Tangeland

Pistoia and Prato

2009-07-13T09:08:00.008-04:00

This might be the shortest and least informative posting ever. Sarah and I took the regional train one Sunday to Pistoia and then came back towards Florence, stopping in Prato along the way.

This picture has nothing to do with that trip. I think this was the night before. We went out to dinner for our friend Paola's birthday. Here is a picture of the four roommates, or coinquiline, as the Italians say. That's Kellin sitting on me (as is her wont -- just kidding, I assure you that this is not a common occurrence), Mr. Christopher Edward Tangeman, Sarah, and Sarah.

This is Pistoia. Or at least its cathedral and bell tower. Pistoia is a town about 20 miles northwest of Florence. It is most famous to me as the home of Scott Palmer (serials librarian at I Tatti), his wife Monica Steletti (fellow library assistant at I Tatti), and their kids Isabella and Samuele.

Pistoia's Duomo, the Cathedral of San Zeno, features some of the work of one of those darn della Robbia brothers.

We explored the Palazzo del comune, which has a small art collection.

Unrelated. I just like the tower.

A fly painted on the 8 lb. 4 oz. Baby Jesus.

This is part of the exterior of the Ospedale del Ceppo, a medieval hospital.

A street. I love medieval streets.

This is the Chiesa di San Bartolomeo in Pantano. I have no memory of this place.

Our last stop in Pistoia was the Pieve di Sant'Andrea with the Pulpit of St. Andrew by Giovanni Pisano. He also created amazing pulpits in Pisa and Siena.

We then took the train back towards Florence, stopping in Prato. Prato is right in between Pistoia and Florence and is the second largest city in Tuscany with around 187,000 people. Also, since the late 1980's it has had a large Chinese immigrant population. This is the second largest Chinese population in Italy. Legally there are over 9,000 Chinese citizens but it is estimated that there are almost 45,000 Chinese immigrants in Prato. That neighborhood is where we headed in search of a more authentic Chinese meal than is available in Florence. What we had was good, but I think it was similar to most restaurants in the States. For some reason I have no pictures from our exploits in Prato. I think we went to a church.

There you have it. We then hopped back on the regional train to Florence. I think it was a very laid back trip and a lot of things were closed because it was a Sunday. The end.

Lucca - part 3

2009-06-29T04:01:00.006-04:00

The last thing Sarah and I did in Lucca was make our way over to the Torre Guinigi. This was such a beautiful town and such a beautiful day that there were bound to be some fantastic views.

Just like Florence, Bologna, San Gimignano, and about every other Italian city I've been to, Lucca used to have quite a few towers similar to this one. Not many survived the middle ages and the Renaissance, but there are still a few great ones out there. This one even had trees growing at the top!

You always have to pay a price to get to the spectacular views. Both money and a long climb. I don't think this one was too expensive.

However, as this sign shows, the way was fraught with danger.

But Sarah was there to lead the way.

We made it safely. And with smiles on.

We joined the trees and a few Italian teenagers at the top and took in the lovely views. I don't have much to say about them. Well, nothing really. So I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The end.

Lucca - part 2

2009-06-29T03:56:00.009-04:00

Lucca was originally another Etruscan town, but unlike most others that I have visited, it was not built on a hill-top. Supposedly there is evidence somewhere that an earlier people, the Ligures, also had a settlement here. They were the people who gave their name to the Ligurian Sea and the Region of Liguria (of which Genoa is the capital). Anyway, it was eventually taken by the Romans.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Lucca was a fairly important town, being attacked by Odoacer (the first Germanic king of Italy in 476) and later by the Eastern Roman Empire. The Lombards made it the seat of one of their dukes, and by the 11th century it had become the feudal capital of the margravate of Tuscany. Lucca eventually became an independent commune, having acquired a charter in 1160, and were an independent republic for almost 500 years. In fact, when the Medici family became the Grand Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, Lucca was the only independent part of Tuscany.
Well, there's a lot more but I'm tired of writing about it. Lucca was eventually taken by Napoleon, the Bourbon family, Tuscany again, then finally became part of the new Italian State in 1847.

The Duomo di San Martino, aka the Cathedral of St. Martin, which was begun in 1063.

Hmmm. I forget what this church is.

Here is the Church of San Michele in Foro. It was built over the forum of the old Roman town. The facade was built in the 13th century.

San Michele in Foro was rebuilt in 1070 by Pope Alexander II, but there was much older church on this site. All of the columns are different.

The Basilica of San Frediano is named for Fredianus, an Irish Bishop of Lucca from the 6th century. The mosaic of The Ascension of Christ the Saviour is from the 13th century.

There were a lot of people out on this Sunday. This is something that I've noticed a lot in Italian towns. People are outside a lot. Whether it's the evening passagiata (where people stroll aound the streets and piazzas to see others and be seen) or families out on a weekend afternoon, Italian people spend a lot of time outside. It's nice. Although the passagiata can be kind of annoying when you're trying to get somewhere quickly and there are thousands of people clogging the narrow streets and walking very slowly.

I thought that some of the first areas we walked through in Lucca were pretty plain and boring, but later we walked through some very pretty piazzas.

Sarah hangs out with her friend Giacomo Puccini.

The Piazza Anfiteatro was built around the old Roman amphitheater.

The last thing we did in town was climb up one of the Torre Guinigi. It is a medieval tower that survived the Renaissance and even has trees growing on the top of it. It gave us some spectacular views which will be in the final Lucca posting.

Lucca - part 1

2009-06-29T03:50:00.007-04:00

Either the weekend before or the one after (being so far behind with these postings, I can't remember) we went to Fiesole, we headed west to the city of Lucca. I'll talk more about Lucca's history in the next post. Anyway, it's about 50 miles west of Florence, and is on the same train line we used to take to get to the beaches at Viareggio. It is also about 10 miles northeast of Pisa.

Lucca is also in the region of Tuscany, and is the capitol of the Province of Lucca. It is most famous these days for its very intact Renaissance-era city walls. Above you can see the section of the walls that we entered after arriving at the train station.

A view to the right of the massive moat. No attacking army would ever pass this mighty barrier. Actually, the moat is so small that I assume that it was only there to trip up any siege machines.

We were really fortunate in our timing. I think the city is pretty, but not spectacular (compared to some other towns we've seen in Italy). The walls, trees, and the surrounding scenery are what make Lucca so beautiful. But since we went in the Fall, the colors were fantastic. Above is one of the town's towers seen through the trees.

The defenders would have had plenty of open land in front of them when shooting at attacking forces. This shot from the wall shows some of the changing leaves and the mountains. In the third posting you will see better shots of the surrounding views.

More walls and tiny moats.

There were trees growing along the entire length of the walls.

The walls are really wide and there are quite a few parks on top of them at some of the larger areas, like the one above. In fact...

There is even a road that runs along the top of the entire ring of wall. There were so many people out playing in the parks, excercising, walking, and riding bikes-which is what we came to do. It's great. The former city defenses have become a huge city park. The police even drove their cars around up there. If you ever stop by Tuscany in the Fall, I highly recommend going and renting bikes for an hour or two.

Sarah tests some anti-siege weaponry atop the battlements.

Then flees the scene, expertly navigating back towards the path. I wonder what the Renaissance engineers would have thought about the current usage of their defenses. I love it. I think all cities should build huge defenses around them, wait 600 years, then turn them into parks. Brilliant!

Fiesole - part 2

2009-06-12T11:28:00.014-04:00

After seeing some of the things that Fiesole had to offer we headed over to see the views towards the south.

This first picture is actually from the town's main piazza. You can see the Florence Cathedral between the trees.

To get to a spot with an even better view you have to climb up even higher. The road was quite steep.

Here is a view towards the southeast. In the foreground you can see some olive trees and some weird modern sculpture.

This is more to the south. You can see a lot of the hillside that leads down to Florence.

This view of the southwest includes the historic area of Florence, the Duomo, and the road that leads up to Fiesole.

I guess this shot is more towards west-southwest, out towards Sesto Fiorentino then Prato. But those are too far to see.

Here is a bit of a close-up on Florence.

And a bit closer of a close-up. Brunelleschi's dome on top of the cathedral is on the left. San Lorenzo is the other dome just to the right of it. You can also kind of see the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio to the left of it.

In the middle of this picture is the stadium of ACF Fiorentina, called the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Sarah and I went with Steph (and half of the Syracuse students) to watch Fiorentina beat Roma 4-1. Sorry Steph.

We photojournalists must occasionally take up precarious positions in the service of our craft.

If you blow up this picture, already zoomed in quite far and looking towards the east, you still can't see I Tatti. The villa is kind of tucked into a valley that keeps it just out of view from Florence and Fiesole. But I think that one of the construction cranes in the picture (possibly the one on the right) might be the one that hovers above me every day at work as it is being used to build a new building on site. Getting permission to build a new building in Florence is almost impossible.

That's us.

Then we had to start the descent, which was much nicer than the ascent.

Fiesole - part 1

2009-06-12T11:23:00.005-04:00

After a long, long break I might be ready to start posting again. I have many, many pictures from a number of new cities that Sarah and I have visited. It's been a while though, so bear with me. I'll start off with an easy post. Not too much information.
Fiesole is a very old town that sits high on a hill above Florence. It is most famous now for its spectacular views of Florence from the northeast. But for a long time the view was only of an empty river valley beneath some beautiful hills. The Etruscan hill-town of Fiesole was probably built around 800 years before Julius Caesar established Florence (then Florentia) as a settlement for his veteran soldiers in 59 BC. The Romans had conquered Fiesole in 283 BC, and the town was the sight of the half Roman, half Vandal general Flavius Stilicho's victory over the German barbarians in 405 AD. After more attacks during the Gothic Wars and by the Eastern Emperor Justinian, Fiesole became an independent city during the early middle ages. Florence and Fiesole, who were about equal in power at the time, fought many times unitl 1125, when Florence finally conquered Fiesole for good. It eventually became a place for rich, Renaissance-era Florentines to build their country villas.
Did I say there wouldn't be too much information? Okay, enough history. On with some pictures.

The view from Fiesole is great, and will be documented in the next posting, but the town itself is pretty nice. The good ole' number 7 bus will take you up from Florence to Fiesole's main piazza, which may or may not be called Piazza Mino.

This statue represents the meeting of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuel II in 1860. These two were instrumental in the unification of Italy, called the Risorgimento. Vittorio Emanuel II became the first king of a unified Italy.

The Fiesole Cathedral is a Romanesque church that is dedicated to Saint Romulus of Fiesole.

The altarpiece. There it is.

The church has a shrine to the martyr St. Romulus, who might have been the first Bishop of Fiesole, and his martyr friends. There's also a shrine to St. Donatus of Fiesole. He was another Bishop of Fiesole and came from Ireland.

These guys disapproved of my picture taking.

We went to a little museum that has a lot of Etruscan remains, two cats, and one humorous curator. Outside the museum are a lot of Roman ruins. See. They're ruined.

Well, not all are ruined. The amphitheater still looks good. It has a nice view to the hills and valleys to the northeast (complete opposite to the view of Florence).

Sarah had a performance on the ancient stage.

She played to a packed house.

And one rude jerk of a heckler.

Actually, they still have concerts in the amphitheater. That would be a pretty nice venue.

I did not open this door. It apparently contains the danger of death.

I had been keeping a file on the old computer of images of tiny vehicles in Italy. It may have been lost with the old computer. If not I might eventually have a posting dedicated to small cars. Anyway, here is one example.
Part two will continue with the views from Fiesole.

Temporary Halt

2009-04-15T03:58:00.002-04:00

So. We don't have a working computer at home (now that we have reliable Internet access). I also can't get the pictures off of Sarah's camera right now. So the postings will eventually resume. Hopefully before we move back to the States.
But there's good stuff to come. We went to Milan, Parma, Urbino, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, and other places. We are also going to Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento, Capri, and who knows where else.
Stay tuned...

Padua - part 2 (The Arena Chapel)

2009-03-16T10:30:00.008-04:00

The reason we made this trip to Padua was so that Sarah and Kellin could see the Scrovegni Chapel, aka the Arena Chapel. The fresco cycle by Giotto inside the chapel is one of the most important masterpieces of Western art. How do I know? Because the two highest art authorities I know (Sarah and wikipedia) told me so.

Lara, Sarah, Prof. Hatfield, and Kellin make their way to the chapel. In order to get in you have to make reservations for fifteen minute time slots. Sarah, Kellin, and Prof. Hatfield had a total of 45 minutes each, while Lara and I were only given one half hour each. This was because Sarah and Kellin were going over the presentation of Prof. Hatfield's lecture on the fresco with him.

Before you can enter the chapel, you have to sit in a chamber and watch a little movie for fifteen minutes. All the while the air and temperature are being stabilized or something. Then a sliding glass door lets you into a hallway, then another door lets you into the chapel. I think that this is because, aside from its importance, it was also bombed during WWII, so there was a lot of damage.

It is known as the Arena Chapel because the land that Enrico Scrovegni purchased for it was adjacent to the remains of a Roman arena.

Well, I'm not sure when it was built but the fresco was completed by Giotto around 1305.

Enrico's father Reginaldo degli Scrovegni was the usurer encountered by Dante in the Seventh Circle of Hell. But Enrico probably built the chapel to amend for his own sins.

In a place like this there was obviously no photography allowed. So here are some images from the web. Here is one end. I think this is where Enrico's tomb is located.

Here is the opposite end. The frescoes depict the lives of Christ and of Mary. On this end is the Last Judgement.

And here is a close-up of the Last Judgement.

And finally, here is the famous Kiss of Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus when he told the authorities that he would identify Jesus by means of a kiss.

Padua - part 1

2009-03-16T10:23:00.013-04:00

Once upon a time Sarah, Kellin, Lara, Professor Hatfield, and I took a train to Padua. The reason we were going was because Prof. Hatfield wanted Sarah and Kellin (his two TAs) to see the Scrovegni Chapel, aka the Arena Chapel due to the fact that it was built next to the site of a Roman arena. More on that in the next posting. We had a scheduled time to be in the chapel so we went other places in the mean time.

One of those places, I think it was a cafe, had the delightful bathroom seen above. While not uncommon in Italy, this type of bathroom always scares me when I come across one. The reason is that it brings back memories of an uncomfortable experience in a Vatican Museum bathroom which I will not go into. Suffice it to say that I don't care for these holes in the floor. But I used it and it was fine. Moving on...

The first church we went into was the Chiesa dei Santissima Filippo e Giacomo agli Eremitani. I don't know what that means (something about two most holy hermits named Phil and Jack, I think) or anything else about it because I didn't look it up. Sorry, but these postings are going to have to be a little streamlined due to our broken computer.
I like the ceiling. I think it looks like an upside-down really old wooden ship, named Diversity.

The church, like the Arena Chapel, was hit by bombs during WWII.

So you can see that a lot of the art work that survives only survives in fragments that are being painstakingly restored.

Here is an image of the church after the bombs hit.
On a side note, there is a very interesting documentary about art during WWII (and talks about the consideration of art during the bombing of Italy's towns) called The Rape of Europa. My brother-in-law Charles bought it for Sarah for Christmas. Maybe he'll buy it for you too.

This isn't a great picture but it talks about the Mantegna Project, which is amazing. Imagine taking the rubble from a bombed building and trying to re-create the works of art that it once held.

I just like this picture because there is a man on the right holding a giant leg. You can see some of the jigsaw puzzle of pieces that are left for restorers above.

