would think that most people would react positively to this piece, but actually it seems many Florentines hated it. While it was being put up, for example, people who lived or worked near the piazza complained of the noise, as if they were not already used to the noise of drunk people overflowing into the piazza from nearby bars at night, an issue that has plagued this area in the past 10 years. My answer to that is: at least the art, once it’s installed, doesn’t make noise!

Negative comments on an article in the Corriere Fiorentino highlight a lack of understanding of the work, leading one florentine to call it a “troiaio”, an offense which literally means a dirty place (often full of prostitutes). Another commenter refers to it as a marble jumble whose meaning they cannot understand, while yet another suggests it represents the decay of Italy and its political parties. Again in this video, an elderly Florentine woman says that the work is a “disrespect to the piazza, because I simply can’t understand what it is meant to say.” Unquestionably, the meaning of this work is partially up in the air, but one thing it is not is dirty! Is difficulty of understanding to be a barrier between people and contemporary art? Why do some people simply dislike, even hate, things they cannot understand?

Fellow art historian and blogger Jenna Francisco and I hug the art.

Over the course of its installation, numerous people specifically made a trip to Santa Croce to visit the work, as well as to see the crucifixes in the Baptistry, often combining this with lunch and shopping, and snapping a few pictures on the way. At night, the work remained open to the public. It seems to me that the piazza was used in a different way in the past week than throughout most of the year, providing specific attractivity to the center of florence to experience art that is free and interactive. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Italy blogging roundtable: The Piazza

And without further ado, I remind you that the Italy Blogging Roundtable is a monthly thematic appointment on the blogs of four female bloggers who love Italy. You can see these posts on ArtTrav by clicking here. To read what my colleagues wrote about The Piazza this month, please check out:

• Jessica: Italy’s living room
• Gloria: Why children should be allowed to work at Sagre
• Rebecca: The Piazza: Be There and Be in the Square

This is a huge event, so there’s something for everyone. If you’re in Florence you won’t be able to avoid some of its manifestations, like a gigantic cross made of marble blocks in Piazza Santa Croce, which is an installation by Mimmo Paladino – who is also one of the event’s keynote speakers.

Piazza Santa Croce - Mimmo Paladino installation being mounted - Photo Enrica Quaranta for Florens 2012

Inside Palazzo Vecchio and in a few breakout locations there are over a hundred conferences, roundtables, keynote speeches and “cultural aperitivos”. And every single one of them is FREE.

For example, Saturday night, November 3d at 9pm, i’m going to hear Mimmo Paladino talk about art and public space, which is a very interesting topic, I think. That talk is in Italian, but many others during the day have simulataneous translation available into English. On Tuesday November 6th at 6:30pm there’s a rountable talk on museum apps, followed by a free aperitivo, where Nancy Proctor, who is in charge of the Smithsonian’s social media and technology, is one of the speakers – this session is in English. “Stranieri” or expats in Florence have their say at a session at the Bargello on the Friday afternoon – it’s always nice to hear another point of view.

Meanwhile in Piazza Duomo, a centuries-old olive grove sprouted overnight.

If you’re going to go to the talks – and you really should – you need to sign up here - and then it’s all free.

And, if you’re in the salone dei Cinquecento, keep an eye out for me at the bloggers’ table to the right – come by to say hi, and if I have a moment we can step out and chat. You can also meet the group of international bloggers who won a trip to Florence to tell the story to their readers – there are 7 of them, plus 7 local bloggers and 6 of my colleagues who will be all around, tweeting our rear ends off.

Finally, give me a hand – we’re running a tweet wall that will display your comments projected on a massive screen in the Salone dei Cinquecento, so tweet with the hashtag #florens2012 ! And of course you can follow the fun also on the facebook page of Florens.

If you don’t hear anything else from me in the next two weeks, that’s why.

View of the formal garden at Petraia from a window of the villa, towards the city of Florence

This 16th-century villa was rebuilt by Cosimo I on an earlier structure that had previously belonged to two very illustrious families – the Brunelleschi and the Strozzi – but it was really the villa of his son Ferdinando I, who had the gardens done.

The garden, on three terraced levels, presents formal plantings that approximate in some ways the original shape of the garden that we know thanks to the lunette painted of this villa by Giusto Utens around 1600 – one of 14 such documents of the Medici’s vast estates.

Utens lunette, villa Petraia - photo from arte.it

The lowest level of the garden used to be planted with a series of rounded pergolas that permitted a stroll in the shade, while now these same areas are dedicated to box hedges as you can see in the photo below. The circular fountain here is from the 18th century and it, as well the large pool before the stairwell to the building and 2 other fountains in this garden, was fed by an aqueduct that Ferdinando had built by Tribolo, but that never provided quite enough water to make this a major element in the garden.

A swath of beautiful purple flowering plants lead up the central path towards the building.

The upper terrace holds some decorative plants and a fountain topped by a Giambologna statue of Venus now housed inside, and replaced with a copy (not pictured here).

The building itself is in a solid but unadorned 16th-century style that doesn’t seem all that special, although it sports an attractive coat of arms above the door and a sundial on the facade.

Villa Petraia facade

If photos had been permitted inside the villa, I might have shown you the glassed-in courtyard with frescoes from the first decorative programme of the villa, and then a series of opulently decorated 19th-century rooms (less interesting, IMO).

The courtyard at Petraia - photo intoscana

The inside of the villa is visitable by group tour that runs each hour on the half hour. When you arrive at the property, check what time the next entry is. However, look around for a custodian because when we went, the door to the interior areas was closed but we were the only visitors, and sure enough we managed to get the very surly custodian to open up for us and unceremoniously wave us into, and quickly through, the rooms.

Opening hours vary with daylight, usually opening at 8:15am and closing anywhere from 4:30 to 6:30pm, closed alternate Mondays. Visiting the garden and villa is free!

Until the end of November 2012 there is an exhibit of three of the Utens lunettes inside the villa, seen in this press photo.

