Florence for a day, just because I can

Free weekend, so off to Florence for a day. Last spring, when we went to Florence as a school, I simply didn't have enough time to see all the great art, so this time, I headed back and hit three big ones.

First things first, though, food. This sandwich is the best in Italy. Hot tripe on fresh bread. Off the train and directly to the Mercato Nuovo to get it. Ate it on a crisp winter afternoon on a bridge over the Arno.....Italian life is good.

Site one, the Branccaci Chapel. This was commissioned by a wealthy Florentine in the early 1400's (Michelangelo was the early 1500's).

It tells the story of St. Peter and is in registers similar to Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and his other work in Assisi. This one panel, the temptation of Adam and Eve is by Masolino.

His student, Masaccio (a nickname that means "fat/clumsy Tommaso" painted this AMAZING panel, the expulsion. It's a step forward from Giotto with its linear perspective and single point source of light.

The top is Masaccio's rendering of "The Tribute Money." He employs story telling by having the same character in the same clothes in different scenes in time by going from left to right. The scene on the bottom is by Fra Lippi, completed about 50 years after Masaccio passed away.

Second stop museum, the museum of the Duomo. At the entrance, a bust of Cosimo di Medici, of Cosimo the Great, the leader of the family that provided the support for the advancement of the Renaissance.

Another "Pieta" by Michelangelo. This one appears to have his face as the character being carried.

The highlight for me are the models of the Duomo by Brunelleschi himself.

This original choir is by Andrea Pisano.

I like the playful children.

The other one, also now in the museum, is by Donatello. Donatello is a big player in the next museum.....

The Bargello, which translates to "constable's office" or prison. This museum, I visited on Sunday morning at 830AM. I had it ALL TO MYSELF. A tip for all you museum goers.

The highlight is Donatello's "David". Donatello, a sculptor of the mid 1400's created his "David", the first male nude since classical times.

It's the allegory of civic virtue overcoming irrationality and brutality (hello ideas of the Renaissance) and came to be the way Florentines viewed themselves.

Also at the Bargello, are the two panels that are shown side by side that were the finalists to determine who would design the panels of the door of the Baptistry. Here is the one by Brunelleschi.

And the winner, Ghiberti. Ghiberti's is less "rigid" in the flow of the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.

Many of the statues are from a sculptor, Giambologna, that my Art History class didn't get to last year. But there is amazing sense of movement, here we have Firenze defeating Pisa.

The next three pictures are by Giambologna.

I love these "dying" heros, this reminiscent of the "Dying Gaul"

There is also great humor as well. A fun weekend, full of art!

Egypt

Alas, it has happened again (remember Panama?) but I lost my camera. Sadly, this time the chances of it being returned are slim, and slim is pushing it. I left it in the taxi I took to the airport.

People are asking me, how was Egypt? I have to say, that the Pyramids were wonderful, Alexandria and visiting Sam M. was awesome, but the the traveling was exhausting and challenging, more challenging than any other place I have traveled since coming to Europe. Mostly, it comes from the fact that most Egyptians see me as a big walking dollar sign and hassle me for tips at every corner, not speaking or even being able to read the language was more challenging than I imagined and just not feeling like I had much control of my situation (and it mostly went well) was really hard.

I landed in Cairo at 3AM and waited in the airport for the first bus to Alexandria, which departed at 530AM. All went smoothly and I arrived in Alexandria at the "new" bus station, which was a big dirt lot and luckily, Sam was right there to meet me. We spent an AWESOME day, drinking tea, catching up, walking along the water and seeing the new Alexandria library (which is a big modern building) with some cool art and a great retrospective on Anwar Sadat's life. The highlight of the day for me was drinking mint tea and playing backgammon with Sam (oh there was a great picture of this) at his local tea house. His favorite server probably had never seen an Asian before and asked if I did karate! It was great. I really felt that, with Sam and his Arabic skills in Alexandria, I got a true taste of modern Islamic city life.

On Saturday morning, Sam returned to class, and I hopped on a first class train (35 L.E. (7 US Dollars) watch out because the numbers are going to start getting big) to Cairo. I get off the train in Cairo and get immediately accosted by taxi drivers. I am a bit overwhelmed and perhaps I didn't do my homework, but there was no public transportation system in Cairo (or at least none that I knew of) and I picked a taxi driver for a ride to Giza and the pyramids.