Later we walked to the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua. On the way, Prof. Hatfield, Sarah, Lara, and Kellin did a terrible job re-creating the Abbey Road album cover.

The good news is that I thought this was one of the most amazing and beautiful churches I've seen in Italy. The bad news is that, not only do they not allow pictures inside, but I couldn't find any good images on the web either. It may be for the best. I don't think that random images would relay the total package. You have to see the whole thing. So I guess you should just come on over and see it for yourself.
Though not the cathedral in town, it is Padua's largest church. It is known locally as "il Santo" and was begun not long after the death of Saint Anthony (good ole' San Antonio died in 1231, like you didn't already know that). The building is an odd assortment of Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, and Byzantine styles. Outside, the domes are reminiscent of San Marco in Venice.
I can't properly describe the inside. It's huge and beautiful and amazing. That's the best I can do. Sorry.

In front of the basilica is a statue of Gattamelata. No, not Schuyler (the name means honeyed cat) but the famous condotierri, or mercenary, Erasmo of Narni. He fought for quite a few different Italian cities during the Renaissance era, including Venice and Florence, and the Pope. This statue was made by Donatello in 1453, was modeled after the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and was the first full-size equestrian bronze cast since antiquity. So I hear.

I have no idea who this Martian is.

So here's a statue of St. Anthony throwing a baby. Okay, it's actually St. Anthony acting as intercessor to Jesus.

I meet my intercessor.

I'm not sure what he said, but it must have been profound. Sarah is thrown off balance by the words of Prof. Hatfield.

This image is from inside the baptistery of the Cathedral of Padua.

And this is from inside the Palazzo della Ragione, which was the town hall building. This is the great hall on the upper floor (the lower floor has shops) which is covered in allegorical frescoes. This building supposedly had the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe. I guess they mean when it was finished in 1219, not now. There is also a large wooden horse inside. Why not?

Uffizi Gallery

2009-03-06T09:56:00.011-05:00

So, I finally did it. After six or seven months of living in Florence I finally visited one of its top attractions. Not only is the Uffizi one of the world's oldest and most important art galleries, but it also sat there about a block away from our apartment for the entire time I've been here. Probably even longer. So I went. Sarah Dotson and I went one Sunday while Sarah was grading school assignments. We entered together but then went our separate ways. Me to explore for the first time and Sarah to practice a lecture she was to give there.

As I've mentioned many times in previous postings, the Vasari Corridor runs from the Palazzo Vecchio in town to the Palazzo Pitti just across the river. It was a raised and covered walkway that the Medici would use to go from one palace to the other and to their offices (the present Uffizi gallery) without having to mingle with the common folk. Here you can see where the corridor leaves the Palazzo Vecchio on the right and enters the Uffizi.

Here is the Uffizi from the south. It is U-shaped, and this picture was taken from the bottom of the U. The Palazzo Vecchio is in the distance with its tower. I guess the Vasari Corridor runs through the right (east) side of the Uffizi, though I didn't see it when I was inside. The galleries are above. Below you can see the statues of many famous Florentine artists, architects, scientists, writers, and thinkers.

Here's the Uffizi from the north, from around the southeast corner of the Piazza Signoria. The Uffizi Gallery is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, which was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Grand Duke Cosimo d'Medici (aka Cosimo Primo). The building provided offices for the Florentine magistrates.

Here is the Vasari Corridor leaving the south side of the Uffizi, going west along the Arno, then crossing the river along the Ponte Vecchio. This shot was taken from inside the gallery. They let you take pictures out the windows, but not of the art inside.

Here is a shot of the river to the east from the same spot in the museum. If you open the picture up to its full size you can see the Porta San Niccolo on the left and San Miniato al Monte on top of the hill to the right.

Well, here's the corridor as far as it can be seen from the Uffizi. It goes on to the south and west, through Santa Felicita (a church south of the bridge that we went to with Andy, one of Sarah's teachers from Syracuse, NY), and up to the Palazzo Pitti.

Here is a picture of one of the two hallways. The halls run along the inside of the U and have portraits of hundreds of military and religious leaders, nobility, artists, etc. along the ceiling and then the galleries are through the doors to the outside of the U. The Medici also stored their vast collection of art here. The gallery was opened to the public in 1765 but had been open to visitors by request since the 16th century. The collection was so huge that some of it was sent to other museums around Florence.

The two biggest groups of people when I was there were surrounding Sandro Botticelli's Primavera and his Birth of Venus.

Here are two of Sarah's favorites: Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch (which Sarah saw in person while it was being restored by one of her instructors. This picture is pre-restoration) and Michelangelo's Doni Tondo.
The museum has Roman copies of Greek original sculpture, then moves on chronologically through the ages. There are works by Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Filippo Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Durer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Parmigianino, Caravaggio, Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, Rembrandt, and many many more.

At the end of the museum is a cafe that faces the Piazza Signoria. Here is the Palazzo Vecchio from the cafe.

More scenes from the cafe. Duomo on the left, Palazzo on the right. Towers of the Bargello and the Badia Fiorentino in the middle.

And the Duomo again, this time with its campanile. The road that you see is the road I take every morning from home to the bus stop.

Finally, here is a view from the Piazza Signoria. The Palazzo Vecchio is on the left, you can see a bit of the Uffizi in the middle, and the Loggia di Lanzi on the right. The loggia (porch) houses some incredibly famous statues like Cellini's Perseus and Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women. The cafe of the Uffizi is above the Loggia di Lanzi but you can't really see it from below. You could usually see (the copy of) Michelangelo's David and (stupid, according to Sarah) Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus, but they are being restored in their little white and yellow huts.

The Fugates are coming! Part 10 - Rome (Forum)

2009-02-18T10:10:00.007-05:00

We walked through the Forum after we left the Colosseum. Like the Colosseum, I had never been to the Forum despite visiting Rome two times before. Unfortunately I can't really say too much about it. We kind of strolled through, but I don't think that there were any kind of markers or signs to tell the visitors what was where. Might have been helpful.

The Forum was the center of the Roman Republic. This was where the Senate and the republican government began. This was a gathering place and a place for justice and worship. And probably for all the latest fashions and quality sporting goods.

The three arched areas in the background are part of the Basilica of Maxentius (and Constantine). It was the largest building in the Roman Forum. It was not built until after 300 AD. Yes, those are groin vaults.

Here's where some signage would have been nice. I have no idea what these might have been. I'm going to say that it was a Taco Bell built in 237 AD by Nautius Maximus. Prove me wrong.

Look at all the rubbish strewn along the path. Shame really.

Does anyone know what this structure was? There's a prize for the correct answer.

On the left are the remains of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, and on the right is the Temple of Vesta, I believe.

This whole area, between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, was originally a grassy wetland. A covered sewer system was built in the 7th century BC to drain the water to the Tiber.

Castor and Pollux again.

and again. Built in 495 BC, it was.

This was the Temple of Saturn. It is supposed to be the oldest surviving structure in the area. It was built between 501 and 498 BC.

Ewww. There are basilica remains everywhere.

Here is the Arch of Septimius Severus. It was finished around 203 AD.

The triumphal arch commemorated the victories of Septemius Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta over the Parthians. After poppa died, Caracalla had Geta assassinated.
The Capitoline Museum is the large building in the background. The bottom of it (with the three arched openings, one of which you can see here) was the Tabularium, the official records office of ancient Rome. When we were in Rome before this I took many pictures of these same temple remains from the Tabularium.

On the left is the Temple of Saturn again. And on the right is the Temple of Vespasian and Titus. Say, aren't those the fellas that built the Colosseum? Why yes, they are.

Sarah peruses the mess the Romans made. To the left of the Temple of Saturn are the remains of the Basilica Julia, which was begun in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and finished by his adopted heir Augustus. It was built with with the spoils of the Gallic War. It contained law courts, shops, government offices, and space for banking.
Well, I've had enough of Rome. I'm moving on to a new city.

The Fugates are coming! Part 9 - Rome (Colosseum)

2009-02-18T09:56:00.012-05:00

Although I had been to Rome twice before, this was my first visit to the Flavian Amphitheater, aka the Colosseum.

Rome's Colosseum was the biggest amphitheater built in Roman times and took about ten years to build, with its completion coming in 80 AD. It was begun by Vespasian and was finished during the reign of Titus. It was called the Flavian Amphitheater because both of these emperors were part of the Flavian Dynasty. It could hold about 50,000 spectators, which might not be too big compared to today's stadiums, but was incredible 2000 years ago. The name Colosseum supposedly came from a nearby colossal statue of Nero or Apollo.

Here we are entering the Colosseum. Once again there were people on the outside trying to convince us that we needed to buy their services as a tour guide. We declined. I think we did okay without them.
This trip was the first time that I ever encountered these poor art history prostitutes.

Happy Fugates, mesmerized by the "magic likeness-creating device".

It's sad how they let their stadiums fall apart. Actually, there were fires, earthquakes, and a number of restorations that affected it. Also, in the Middle Ages the amphitheater was used for shops, homes, a cemetery, and a religious order. Some of the building material was also taken and used for other projects over the years.

Breeding ground for mosquitoes.

It has been estimated that 500,000 people and over 1 million wild animals were killed during the games held here.

In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV declared that the Colosseum was a sacred site because Christians had been martyred there. He forbade its use as a quarry and set up the stations of the cross.

The Colosseum had a stage-like contraption set up when we were there. I don't know if it's always there or not. I read that they don't have any large events there because they can only accommodate a few hundred spectators in temporary seating.

The Fugates from behind.

Bonnie and Sarah look up at something. It must have been more interesting than the Forum directly in front of them.

Bonnie and Steve pose above a sign with a bunch of scary Latin words.

We escaped through the art history prostitutes and the Roman re-enactors to make our way to our next stop: The Forum.

The Fugates are coming! Part 8 - Rome (about town)

2009-02-18T09:49:00.005-05:00

We walked around a lot, like you do, and saw quite a bit. There were many things that we saw that I had already seen and reported on in this blog. So here are some pictures from our walks around town.

Here is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, aka the Fountain of the Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona. It was made by Bernini and erected in 1651. We saw some of his other amazing sculptures at the Villa Borghese the last time I was in Rome.

The four figures in the sculpture are supposed to represent four great rivers in the four continents recognized by Renaissance geographers. They are the Danube in Europe, the Nile in Africa, the Ganges in Asia (Indian subcontinent, please), and the Rio de la Plata in the Americas. Hmmph. Apparently they had never heard of the Great Miami River, Wolf Creek, or the mighty Olentangy.

Here we are arriving at the Pantheon. It's old.

Here's the opening at the top into which rain and snow (if there is any) will fall. That must make for an interesting mass. Steve and I were hoping to catch a picture of a bird flying over the opening, or oculus, which we did see. Unfortunately our cameras were not fast enough.

After the Pantheon (still seen above) we went to some other churches that I've already reported on. We went to the Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio with its trompe-l'oeil dome, ...

the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva with Michelangelo's Christ the Redeemer statue, San Luigi dei Francesi the national French church in Rome with its Caravaggios, ...

and San Pietro in Vincoli with its chains of St. Peter and Michelangelo's Moses.

See! I hope you don't think me too lazy, but there are pictures of all these places already on the site somewhere. You should have them memorized by now.

And there's the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. Behind it is the Capitoline Hill with its museum, and then the Forum beyond that. The Forum will be in one of my next postings.

Here is the Trevi Fountain, surprisingly not too crowded. I think we attempted to throw a coin in the fountain. It's reported that approximately 3000 Euros are thrown in the fountain every day. I need to build me a big ole' fountain.

We stayed at the bottom of the Spanish Steps this time, and there were no choirs singing.

We also went back into Santa Maria del Popolo in the Piazza del Popolo. There are more Caravaggios in here, including the one that Lara talked about at the symposium. Remember?

Here is the view back into the Piazza del Popolo with the obelisk, which is blocking the entrance to the Via del Corso between the twin churches (which I have never inside of). Speaking of things I've never done...

I've been to the Piazza del Popolo a few times now, but this was the first time that I ever went out of the old city through the Porta del Popolo (formerly the Porta Flaminia) in the Aurelian Walls. Here we look back at the gate from the outside. This gate was the beginning of the Via Flaminia, which was Rome's most important road to the north.

The Fugates are coming! Part 7 - Rome (St. Peter's Basilica)

2009-02-11T11:36:00.008-05:00

Much of our time in Rome was spent dodging rain drops. Luckily a lot of the rain fell while we were in the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. Actually, even though we got wet for a while, we lucked out in avoiding the rain. I think the weather actually became pretty nice the next day.

Here's a view from inside the Vatican Museum of the rainy day in Rome.

From the museum we walked around the block to St. Peter's. Of course it's a pretty big block. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, both in population (about 900 people) and size (about 110 acres), and is just a walled enclave within the city of Rome. And here's the wall to prove it. Along this strip of road there are a bunch of freelance history and art guides who try to get you to purchase their services in the museum or church. I just thought it was kind of sad seeing these people (art and history people like Sarah and I) standing out in the rain trying to make some money. Luckily we have a built-in tour guide, and we don't have to pay her.

Here's St. Peter's Square, out in front of the basilica. In this picture I managed to just miss the obelisk in the middle of the square. The Roman Emperor Caligula brought the 13th century B.C. red granite obelisk to Rome in A.D. 37.

Okay, I figured that I needed a better picture. So here's one that I guess I could have taken if we had climbed to the top of the dome again. But we didn't. I need to do that again, now that I have a camera.

Here are members of the Swiss Guard who protect the Vatican. The popes recruited Swiss mercenaries for defense a long time ago, then Pope Julius II founded the Swiss Guard in 1506 as the personal bodyguards of the pope. They probably have the toughest looking uniforms of any fighting force on the planet.

After passing through security we made it inside. The church is huge. It has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, and on the moon. It can hold 60,000 people. It was completed in 1626.

Here is Michelangelo's Pietà. He made it in 1499, and it is absolutely beautiful.

A little bit of the open space down the side aisle.

Here's good ole' St. Peter. I rubbed his foot, as others were doing and I had done before, but I did not kiss it, as others were doing. I think there's probably a Peter Rabbit/foot rubbing joke in there somewhere, but I'm not going to look for it. I have standards.

Here's the dome, if you can see it.

And Bernini's baldacchino below it.

And, in case you forgot them, here are all the popes' names. Memorize them. Go.

The Fugates are coming! Part 6 - Rome (Vatican Museum)

2009-02-11T11:30:00.004-05:00

One of the first things we did during our first full day in Rome was to go to Vatican City. First we went to the Vatican Museums before walking around the block (a big block) to go to St. Peter's Basilica.

The Vatican Museums are among the greatest museums in the world. They were established in 1506 by Pope Julius II. They are visited by over 4 million people a year. They have tons of sculptures (literally), paintings, and even mummies. Why not?

The museum has a whole lot of stuff, aka art. The Roman Catholic Church has been accumulating works for its collection for quite some time.

In fact, the museum began with one work of art in 1506. The statue seen above, called Laochoon and His Sons, was found in a vineyard near Santa Maria Maggiore. Pope Julius II sent Michelangelo and Giuliano da Sangallo (who were working at the Vatican) to investigate. They suggested that the pope buy it immediately, and he put it on display in the Vatican a month later. It was sculpted between 160 B.C. and 20 B.C., probably by three sculptors from Rhodes.

This is the Belvedere Torso. It's believed to be from the 2nd century B.C. That's pretty much what my torso looks like. Really.