Utens 3 lunettes on exhibit at villa Petraia

Although many people say it’s not wise to drive on the Amalfi Coast due to the narrow roads and crazy drivers, we took the risk (we’ve driven through Tuscany and around much of the world) and found that having a car gave us freedom that public transportation would not. From Florence, we took the highway straight down towards Naples and then along the Salerno-Reggio Calabria until Vietri sul Mare. For our late October holiday we chose to stay outside of Vietri in Raito, essentially a suburb, but we enjoyed Hotel Raito very much. We booked a superior room with sea view, and while the room itself was nothing to write home about, the view was. We had a small private garden, huge terrace and view off the cliff to the sea, and found ourselves going out to look at the view at various times of the day, including sunrise (see photo).

Sunrise from our hotel room

Sunset at Hotel Raito

The purpose of this trip was to relax (and get away from Florence!) so we took it easy, enjoyed the amazing views, took photos and ate good food. Here’s what we recommend for three days in the area at an easy pace while trying to keep away from the tourists.

Day 1 – Amalfi + Ravello

A typical view while on this part of driving the Amalfi coast

The Amalfi coast is reputed to be one of the world’s great drives, so of course we had to tackle this on the first day. It’s under 30km from Vietri to Amalfi but it can take all day if you stop to admire the views every few curves as we did.

We drove from Vietri sul Mare, through Maiori, Minori and all the way to Amalfi, with a detour inland (up the mountain) to Ravello. This is half of the famed coast but is home to some of the best views. Most tourists start out in Naples and go through Positano to Amalfi so we were happy to go against the flow.

The hillside near Ravello

We had heard that Ravello was a must-see and not as crowded as the coastline towns since public transportation to this town is limited (however there were plenty of tourist busses). Ravello is known in particular for its two spectacular gardens at Villa Cimbrone (also a luxury hotel) and Villa Rufolo which offer impressive panoramas of which one cannot get enough.

Formal garden at villa Rufolo

First up was Villa Rufolo, the home of the rich Rufolo family which was mentioned by Boccaccio in the Decameron. When Wagner visited in 1880, he exclaimed that he had finally found the setting for his opera, Parsifal. Every summer, music (not necessarily Wagner) is performed at the Ravello Festival on a stage that juts out over the sea. Who knew that playing classical music could be such a risky job?

The most photographed feature of this garden is the remainder of an 11th century cloister in the Moorish style. The original grounds held a mix of Arabic, Sicilian and Norman architecture that no longer is present); now in its entirely Romantic 19th-century form, it is a mix of formal plantings, ruins, and heavy 19th-century porticoes and other structures, though still offers the surprising views over the water.

Next stop: Villa Cimbrone…

Sky reflected in the building of Hotel Cimbrone

Hiding behind columns at Villa Cimbrone

Like Villa Rufolo, this place was transformed by an English traveler during the Grand Tour. The basic shape of the garden revolves around a central Renaissance avenue, but evolved in the shape and taste of late 19th century English gardens. The choice of plants was by Vita Sackville-West, poet and gardener who was friends with the owners, the Becketts. For the influential Bloomsbury group, whose most famous member was Virginia Woolf, the garden embodied an idea of aesthetic harmony.

The front door to the garden at Villa Cimbrone

A spectacular view at villa Cimrone

The famous Terrace of Infinity is adorned with 18th-century busts. From here you can see all the way down the Amalfi Coast.

The famous "terrace of infinity"

It was already quite late in the day by the time we made it to Amalfi, so we didn’t explore much, though appreciated the cathedral with its Romanesque facade (Duomo di Sant’Andrea), which seems to be the main art-historical highlight of this town, with is otherwise lovely to explore due to its tall white houses hugging the hill. Shops and all are very touristy.

The romanesque exterior of Amalfi's Cathedral

Day 2 – Sorrento

We got going late in the day on our second day, which had been set aside for Sorrento, because the hotel breakfast was particularly good and ample, and thus deserved our full attention over the course of a few hours. We then enjoyed the view in our garden before heading out about an hour and a half away to Sorrento.

As in most Italian towns, one first hits up the cathedral, which we didn’t enter, however. In Sorrento an unusual feature is the bell tower which is close by but not adjacent to the cathedral. It has a medieval base but as you can see from the picture the actual structure is much more modern, with a clock face from the 18th century.

A clocktower in Sorrento

Another quite unique feature in Sorrento is what is called a “Sedile” which we’d never heard of, but appears to be a kind of almost open-air civic building where nobles met to discuss administrative and government issues. Now it houses the “Sorrentine Club” so we saw old men playing chess there. The structure has a maiolica roof and in the covered areas is decorated with trompe-l’oeuil frescoes.

Sedile Dominova

A major reason we’d visited Sorrento this day (which we found overly touristy) was to look into how to get to Capri the following day.

Day 3 – Capri

To get to Capri from Vietri sul Mare, you could take a 2 hour ferry ride, but we opted to drive and catch a faster boat from Sorrento. From here it was about a 25 minute boat ride. We left early in the morning and returned at 7pm. Although some people suggest that Capri is a half day trip, we certainly didn’t think so. You can’t rush taking in beauty, sometimes you just have to sit down and soak in the view.

We headed straight for the Blue Grotto, probably the number one tourist attraction on Capri but worth trying to see. Turns out that one can get in only 30% of the time due to rough seas, so we were lucky. First you take a largish motor boat to the entrance to the grotto, at which point you line up and wait…

The line-up to get into the Blue Grotto was about an hour long

A series of row boats take in four tourists at a time. We waited about an hour, and then our moment came to get into the boat. The entrance to the grotto is very low, so we are positioned in a particularly intimate way: Basically you sit in between each others’ legs, lying back, and when you go under the entrance, the rowing man also lies down on top of all of you!

These are the rowboats you load into to get into the Grotto

Inside the grotto it really is blue! The rowboat men sing Neapolitan songs to show off the acoustics. Within minutes, you’re out again. Although it is a short visit and not cheap (18 euros per person for the two boats, plus the trip to Capri), it’s the kind of thing you ought to do once in a lifetime, if you can.

Inside the grotto.

The other major thing to do on Capri is to take a chairlift up to the top of Mount Solaro. This old-style chairlift transports a single person at a time and the ride takes about 12 minutes (cost is 10 euros per person, round trip ticket). From 589 meters up there is quite an impressive view!

