Last suppers

Italy abounds in depictions of the Last Supper. Of course, there's the famous one in Milan by Da Vinci, but every convent or monastery (there are a lot of those) has a refectory, and the popular motif to decorate it is a scene of the last supper. Also in Florence, several famous ones exist, and since I've seen pretty much everything else a tourist would think of visiting here, I decided to go to the ones I hadn't been to.
Already last year, I visited the Cenacolo (refectory) of Ognissanti for the fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio, directly next to the church of the same name (but not with the same opening times). A fairly traditional take, though the birds in the background add a nice touch.
Last weekend, I took the bike across town to the monastery of San Michele in San Salvi, where there's another fresco by Andrea del Sarto. This one is a bit unusual in that Judas is sitting next to Jesus (instead of across the table, isolated).
Finally, yesterday I went to the final ones missing in my collection, all conveniently close to the market where I had to go anyway to get produce. First stop was the Cenacolo di Fuligno, with a fresco by Pietro Vannucci, known as 'Perugino'. No pictures allowed here, though the sign only prohibited flash. I've noticed that the rules concerning taking pictures in churches/museums/etc. are not very consistent, so usually it's better to just take pictures and not ask. The worst that can happen is that they'll ask you to stop. The last supper, by the way, was pretty standard.
Next stop was the Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia, with a fresco by Andrea del Castagno. The people here looked less realistic (Judas looks like a satyr), and the background has fake marble insets. From there, I went to the nearby Chiostro dello Scalzo, which features some beautiful monochromatic frescoes by del Sarto depicting the life of John the Baptist. (No pictures here, either)
All of the places described here can be visited without an admission charge, though the opening times can be limited, so check the museums site of Florence first. It goes without saying that these places are off the radar for most tourists (and don't appear in most guides), so you'll likely encounter few other visitors.

Stile Liberty in Florence

Ever since we got back from Barcelona last December, I've been meaning to go around Florence in search of the art nouveau buildings here. While there isn't such an abundance as in Barcelona, they do exist, albeit a bit outside the Renaissance center. In Italy, art nouveau is called 'Stile Liberty', after an English magazine which sold exotic artifacts.
Today, while Kristen is still in the USA, I took my bike and rode around the town in discovery of some hidden gems. First stop: the Russian Orthodox Church in viale Leone X, built between 1899 and 1903 from plans by the architect Michail Préobraženskij.
I had never imagined that there could be a Russian church in Florence, let alone one that's so attractive. Unfortunately, it was closed, so I couldn't go inside, but from some pictures on the internet, it looks very nice as well. Maybe one of these days we'll call the church to make an appointment to visit. From there, it wasn't far to the Giardino dell'Orticultura, with its Tepidarium built in 1880 by Giacomo Roster.
Apparently, in the summer you can go inside to have tea with butterflies. (I'm guessing that means there are butterflies around while you have tea...) We'll certainly have to do that when Kristen is back. Staying on the outskirts, I made my way to via dei Della Robbia, where Villa Ciuti is squeezed in between other, blander, apartment houses.
I guess they don't get too many visitors, because a lady came out as I was looking at the house and taking pictures and asked me if I was looking for something. Now heading towards the eastern part of town, I biked to via Scipione Ammirato, where there were two houses next to each other by Giovanni Michelazzi, probably the most important Stile Liberty architect in Florence, who was active between 1902 and 1915.
Here you can see Villino Broggi Caraceni, probably the most unconventional of the buildings I saw today. After a quick refreshment of gelato, I biked along the Arno to the Ognissanti church (which is definitely not art nouveau), a few paces away from which is the Casa-galleria Vichi, also by Michelazzi.
It's quite the contrast, and looks fairly normal from street level. I imagine hundreds of tourists walk by every day without noticing the beautiful building they could see if they looked up. I know I've been by there several times without noticing it. For my final stop I crossed the river and made my way to a residential area to via Giano della Bella and the two Villini Lampredi, again by Michelazzi.
This is the one at number 13. Both are a bit more conventional than the ones I saw earlier, but beautiful nonetheless. I then made my way home, convinced that I had seen a part of Florence that not that many other people even take notice of. It's certainly worth searching out at least some of these buildings next time you're in Florence, though.

Barcelona

Last Tuesday was a holiday in Italy, so like all good Italians, we made a long weekend out of it and went to Barcelona for a few days. We really liked the city, with its Gothic old town and modernisme architecture by Antoni Gaudi, among others. Kristen got tickets to a concert in the Palau de la Musica Catalana for her birthday, and we enjoyed listening to Mozart's Requiem in this over-the-top concert hall. Add to that the excellent food (tapas and paella), and you can tell we had a good time.