It takes a while to get through the museum. Even once you realize that you are on the path towards the Sistine Chapel it seems to take forever.

Having a room full of large painted maps of different countries, cities, and regions seems to have been the thing to do. The Palazzo Vecchio had a room for them, as did some other places I've been. I think this hall was the biggest I've seen though. There's Italy with a blurry Bonnie.

Sarah stands by Venice. See.

Just before you get to the Sistine Chapel you walk through a series of rooms called the Raphael Rooms. They have frescoes by Raphael and his workshop (who completed some of them after his death) from around 1508 to his death in 1520. The one above is The Deliverance of Saint Peter, if you can see it. It shows how Peter was freed from Herod's prison by and angel.

Then you come to The School of Athens. That's right. It's the one we had up in our bathroom in our first apartment in Savannah. It shows the Greek philosophers, and some Romans, and some other thinkers. It is also supposed to show Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci as two of the philosophers (Heraclitus and Plato, respectively).

Then you finally get to the Sistine Chapel. Enjoy these few pictures because you're not supposed to take pictures in there. There's Jonah at the bottom of the picture and the Creation at the top.

Here's Michelangelo's Last Judgement.

The chapel is named for Pope Sixtus IV who restored the old Cappella Maggiorein 1480. It was worked on by the greats: Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and others. Michelangelo, of course, painted the ceiling, which originally showed a blue sky with gold stars.

After that excitment there are still many rooms to walk through.

I don't know if you can tell, but this picture shows a series of rooms that have lined-up doorways. These buildings just keep going, and going...

Then you exit down this cool stairway. Being the genius that I am I told Sarah to go down ahead of me a couple of spirals and put her head against the wall. Then I whispered her name (in this big, loud room) and she heard me. It's a pretty cool affect. We whispered back and forth for a bit. Try it next time you're in the Vatican.

The Fugates are coming! Part 5 - Orvieto

2009-02-10T07:42:00.007-05:00

After we visited St. Patrick's Well, we walked around Orvieto, had lunch, and went to the Duomo di Orvieto.

Here is a view from the east side of town looking south along the face of the cliff. Orvieto must have been an ideal place to be in case of attack.

This is the little town in which you'll find the train station. From there it is a short walk to the funicular railway. This was a great vantage point from which to observe the high-speed trains as they flew by.

In the center of town, towards the south, you'll find the Orvieto Cathedral. I thought it was interesting that such a small town would have such a big church (although this is far from unusual in Italy), but I found out that it was built under the orders of Pope Urban IV to provide a suitable home for the remnants of a miracle that happened in the area in 1263. Oh, it's probably also because Orvieto was home to one of the few papal palaces outside of Rome. From the 11th century the popes tended to move around and stay for a time in the bishop's palaces of cities around the Papal States. But the pope actually built his own palace here. Some popes also took refuge here from time to time, like when Charles V was sacking Rome.
The facade of the church is very impressive, especially with parts of it being in a brilliant gold, and its rose window.

Here's the inside. Sarah said that we had to go to the chapel on the right, towards the front of the church. There was a charge, so I almost declined. But I'm glad I didn't. I don't know if it was worth what they charged but it was interesting. It was begun by Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli, but they only painted two parts. Most of the chapel was painted by Luca Signorelli.

The Resurrection of the Flesh. Lots of naked people climbing out of their graves.

The Damned are taken to Hell and received by Demons.

Above the entrance there are flying robots or something shooting lasers at people. Not a common site.

And finally is the best scene, the one that Sarah had told me about. The Preaching of the Antichrist. The Antichrist is shown looking like Christ, but with the devil whispering to him. The picture supposedly might show Raphael, Dante, Christopher Columbus, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Cesare Borgia, Fra Angelico, and the painter himself. I don't know if that's true. But the best part about it is the upper right where there appear to be ninjas fighting. There is nothing better than seeing ninjas in Renaissance paintings.

Looking from the south of town there were more beautiful views.

And more. Including...

My future home/castle! I want it.

Sarah dumped me for one of the locals.

Just a view of the road below.

Sarah imagines that she's on the Titanic.
Once it started to get too dark to take any more pictures we took the funicular rail back down, got on another train, and headed south to Rome.

The Fugates are coming! Part 4 - Orvieto (St. Patrick's Well)

2009-02-10T07:35:00.009-05:00

On the way down to Rome Sarah, her parents, and I stopped for the day in Orvieto, a small city in southern Umbria that sits atop the summit of some volcanic rock. Some of the cliffs drop straight down a long way and is emphasized in areas by defensive walls. In order to get into the city you have to take the train to Orvieto Scalo (the town at the bottom of the hill) and then take the funicular railway up to the top.

I always wanted to ride a funicular railway, ever since I saw To Catch a Thief and Cary Grant says, "I can't even spell funicular." That's all it took.
Anyway, a funicular railway (unlike a cog railway, or some such nonsense) is one in which two cars counterbalance each other on a cable that is attached to both cars.

They pas each other in the middle of the track on the way up the very steep incline. It wasn't really exciting, but now I can spell funicular. Or funicolare in Italian, of course.

One of the first things we did was go to a cafe. Then we went to this little unassuming building. This is the entrance to St. Patrick's Well.

Down we go.

There are two spiraling slopes that wind down to the bottom in a double helix.

And it keeps going and going...deep into the hill.

It does have a bottom though. And at that bottom there is water. It is a well, after all.
Here's the view down into the well with the flash.

And here's the shot without flash.

Here is the view back up from the bottom.

There's a little bridge over the water that goes from one path to the other, and they don't meet again until the top.

Sarah and Steve a few levels above me. It was a very tiring trip back to the top. Apparently they used to lead mules down to haul the water back up in jars. They took one path down, crossed the bridge, and took the other path back up so that there could be continuous, unobstructed trips.

Pope Clement VII built the well while he was taking refuge in Orvieto during Charles V's sack of Rome in 1527. He feared that they might run out of water in the event of a siege.

It's a neat but touristy little town.

It kind of reminds me of Assisi, only a slight bit smaller. They both have train stations in a little town at the bottom of a hill and separate methods of travel to get up to the city. And they're both in Umbria, about thirty mile from each other.

And they're both beautiful.

See! Proof positive.

The Fugates are coming! Part 3 - The Dome (outside)

2009-02-05T08:35:00.009-05:00

For the second half of this posting from the dome of the Florence Cathedral I've just decided to start with a picture that looks straight out towards the front of the church and then rotate clockwise.

So here we are from the top of the dome. You can see the roof over the nave of the Duomo and can just barely see the top of the Baptistery in front of it. On the left is the companile (a free-standing bell tower) that was designed by Giotto. The picture looks west (as the cathedral is oriented towards the east and west) and you can kind of make out the line of the Arno (if you zoom in) and the mountains in the background. The nave and the facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is also barely visible to the right of the picture.

Sarah and Steve oversee their realm. This is actually not the next picture in directional order, but since Steve is pointing that way I thought it would work. Follow the finger.

You can see these better if you click on them to expand them. Here you see the Basilica of San Lorenzo which is the largest and one of the oldest churches in Florence. It was the parish church of the Medici family and many of their members are in different areas of the church. Supposedly the family were still paying for the Medici Chapel when the last member of the family, Anna Maria Louisa de'Medici, died in 1743. Donatello is also buried here. You can also see the top of the San Lorenzo market (the bluish, greenish roof) and the lines above the train tracks leading out of the Santa Maria Novella train station.

This shot goes pretty much straight towards the north. Not too much of note here, just Florence heading up towards the hills.

Here we look northeast. The line of road is Via Gino Capponi (which originated as Via dei Servi when it radiated out from the Duomo, but changed names once you pass the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata) which is the road we usually take to get to Sarah's school, although we opt for the quicker but less scenic Borgo Pinti route more often now.

This isn't a great shot, but it shows the general direction towards I Tatti, up in the hills. The white tower-like thing is at Fiorentina's Artemio Franchi Stadium. I don't think that I Tatti is actually in this picture because I don't see a construction crane. But it's in this general direction. I couldn't spot it from the duomo. It might be kind of tucked behind a hill or something.

Here we look roughly east. The road you see is Via dell'Oriuolo which leads towards the post office and the Standa grocery store, then Via Pietrapiana, then Piazza Sant'Ambrogio, then Borgo la Croce, then Piazza Beccaria with its old city gate, but you can't see that far in the picture. Also visible is the light bluish dome of Tempio Maggiore, the synagogue.

Here is the front of the Basilica of Santa Croce on the left, and in the middle are the two short towers at the Biblioteca Nazionale just below the tall Porta San Niccolo' across the river. Above and to the right of that is the Piazzale Michelangelo with its statue of David replica. Just visible above and to the right of that is the front of San Miniato al Monte. We've taken some great pictures of the city from the Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato.

Here's our neighborhood, kind of. Santa Croce is on the left and the two towers of the Bargello and the Badia Fiorentina are on the right. You can't see where we live from here, but it's roughly above the two towers. Again, you can see the Porta San Niccolo', Piazzale Michelangelo, and San Miniato above.

Here's a close-up of the area. Again, you can't see our place but it's in this area (on this side of the river).

Here are the same two towers along with the Tower d'Arnolfo of the Palazzo Vecchio which faces the Piazza della Signoria. The Palazzo Vecchio is the large building that stretches back from the tower on the right almost to the tower on the left. Our old apartment was about a block to the left of the left-most extent of the palazzo. Our new apartment is another block farther left and closer to the river. Our old rooftop might be visible, but our new one isn't quite as tall.

Here is the front of the Palazzo Vecchio on the left. Just in front of it you can see the top of the three arches of the Loggia dei Lanzi whhich are at this end of the Uffizi Gallery. In the top right of the picture is the Palazzo Pitti. Even though you can't see it here, the Palazzo Pitti and the Palazzo Vecchio are attached by the Vasari Corridor, an enclosed passageway raised above the streets and across the Ponte Vecchio and Uffizi.

Most of this picture is of the Altrarno area across the river to the southwest. The large church is Santo Spirito.

Here is the Palazzo della Republica at the bottom of the picture.

And that pretty much brings us back around to the west. So, do you have the layout of Florence memorized now? Good.

The Fugates are coming! Part 2 - The Dome (inside)

2009-02-05T08:27:00.011-05:00

A day or two before, I had gone into the Duomo for the first time. Finally. I'd been inside almost every other large church in Florence, except for the most famous one. Now Sarah, her dad Steve, and I were going to climb up to the top of the dome. I had climbed to the top of the dome at St. Peter's in Rome, so I figured I knew what to expect. It's a tough climb but well worth it.

First you climb up to the point where the walls of the church meet the dome, which is pretty high. At this point you walk part of the way around the dome to the steps up to the top. While you're at this level you can get a much better look at the 38,750 square feet of painted space on the inside of the dome. I think that most of it was done by Giorgio Vasari and other collaborators.

There's a Last Judgment scene, choirs of angels, scenes of hell...you know, typical stuff. It looks different though, since it's so huge and you're so high up.

I don't know why, but I'm always fascinated by medieval and Renaissance scenes of hell. The artists would no doubt be upset by this since the images were meant to scare people into being good.

Most of them are pretty gross and scary, but I think some of them are humorous. Funny little demons poking people.

In order to get to the top you have to walk by some scary things. Only the brave shall pass. And me. I made it.

On second thought, these images do still have the desired affect.

Dad and daughter contemplate the demons.

Oh yeah, then there's also a church down below.

Way down below. But we still had farther to go.

Now we had to start walking up inside the dome. It's 375 feet to the top. We didn't meet much opposition on the way up. Later, on the way down, we constantly had to stand aside and wait for the stairs to clear because up and down traffic were using the same narrow stairs. You often have to walk at an angle since the roof is angling in towards the top.

Almost there...

The Fugates are coming! Part 1 - The beginning

2009-02-04T15:57:00.011-05:00

I don't remember the exact dates (since I waited so long to post this), but I think Sarah's parents Bonnie and Steve Fugate (for those of you who don't know them) came over to Florence on the 10th of December. They were here to see us, to sight-see, but also to be with Sarah when she presented her paper at the symposium which would also be her graduation from Syracuse University Florence. I don't remember everything that we did, and they did some things without me while I was at work. So I'll just follow and describe the pictures, like I do.

Even though I had already lived in Florence for almost six months, this was the first time that I had been inside the Duomo, aka Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, aka the Florence Cathedral. The term duomo does not refer to the dome, but instead is the word for a cathedral church. It was begun in 1296 but wasn't finished until 1436 when Brunelleschi designed and finished the famous dome. The dome was one of the largest in the world until the modern era, and is still the largest brick dome ever built. It weighs 37,000 tons and contains over 4 million bricks. The inside of the church is actually quite plain. I know that there was quite a bit of damage from the 1966 flood, but I don't know the specifics. Ask Sarah next time you see her.

Here's the inside of the dome. That will be shown more later because Sarah, Steve, and I climbed to the top of the dome at a later date.

So there seems to always be one strike or another in progress. Whether it's an education strike, a transportation strike, or whatever, there always seems to be some unrest. I actually don't know what this strike was about. I think it was related to the education business, but this on didn't involve students, unlike the other school strikes I'd seen.

So a lot of things were closed due to, or in support of, this strike.

I don't think they knew where they were going.

We tried to go into San Marco, which was supposed to be open at that time but was closed due to the strike. We'd have to try again later.

Instead we went to the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. We went into the enclosed area that comes before the church but no further. There was a mass in progress. I like this area though because some of the little fake windows above have people painted into them.

Now we move on the the day of the symposium. All of the grad students' hard work came down to this one day. Here the girls (Stephanie, Lara, Sarah, Kellin, and Mary) in the group re-enact the gestures that they were researching, kind of.

They nervously await their turns.

Sarah presents her paper on the silence gesture, which changed meaning over the years. Ask her about it. I dare you.

After the presentations were over Barbara Deimling congratulated them all since this was, in effect, their graduation ceremony. Here's Tom (blocked), Mary, Sarah, Deimling in front of Stephanie, Kellin, Lara, and Clark.

And again: Tom, Mary, Sarah, Stephanie, Kellin, Lara, and Clark. Glad to be done.

Sarah applies the suspenders.

Steve and Sarah discuss the finer points of gesture in art.

After the dinner with the professors, parents, and students, some of the new graduates went out to Moyo. And I must apologize to Clark, but I got two great pictures of him so I'm going to show them to the world. Or at least three members of this world.

Sarah, Lara, Kellin, and Clark. Four of the six new TAs. Someone's education is now in their hands.

Paris - part 8

2009-01-24T11:12:00.012-05:00

Well, I'm just about Parised out. I'm not tired of the city, just of writing about it. And after the last post's video extravaganza...well, nothing can compete with that. This last posting involves pictures from the end of the final day in which we had free time to do whatever we wanted in the cold rain.

Another picture of the Seine. This one was taken from the Pont Neuf looking east towards the Pont au Change. On the right (on the Ile de la Cite) is the Conciergerie, which is part of the whole Palace of Justice complex that also has Sainte-Chapelle. The Conciergerie was a medieval palace and a prison. It was used to house prisoners on their way to the guillotines during the French Revolution and was finally decommissioned as a prison in 1914. It's now an historical monument and part of it is open to the public. We did not go in.

This one was taken from the Pont Neuf looking west towards the Pont des Arts. The dome on the left is the Institut de France, which is a learned society that houses five academies. These include the French Academy and the Academies of the Humanities, Sciences, Fine Arts, and Painting and Sculpture. We didn't go there either.