The single chairlift up the mountain

The view from above

As we travel frequently to Italy, we know we’ll be back some day, so we weren’t too worried about seeing everything in the area. We’d already been to Naples and Pompeii with Alexandra on the train once, but otherwise the south of Italy remains to be explored for us. After this positive experience, we hope to come back to this area and see Positano, and would even return to Vietri sul Mare – in the off-season of course!

harvested zucca of all types

We asked our friends at the enogastronomic society De Gustibus to put us in touch with Giovanna and Pino at Podere Paugnano near Radicondoli in the Senese. We’d been there once for a fantastic dinner event with De Gustibus and wanted a repeat! Paugnano is an agriturismo and although there is no formal restaurant here, guests of the agriturismo and the public can book ahead for a dinner.

Evening view towards Radicondoli

We arrived around sunset as I knew we wanted enough light to see some the animals on the grounds before settling in for our feast. In late October there are lots of baby animals around, and by mid November the place will be full of them. We started with the sheep, which the family uses for pecorino made on the premises. The first baby sheep of the season have been born, and are so cute and fluffy at 2-10 days old. By next month, we learn that there will be 90 babies in this enclosure. Needless to say, by next Easter there will be fewer…

The first of the sheep litter - some are 2 days old!

Baby sheep!

We also visit the 3 month-old piglets who squeal and snort around their huge mamma pigs, but it’s too dark to get a reasonable photo of them.

Next stop, the cheese lab, where Pino shows us the storage fridges for fresh and more seasoned pecorino. There is a cheese shop on the farm that you can visit at any time to purchase cheese directly.

An unusual shape of marzolino cheese

Cheese in the fresh storage area - the less seasoned molds stay here

Cheese

Speaking of cheese it’s time for the aperitivo to start, out on the balcony, with a sampling of many of the cheeses we just saw maturing. Giovanna has made delicious mostarde, jams and honey to serve with the cheese.

Cheese plate

We try to contain ourselves knowing what’s to come, and enjoy the display of freshly harvested zucca (pumpkin and squash) by comparing the size of the vegetable to our heads.

My parents and the pumpkins bigger then their heads!

Inside, Giovanna and the other ladies of the house are preparing ravioli.

Giovanna adding the cheese mixture to the long rolled out pasta for ravioli

ravioli ready for the pot

Talk about fresh! Rather than the more common ricotta and spinach filling we are having potato and pecorino filled ravioli with a tomato sauce. They have kindly respected my food allergies so there’s no garlic in anything, and it’s all vegetarian except for the roast baby pig…

Delicious roast potatoes with sage and rosemary

Roast pumpkin (zucca)

The secondi are abundant and so very yummy. There’s roast slices of zucca (pumpkin, but not like the American kind, more like an orange squash), amazing oven-roasted potatoes with sage and rosemary (we had to ask for seconds of these!), a torta salata of bietole for us vegetarians… and the much awaited roast piglet.

One committed piglet

Just as we figured no more could enter our stomachs, out comes a bowl of seasonal fruit – pears, cachi and grapes – and the final touch, seadas. These are fried pockets of cheese topped with lemon rind and sugar, a Sardinian specialty.

seadas

The newborn kittens hung out close by to enjoy a little extra meat and cheese, receiving much attention as they were just too cute to resist.

Kittens! and cats

Curious kitten

Everything we ate was organic, and almost all was produced right there on the farm. We were an hour and ten minutes away from Florence but a whole world apart from the city, where you can be a special guest in a warm, private home, eating home-made, relatively traditional food. If the dark road’s too much for you at night, accommodation can be arranged in their agriturismo.

INFO

Podere Paugnano
33 Radicondoli Siena – Tel. +39 0577 793027

Lucca is a quiet town with nothing to do at night but it becomes particularly busy and amusing every year at the beginning of November (just after Halloween) when Lucca Comics & Games is held! Children won’t believe their eyes when walking around the city, as they will meet their favourite cartoon characters in flesh and blood! This is because of the CosPlay contest: people are so proud to be noticed and happy to take a picture with you (in the photo, see Francesco surrounded by Pirates of Caribbean last year).

Francesco with the Pirates of the Caribbean. He doesn't really look thrilled...

My husband, Fabio, comes from Lucca and his parents (Francesco’s grandparents) still live there, so we often spend weekends and holidays in the lovely city that is 70 km away from Florence. That’s why we know what to do with children and where to shop in Lucca, surrounded by its  perfectly preserved city walls. And we always look forward to this moment in which the small town transforms into a walking comic book.

Lucca Comics 2012 activities for children

A friendly superheroine (and Francesco)

In the 2012 edition, within Lucca Comics and Games, there is a rich agenda for Juniors hosted in the Cortile degli Svizzeri  (tickets cost 6,00€ for children 6-10 years old and the same price for accompanying adult). I studied the activities for 4-5 year-olds since I will be bringing Francesco, though there are things appropriate for bigger kids too, see the official website.

All the workshops and the official site are only in Italian, so these workshops will be great for parents and kids living in Italy but unfortunately are not for tourists with no Italian language skills.

Meeting Area

Childrens' workshops at Lucca Comics - photo from the official website

Thursday 1 November at 11.30 Good morning postman, have you got my baby? (Buongiorno postino, ha lei il mio bambino?) a workshop by Scioglilibro based on the Babalibri novel (from 4 years), at 12.30 Each baloon its face (A ogni baloon la sua faccia!) a collage and drawings workshop to discover cartoons with Sualzo by Tunué (from 5 years) and at 15.30 “Of mice and lions, bears and chickens (Di topi e leoni, di orsi e di galline) workshop with illustrator Brunella Baldi by Lapis Edition (from 5 years)

Sunday 4 November at 12.00 Junior Mountain: let’s meet the marmot (Montagna Junior: incontriamo la marmotta) cartoons made for the “Safe Mountain” project by Club Alpino Italiano  and drawing workshop with children (from 5 years) by Bruno Barsuglia (CAI Regionale Toscano), Antonio (Gnago) Tregnaghi and Roberto Favilla (Mediaclik).