It was also enjoyable to be in a city (even a southern European one) in which there is ample and functioning public transportation, mostly friendly and helpful people, and you don't feel like you're being ripped off at any given time. Hey Italy... *nudge, nudge* Interestingly, there were very few jaywalkers... what's up with that?

Vicenza

Sunday, we got a bit of a late start since we only got to bed around 2am the day before on account of the opera in the Verona Arena. We then drove to Vicenza, which is much less known than its neighboring cities of Verona and Venice. Still, this is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and famous for its architecture by native son Andrea Palladio. Even if you've never heard of him, you'll recognize his style mirrored in almost every public building in the U.S., Britain, and to a lesser degree Germany. Especially UVa alumni should know the name, as Thomas Jefferson was an admirer and imitator of his work. One of the highlights was the Teatro Olimpico, the oldest surviving indoor theater, with the oldest surviving stage set in the world, built for the production of Oedipus Rex. Since the admission ticket to that included some of the other museums in town, we got to see more religous art, some hideous still life, a modest collection of archeological artifacts, and an interesting collection of Russian icons. For lunch, I had Baccalà alla Vicentina, stockfish with polenta, a local specialty, which was very good. After seeing some of the other Palladio palazzi in town, we drove a few kilometers out of town to the Villa Capra 'La Rotonda', probably Palladio's most famous work. We didn't go visit up close, since the admission just to the gardens was quite high, but you could get a good impression from the gate, as well as from the road.

Bologna

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Bologna, one of the culinary capitals of Italy (home of Bolognese sauce, called ragu' there, and baloney, called mortadella), and only an hour's train trip away from Florence. Of course we ate a good lunch there, but most of the day was spent taking in the city's sights, which in typical Italian fashion, consist mostly of churches and other religious sites. I admit that after seeing such a wealth of impressive ecclesiastical paintings and frescoes, I'm starting to tire a bit of them and wouldn't mind seeing some post-16th century art every now and then. But the early art does get quite interesting at times, especially when depicting hell or martyrs, such as in the beautiful Oratory of Santa Cecilia. Other times, there's stuff who's meaning I must be missing, such as the depiction of the heads on platters in the magnificent woodwork in the choir of San Domenico (which houses the remains of Saint Dominic, founder of the Dominican order, by the way).
Also fun was the Medieval Museum, which in addition to more ecclesiastical paintings and sculptures, had some elaborate choirbooks, and a few rooms of medieval weapons and armor, as well as a visit to the oldest university in Europe (dating back to the 11th century), including its anatomical theater, where dissections were carried out in public. The landmark of the city are two towers preserved from the middle ages, one of which is leaning precariously -- maybe they had the same engineers as the Pisans? Finally, on the central plaza is a fountain with a statue of Neptune, on a base of women with water squirting out of strategic places.
So, all in all, Bologna is definitely a city worth visiting, and a nice contrast to the Tuscan towns we've seen so far, with far more red brick and less white marble (which is why its nickname is la rossa, which apparently also applies to its politics). Oh, and did I mention that there were far fewer tourists than in Florence?

Pisa

As you might have guessed from one of the previous posts, we went to visit Pisa last weekend, where one of the most popular activities is having your picture taken with the perspective so that it looks like you’re holding up the famous Leaning Tower there. But first things first – we took the train to Pisa, which is only about an hour away from Florence, and the first thing that struck me as we walked into town from the train station was how empty it was. Sure, it was Sunday morning, so all the shops were closed, but even on a Sunday Florence is packed with tourists and locals downtown. Now that summer holidays have kicked in, there’s almost no getting through the crowds anymore. We had come that day because we read that the Game of the Bridge was happening, and we saw people on the Ponte di Mezzo setting everything up, but the person we asked said that the procession and game wouldn’t happen until sometime that evening (we were not able to find any information on the timeplan online). So we walked around a bit and saw the sights of Pisa, saving the tower and cathedral for last. Though there are some nice piazzas and old churches, there is by far not the abundance of sights that there is in Florence. It turns out that all the tourists were assembled in the one square with Leaning Tower, cathedral, baptistery and Camposanto. We joined them, and though we did not climb the tower (expensive and you have to make reservations a few hours ahead of time), we admired the Pisano pulpits in both cathedral and baptistery, as well as the old sarcophagi and frescoes in the Camposanto. Since we were done with our sightseeing several hours before the Game of the Bridge was scheduled to start and it was very hot and sunny (as it has been the last weeks), we decided to simply return to Florence, and took the train back.