We made our way in the rain towards the Eiffel Tower. Here Sarah shows off a rare European Starbucks coffee. She had gone without for about a year. She had to settle for much better coffee in Italy. But one cannot dismiss the convenience of the massive cup that you can take with you. But I will. I dismiss it.

The fast-moving clouds kept obscuring the top of the tower but every time I tried to take a picture the clouds would pass. This was the best obscured by clouds picture that I got. Obscured by Clouds is also a fantastic album by Pink Floyd. Unrelated. Sorry.

Even more of the Seine. These two pictures are farther west nearer to the tower. As a devoted follower of the television series of The Highlander, I always wanted to live in a barge on the Seine. And fight with swords while displaying an amazing ponytail.

Oh, I miss it already. We'll have to see if Sarah can get fellowships in Paris and London.

Sarah wanted to send a picture to her mom in which she danced in front of the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, designed by Gustave Eiffel, is the tallest structure in Paris (1,063 feet tall), and is the most visited paid monument in the world (6,719,200 people in 2006). And it's made out of Legos.

The building in the foreground is the Ecole Militaire. It houses various military teaching facilities and was built by Louis XV in 1750. In the background is the Tour Montparnasse, the second tallest structure in Paris (until renovations on the Tour AXA are completed). Two years after the tower was built in 1972, a law was put in place to ban the building of skyscrapers in the city center.

Sarah lets the folks back home know that it was a little chilly in Paris.

Our last main destination was the Arc de Triomphe. The arch honors those who fought for France, beginning in with the Napoleonic Wars. The names of generals and battles are on the inside and top of the arch. There is also a tomb of an unknown soldier from WWI. Napoleon marched triumphantly under a wooden mock-up of it before it was finished. There are 12 avenues that radiate out of the Place de l'Etoile in which it sits.

The Arc de Triomphe sits at the western end of the Champs-Elysees (one of the 12). And here is a rainy view of that famous avenue.

And that is all from freezing, rainy Paris.

Paris - part 7

2009-01-24T10:42:00.011-05:00

These final two Paris postings are just mixes of random other things we did while we were there. Some of them happened in the order presented and some of them were just random pictures that were between other posted subjects. But that doesn't matter to you. In fact, forget this entire paragraph.
This is an exciting posting though because it is my first posting that makes use of a new technology called video. Don't skip ahead. Just arrive at the video in the natural order of things. I must warn you though, that it is nothing exciting. In fact, I am being a turd in the video because I did not want said video to be recorded at the time. I never think to record videos while traipsing about Europe (like I do), Sarah just grabbed my camera and started rolling. However, digital video does not roll. Maybe I'll remember to use high-tech video technology in the future. Anyway, on with Paris.

This is a view from our hotel room. This looks similar to most streets in Florence (except prettier, kinda), except this is a small side street. In Florence it seems like even the main traffic arteries are this size. Except for the few multi-lane viale's and the highways outside of town, pretty much all the roads in Florence are tiny one-way, one-lane roads and some two-way roads. I don't know how they planned the traffic patterns (apparently they didn't give too much thought to automobiles in the previous centuries) but some of the one-way main arteries baffle me due to their tiny size with barely room for one car to squeeze through. This rant might be due to the fact that I walked home from work yesterday (hour-long walk, fast speed) and felt like I was inches away from the non-stop cars flying by.

And here's the view to the right from our hotel window. The beautiful Hotel Rocroy was so well-prepared that, even though we arrived two hours late to check in, they still didn't have half of our rooms ready. So we piled our luggage into a side room as we headed out to the Louvre. They were replacing all the mattresses, as I think I mentioned in a previous post. The rooms were actually pretty nice.

Jump ahead about 12 hours (I can't remember what time it was, or if it was the same day) and Sarah and I went in search of the bar she had found online that had shown the Ohio State-michigan game in previous years. It was our best hope as there is no longer an alumni club in Paris for some reason. It was a Canadian sports bar near the Seine. Most of the crowd was watching soccer or rugby on the televisions, but there were about 15 people in the back watching the game on two tvs. I think there were two other Ohio State people (we talked to one who was from Bowling Green) and there were at least 10 people wearing those disgusting colors of that school up north. I wore my Ohio State t-shirt with pride. Those who recognize this shirt know what it says on the back.

And there it is. Final score: 42-7. Sarah wrote down some great quotes from the ESPN commentators such as, "Awww, just give it to 'em," when there was some question as to whether Michigan scored their only touchdown. I hope my cousin Jennifer reads this. But I'm allowed to gloat after the heartbreak that was the John Cooper era (which coincided with my time at Ohio State, though we did beat Michigan once during my time there - a game which I attended). This is very important in the Paris history lesson.

Here's a shot of Notre Dame from the Left Bank, aka the south side of the River Seine. Also visible is the Petit Pont, or Little Bridge. Bridges have been used in this exact spot since antiquity to take advantage of the narrow crossing around the Ile de la Cite.

And here is Sainte-Chapelle from the Boulevard du Palais. I guess that is part of the old royal palace which surrounds it.

This marker indicates the spot where my grandpa was born. I think this was along the Rue de Rivoli, but I'm not sure.

We walked out and stood in the middle of the Champs-Elysees where the famous road ends at the Place de la Concorde. Here we are facing east towards the Place de la Concorde with its ferris wheel and the Obelisk of Luxor. The over 3,000 year old obelisk once stood at the entrance to the Luxor Temple in Egypt. The over 1 year old ferris wheel once stood at the entrance to the McDonalds on 6th Street in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
This famous square also hosted some very famous executions during the Reign of Terror. King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Madame du Barry, Danton, and Robespierre were all guillotined here.

Now we are looking west onto the Champs-Elysees. Here the avenue is surrounded by parks. Further west the avenue is lined with some extremely expensive shops. In fact, at $1.5 million a year for 1000 square feet in one area, it is the most expensive real estate in Europe.

Here, we take advantage of technology once again. This time it's the zoom feature. I'll talk more about the Arc de Triomphe in the next posting, if I feel like it.

Well, here it is. My first video on this site. Please ignore me as I tried to ignore the camera man. Camera person. Camera Sarah. They'll get better. Hopefully.

Paris - part 6 (Ile de la Cite)

2009-01-24T10:26:00.008-05:00

So, as I may have mentioned in the last five postings, it was cold and rainy while we were in Paris. On our free day (nothing scheduled with the group) Sarah and I walked around quite a bit. The rain did not deter us too much. We started off with two beautiful locations that indoors, as churches often are. We went to the Ile de la Cité, which is that little island in the River Seine in the middle of Paris.
The Ile de la Cité was the home at various times to Gallic tribes, the Romans, and eventually the Franks. The Frankish king Clovis built a castle on the island for his Merovingian kingdom of Neustria, and in the early Middle Ages the island was used as a defensive point against the vikings. In the 900s a cathedral was built on the island which was the predecessor to Notre Dame. Eventually, the city of Paris grew around this central point, and today distances on highways originating in Paris are still measured from the zero kilometer point (Point zero) in front of Notre Dame.
What's all this have to do with our trip to Paris? Nothing really. I'm just bored. Anyway, we went to the Ile de la Cité to see something that I did not see on our trip to Paris a few years ago.

Sainte-Chapelle is a gothic chapel on the island that is in the courtyard of the royal palace. It means Holy Chapel in English, and was built to house holy relics including Jesus's crown of thorns. Supposedly, Louis IX bought the crown of thorns for over three times the amount that was paid to build the amazing chapel.

The stained glass windows are amazing. We don't see too much of them in Italy, especially this large. And these are supposed to be the best example of this type of stained glass, whatever type that is.

Windows this large were made possible by the thin vaulting that left so much space available for non-structural elements. Since this is not a gigantic church the columns don't have to support as much weight. It's science.
I think that I heard that the Italians didn't use stained glass this much because the churches would be extremely hot like in a greenhouse. I don't know anything about greenhouses.

Here is the rose window at the rear of the chapel.

Sarah and I gaze in wonder.

A little person takes another picture of us.

The walls were painted and decorated over every square inch. I checked.

Some poor martyr holds the top of his head as the wild ax man struts away in victory. The poor man is left to talk to his bald head.

From there we took the short walk southeast to a more well-known place. Notice that it isn't raining? When we left is was. And it didn't stop the rest of the day.

Oh, and there's Charlemagne.

Some of the Sainte-Chapelle relics were moved here during the French Revolution. This included the crown of thorns. Apparently they're still around and brought out on some holidays.

There was a mass in progress when we arrived so we didn't stay to look around for long. We just meandered around in the back with the hundreds of other non-church-going-at-the-time tourists.

Here is one side aisle. Oh, mass ended. Let them go in peace. I guess we could have stuck around, but we didn't for some reason. I think we were hungry. We went and ate at a Greek restaurant. Why not?

Notre Dame is Paris's cathedral and the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. This gothic church was one of the first to employ flying butresses which relieves the horizontal thrust of the vaults. We don't see much of that in Italy. For some reason the Italians hide their butressing inside other elements.

Notre Dame was built between 1163 and 1345 on the site of an older cathedral that was demolished to make way for one fit for European kings. And hunchbacks, or whatever the politically correct term would be.
Paris will continue...

Paris - part 5 (Versailles)

2009-01-24T10:07:00.006-05:00

On our way back from Chartres we stopped in the city of Versailles, France. Not to be confused with Versailles, Ohio (population 2,589, home of the six-time state football champion Tigers, and the Poultry Days festival). Versailles is now a wealthy suburb of Paris.

However, it was the unofficial capital of France from 1682-1715 and 1722-1799 when a couple of Louis' moved from the city and again from 1871-1879 during an insurrection in Paris. The official royal palace at these times was still the Palace of the Louvre, but government was conducted in Versailles.
Above, we are approaching the palace in the freezing cold weather. We arrived a little late and only had an hour to tour the palace. So Sarah and I rushed through. It is immense. You can't see the whole thing in this picture.

Here is the chapel. Not too shabby.

Here is a hallway with statues of random French folk. Some facts from wikipedia: Versailles has 11 hectares of roofing surface area, over 51,000 square meters of floor space, 700 rooms, 2,152 windows, 67 staircases, and over 20,000 works of different kinds of art. In case you're in to that kind of thing.

I don't know how many fireplaces it had for its 700 rooms, but if they actually used logs this big they must have cut down all the trees in France to keep it warm.

Here is the famous Hall of Mirrors, which is also its central gallery. This is the room in which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I.

This is...another room. I forget what it was. But boy! isn't it neat? We pretty much were running through at this point, trying to make sure we saw everything before it closed.

The palace is currently exhibiting some works of art (I guess) by Jeff Koons. Below are four examples of his 17 "sculptures" on display.

I do not mean to say anything bad about his art. I just don't get some of it. Here is a blow-up lobster beach toy hung from the ceiling by a red plastic chain. Genius!

One of the best: a statue of Michael Jackson with Bubbles. Precious. I'm just following in my blog's long tradition of showing wonderful works of art.

We actually really liked this one. It's just an odd gallery in which to display it.

Here's another one we liked. It was located at the end of the Hall of Mirrors and actually worked very well in the space.

The back side of the chateau. The grounds stretch back for a long, long way. The gardens alone cover 800 hectares. The gardens also have 50 fountains, 620 jets of water, a 23 hectare Grand Canal, 200,000 trees, and has 210,000 flowers planted annually. One of these days I'm going to have to find out how big a hectare is.

Here is the palace from the back. We had an additional hour to tour the grounds after the palace closed, but by that point and at that temperature we didn't feel like lingering.

Sarah smiles, despite the cold.

We walked around for a while before we found the exit. There's a lot of ground to cover there if you go the wrong way in search of the exit. This view of the city of Versailles is from the front of the palace. It is a beautiful town, but we didn't have much time to explore it. We headed back to the train station apart from the group because everyone went their separate ways in the palace. Rather than taking the regional train back, we went to a different station that has a train that lead straight into Paris and becomes one of the subway lines.
The Paris trip will continue on the Ile de la Cite...

Paris - part 4 (Chartres Cathedral, part 2)

2008-12-17T11:40:00.004-05:00

Well I'm going to go ahead and apologize for this shoddy entry. This posting is about the outside of Chartres Cathedral and I must admit that I didn't pay too much attention to what Luke was telling us about the sculptures on the exterior because it was absolutely freezing and I was running around taking pictures, like I do.

Here is part of the town next to the church. It is a nice little town with lots of shops and eateries. And cold weather. But it might be nicer in the summer.

The group huddles around Luke searching for knowledge and warmth.

Here are the flying buttresses that make spaces of this size possible. For some reason the Italians don't like them. If their churches have them they are usually hidden within other architectural elements. But the French put them right out there for the world to see. Perverts.

I run as far away as possible to avoid learning anything from Luke's lecture.

Sarah is frozen while the rest of the class moves on.

So here are lots of people. Contact Luke for more information.

I think that the middle one might be St. Christopher. I don't think I would make a very good art history lecturer.

Sean and Kellin return to save the frozen Sarah.

Top secret door.

Chartres Cathedral's backside.

More of the town with the labyrinth in the foreground. I missed it, but apparently there's a labyrinth on the ground in the church. I guess it was too dark and it may have been covered by seats.

And the other side of the church.

Luckily I had just bought some gloves and a scarf for the trip because I did not bring any to Italy. This entire trip was cold and rainy. After the church, we had free time to walk around and find some lunch before we had to get back on the train to go to Versailles.

Paris - part 3 (Chartres Cathedral, part 1)

2008-12-09T11:22:00.008-05:00

During our second day in Paris we spent most of our time outside of Paris. We all left the hotel, marching behind Professor Hatfield, and boarded the train to the southwest. The town of Chartres is a little over 50 miles outside of Paris. We would later take the same train back in towards Paris, stopping along the way in Versailles, about 10 miles outside of Paris.

The church, like everything else in Europe was under construction. Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, otherwise known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, or Chartres Cathedral if you're into the whole brevity thing, was built between 1194 and 1220 and is one of the finest examples of the gothic style of architecture in France. There was a cathedral on this site for hundreds of years, but it burnt down. Then it burnt down again. And again. Anway, the 1220 rebuilding was very fast and led to the way it looks today, for the most part. The shorter tower was built in 1140 and the taller one was built in the 16th century and is 377 feet tall.

The church is also very famous for its stained glass windows. We don't see too much stained glass in Italy. And we would see much more stained glass later in this trip.

At the time of its building, Chartres had the highest vaults in France.

Chartres had been a very popular pilgrim destination even before the cathedral was built. Pilgrims would make their way around the church, stopping at the different chapels on the exterior walls.

The church has a relic that is supposed to be a tunic that belonged to Mary. It was supposedly given to the church by Charlemagne or Charles the Bald. It was thought to be lost in one of the fires that consumed the church, but it turned up when some priests emerged from the vaults underneath the church. It's a miracle!
I think it's funny that I read that Charlemagne got the tunic on a crusade in Jerusalem. I may be mistaken, but I don't think that Charlemagne ever made it to the Middle East and he died over 250 years before the First Crusade. That's why we librarians are taught not to trust wikipedia. Unless I am wrong (and I am never wrong), in which case I will apologize the the good folks at wikipedia.

This is part of the wall that surrounds the altar.

These are the windows behind the high altar (one is covered due to construction).

Here is one of the mighty pillars that lead up to the extremely high vaulted ceiling. I guess there's nothing to compare its mighty size to. But believe me, it's mighty alright.