Workshop Area coordinated by Adriana Lucchesini (Manidoro Associazione Culturale)

Every day from Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th November from 9.00 to 19.00 workshop X Toy (the X ray puppet) from 3 years and at 16.00 the special workshop “Let’s create with PlayMais by Eurekakids (from 4 years)

Every day (excluded Saturday 3) at 11.30 the special workshop Tiramolla in the future..! a cartoon workshop with Laca (from 5 years).  On Friday 2 and Saturday 3 November at 15.00 the special workshop Animated aliens by ANIMAta…mente (from 4 years).

For slightly bigger kids (age 6 and up) there’s a workshop called “il mio crop circle” (my crop circle) which looks like fun!

Cosplay around town

Theatre Area coordinated by Cristiana Traversa with Debora Ulivieri

Every day at 18.00 Bomba libera tutti! by ANIMAta…mente (for all ages)

Thursday 1 at 12.00 “An adventure extra-ordinary”and at 15.00 “Welcome sun” by Associazione Il Gabbiano (from 5 years). Friday 2 at 10.00 and Sunday 4 November at 15.00 “Wolves of all times” (Lupi di tutti i tempi) from 3 years. Friday 2 at 16.00 and Saturday 3 November at 14.00 The macabre ballad (La ballata del gran macabro) show-laboratory by  La Cattiva Compagnia (from 5 years)

Saturday 3 at 10.00 and Sunday 4 at 12.00 the story corner: the discovery of Jill Tomlinson “The cat who wanted to go home” (from 5 years). Thursday 1 and Sunday 4 November at 10.00 “Ethic novels for a better future” (from 5 years) and at 14.00 a surprise show (for all)

Cosplay around town

Games area

Friday 2 November at 16.30 “Let’s play the difference: Ciao Maramao” game-laboratory by Pina Diamanti (from 5 years) and Saturday 3 November at 16.30 “Web of author: the first to observe is… observation” from Creativamente (5 years)

Eating and shopping in Lucca (with kids)

While you’re there…

Gli Orti di Elisa (via Elisa 17), not only one the best restaurants in town but, as owners Samuele and Silvia are a young couple, father and mother of three children, this eatery is part of the “Lucca Family Friendly” network and offers high chairs, a special bib, plastic cutlery, colours and papers, games and a menu tailored on childrens’ appetite.

Don’t miss Benetton Outlet (via Mordini 17) with T-shirts, sweaters, jackets, trousers, shoes and accessories of the previous season at 30-70% of discount and InOutlet (via Anfiteatro 105) where you can find the same discounts on Kickers, Hogan, Naturino, Camper, Melania and all the best childrens’ shoe brands.

He’s the most important part of a process of wool recycling that takes place in Prato, just a few kilometers from Florence. He’s cutting the zippers and trim off old clothes so that they are pure wool, with no ‘extras’ added. He’s helping make a kind of fabric known as Cardato, which is a CO2 neutral regenerated wool that turns the world’s cast-offs into brand new, beautifully coloured raw wool, yarn, and fabrics. From Cadato you can make just about anything, from couches to winter coats to felted poufs. And the whole process is absolutely stunning to see, as it’s super colourful – both these piles of clothes and the vats of dye they meet later in the process.

Right now, the Prato chamber of commerce is promoting a contest for young fashion designers, product designers and videomakers worldwide (aged 18-35). The challenge is to come up with new uses for Cardato. Based on a proposed design for a product, outfit, or communications video, 3 finalists in each category will be flown to Tuscany to spend 5 days in Prato with important producers of fashion and design, to get to know the Cardato process and its output. One person in each category will then win 2500 euros.

The contest is primarily aimed at those starting their career in any of the three fields, for it provides a really good learning opportunity as well as a moment for these young people to make professional contacts and perhaps have their design actually enter production. For videomakers, the cool thing is that you only have to propose an idea of how you might communicate this process, and send a portfolio. Then you get to come and film this amazing content. Do you find industrial processes as cool as I do?

If you feel inspired by this wool, sign up at www.cardato.it/contest – chances of winning are good, and the prize is super! Deadline is October 31 2012.

All photos credit: Marco Badiani

For the Italy Roundtable this month we’ve given ourselves the theme of “children” and I have opted to hold my tongue about why I have chosen not to have any in favour of simply culling my and Laura’s common knowledge, previously published on this blog, on activities for kids around Florence and beyond. I will update this post when other information or articles become available and hope that this is a useful and complete resource on the topic.

The beginning of didactic activities in the Uffizi - photo from official website polomuseale.firenze.it

Museums for kids in Florence

Start with these tips for approaching museums with kids based on art education theories and some personal observation.

Palazzo Vecchio Museo dei Ragazzi: this is not actually a separate museum but a live interpretation of a historical space for children and their parents. It’s for kids 8 and up.

Palazzo Davanzati: this is an early Renaissance palazzo that is furnished and decorated in a recreation of what real life would have been like in the past. At one point there was a special guide for kids (in Italian) that you might try to ask for at the front desk. This museum is really appealing to children if there’s someone to tell them stories and point out the interesting things, like the (basic) indoor toilet, the well, a crib, etc.

Palazzo Strozzi: While not specifically for children, Palazzo Strozzi is probably the most kid-friendly museum in the city. It has childrens’ labels in each exhibit, along with special cards (with pretty much the label text on them) to help you go through and ask good questions in the show. You can also ask for the family kit, which changes with each exhibit, and contains interactive prompts to involve kids with art. There are childrens’ tours (including a “stroller tour” for the littlest ones and their parents), as well as workshops for kids of various ages.

Museo Galileo: This science museum has recently been revamped with a new display, labeling and an interactive video-guide. The latter or a knowledgeable adult help to animate objects that have very interesting stories behind them, and that will appeal to kids perhaps 8 and up (especially those already with a penchant for science and math). There are weekend activities for children just about every weekend during the school year, including occasional English language things. These cost only 2 euros plus the entry ticket.

Laura's Francesco at the Oblate Library, eating the free toys.