This is one of the three rose windows. There is one at the back of the church above the main entrance, and one in each of the transepts.

More vaults!

The tour will continue outside...

Paris - part 2

2008-12-03T11:48:00.006-05:00

And back to the Louvre. Today we will focus on sculpture and other non-painting stuff. Oh, besides forgetting about the Venus de Milo, we also decided to skip the wing with the Dutch and other northern paintings. I thought nothing of it at the time (since I've been there before) but then today, eight and a half hours ago to be precise, I became a fan of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch. I'll have to pay more attention next time.

Here's Giambologna's Mercury. Or is it? Didn't I see that exact same thing at the Bargello Museum in Florence? Indeed I did. I think I heard that this one is a copy. Then Sarah said to me, "Isn't the copy art as well?" or some such nonsense that I am clearly not qualified to answer. I am only qualified to answer questions about volleyball rules, library classification systems, and tacos.

This is terrible, but I didn't write anything down while we were there. I did take pictures of the information next to the works of art on a few occassions, when I really wanted to remember something. But I can't remember who created this statue. I have seen a couple of similar sculptures in my jaunts around Italy. I think one was in Venice. But I am amazed by the effect created here. To show a veiled face with marble. Well, to be able to show both the veil and the face, that's what I find interesting.

Then there it was, at the top of the steps. Sarah's favorite, and perhaps my favorite (she has too much influence over me). The Nike of Samothrace, or Winged Victory, is from the 3rd century B.C.

More importantly, Sarah and I have a miniature copy back home. It is where Sarah's buckeye beads reside when she is not wearing them.

Sarah does her best impression.

This poor fellow was so bored that he felt compelled to poke his eye out.

Here we are down by the medieval foundations of the Louvre, which was a fortress that was built in the 12th century.

I was checking the walls to see if the foundations would last another 800 years. They looked okay.

Here is a line of baboons. Wait! The one at the end is Kellin.

They have mummies. Human...

and otherwise.

It was getting late by the time we left. Sarah was unhappy because she wanted to see the Coptic room to search for her gesture, but it was closed.
Sarah, Kellin, Mary, and I left with an undergrad named Anne and went in search of dinner. We ended up finding a delicious place near our hotel. I got some kind of meat and French onion soup. But, since we were in France it was just called onion soup. How deceptive.

Paris - part 1

2008-12-03T11:38:00.012-05:00

Once again I was lucky enough to attach myself onto a Syracuse University Florence school trip. Sarah and I did have to pay for this one though, as did all the other 50+ students that signed up for this optional trip that had something to do with a Michelangelo class. On the evening of Thursday, November 20, Sarah, Kellin, and I met Mary outside of her nearby apartment and we headed off to the Campo di Marte train station. This was the first time that I had used this station, though I pass it on the way to work every morning. It is not a terminus, as is the Santa Maria Novella station that we always use. Instead it is one of those stations that is just along the tracks between other major hubs. Another first, this was the first time that I had taken a night train.
We met up with the undergrads, two TAs Sean and Luke, and Prof. Hatfield and we were on our way some time after 6:00. Sarah and Kellin got to get a glimpse of how hectic Sean and Luke's jobs are, trying to keep track of a bunch of college students, their tickets, and their passports. That is exactly what they are going to be in charge of next semester. It certainly doesn't make the job any easier that at least one student always seems to be late, be missing, or to have forgotten their passport. It really makes things interesting.
The students all seemed to be in rooms together, but Sarah, Kellin, Mary, and I were in a six person room with two strangers. Well, strangers to us. They were an Italian couple and seemed pretty nice. There is not a lot of room in these sleeper cars. There are six seats, three to a side, that fold into the wall to create six bunks, three along each wall. There is not much extra room. There is a little aisle, a ladder, and unless you are on the top bunk there is barely any room in the bunks. There certainly isn't enough room to sit up. But they are meant for sleeping. There aren't even any plugs (like the regional trains we usually take always have for computers, or whatever), which was not good for Sarah since she intended to work on her thesis during the trip.

We all stayed up for a while talking, then reading and working on school work, then finally set up the bunks to go to sleep. I woke up a lot, and when it began getting light outside I decided to just stay awake and look out the window. Luckily I was on one of the middle bunks and facing the front of the train so I could see all the scenery. I absolutely loved traveling through France. The towns are so beautiful. Italy, of course, is beautiful too, but I am definitely more a fan of northern European architecture. I love the villages and stone buildings. If I had a better vantage point I would probably have taken hundreds of pictures that morning. Mary also woke up early and couldn't resist taking a picture of me. Can you blame her?

I think we were scheduled to arrive at Paris's Gare de Bercy train station around 9 something in the morning on Friday. (I just learned that this station is the 7th largest in Paris and accommodates four daily sleeper trains between Paris and Italy.) For some reason (someone said we had to take a detour) we arrived two hours late. All that extra time and our rooms still weren't ready at the hotel. They were renovating and putting new beds in all the rooms. So after we left the hotel we spent pretty much the rest of the day at the Louvre. Many of my two readers may recognize the picture above as the inside of the pyramid that is over the central lobby area. When you go to the museum you go through security, go downstairs, fight through 7,003 tourists, get your tickets, then make your way into one of the three sections of the massive museum. The museum is actually in the building you can kind of see outside the pyramid in the picture, but you enter then through this subterranean, sub-pyramid lobby.

The class broke up into three groups, led by Prof. Hatfield, Sean, and Luke. We went with Sean's group and Sarah, Kellin, and Mary were prepared to lecture on a few works as well. At one point we were admiring some old paint, when a group of school children, who must have had to write something down for class, spontaneously and without audible orders, broke into the formation seen above. It was quite interesting, but I'd hate to be the poor sap that's in the front of the line with no back upon which to write.

The Musee du Louvre, which is French for Ridiculously Large Place With Lots of Paint and Sculpture, is the most visited art museum in the galaxy. Just ask this guy, front and center, who seems to be yelling at a work of art.

Hey, there's Clark's gesture! Man, I can't wait until this semester's over so I can stop locating the group's gestures. This, of course, is Leonardo da Vinci's Creepy Person Pointing Up, aka St. John the Baptist.

And there it is. The Mona Lisa. I really don't get it. I mean, it's swell and all. But what's all the hoopla about? Apparently it wasn't always so famous. It started to gain attention in the mid-19th century, but really became famous in 1911 when it was stolen. An employee took it off the wall, rolled it up and put it in his coat, and just walked out with it. It was lost for two years until the former employee, who had been hiding it in his apartment, decided that it belonged in Italy (since it was by an Italian) and tried to sell it to the Uffizi Gallery, next door to my apartment. He was arrested, but only served a few months in prison.
I just realized while I was writing this that I forgot to get a picture of the Venus de Milo. Oh well. It's only really famous and a couple of thousand years old. No big whoop. I'll see it next time.

Here's a close-up. And moving on...

Unlike almost every museum I've been to in Italy and many of the churches, you are free to take pictures in the Louvre, even of the biggies. If you want to see the best work of art in the museum, see my cousin Brad's site (linked above on the left) and type in Louvre into the search box. He was just there also and posted an article about it called Paris on Bastille Day. It's about seven or eight pictures down.

Here's Sarah dreaming about Pontormo again. Like she does.

I had seen these images of the seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo before, but I never realized that they were late Renaissance works of art. I looked him up (I do work at Harvard's Center for Italian Renaissance Studies after all) and found that this is what he does. He painted images of people and buildings made up of other materials. There's also one of a librarian made up of books. Who care's about the Mona Lisa? This is what I call art!

Mary, Kellin, and Sarah pose in front of the work of art that their group chose to be on their symposium posters and invitations. Oh, did I mention that I found this little gem that shows Sarah's gesture and Kellin's gesture and Clark's gesture and other gestures? Yep. I'm the one.

More art. This museum has a lot of it. But the coffee in their cafe is terrible, so don't bother going.
The Paris postings will continue with more from the Louvre...

Malta - part 5

2008-11-28T10:11:00.010-05:00

We spent the rest of our time in Valetta just walking around. The city is supposed to be famous for its palaces, but I didn't see any. We walked to the end of the peninsula until we had to stop at a fence outside of Fort St. Elmo. Why they ever canonized that stupid muppet, I'll never understand. We couldn't go in or even walk around it. It probably looks cool from the water, but all we saw was the ugly backside of it through an ugly chain link fence. The ugly fort has been the ugly home to Malta's ugly police academy for decades. I never saw Mahoney, Hightower, or Tackleberry. Or that guy hat makes the weird noises. Bummer.

Since we couldn't visit any forts, here are some pictures of them and others of the harbor areas. The one across the harbor in this picture is Fort Ricasoli.

This is called the Grand Harbour. The right side of the picture is the south side of the peninsula looking back towards the rest of the island. I believe that Fort St. Michael is on the left of the picture, with Fort St. Angelo just out of the picture to the left.

More of the same. I was surprised that we didn't see many boats out in the harbor. We did see a small fleet of tugboats pulling some oil contraption-looking thing into the harbor. That's always exciting.

Fort Ricasoli again. I think they are missing a money-making opportunity by not allowing people into the forts. Although it would probably cost a lot to staff them and make them safe for tourists. Who am I kidding? This is Malta. They don't have to be safe. I think most of Europe's historic sites would be considered safety hazards in the US. Falling rocks and debris, slippery and uneven surfaces, perilous winding castle stairways? Who cares? It's history!

Here you can see some of the massive defensive walls that surround Valetta. They had to be able to withstand attacks by the Ottoman fleets. Of course, when British-run Malta was attacked by air raids during WWII the walls didn't help too much. Apparently there was a lot of damage during the war.

This is the opposite side of the peninsula looking out onto Marsamxett Harbour. The blob on the left is the island that houses Fort Manoel. Behind it is other parts of this fairly densely populated area around Valetta. In the distance you can see a high-rise building. This is in the area of St. Julians, where we stayed.

These are some of Valetta's defenses on the north side of the peninsula.

And here are more of the modern buses that roam around Malta. They really varied is design and age. You can see a fairly modern one in the background on the left. I think they take what they can get. When you ride the buses (or buy almost anything) in Malta, you might want to have exact change ready. They are loathe to part with their own change for some reason. Sometimes they just won't give you any. Steph had an encounter with one of the bus drivers who refused to give her a fairly large amount of change she was due. This, despite the fact that he had a large collection of change that he had collected sitting next to him. I've seen in to a lesser extent in Italian cities too. And in Paris. Some people just look at you like you are the worst person in the world because you don't have anything smaller than a euro.

After lunch and walking around in Valetta, we headed back towards St. Julians. Some of us got off the bus early in order to walk around what I think was St. Julians Bay. We headed down along the water. This area doesn't have many beaches. They have some, but most of what they have is like this. Rocky areas with ladders every once in a while.

So, I had never swam in the Mediterranean before. And this may have only been a bay that opened into the sea, but it was close enough. So I took my shorts off and put on my gigantic swimming trunks that I had in my bag, gave my shirt and sandals to Sarah, and dove in. I sensibly tested the water first and, despite being November, it was warm enough for me.

I swam for quite a while, not caring if others had to wait for me. It was really nice, but as I went farther towards the sea (not hat I got too close to it) the water seemed to be getting a little rougher. Or maybe I was just getting tired. So eventually I made my way towards one of the ladders and ended my Mediterranean journey.

Which led to this outstanding picture of me and my giant shorts, having just conquered the sea. After that, we walked all the way back to our hotel. After I took a shower, the girls decided to go to the pool. So I decided to stay dry. Apparently they were out of control. The lights weren't on and they were acting like kids. Early the next morning, with only a very short time before we had to leave for the airport, the girls all decided that they needed to swim in the sea as well. So they ran down to one of the little sandy beaches, jumped in, acted like kids again, jumped back out, and ran to get ready in the hotel. That was good. You shouldn't pass up a chance to swim in the Mediterranean.

I'm pretty sure this picture was from the inside of Joey's cab back on Gozo. Steph was in the front, trying to keep Joey in line, while Sarah, Lara, Mary, and I (with my poofy hair) were crammed in the back.

And here was our last view of Malta as we flew back to Italy, the land of jobs and papers and symposiums. Our stay was too short.

Malta - part 4

2008-11-28T10:05:00.009-05:00

On our second full day in Malta we stayed on the main island and went to the capital city of Valletta. I was really looking forward to this part of the trip and I really wanted to see some forts. Malta was given to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (or Knights of Malta or Knights Hospitaller or the Order of Saint John or whatever else you want to call them) by Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1530. Then in 1566 the Grandmaster of the order, Jean Parisot de la Valette, built the new city on the Xiberras peninsula. This was just after the Siege of Malta (1565) by the Ottoman Empire (which I mentioned in a paper about Charles V and Suleiman the Magnificent about nine years ago). The knights were outnumbered by about 45,000 to 8,500, but they managed to hold on for a victory. The Ottomans had around 30,000 casualties and the knights had 2,500 (while their civilians had 7,000 and their slaves had 500). After all of that Jean de Valette decided to build a new city with better defenses. So there are forts all around the area including Fort Saint Elmo (on Valletta), Fort Ricasoli, Fort Manoel, Fort Saint Angelo, and Fort Saint Michael. But were able to go into any of them? No. I was quite depressed. I should have known since the guide book didn't really mention much about them or about how to get into them. So all I got was some pictures from across the harbours.
Now, on with the pictures...

Here are some of the walls of Valletta. These were facing the rest of the island and were on the left as we approached the city. I don't know if the entryway to the fort was raised up or if they dug huge ditches around the walls, but it was quite a drop. Actually, it's probably just due to the hilly terrain. I read that some of the bastion walls of the city are 153 feet tall.

Sarah proudly stands in front of her new boyfriend on the approach to the main gate. I think it was the gold that attracted her. We saw a few older gentleman on this day wearing even more gold jewelry than this. Mr. T is really popular there.

This is Triq Ir-Repubblika, or Republic Street. It is the main road that runs straight from the main gate to Fort Saint Elmo. Along it are many important sights, including one of our destinations, St. John's Co-Cathedral.

St. John's Co-Cathedral is very plain and understated. Yeah right. It was overwhelming. The Baroque decorations are so ornate.

It was built between 1573 and 1578 by the Knights of Malta.

There are eight chapels on the sides that are dedicated to the patron saint of one of the order's eight sections. There are chapels for the Anglo-Bavarian section, Provence section, France section, Italy secion, Germany section, Auvergne section, Aragon section, and the Castile, Leon, and Portugal section. Each one had symbols of that section in the decorations on the walls. You can kind of see above the double eagle that, I think, was the symbol of the German section.

The rear of the church. It is a little pricy to get in, but you get to listen to the headphones to learn about different sections and works of art.

The reason that it is a co-cathedral is because...well...I don't know why. At the time that it was built there was already a cathedral (St. Paul's) in the old capital of Mdina where the Archbishop resided. I guess this church just joined it, rather than taking its place.

The floor of the cathedral is full of knights of the order. Each one has decorations that might show where he was from or how he fought and died.

Neat.

Malta was home for a short time to Caravaggio. He was made a knight before he had to leave, probably for killing a man in a brawl. The cathedral has two of his famous works. Here is The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, the most famous thing in the church.

And here is St. Jerome. I loved how realistic they are and the use of light. That's all I'm going to say. I am not an art historian.

So, Malta is also famous because St. Paul was shipwrecked here. So there are mentionings of St. Paul all over the place. The original cathedral in Mdina is St. Paul's and was supposedly on the sight where St. Paul met the Roman governor Publius. St. Paul's Shipwreck Church was quite nice. It looked more like an old theater.

Right across from the church was Tarsus Men's Wear. There werre countless references to Paul on the islands.

The buildings in Valletta and the rest of Malta were interesting. Most of them had little rooms protruding out from their walls as seen above.

The next posting will show some of the views of the forts and harbours from Valletta.

Malta - part 3

2008-11-28T09:59:00.008-05:00

Our trip to Gozo ended in the town of Victoria. It is the largest city on Gozo with a population of 6,414.

Here is an aerial view of the city from Joey's helicopter. The coolest thing about the town, and the place where we spent all of our time, was the Citadel.

The church was interesting. I think it looked more like a theater than a church. But this was nothing compared to the one we would see the next day in Valetta.

The church has a trompe-l'oeil dome similar to the one we saw in Rome. I think it was at St. Ignatius. This one seems a little brighter though. Trompe-l'oeil means trick the eye. It's just a flat surface with a dome painted on it. They probably didn't have enough money.

This odd looking reliquary houses the bones of St. Lucidae, or something. You can see her ribs and various other bones through her clothes. Neat.

Here are some views from the walls of the citadel.

Some of the town outside of the citadel walls.

Sarah and Lara out at the edge of the wall, probably taking selfies.

Brad has me brainwashed. As soon as I looked down and saw these cannons I realized that I must have my picture taken looking into them. These cannons must be here in case the Gozitans get restless and decide to storm the citadel.

Some of the walls within the citadel. Everything looked so green there.

Sarah getting attacked by the wind. It was quite windy there. That is why my hair was so poofy. I wasn't trying a new look.

Brad's influence. My own style.

Sarah rides the cannon to victory. Or Victoria, while Steph, Lara, and Mary (and I) take pictures. We are very easily entertained.

Our bus technology is lightyears ahead of their's. At least they decorated it in Ohio State colors.

I really wanted to check out their lending library. I felt drawn to it. Oh well. The sign on the left shows a little bit of the interesting Maltese language that is a mix of Italian, English, Arabic, and Swahili. I think.

The inside of the buses we took didn't do anything to improve our impressions of them. Most of them sounded like they weren't going to last long. But, then again, they've been running since the 1940's so they might just keep going.
We took this bus back to Mgarr Harbour, our time with Joey having sadly ended. The ride back wasn't quite as exciting because it was pitch black out on the water.
Our journey would continue the next day in the capital of Valetta.

Malta - part 2

2008-11-26T09:37:00.009-05:00

The next stop on our Gozitan adventure was a windmill. The excitement never stops.

Joey dropped us off so he could go do some "thing" and would pick us up in a bit. Above, Lara, Steph, Sarah, and Mary stroll through town looking like a bunch of ruffians. The locals hid in their homes so as not to catch the attention of these street toughs.

We discovered that this very old windmill was not quite in working order anymore. It is now the Ta Kola Windmill Museum, or some such nonsense.

Apparently, up until recent times bread was the main food in Malta. The average meal involved bread and maybe a little something to go with it. I'm not sure what they drank. The water at our hotel was not drinking water. We had to buy water bottles like savages. We were really roughing it.

The next place Joey took us was one of the highlights of the whole trip. He drove us down into this hole in the rock with a little lake at the bottom of it. We went out onto a boat while Joey waited for us, paid the boatman, and headed out towards a little hole in the rock wall.

The water was really clear. If we had time I would have liked to jump in. But we were on a schedule. Joey's schedule. I think he probably had a few other day-long fares around the island and he was just taking turns dropping off one group and picking up another. And the rushing around actually wasn't bad. We had a lot to see and not a lot of time in which to see it.

Sarah and Mary take their positions while the ancient seafarer waits. Actually he wasn't ancient at all and I think he was rather bored with the while arrangement. It was just a way to make some extra cash. But he was cordial enough.

We headed toward the hole and saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel went through the rock hillside...

and out into the sea.

He's too late. See! The Cliffs of Insanity! I am probably the millionth person to say that, and the third in our little group.

The water was incredible. It was so blue and we could see quite far down underwater.

It looked delicious like blue Kool Aid. I wanted to drink it, but I figured that it might be a bad idea. I'm not even sure if I like blue Kool Aid.

Here is the Azure Window. We couldn't go under it because of the threat of falling rocks. Our boatman told us that it won't look like that for a whole lot longer because quite a bit of rock falls from it pretty often.

Plan your next vacation now, folks. Here in the distance is the beautiful, and aptly named, Fungus Rock. This is as close as we got.

After the boat trip, Joey took us to a seaside town for some seafood (chicken for those with allergies). He kind of hid at a table eating as well. He knew everyone on the island. I have a feeling that he does this every day, gets free meals for bringing in tourists, and isn't so much doing this for us, but instead is just running errands and dropping us off when it's convenient.

We would have one more long stop after lunch in the town of Victoria. We first walked along the bay and got some after lunch ice cream, then were whisked away by our tiny, bossy but kind, Gozitan driver. After "dropping off a thing for a horse", that is.

Malta - part 1

2008-11-26T09:25:00.010-05:00

On the morning of Saturday, November 1st, Sarah and I met Mary, Lara, and Stephanie at the Santa Maria Novella train station to catch the train to Pisa. From Pisa's airport we were going to fly down to Malta for a little vacation. It was kind of a special occasion because the four of them, along with the rest of their group, had just turned in their thesis papers and could really do nothing more than wait for their professors' feedback. So most of them took little vacations.
Pisa's airport is pretty small, though not as small as Florence's, so it didn't take long to make it through the lines and security. For an incredible description of our flight and the rest of the trip you should read Sarah's blog (if you haven't already) which has a link on the left. We tried our best to make this a pirate themed weekend (for no good reason, as Malta is not known for its pirate history), and Sarah's recounting follows the theme. I won't be writing with a pirate accent because I jut can't pull it off, but here are some pictures of the proceedings.

This shot from the plane is not of Malta but a spot along the west coast of Italy. I found it on the map. It is Punta Ala, which is close to nothing. It is almost 20 miles west of Grosseto which is almost 90 miles west of Spoleto, which is about 50 miles north of Rome and was once the seat of a Lombard duke. Moving on...
I took the middle seat on the plane, with Sarah takng the window seat. I watched the other passengers file in, wondering who would take the spot next to me. A couple of decent applicants walked by but took other seats. One tiny person even teased me by puting her bag in the compartment above my head then sitting somewhere else. Then, of all the seats, in all the Pisa to Malta planes in the sky, he had to sit next to me. His name was Jimmy. He was from Scotland but now lives in Malta. He is a truckdriver on the continent, spending his free time at his island home. He is very friendly, very loud, he spits when he talks, and he seemed to like me. A lot. So we chatted for most of the trip. He ate and drank. The more he drank, the more he spit. The more he ate, the larger the chunks that were flying onto my arm. I suppressed my disgust and denied my urges to jerk my arm out of the way. I was pleasant and talkative, but the first thing I did when we got into the terminal was wash my arm. So...that was fun.

Jimmy was right about the cabs though. But we had no choice. We had no idea how else to get to our hotel, so we took one. Two actually, because they wouldn't stuff us into one. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't as bad as Jimmy's third or fourth predicted price.
We didn't do much that day. We kind of explored the area, ate dinner, shopped, and of course we checked out the water. Above is one of the rocky "beaches" that was cool but actually kind of dangerous. People were not following the rules of "keep clean the pool". There was trash everywhere. Quite unfortunate. It reminded me of Daytona Beach right after all the spring breakers leave.

On Sunday we decided to spend the day on Malta's second island of Gozo. We got to experience the Maltese buses, which will be shown in later pictures, and just missed a ferry to Gozo. So we had to wait around for a while before we could get on the next one. Above is a picture of the interior of one of the ferries. People and cars were herded into the same entrance. Luckily the people were allowed to go above to the upper decks. The poor cars had to stay below like common animals.

Our first view of Gozo. It's really not the far. We weren't far from Malta when I took this.

I think that the box-like building on the right (on the island of Comino, between Malta and Gozo) might be a watchtower. Or not. I didn't study enough before we left for this trip.

GOZO! A hub of transportation!

We are entering Mgarr Harbour. This name provided us with hours of fun. First of all, some of the grad students (Sarah included) enjoy using the term "magar" which is close to the Italian word for perhaps. So when they found out that we would be going to a city with this name they were estatic. Especially because, due to the pirate theme, they would pronounce it as Mgarrrrr. You had to be there.

We were going to explore this tiny town for a bit, but Joey the cab driver told us that there was nothing to see here and that even the church was closed. He then told us where he would take us. We were powerless to resist.

Here is my only shot of the elusive Joey. He drove us up here for the view and for Calypso's Cave. He then told us that it was pointless to go down into the cave because it was too dark to see anything. Then he herded us back into the cab and off to the next location.

Sarah and Lara overlook the beautiful Mediterranean.

The Gozitan countryside.

Here's Calypso's Cave. Gozo's nicknam is the Isle of Calypso because it is rumored to be the island controlled by Calypso in the Odyssey. But we will never know because Joey wouldn't let us.

Ancient stuctures were not built for those six foot tall and above. Especially when they have poofy hair.

Malta and Gozo are home to a number of ancient structures. We explored the most famous one called the Ggantija Temples, purported to be the oldest free-standing structure in the world. The temples were built over 5500 years ago. Apparently to be called free-standing they neglected to mention the structure on the right of the picture.

They are also supposed to be the oldest religious structures in the world. Here are the remains of an altar.

Anniversary

2008-11-17T12:06:00.005-05:00

On October 26th we celebrated our 6th anniversary. Sarah was pretty busy with school work but she managed to pencil me in for a dinner. We had an idea of where we wanted to go but they were closed. So we ended up wandering around, figuring that we would see something good eventually.

We walked across the river because we had a few ideas of good places. We decided to go up to the Piazza Michelangelo first, both because I thought there was a restaurant up there and because it was something fun to do. The view is amazing from up there. But the world seems to have been a little crooked. For some reason I still have a hard time taking perfectly level pictures.

You can see the lights along the Arno, the tower above the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Duomo.

You can't really see the old city wall winding its way up and down the hills. And some authentic Florentine trash receptacles.

We finally ordered the Steak Florentine. Many restaurants offer it, always by the gram or kilogram or whatever. So you never really know how much it's going to be. It was a lot. But it was really good and the side dishes were delicious. The company was alright. You can kind of see how bloody the steak is in the picture. Oddly enough I came down with my stomach virus shortly after our anniversary.

Here we are posing like we're going to a school dance. You can buy prints if you want.

That's me being cool, talking on my cell phone with my laundry hanging in the background. You can buy prints if you want.

This is me wearing Sarah's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask. You are correct. Donatello did wear the red mask. I don't remember when this was, but I figured that the world needed to see it. You can buy prints if you want.
Happy Anniversary Sarah!

October 25 walkabout

2008-11-17T11:39:00.008-05:00

On Saturday, October 25, I decided to explore the western side of Florence. Most of my dealings are on the east and north sides of town. And since Sarah was busy with school work I took the opportunity to look around a little. I had no real plans except that I wanted to go into two of the three remaining large churches that I had yet to visit in Florence. So after this excursion I had been into all of the major churches in Florence with the lone exception of the one for which Florence is best known: the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, aka the Duomo. That church will have to wait.

I began by casually strolling along the north-south streets in the center of town from Calzaioli (a street with which I am very familiar) west to Via de Tornabuoni (a street with which I am less familiar). The picture above is from Tornabuoni looking west towards the spot where Via della Vigna Nuovo and some other street come together.

Then I worked my way back east and north to San Lorenzo (seen above). It is a huge church. Unfortunately, there are no pictures allowed inside this church or in Santa Maria Novella, my other destination. I was going to use some online images of the works of art in these churches but decided against it. There is nothing inside that I had heard of before, but I am definitely glad I went into both. I think that some things like Bronzino's Martyrdom of St. Lawrence in San Lorenzo and most of the works in Santa Maria Novella would be well worth seeing in person, but the little images of these works of art wouldn't be adequate. So, too bad. No images for you. Donatello's two bronze pulpits are also definitely worth seeing. I did not pay the extra fees to go into the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library this time. But I do plan on going sometime with Sarah.

Here is a shot of people on top of the Duomo from inside San Lorenzo's courtyard.

Next to San Lorenzo is a market of sorts, which is next to the building that houses the market that I went to with Sarah and Kellin many moons ago. There's a posting of that day somewhere.

I then walked by the Fortezza di Basso, which is now a conference center, on my way to find some lunch.

I settled for kabob since I had no luck finding anything else that looked apetizing. Then I went into Santa Maria Novella, not the train station (which I've been in many times) but the church right around the corner. Again, no pictures allowed but it is an amazing church. After walking around the interior twice I sat and just enjoyed the view for a while. Meanwhile, I became aware of a growing amount of noise outside. So I left to find out what was going on.

Typical. There was some sort of rally going on. I have no idea what the flags they were waving represented so I have no idea what the rally was about. Oh well. Nothing new.

Here is the front of Santa Maria Novella, the side I see on our route to the train station. The piazza in front of the church has been under construction since before I came to Florence and I have no idea why. It looks ready, whatever they've done to it.

From there I walked south and west toward the Arno and stopped at a church that not even Sarah has been to. The little church of Ognissanti is near where Sarah and Kellin were originally supposed to live, before the last minute flea infestation, on Borgo Ognissanti.

Pictures were allowed in this church, but I felt bad since some people were praying. This robed fellow got up while I was looking around. When I went into an open door to explore more, I almost interrupted his hearing of another person's confession. Not to worry. I don't speak Italian so I don't know what her sins were.

There was some Ghirlandaio and some Botticelli (who might be buried there) and this statue of Mary that looked like it was crying.

From Ognissanti I went across the Ponte Amerigo Vespucci and down to a little concrete area along the river. I don't know if it's true, but someone told me that without these little dams in the river it would slow to a trickle at times. So it looks like the river is always full o' water.

I saw this rare and beautiful creature and managed to catch a couple of photos of him before he strolled away. Nature! Goulet.

This stick would surely have drowned had it not been fo this passing life preserver.

From there I walked along the old city walls for a while. I was going to walk along them as long as I could to see where it took me, but I got tired and hungry and confused.

This is the Porta San Frediano. Neat.

From there I tried to see another small church but they were about to start mass. So I wandered around the Oltrarno for a while heading in the general direction of home. I made it back to the river and took some boring pictures. Here is the Ponte Vecchio. You can see the backs of the shops that line both sides of the bridge, the constant crowd of people, and part of the Vasari Corridor (above the arches) that goes from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti.
There you have it.

Bologna - part 2: The Two Towers

2008-11-12T11:51:00.009-05:00

Bologna is also famous for its Two Towers. It has other medieval towers remaining, but one of these two is the tallest in town (and one of the tallest of its kind in Italy), they are right next to each other, and they serve as a symbol of the city.

Oh yeah. And they're both leaning, especially the shorter one. Apparently it has been leaning since at least the Renaissance since Dante specifically mentions the leaning tower called Garisenda in the Inferno. The taller tower is called Asinelli. They were supposedly built in the 12th century.

Bologna has many towers still in existence. It is thought that there may have been as many as 180 towers in town (though it is more likely to have been closer to 80), probably built by rich families for status and defense. During the 14th century the town took control of the two towers, turned them into a prison and a stronghold, and even connecting them by a wooden bridge about 90 feet high. There were five gates in the medieval town, and the roads from the gates all came together in the center of town. These towers stand right in the middle of their intersection.