Childrens’ libraries and play areas

• Biblioteca delle Oblate – historical center
  The service offers books in Italian and foreign languages, musical CDs, films and cartoons. With a free library card, children can bring home 8 books per month, 2 CDs+2 DVDs+2 cartoons for a week. There is also free wifi with registration so mommy can surf the web while baby plays in the play area.
• La tana dell’orso – quartiere 2 ludoteca (games library). Most of the areas (quartiere) of Florence have a little games area where kids can play for free
• In Isolotto area there’s BiblioteCaNova with an ever-changing schedule of childrens’ readings and events, including “Reading Italian for foreigners” Mondays at 5pm – check with them to make sure it’s still on!
• Inside St James’ Church there’s an english-language childrens’ lending library

School group in the Uffizi - photo from official website polomuseale.firenze.it

Workshops for kids

Workshops are held on select dates at the following locations, in addition to the ones mentioned inside museums above:

• State museums including the Uffizi: a calendar of tours for kids and their families is released twice a year by the didactic services of the Uffizi and require reservation in advance. It is useful to sign up for the newsletter because these fill up quickly, especially the rare time there’s one in English (for 2012, there is no english tour despite the huge success in 2011).
• Museo degli Innocenti’s bottega dei ragazzi – also available in English
• Ferragamo Museum – very occasional, and with no updated website, but when they have them they’re very interesting (if you manage to find out about it)
• Biblioteca delle Oblate

Theatres in Florence with childrens’ programming

These are mostly in Italian.

Francesco at the Teatrino del Gallo

• Teatrino del Gallo, inside bookshop Libri Liberi in via San Gallo 25r, is a puppet group called Pupi de Stac that little ones seem to just love
• Teatro Puccini and Teatro Cantiere Florida both have regular kids’ programming
• Pass Teatri Family is an excellent deal for families: it allows 6 entrances for childrens’ shows in different theatres in Florence and environs for 25€.

Florence by season

January theatre and sales
A post from Jan 2012 gives a sense of the theatre programming for kids in this season and some useful suggestions for shopping at the sales for growing children.

Easter in Florence with kids
This one is pretty self-explanatory! Kids like exploding carts and chocolate. ‘Nuff said.

Summer Camps (for kids) in Florence
Camps, language classes and activities to do with kids during the long summers in Italy.
Worth a mention: there is a special camp for children living with serious or chronic illnesses in Tuscany, called Dynamo Camp. It is free for 7-16 year old Italian resident children and I have heard that it is a most wonderful place.

December and Christmas Holidays
This post is from December 2011 but mentions an annual fair called “Noel”

General Italy Travel with kids

Travel in Tuscia (Etruria) with kids
Great places to travel, dine and stay overnight in Tuscia with infants/kids.

Genova with kids weekend itinerary
A Winter weekend in Genova with activities and museums for kids, including what (and where) to eat! 

Useful resources

Florence Moms 4 Moms Network is an English-speaking group of moms in Florence, useful for the newly arrived expat mom. There are also groups in Siena, Perugia and Lucca.

Fiorentini si cresce is a website in Italian with an awful design but it has a very complete and up to date list of events for children in Florence that you won’t find anywhere else.

There are various useful books on travel in Italy with kids, including one fun workbook. Sometimes paper is the best solution:

• Kids Europe Italy Discovery Journal
• Kids Europe Italy Discovery Journal
• Rome with Kids: an insider’s guide

Italy Roundtable

More resources on the topic of kids in Italy can be found in my roundtable friends’ reflections:

• Gloria asks “Is Tuscany child-friendly?”
• Jessica says The Kids Are All Right
• Rebecca writes about “Country mouse, City Mouse“

Milano’s skyscrapers are the protagonists in a project that took place between December 2010 and April 2011 in which large (9 meters tall), bright red LED numbers were placed on them. The buildings involved were both historical (like the Stazione Garibaldi) and new or still under construction (Cesar Pelli in Porta Nuova).

In “Postcards from Growing by Numbers,” the observer can “connect the dots” or in this case, the numbers, just like we used to do as kids in order to reveal an unknown form. They represent the growth and change in the city of Milan, which is growing its way towards the Expo of 2015. The numbers are silent, set up in different directions. The artists - Paolo Cesaretti and Antonella Dedini – don’t know who saw them, nor what those observers thought – and they would like to know.

This work is part of a larger exhibit at Palazzo Bembo put on during the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia, which has the overall theme of “Common Ground”. This show is called “Traces of Centuries & Future Steps” and aims to enlarge the spectator’s awareness for his/her own personal existence as a human being within a specific space and time.

The theme of the Biennale is a very interesting one for those of us who are consciously and strongly influenced by the space that surrounds us, and perhaps even more so as a way to raise awareness in those who don’t think about such things. Each year I say I’ll make it to the Biennale, and this year I think there’s good reason… I can only keep hoping.

If you’re headed to the Biennale be forewarned that it attracts a lot of visitors, despite it being autumn. Check what hotels are available for what price by using a hotel comparison service like Trivago, and if you find Venice full, you might also try Padova, which is just half an hour’s train ride away.

Visitor Information

Palazzo Bembo
Riva del Carbon # 4793, 30124 Venezia
Traces of Centuries & Future Steps
August 29 to November 25, 2012

I’m happy to announce the exhibit of a friend of mine’s work opening in Florence at Immaginaria Arti Visive Gallery at via Guelfa n. 22/ a r, Florence, from October 6 to November 1, 2012. I personally love Katrin’s work and invested in one of her paintings a few years ago, so I’m looking forward to seeing how she has evolved since then.

Currently a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, she was born in Zeven and grew up in Northern Germany in Heeslingen.

The following is an excerpt from a critique of her work by Susanna Ragionieri:

The idea that forms can unfold in space according to a principle of inner necessity analogous to that of a natural organism, let us say a flower – is one that, since the time of Klee and Kandinski, has opened up boundless realms of experimentation to so many artists. It has also led to the awareness that drawing and writing spring from the same origin: the sign. In the years following the Second World War this awareness was enriched by the vital implications of Gestalt theory, which posited the direct involvement of the body in the creation of art. Hence the distance that could separate artist and finished product was dissolved, and a place was made for the work in progress, open to infinite modifications and developments.

In my view, each of these elements is present in its own way in Katrin Grote-Baker’s work, and the apparently different directions her art takes – material and color, signs, writing – are nothing other than the mark of her obedience to a principle of kinesis, a principle on which she draws like a founding myth, like a veritable wellspring.

The same energy that gives form to the paint – sometimes applied directly to the surface with the fingertips – also guides the sudden turns of the pencil, tracing short, jolting signs like secret notes in the tonal margin. Hence the work is driven by a certain rhythm, pace, and breath. At times it dances, at others, perhaps, it rests.

Re-examining Katrin Grote-Baker’s works, one realizes that this desire for cosmic resonance is indebted to Cy Twombly, whose example she has embraced with spontaneous simplicity. She has appropriated it, as artists so often do, out of love and with love.

Another aspect of the artist’s work can be seen in the nearly monochrome canvasses, with their thick and distinct application of color. The deliberately minimal graphic element – a reference to a horizon line on which a shadowy shape rises like a far-off city – calls to mind expansive spaces and times, made to contract before our eyes by a few evocative hints. Klee’s notion of the line as a journey, a trail, and thus as life is united here with the vision of unknown worlds and the motif of travel – an essential part of Katrin’s past, which has been divided between her country of birth, Germany, the United States, where she has lived with her American husband, and Italy (especially Umbria and Tuscany), long since her preferred home, a place that for her is not only geographical but also mental and cultural.

The bay of Naples seen from one of the city's higher points (photo: ArtTrav)

Naples is a great place for an autumn short break – still sunny and bright as the UK shivers with cold – and along with being a delight for anyone who likes food there’s plenty to see and do. These are just some of my personal favourites.

Naples has its share of museums and churches and you’ll find plenty about them in the guidebooks, but for me the attraction of the place is the life on the street – this is the real beating heart of the place. A couple of minutes’ walk down Via Duomo past the city’s hulking cathedral, you come to Via San Biagio dei Librai. Small shops, little cafes selling eye-wateringly strong coffee, sudden courtyards, people hurrying past – the place is buzzing. Be sure to keep an eye on your bag and then just go with the flow.

Look out for a remarkable little shop on the left that repairs dolls. The Doll’s Hospital is like Pinocchio’s dad’s workshop. Ornately painted wooded faces stare out at you from every shelf.

Ospedale delle Bambole, Naples

Your meandering brings you eventually to Via Pignasecca and its street market. Stall holders clamour for your cash, fish and eels wriggle in plastic crates, octopuses slip their tentacles over the rims of their captive buckets.

via Pignasecca market by flickr user @juliajanssen

And then there are the views. Naples has several funicular railways up to the heights of the Castel Sant’ Elmo and up here above the city you can stroll around the ancient ramparts. The views across the town and the bay of Naples are awesome. Try to get there as dusk is falling and neon lights begin to sparkle across the rooftops. Across the sea, the sun sinks slowly into the waves painting the sky a deep pink and opposite it, across the bay the brooding might of Mount Vesuvius looks down on the city.

Pompeii

Mighty Vesuvius is long overdue an eruption. The last, in March 1944, caused widespread devastation, but its most famous took place in 79AD when it buried the surrounding Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Some 2000 inhabitants of Pompeii were buried in ash. The eruption effectively froze Pompeii and Herculaneum in time.

It’s a half hour train ride out to Pompeii from Naples and you won’t be disappointed. Pompeii fascinates by virtue of its scale and in the most tiny of details, perfectly preserved under many feet of volcanic ash. It’s a vast site and you need some serious energy to get round the whole lot. Visiting in Spring or Autumn is ideal as the weather is cooler and there are far fewer tourists. Unlike most other Roman ruins, there are many streets outside the main forum that are still well preserved. In fact, the temples at the centre of the town are nothing particularly special if you’ve seen other Roman ruins. At first I wondered what all the fuss is about. I’ve seen far better preserved columns and pediments elsewhere.

One of the fantastic paintings at Pompeii (photo: ArtTrav)

It’s as you wander further into the depths of the town that you realise why many see this as the world’s most impressive collection of Roman remains. There are villas, shops and restaurants, street after street of them. With a little imagination you can almost see toga-bedecked officials lounging on chairs inside, maids scurrying past you in the street with the shopping, the baker stoking the bread ovens. In the bakery, 81 carbonised round loaves were found already cut into eight slices and ready to be sold. Outside several of the larger villa buildings are fine mosaics of growling dogs with the legend Cave Canem (Beware of the dog!) underneath.

If you’re still standing after wandering around the many houses and shops, taverns and baths, you come eventually to the town’s amphitheatre where gladiatorial displays of daring took place. Its expansive three tiers of seats were able to hold 20,000 spectators. There’s also a smaller structure back nearer the town centre called the Odeon, which was for theatrical performances. Both are good places for sitting a while and resting your feet. Once a tour group had come and gone I was completely alone in the Odeon. I conjured up images in my mind of ancient Romans brandishing swords and audiences clapping and shouting. And that’s what’s so great about Pompeii – as long as you avoid the middle of summer, it’s big enough to mean you can get away from other visitors and let your imagination run wild. It may be several centuries old, but here you can be back to the days of the Romans in an instant.

Getting there

…from the UK

British Airways and EasyJet fly direct to Naples from Gatwick Airport. Flight time is around 2 hours. For a weekend trip, I find it becomes more relaxing if I use the Gatwick meet and greet parking which costs just a tiny bit more than long term parking, but with the convenience of just showing up and handing over your keys. When time is at a premium as it is on a short trip, this is a fabulous luxury!

… from within Italy

Italy is well served with high speed train service. The Milan-Rome-Naples line is the one that, of course, serves Naples, usually with an intermediate stop in Florence. From Milan to Naples it takes just under 5 hours; from Florence it’s 2 hours and 40 minutes. You can take the old Trenitalia trains or try the newer Italo, which sometimes has competitive rates if you book in advance.

This is a guest post by travel writer and broadcaster Jeremy Head. He’s written travel features for many major UK newspapers including the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Times and the Independent, and has recently published a Frommers’ guidebook to Seville.

If you take the U1 line or any other above ground train around Berlin, you’re liable to notice some impressive examples of street art as you roll by, though, unless you are a real connoisseur, you’re not liable to know who they’re by. In comes Vanessa Brazeau, our guide on the Berlin street art tour offered by Vage in collaboration with Finding Berlin tours. During our private 2.5 hour walking tour, she not only showed us some of the highlights of the Berlin scene and talked about the artists and stories behind them, she also explained some of the mechanisms behind street art and the contemporary galleries that support it.