The medieval tower is leaning you say? Oh well. We'll still let people climb to the top. I'm sure it's safe.

Like all of the bell towers and other towers I've climbed so far in Italy, this one afforded a wonderful view of town and the surrounding hills. Unfortunately the pictures always pick up too much of the haze in the distance. You can see farther in person.

A couple of other towers. Ha! They're puny.

The town's roads radiate out from our central location.

The red-tiled roofs of Bologna.

And more of same.

The Asinelli dwarfs the Garisenda.

The Chris dwarfs the Sarah.

The ominous steep stairway back down from the roof.

Here is one rendering of what Bologna may have looked like with all of its towers in the Renaissance. It looks like a modern city with skyscrapers.

And here is more wall-mounted reading material on the way up. These are the tallest medieval towers in Italy. I've been to five of these towns so far. I will do my best to climb more of them.

Bologna - part 1

2008-11-12T11:22:00.011-05:00

So apparently B-O-L-O-G-N-A isn't pronounced the way I was taught as a child. Oscar Meyer deceived us all.
Sarah and I went to investigate the matter one weekend and we didn't learn anything about low quality meat products. But we did learn many other things. At least I did. Sarah already knew everything since she had been there before. Here are some facts: Bologna was yet another Etruscan settlement that was conquered by the Romans. What is now called the University of Bologna (and was originally called the Studio) is the oldest university in the western world, having been established in 1088. It is also considered by some (depending on who you ask) to be the oldest continually operating degree-granting university in the world. Bologna had been one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe until much of it was destroyed by bombs in 1944. Bologna is well-known for its cuisine due to the area's location in the fertile Po River Valley. Despite this, Sarah and I were not thrilled by the food we had for dinner.
Anyway, on with our trip...

Some areas of town reminded me of an old American downtown area with its wires above.

Bologna is famous for its porticos. Many of the streets around town don't have sidewalks, but instead they have these covered walkways.

See. More porticos.

See. More porticos.

See. More porticos.

See. A church. This is Santo Stefano. This religious complex is often referred to as the Seven Churches. Unfortunately some of them were closed when we were there.

But here's the interior of one of them. There was a presentation going on, not a mass. The church was supposedly built over a temple of Isis.

This fountain was, uh, interesting. The figures around the bottom shoot water from their nipples. And why not, I ask you?

Behind the Nipple Fountain is the San Petronio Basilica in the Piazza Maggiore. It is supposed to be the fifth largest church in the world, and once was planned to be even larger than St. Peter's in Rome. Pope Pius IV didn't like that idea and demanded that the proposed addition of larger transepts be halted.

I guess this might have been the result. I don't know that for a fact.

This a building in front of which only white cars are allowed to park. That was tricky. I almost ended a sentence with a preposition. That would have been embarassing.

Here is the road to Venice. Actually, we don't know what the purpose of this canal is, but there was a boatload of people on it.

I certainly hope that this church moves the little store before mass starts.

While we were exploring Bologna we heard some music in the distance. It sounded very much like the music in The Godfather, part II when Vito wacks Fenucci during the religious parade.

According to a sign it was the Solemne Fiesta Paronal en Honor al Senor de los Milagros. A milagro is a miracle of the Lord and apparently involves the Holy Tweety Bird

Protest!

2008-11-10T12:16:00.004-05:00

I don't feel like working today. I don't feel like going to school today. Hey, let's go on strike!
Okay. So I know that there are actual reasons why most people go on strike, but it gets pretty annoying. Italians seem to go on strike a lot. Here's a short posting about some of the recent school strikes. Well, actually I don't know what the issues are because I don't understand the Italian news and newspapers. But here are some pictures from one of the student strikes that have been happening a lot lately.

Protesting in front of the church of Santa Croce. Yes, you are correct. That's my hood.

Most of the protesters, accustomed to being in the classroom, sit down in nice rows and columns, perhaps in alphabetic order.

The school riots here have been nothing compared to what has happened in Rome and some other cities. This one was peaceful.

If you look closely you might be able to see our local liquor store in the distance. Oh, back to the strike...

This student was not too serious to take some time out of her busy striking schedule to pick her nose.

As I sit here at Sarah's school writing this, there is a bus strike in effect which led to me having to bum a ride home from a co-worker and will make us late for dinner on the other side of town where a visiting friend will surely be sad by our absence. There's also a train strike. These nationwide transportation strikes are not uncommon here, while bus strikes are even more common. The thing that gets me is the manner in which they strike. They plan these usually day-long strikes in advance and let everyone know as to cause as little inconvenience as possible. Well it is still quite inconvenient. They also only strike for a predetermined amount of time. The funniest thing is that, like today, they ran the buses until 9:15 this morning, stopped service, ran them again for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and then stopped service again for the rest of the day. Admittedly I know nothing about the situation. But it seems to me that they might get more accomplished if they would go on strike less often, but stay on strike until some type of demands were met or settlement was made. But what do I know? Stupid know-it-all American.

San Marco

2008-10-26T10:16:00.022-04:00

In a continuing effort to visit the important historical and artistic locations that Florence has to offer I took a trip with Sarah to San Marco. My list of things to see in Florence is getting shorter, but there are still quite a few things left to check off.

I had been to the Piazza di San Marco many times but I had never been inside the San Marco church on its north side. Nor had I been to the friary turned museum attached to it. Actually, I still haven't been in the church because we went on a Sunday and mass was in progress. I had been to the piazza mainly because it is a major bus hub and I often catch my number 10 bus to I Tatti from the south side of the piazza. Anyway, we went to the museum next to the church seen above.

The church and grounds on this site have changed hands over the years, but it is most remembered now for the time when it was a Dominican friary.

There are frescoes all over the inside and outside. There are many works by Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolomeo, among others.

I think this Crucifixion was by Fra Angelico. It shows St. Dominic at the base of the cross. Fra Angelico was an early Renaissance painter from the hills just north of town in Fiesole. Angelico means the angelic one. He lived from 1395-1455. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Here is one of the more famous versions of Sarah's gesture. We found three examples of it at San Marco. This one was also by Fra Angelico.

Sarah does her best impersonation of a friar. Or a librarian. I'm not sure.

This Crucifixion is also by Fra Angelico and it shows the crosses surrounded by saints.

Sarah examines the authenticity of the work. We often joke that Sarah and her group should make fake badges or something and march into museums and to the front of lines saying, "Art historians coming through." It might work.

Here are a bunch of images of saints.

This one of St. Dominic (and many of the others) was by Fra Bartolomeo.

Here is perhaps the most famous one-time resident of the Dominican friary at San Marco. Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar who lived from 1452 to 1498 when he was executed. After the Medici were overthrown in 1494, Savonarola became the secular and religious leader of Florence. He liked to burn books. This was painted by Fra Bartolomeo.

Here is my last shot before I was told that I was not allowed to take pictures inside the museum. So here are some images I found on the Internet of things I wasn't allowed to take pictures of:

Here is an image of the Last Supper by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

I got yelled at for trying to take a picture of this one. It is The Annunciation by Fra Angelico. I had a clear shot to take the picture but a guard walked around the corner just as I put the camera in front of my face. I played dumb. It wasn'thard.

So I continued to take a few pictures. One of the really neet things about the museum is that the second floor has all of the novices' cells open and you can go all the way inside some of them. Each cell had a fresco on the wall to help the friars pray or concentrate or something. Ask Sarah.
You can see inside Savonarola's larger cell also.
On the way out we saw one last version of Sarah's gesture, but there was a guard sitting very nearby. I tried to create a diversion and to stand between them so that Sarah could take a picture but she was on to us. She watched Sarah like a hawk. Which is what you have to do with Sarah. You can't trust her. She's shifty.

Bargello

2008-10-26T10:07:00.018-04:00

Before I begin to talk about the trip Sarah and I took to the Bargello, I would like to share a couple of photos I took while walking around town one weekend.

First, I was fortunate enough to have found Santa Claus, or whatever name he goes by here. Apparently he does not spend the month of October in the North Pole. Instead he struts his long legs around the streets of Florence.

I also thought that people should get to see what our police force looks like. They are quite well dressed and always have purses and tall pith helmets. These are the polizia di stato, not to be confused with the carabinieri, who drive nicer cars and are actually like a branch of the military and police both the military and civilian populations. There's also the guardia di finanza, which are like a customs police force. I've also seen some polizia municipale, though perhaps not in Florence. With all these officers policing the city, it's kind of funny how much people get away with, especially on the roads. You can do pretty much whatever you want and the millions of police officers don't seem to mind. People speed, pass illegally (if anything is illegal), and park wherever they want to. Every morning when I go to work my bus passes two schools right before my stop. The parents who have dropped off their kids park along the street. Then there forms another line of cars in the actual eastbound lane on a road that is barely two lanes wide. And the parents don't do this quickly. They get out and chat for ten minutes or so.
In the US cars usually are allowed to park up to a certain point before an intersection. Not here. People park completely around the corners. There are also a few places I have seen where a road deadends into a larger road. The smaller road widens to allow cars to turn or whatever. Then cars park in the middle of this widened area, leaving a tiny lane going one way and a tiny lane going the other way. If you can picture that from my great description. Things are quite different here. That's just how they do it.
Okay. Enough of that. On with the Bargello...

The Bargello was originally built as a palace for what was like a police chief and then for the Podesta, which was the highest magistrate on the city council. It is supposed to be the oldest public building in Florence, according to one unreliable source, being built around 1261.

When the Medici got rid of the Podesta, they housed the police chief here. It was used as a prison and hosted many executions before Leopold II (Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany) banned executions in 1780. It then became a museum.

I admire Sarah while she admires the construction.

This just in...it became a museum in 1865 and has the largest collection of Gothic and Renaissance sculptures in Italy. Too bad you're not allowed to take pictures inside.

So I'll take some pictures outside.

Still outside, so pictures are okay.

Just barely still outside. I guess the third floor is open sometimes, but it was not when we went there. But it doesn't matter because there are no pictures allowed.

Here I try to make Brad proud by stealing his cannon pose.

See how much fun you can have in the courtyard of a museum? Don't worry about the priceless works of art inside. All you need are some well-coreographed pictures on the outside.
Well okay. Here are some pictures I stole from the Inernet of some of the works of art inside.

Here is Giambologna's statue of Mercury and Benvenuto Cellini's bust of Cosimo I.

And here is the feminine David and St. George, both by Donatello. I have never been crazy about this David. I think it's the hat.

With Andy at Santo Spirito

2008-10-26T09:50:00.009-04:00

After the group left Santa Felicita, we made our way through the maze of streets in the Oltrarno to the church of Santo Spirito, which I had been to once before.

On the way there we encountered this little pug in a store's window. With the curtain behind him he looked like he was going to put on a show. But he just stared at all of us gawkers for a minute, became bored with us, and disappeared behind the curtain. So, on we went.

Santo Spirito is a pretty large church and it almost looks like a gallery with its large number of works of art at all of the chapels along the periphery.

I made my way around, took some pictures (even though I already took more than enough the first time I was here), and then sat down while the art history nerds took their time and played games like the "Let's guess the artist and date before we look at the little sign" game. Always a hit a parties.

And they looked some more.

And they looked some more.

Finally, as they were winding up, I went around and took even more pictures. Here is Sarah leaning suspiciously in the eastern aisle.

Here is my favorite work of art from the church, and perhaps the entire city.

Just kidding. But I do really like this little guy. I think he was a He-Man villain.

After the church we all stopped at a little sadnwhich shop directly across the street from Santo Spirito. It was pretty good. I decided to take a picture of the group since I probably wolfed my food down the fastest. Sarah saw me and flashed her prettiest smile.

After the food was all eaten we moved on to a gelato shop. I did not partake. Then we continued back towards the river. Along the way everyone decided to pose next to a fountain. Check out Clark. He's puttin' the vibe out.

Sarah can't resist Clark's mojo and runs across the street to join him. Meanwhile, Tom is too cool for school on his side of the street and Dan almost gets hit by a car.

We crossed back over the Ponte Vecchio. You can see the Vasari Corridor in the picture above on the top right. This is where the protected corridor crossed the Arno from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace.

You can see all the shops along the bridge. There used to be butcher shops on the bridge.

Now it's all jewelry and souvenire stores and art dealers.

As the group broke up for the day Sarah, Kellin, and I continued to walk with Andy towards his hotel. On the way we had to stop and take pictures of the Duomo. It had been rainy most of the morning and the sky looked really cool behind the huge church.
Fin.

With Andy at Santa Felicita

2008-10-26T09:23:00.006-04:00

On Friday, October 3, I went with Sarah and her seven fellow grad students to the Piazza Signoria to meet with Andy. Andy Weislogel is the Associate Curator of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. He also taught their mannerism class while they were still in New York at Syracuse. By all accounts he seemed to be one of their favorite professors. So everyone was pretty excited.

Tom arrived with a selection from the famous autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini to read for the occassion. Aren't art history grads nerds? - says the history major/fantasy fiction loving/librarian.

Best of all, he proceeded to read it with a suspiciously Scottish sounding accent for the Renaissance Italian author. It while quite impressive and humorous. I think I was the only one there who wasn't very familiar with Cellini's autobiography. Above, from right to left, are Andy, half of Clark, the back of Sarah's head, Dan, Tom, Lara, half of Kellin, half of Mary, and Stephanie. My apologies the halves.

Our second stop, after the requisite cafe, the church of Santa Felicita on the south side of the Arno. The main reason we were going there was to see Pontormo's Transportation of Christ, which can be seen above behind bars.

We were going to have to look at it from afar (like commoners) until Kellin asked the caretaker for a closer view. He was really nice. He opened the cage for us and turned on the light so that we didn't have to keep paying the light machine every few minutes.

So here it is closer up and well lit. This is another Pontormo painting that I knew nothing about except that it has been on display on our kitchen table all semester.

Andy's class gazes in wonder.

And still gazing...

I've noticed that I tend to have a shorter art attention span than art history grad students.

Sarah stands below Pontormo's Angel Gabriel. There is a very famous work of art circulation of Sarah's head on this Gabriel's body. I believe that the artist's name was Kellin.

Then the nice older gentlemen took us behind the ropes and showed us some locked rooms that are not open to the public. This fell in with their belief that art historians should get special benefits.

The first room was the sacristy. There were more paintings and beautiful old altar pieces in here. The second room may have been the chapter house.

And there it is! Sarah found her gesture on the ceiling.

And captures the image for further research.

Here it is. Alas, it did not make it into the paper.

On our way out I looked up and noticed that the Vasari Corridor runs through the facade of the church. The corridor led from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace. The opening allowed the Medici Grand Dukes to listen to the mass without being seen or having to mingle with the people.

Here we are on our way to our next location. Again that's Mary, Andy, Clark, Stephanie, Kellin, less than half of Lara, Sarah, mystery woman, Tom, and Dan.
And we were off to find another church.

Is that an oompah I hear?

2008-10-22T10:39:00.008-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, I got up and headed down our 76 steps to begin the trek to Sarah's school. I think she had left earlier to work. Anyway, I was on my own. Sometimes we turn east down Via dei Neri to take the Borgo Pinti route north. However I turned west on Via dei Neri to take the slightly longer, but more scenic Via dei Servi/Via Gino Capponi route. Regardless, I would have headed west anyway because as soon as I made it out our front door I heard an interesting sound. Somewhere in the distance I heard a large crowd and the distinctive sound of German oompah-like music. So of course I headed to the Piazza della Signoria to find out what was going on.