Vanessa has only been on Berlin for five months, but this young Canadian art graduate, and street/performance artist in her own right, is already a player on the street art scene, having co-founded a business with George Ironside, an Australian (woman) who has been in the city for four years. They offer weekly social events that put together the public and artists as well as street art tours on bike or foot for corporate or private clients that can also be combined with tagging or painting lessons – not on public property, she assures me. As we walk around she keeps up a steady stream of chatter about friends from around the world and the art they’ve done in Berlin , and I wonder if it’s that easy to integrate in the city or if she is just exceptionally outgoing.

Berlin Street Art - google street view protest?

We started our tour on the pedestrian overpass at Warschauer Strasse U1 station that looks over an expanse of tracks. To our left is an area that is owned by a developer but has been rented for cheap to a kind of collective that is supportive of street art. They’ve set up an outside bar, converted a warehouse into exhibit space, and “commissioned” many of the city’s artists to paint sections of walls. There’s a trailer graffitied with the words “Finding Berlin Tours .com” which is where Martin, tour company owner, vintage fixie bike appassionado and street-art supporter is based. He’s the one who arranged for our meeting with Vanessa, who sometimes takes groups out on Martin’s super cool bikes.

If you walk to the right of the station, rather, you come to the historic Oberbaumbrucke bridge over the river. Vanessa points out the preserved section of the Berlin Wall which is nearby, but my attention is more attracted by a huge figure of a man adjusting his tie, wearing handcuffs. I can see it from the bridge, practically dominating an important view of the city. And the artist’s style is pretty unmistakeable: it’s by Blu.

Large murals by Blu

As we walk around to get a closer look, Vanessa explains that this is an uninhabited lot that has been given over to vagrants and on which it is permitted to paint. There’s a fence around the lot, with a large opening through which you can see tents set up. Are we sure it is safe to go in, I ask? Vanessa assures me that it is. She knows half the people by name. To prove her point, a man rides out on a bicycle and greets us as he passes.

The two large pieces by Blu are “crane works” and the one on the right was a collaboration with the French artist JR (of TED prize fame) who pasted eyes in the now empty area where they ought to be.  The eyes washed away with the rain after a while. Blu, an Italian street artist active since 1999 and arguably one of the most famous, was in Berlin from 2006-2009.

Blu animation of a man-eating man

Not far from here, we arrive at another work by Blu, the static remains of one of his animations, full of little pink men. Around the corner there’s an inner courtyard decorated with local artist Bimer’s interpretation of the Berlin bear.

Bears by Berlin artist Bimer

Still nearby, another alley has attracted some young boys and a motorcyclist who are admiring and photographing the colorful tags. Seems some people are out on their own street art tour.

Youths in an alley admiring tags

Spot the motorcyclist.

We proceed in the area of Kreutzberg, which Vanessa says has strongly resisted gentrification and in many cases also embraces street art. This – and an apparent lack of city planning regulations on the appearance of exteriors – has led to the commission of street artists to paint anything from store shutters (about 300€) to the sides of 5-storey buildings.

Os Gemeos mural on Skalitzers strasse in Berlin

An example of this is a figure of a man painted by Brazilian artists Os Gemeos, identical twins who each do one side of the figure yet end up with a unified looking piece. International street artists like them usually work with a local contact (calling him an agent would be excessive, but basically summarizes the role) who would either approach, or be approached by, a building owner with a good wall. Vanessa and George, in fact, are able to play such a role.

Astronaut by Victor Ash, Berlin

Down the road we see another international piece by Portuguese artist Victor Ash that depicts an astronaut, and a charming building painted by a London-based duo called the London Police.

Wall by The London Police in Berlin

detail of piece by the London Police

Our guide has talked to most of these artists and recounts insider stories. One realizes the ephemerality of this movement when a girl who has been in town 5 months has seen these pieces go up, be tagged over, and evolve. It is a history of art that is taking place before our eyes and deserves to be observed for as long as it exists.

Insider tours like this give the visitor a unique opportunity to understand the inner workings of a city. For me, I was curious to figure out what elements make Berlin the cultural and start-up mecca of the moment (I’m writing about this for MakeTank), and speaking with Vanessa gave me a few hints. Berlin, she says, does not look much towards the future. Temporary spaces, galleries and stores pop up easily, with some bureaucracy but nothing impossible or expensive. Regulations on the sale of alcohol in such spaces are lax, making them economically viable. Spaces are large and available for cheap: a prime example is Vage’s office space inside an artists’ collective, The Wye, that takes up 5 floors of a building rented to them by the shrinking post office. Such spaces provide a point of encounter for creatives to generate synergies.

Entrance to Spree Gallery/Beer garden

Berlin’s creative industry is unique and very active right now. For the traveler wishing to get a better sense of what local elements feed this creativity, the best way is contact with locals. Attend Vage’s Tuesday night artist parties, look for other local events, or take a tour like we did.

Vanessa and I at the Finding Berlin Tours trailer

With thanks again to Vanessa and George (Vage), and to Martin of Finding Berlin.

I asked Vanessa to do a brief video presentation of their services:

Tano Pisano is a Sicilian artist (born 1947) who has lived in recent years in Spain. With this latest exhibit in Florence, he explores the motifs and decorative arts found in Palazzo Davanzati.

This is the first time that the historic Palazzo Davanzati plays host to a contemporary artist’s works, which are displayed in the ground floor rooms and courtyard.

It is easy to recognize the influence of the decorative patterns and ceramic arts found around the Palazzo in the newer pieces, charming reinterpretations in various media.

Exhibit information

Tano Pisano – Omaggio al Davanzati – Fiori
Curated by Elena Francalanci
Firenze, Palazzo Davanzati, via di Porta Rossa 13
Until October 31 2012

Opening Hours
Thursday through Tuesday 8.15-13.50, Wednesday 8.15-19.00
Closed: 1st, 3d and 5th Monday, second and 4th Sunday of the month

Ticket cost – 2 euro

In the past few years, however, I’ve been hearing about a different Berlin, a hub for start-ups, a great place for artists. I also see Berlin in the headlines almost every day, as “code word” for Merkel’s Germany and the strong Euro’s judgement on our weak one.

Contrasting architectural styles - photo flickr @olavide

I want to see and experience this contrast in worlds that I believe Berlin embodies, before the West totally wipes out all traces of the East. Lucky for me, there’s an DDR Museum that tells the story of life in the East (complete with unappealing cafe’ items), and there’s a movement, called Ostalgia, that seems, strangely, to fit my own obsession quite well.

I’ve planned a short city break over a 4 day weekend from Florence for late September, and I will let you know how going there revises my preconceptions of the city. Already I can see that there is much more to do than what I can squeeze into a short trip! Here, some notes on what I’ve done to plan so far, and a call for suggestions for your cool, off the beaten track ideas for Berlin!

Trip Planning

Flights: First comes first… getting there. I used Skyscanner for the first time, a flight comparison website with a really intuitive interface through which to find flights that match your priorities. They monitor the best prices online, so for flights to Berlin departing from Italy there’s a handy launch page that shows the cities and lowest prices. While cheap is good, our priority was maximizing our time in Berlin, so we are flying from Florence and looked for the shortest possible layover. Skyscanner uses sliders to control all your choices like departure times, length of flight, etc., so the search was fast and I didn’t waste a whole lot of time like I usually do looking all over the web.

Apartment: The same goes for lodging – I don’t know about you, but I always spend too many hours looking at where to stay. When I travel, I always stay in apartment rentals, and it made sense to go with Wimdu in this case since they are a start-up owner-direct agency that operates worldwide… but out of Berlin. I say “go local!” I had heard that they rent some amazing properties like treehouses or busses, but in Berlin the closest I could get to funky was a loft. I have always wanted to live in an industrial style loft, but they’re not exactly common in Florence. I really can’t wait for my urban getaway since the aesthetics of where I stay sets the scene for what is to come.

Aircraft engine - press photo by berlin-airport.de

Arrival and Transportation with Berlin Welcome Card: Like most modern cities, Berlin’s two major airports are connected by rail to the heart of the city. To tell you the truth I didn’t study too much how this connection works because I noticed that the Berlin Welcome Card, which includes transport and museums, includes access to the airports too. Everything is perfectly connected with the subway and bus system. I am confident in German organization and plan to wing it when I get there.

Things to do

Berlin has a “Museum Island” which is a declared UNESCO world heritage site. A whole island of museums, you say? This ought to excite me. But this time I’m in for something more modern. I live in a museum. Let’s see life! Sure, I will go to at least one major museum while in Berlin, but I’m rather more interested in the architecture, Ostalgia in general, start-ups and the contemporary art scene. The new and interactive DDR Museum is number one on my list, closely followed by a visit to an ex Stasi jail found on the Uber-Cool blog Uberlin. The rest is up for grabs – where do YOU want to send ArtTrav to report from? Anything added in the comments will be taken into consideration.

Berlin Blogs

The best way to find cool things that a local would do in any town is to read and get in touch with local bloggers. I haven’t even gotten a guidebook to Berlin (although I recommend using guidebooks sometimes) but have downloaded the Unlike Berlin iPhone app. I have decided to blindly trust restaurant recs by Foodie in Berlin, who has warned me that vegetarianism and Germany may not be best friends. I have also bookmarked The Wednesday Chef’s Berlin food posts. I am also rather afraid of not being able to communicate my allergy to knoblauch despite having learned the word (but if I say a phrase in German, will anyone understand me?). If all else fails, my urban loft has a cool kitchen.

Other than eating, which is always the first thing to figure out (survival rocks!) I have been bowled over by the visual quality of so many Berlin blogs, not to mention that even German writers seem to do a fine job in English. I found a bunch of expat blogs with beautiful photos too, like Chasing Heartbeats and the aforementioned Uberlin. GDR design proves that there are geeks out there with similar obsessions to mine. There are also blogs for total hipsters in case I want to pretend to be cool.

I know I’m in for a huge treat in Berlin, and hope only to be able to report back with half of the visual accumen of these German counterparts.

Disclaimer: Thanks to VisitBerlin, a representative of which I met at Travel Bloggers Unite in Umbria earlier this year, for putting the Berlin bug in my head over a dinner, and for helping me organize this trip. Wimdu and Skyscanner were also present at that conference and have contributed to the costs of my trip.

Villa all' Olmo by Riccardo Gizdulich (1965-66)

In this crucial decade, Giovanni Michelucci, Raffaello Fagnoni, Edoardo Detti, Leonardo Ricci, Leonardo Savioli, Rolando Pagnini all worked in the area, searching for a common language and a dialogue with the nature and views outside Florence. The result is a unique, Tuscan interpretation of rationalism mixed with organic architecture.

The homes in the exhibit are as follows:

- Villa Conenna, Rolando Pagnini (1952)

- Villa Bucalossi, Franco Bonaiuti (1962)

- Villa Taddei, Leonardo Savioli (1964-65)

- Auditorium della scuola di Musica, Edoardo Detti (1965)

- Chiesa di San Giuseppe Artigiano, Raffaello Fagnoni (1965-66)

- Villa all’Olmo, Riccardo Gizdulich (1965-66)

- Casa Waddell, Theodore Waddle (1966)

- Cooperativa Mino da Fiesole, Giovanni Michelucci (1966)

Villa Taddei by Leonardo Savioli (1964-65)

The guided tours of the exhibit will then visit the following structures, though the dates and times are to be determined – call for more information.

- Villa Conenna, Fiesole

- Casa Pagnini, Fiesole

- Villa Bucalossi, Fiesole

- Cooperativa Mino da Fiesole, Borgunto

- Villa Waddell

- Chiesa S. Giuseppe Artigiano, Settignano

Two pages from the book by Fabio Capanni on ‘Architcture on the hill’:

All photos courtesy of Bacci Press, used by permission

Exhibit information

L’architettura moderna nell’area collinare fiesolana
September 14 – 27, 2012
Università Europea, Chiostro della Badia Fiesolana
via dei Roccettini 9
San Domenico – Fiesole (Firenze)
M-F 9.00 to 18.00,
Closed on the weekend
Tel. +39 055 4685399