Sure enough I was greeted by a large crowd that was watching a parade of mainly Alpine looking men. I missed the beginning, but I guess they had come down Calzaioli to the Piazza and were heading down through the Piazzale degli Uffizi as seen above.

I just caught the end of the parade, but the festivities weren't over. Apparently there was more going on in the Piazza.

Wait! A few last minute parade stragglers came through.

So I guess they weren't German. They were groups that had something to do with the Italian Alps. I have no idea what was going on. But I loved their outfits. Of course, the Italian Alpine areas are right up against the Swiss and Austrian Alpine regions, so I wasn't too far off.

The plaid shirt and featheredhat brigade kept a'coming.

David looks nervous as the Swiss attack.

Some people will make any excuse to put on their medieval kits. They're as fanatic as our Civil War re-enacters. Is that how that's spelled. Don't answer that.

And the band played on...as Menelaus aids the fainting Patroclus.

Nurses were on hand. Just in case.

I had trouble seeing the person being saluted over all the feathered hats.

Apparently the worries over what noise does to the Renaissance statues was not considered when the Austrians came marching in with their brass bands.

As I headed north to Sarah's school I ran into some lost standard bearers and their well-trained eagle. These gentlemen did not get the memo about the mandatory plaid shirts.

Casa Hatfield

2008-10-18T12:03:00.006-04:00

Saturday 9/27
Sarah, Kellin, Mary, and I met Clark and Tom at the Piazza Beccaria in the morning so we could catch a bus to Professor Hatfield's house. He had invited the group to a cookout and said that I could come along. Since he lives so far out of town (up in the Tuscan hills) we had to take a Citta Bus, which I had never taken before. It is more like a tour bus that goes way outside of the city and its tickets cost more than a normal city bus. After we got on Dan, Lara, and Stephanie got on at a later stop to complete the group. The bus took us all the way out east near the town of Sieci then turned north. We went up north and got off at the intersection of Strada Provinciale Molino del Piano and Via della Lucole (which goes east towards Santa Brigida, if you're keeping score at home). The bus continued on and we walked with Prof. Hatfield (who was standing along the road waiting for us) further up the strada almost 1000 feet. There we turned left down a little lane that intersected the strada. If we had gone right, which some of us did later, we would have gone up further into the hills to a church whose name I forget. Anyway, here are some pictures.

Here's me posing at the edge of Dr. Hatfield's yard. Not a bad view to enjoy every day. Behind me to the left might be the strada we came up. I'm not sure.

These were the first buildings we saw when we turned down his lane. He lives in a little cluster of buildings that is very common out here and is similar to the cluster of buildings that Sean and Luke live in. Except they don't live up in the hills.

This is part of his little back yard. His is the section to the left. To the right of the picture was the table we ate at. The food was absolutely delicious. Dr. Hatfield grilled chicked and there was salad, bread, wine, figs, and all kinds of tastey things. Oh, by the way, I made a great impression by breaking one of his plates. I didn't realize that the stone table was not a flat surface when I set a wine bottle down. It tipped over onto a plate. Luckily the wine bottle didn't break as well.

Here is another view over his wall. He said that we could go for a walk if we wanted to. So Kellin, Dan, Lara, Tom, and I decided to head for the church that you can see in the picture up in the hills. The elevation difference didn't look too bad, but Dr. Hatfield said that it was a tough hike.

And it certainly was. Once we crossed the strada the rest of the trip was up a pretty steep hill. The incline did not let up until just before the church. It was exhausting. In this picture I ran ahead (stupid idea) to take a picture of the others below me.

Once we got in the church's grounds we stopped to take advantage of their view and tried to locate Prof. Hatfield's house. It was so far away though that we weren't sure which tiny group of buildings in the distance he belonged to. Above are (left to right) Dan, Kellin, Lara, and Tom. I shouted to them and snapped the picture just as they all turned around.

Once inside the church a man filled the others in on the history of the church. I guess.

Below the church was a little chapel, a room with the stations of the cross, and this little room where St. Somebody stayed. I just realized that I forgot the paper where I wrote his name.

Here is the back end of the chapel with a lot of mementos of miracles that were worked.

On the way back down the mountain we saw a couple of little shrines that were built into parts of trees. Actually I think that I was the only person that missed them the first time. It must have been while I was stupidly running up ahead. This one was dedicated to Mother Theresa.

I'm not sure what this one represented.

Then it was back down the hill. Note the way they're leaning back. It really was a steep road.

Just before we left Prof. Hatfield said we could have some rosemary and some figs if we wanted them. So Kellin, Lara, and Stephanie attacked the trees.
Then we walked back down to the bus stop and said our goodbyes. I forgot to mention that we sat around chatting for a long time before our hike. We didn't just eat and run. It was a really enjoyable day. Great food and company. And a broken plate. On the trip back the bus was about 90 degrees (not one of Sarah's exaggerations) and I felt like I was going to be sick. I was way in the back and I had no view out the front, which is a recipe for disaster when it comes to me and windy roads.

Siena - part 5

2008-10-14T09:25:00.007-04:00

Our buses then went a little over ten miles northwest to the small town of San Gimignano. It is another walled hilltop town that was first built by the Etruscans. The city has managed to preserve 14 medieval towers of varying sizes. Due to the route we took into town, I didn't have a good view to take a good picture. So I got the image below from the Internet.

They kind of look like skyscrapers from the middle ages. A lot of towns had similar towers, but for whatever reason they didn't survive. Florence had them. Rich families built them as status symbols as well as for defence. Some cities tore them down because of what they represented and sometimes they just didn't last.

I took a lot of pictures that I really don't have much to say about. Here is our approach to the city walls.

I just love the medieval feel to so many of these cities.

This is the main piazza in town. There is a well in the middle that would have been so important for a defensive hilltown. Now people just throw coins into it and take pictures in front of it. Like me. Except for the coin throwing. I don't go in for such tomfoolery.

This was their version of Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, I think. It is called the Communal Palace. Now it is an art gallery.

Professor Hatfield teaches the class about medieval Italy and the towers on the steps in front of a church called the Collegiata.

More cool medieval looking buildings.

We didn't get to stay too long before it was time to head back out to the buses.

Sarah and Kellin pass through the old walls.

Being in both Siena and San Gimignano made me feel like I was back in the Middle Ages. You get a little bit of that feeling in Florence and even Rome, but not nearly as much as in these cities. All the tourists and the shops geared toward them help to snap you back to reality.

Siena - part 4

2008-10-14T09:24:00.025-04:00

Siena's baptistry was not on our list of things to see due to time constraints. However, since we ate a fairly quick lunch and the baptistry was part of the ticket package that we had we decided to go ahead and see it.

Siena's baptistry is not a separate building like the ones we saw in Florence and Ravenna. It is underneath the eastern side of the cathedral. But since it's so hilly in Siena the baptistry's front is completely above ground.

This picture is from inside the cathedral. This is a baptismal font. You can see a little hole in the wall behind it. That hole leads down to...

the baptistry below. You can see the opening above this much more ornate baptismal font. This font shows six scenes from the life of John the Baptist. The hole between the cathedral and the baptistry allowed people below to hear what was going on above. Or something like that.

And we found Sarah's gesture in the baptistry. It was in a dark corner cut off by a security rope so getting a good picture was impossible. We thought about distracting the guard so that Sarah could hop the rope, but it never happened.

The whole group went (actually, before we went to the baptistry) into the Palazzo Pubblico. We were lectured to by Gordon Moran in the Sala del Mappomondo (Great Council Hall). He told us about some art controversy and told us some corny jokes. Above is the Maesta by Simone Martini.

Like we saw in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, this palazzo had huge frescoes depicting famous battle scenes that they happen won.

Then we saw Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good Government...

and the results of good government...

and the Allegory of Bad Government.

I really love the image of bad government. I got yelled at by a guard for trying to take a picture in here. That picture didn't turn out well so I went ahead and took another one. It didn't turn out very well either. Serves me right for not following the rules. I think it looks like John Lovitz playing the devil in an old Saturday Night Live skit.

In my first Siena posting I mentioned that we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside of San Domenico. So I didn't. Well I lied. I took one. I snapped this picture then turned to take a picture of the head of Catherine of Siena. Sarah told me that we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. So I didn't take any more. For real this time.

Siena - part 3

2008-10-14T09:24:00.016-04:00

The Siena Cathedral
Unfortunately, I don't know as much about this impressive church as I would like. Our tour there was kind of odd and rushed. A large percentage of the floor was blocked off so that all the tourists had to squeeze by each other, making for a difficult time and making guided tours nearly impossible. Plus, we were pressed for time. So, while we were lectured at a little bit, we were mostly free to roam around to try to see everything before we had to leave. Here's what I know:

The church was finished in 1263. There were any subsequent additions, including one that was never finished. The facade is in a Tuscan Gothic style, and even has some gargoyles to go with all of the other sculptures.

It's hard to pick them out from the facade behind, but there are two sculptures that I was told about. The one in the foreground (on the column) is of two little children being suckled by a she-wolf. But it does not refer to Romulus and Remus. Or so I was told (more on that in a minute). The other sculpture is the lion on the left. It signifies that Siena was subjugated by the Florentine Republic.

I am pretty sure that I heard that the suckling pair (seen here on the marble mosaic floor inside) are actually supposed to be the founders of Siena, Senius and Aschius. Their's being a story suspiciously similar to that of Rome's Romulus and Remus. However, I have seen in a few sources since that they are actually Romulus and Remus. Apparently the legend says that Senius and Aschius were the sons of Remus and that when they left Rome to found Siena they took a statue of their father and uncle from a temple. One source didn't even mention Aschius, but just talked about Senius founding Siena. So, I'm not sure. Let me know if you find out.

Some works of art behind the altar about which I can tell you nothing. Sorry.

The black and white stripes all over the place are due to black and white being Siena's colors. A lot of the marble, including that used for the huge pulpit (not shown), came from Carrara.

This is the entrance to the Piccolomini Library. Stephanie was lecturing the students about it, but was unfortunately told to keep it short due to time constraints. Hopefully I'll get another chance to go in and look around because it has illuminated choir books and impressive frescoes.

Here you can see that, although the church is quite big, much of the floor was blocked off making it difficult to get around.

The floors are not usually sectioned off like that. It is usually covered and you can walk all over it. We happened to arrive during the six to ten weeks a year that they are uncovered. The inlaid marble mosaic floor is extremely ornate and covers the entire floor.

Here are some mementos of miracles, including some bike helmets.

It is really is a quite large church, but it could have been absolutely enormous...

Plans were under way in 1339 to more than double its size. The current nave was going to become the transepts while an entirely new (and enormous) nave would be built perpendicular to it, centered on the altar. Then the construction was halted in 1348 due to the Black Death and was never resumed. Apparently there may have been some flaws in the plans.

This shot gives an idea of how big the church would have been. The (black and white striped) nave is in the background. The arches on the right would have been one side of the new nave and would have extended all the way to the wall I was standing on. It's really impressive when you're standing there looking down on it.

Siena - part 2

2008-10-14T09:24:00.009-04:00

Part of our tour of the cathedral and museum included our climbing to the top of what was supposed to be the front of the church (more on that in the next posting). As I mentioned in the last posting, we didn't get to climb the tower at the Palazzo Pubblico but this vantage spot gave us a great view of the city anyway.

Sarah takes a break from gazing over the beautiful city to smile for the camera.

We climbed up a very long set of tiny winding stairs like these to get to the top. It was really uncomfortable. If someone was going the opposite way (and the steps went quite a way without a break or opening) there was no room for them to pass. I kept waiting for the steps to turn into a slide like in a Scooby Doo cartoon. It never happened.

You can see that Siena was originally built as a fortified Etruscan hilltop town. The terrain makes for very interesting streets and buildings. Again, it was like a larger version of Assisi.

Many of the group stopped at the first level to hear Luke's words of wisdom. I decided to continue the ascent. I was going to try to take a picture of Sarah from above but I couldn't find her. When I turned around I saw that she had followed me up to the top.

It felt like a defensive position, except that it was a church in the middle of the town.

The rooftops of Siena.

For the 50th time I'm going to say that my pictures do not do justice to this amazing city and the wonderful view.

I felt like I was back in the Middle Ages. Except that I had a medieval digital camera.

Here is the Piazza del Campo again, except from above. I would love to watch the palio from up here.

That's us. It was a really nice morning. It was kind of warm but the sun was behind the clouds making for a really impressive sky. Later in the afternoon it got extemely windy and pretty cold. Luckily I decided to take my jacket from the bus when we went to San Gimignano.

Siena - part 1

2008-10-14T09:20:00.007-04:00

On Friday, September 26 Sarah and I joined another Syracuse University - Florence school trip. It was actually for the Masterpieces and Black Death undergraduate classes but we tagged along, as did Kellin, Stephanie, Clark, Tom, and Anne. Sean and Luke were also there since they are the TA's for these classes. Professor Hatfield was leading the way. This time we were going to Siena, one of the five communes that vied for power in Tuscany before Florence took control leading up to the Renaissance. Once again, our bus left the Piazza Savonarola at 7:30am. We arrived in Siena around 9:00.

Immediately off the bus our first view was of the impressive defenses that surround the city.

Our group marched into the city center and headed straight to the Piazza del Campo.

The piazza is the site of the world famous palio. The palio is a horse race that is held twice a year. In the races, 10 riders represent their ward of the city (of which there are 17) by wearing their historic colors and symbols. The seven that did not take part in the last race are automatically included along with three neighborhoods that are chosen at random. The loser is the rider that comes in second, not last. Thousands of specatators come from around the world to see the palio. It's really quick. They only race around the piazza three times. It looks really dangerous because the specatators crowd around right along the track.

This is the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena's town hall. It was begun in 1297. The tower, called the Torre del Mangia, was built between 1325 and 1348. We didn't get a chance to go to the top of the tower but we got some great views above the city from atop the Cathedral. I'll talk about our visit inside the palazzo in a later posting.

The group gathers to plan our assault on the city. We broke up into groups and headed to different stations.

Save the clock tower!

I really liked the city of Assisi. Siena reminded me of Assisi, except it was quite a bit bigger. The picture above and the following two are to show you some of the hilly similarities the two hill-top towns have. There are a lot of areas similar to the one above where an alley between buildings is nothing but a large set of stairs.

From the city center down the hill to the city walls.

I love shots like these. It's almost identical to the one I took in Assisi. Left goes up, right goes down, and there's a shop in the middle.

Finally, here is the Basilica of San Domenico. It was built in the mid-12th century. It was not on our list of things to do but some of us found time after lunch to stop in before we re-boarded our bus. We were not aloud to take pictures inside and, for once, I obeyed. The Chapel of St. Catherine is inside. This is the resting place of the head of St. Catherine of Siena. The rest of her body is buried at the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome (I have a picture of the tomb from our trp to Rome). The legend goes that the people of Siena wanted to bury her in her in their city, but the Romans wanted to keep her. So they took her head (which is obviously less conspicuous than an entire body) and put it in a bag to try to sneak past the guards. The story I saw did not mention the task of cutting her head off, but I assume this was necessary. When the guards looked in the bag the people prayed to St. Catherine for help and the guards only saw roses in the bag. When they got back to Siena the bag held only her head again. I think St. Catherine is now the patron saint of sneaking dismembered body parts past guards.