Now things get interesting. The taxi driver, speaking no English, knows I want to go to the pyramids. I want to go to my hotel. We can't communicate, the traffic is CRAZY and I end up being taken to a camel stall near the pyramids. I am offered a camel ride tour of the pyramids. At the time, I felt like I was being hijacked and had no real choice, but in retrospect everything was on the up and up. The camel ride through the pyramids was AMAZING. The weather was perfect, not hot at all, no wind and it was around sunset. WOW. Now comes the part where I am single-handedly supporting the Egyptian economy. I have to pay the camel owner, pay the entrance fee, pay the camel guide, tip the camel guide, tip my actual guide and pay the taxi driver for the ride and his two hours of waiting. I think I spent a total of 800 L.E.. Money is money, yeah? So, I'll have the wonderful memories and pictures in my mind.

That night, I haggled a taxi ride back to the pyramids for the light show, which was kind of cheesy, but a chance to see the pyramids again was worth it. Dinner? On the street for a total of 5 L.E.. Now sure what I ate. It was edible but nothing to really that memorable, other than trying to communicate with the guy at the stall who was enjoying watching this Asian guy eat.

Sunday morning, I got up and was planning on going to Islamic Cairo, but my taxi driver, better English this time, told me about another set of pyramids at a place called Saqqara. I went for it and this was the highlight. My driver got me a one-on-one guided tour. The guide took me into the funerary tombs of the manicurist and butcher of one of the fifth dynasty kings. I had a fantastic time and learned a ton about Egyptian views on the afterlife. The hour and a half I had with this guide brought Egyptian art and funerary ideas to life.

Afterwards, the haggling for the tips, the drive to the airport ended with a haggling for the fare and tips and here's where I must have left my camera in the taxi.

Now that I'm reliving the experience in my mind, I am really more sad about losing the pictures than the pain of the travel and feeling like I was being ripped off the entire time. As they say, time heals all the pain and hard parts and it's true, I'll just remember how great the good parts of the trip were.

Matera

Last stop: Matera in the region of Basilicata, the "instep" of Italy.

This is the view from my hotel room window at dawn.

Because the rock in this area is so soft, in prehistoric times, inhabitants simply carved into the stone to live.

My guess is that this is pretty much how it looked up until the 1950's, when residents of area were still living in the "Sassi" without running water or electricity. The Italian government relocated citizens to a modern part of town.

However, tourism has become an economic boom (re: people like me) and so the two main ravines which contained the majority of the "Sassi" have been restored, even gentrified, and hotels, restaurants and families have moved back into the region.

Oh, Italy, I love you so, errors and all.

The town of Metaponto was a major Greek city of Magna Grecia. This is the remnants of the Temple of Hera.

It is here on this spot that it is believed that Pythagoras lived his final years. This is purported to be his home and his tomb is here or nearby.

The morning I returned to Viterbo, I went for a tour of the Grotte Castellana. It was a 1.5 km walk in a cave to get to the most amazing "Grotto Bianco." Think white stalactites and stalagmites as far as the eye can see.

Puglia: Lecce and Leuca

Way at the end of the "heel" of Italy is the city of Lecce. It was founded by the Romans around the 3rd century BC. Here is the Roman amphitheater that sits half uncovered in the central piazza of the city.

However, around the late 1700's, when Baroque architecture was in fashion, the Leccese took it to the nth degree. Walking around town, you turn a corner and there is another church facade that makes you almost chuckle. The stone is almost honey colored and you'll see that the feeling is almost whimsical. I'll proceed from most tame to the famous Santa Croce. Here is Chiesa del Gesu.

Chiesa di Santa Maria della Grazie

Chiesa di Sant' Irene

Right on the facade of Sant' Irene is the town symbol of Lecce.

Chiesa di Santa Chiara

Chiesa di San Matteo

And we're ramping up with Chiesa del Rosario






.....and we have Chiesa di Santa Croce.

Here's a closer look at the top portion.

I think it's great that the animals are holding up their portion with little difficulty, while the humans are struggling.

The Lecce Duomo and piazza are the second best I've seen in Italy (after Siena). The piazza is enclosed with only one entrance. It's fabulous.

But even better at night!

Here is the tip of the "heel" of Italy. It's the town of Leuca and there really isn't much there. But it's the "end" of the country.

Puglia: The Trulli of Valle d'Itria

Driving south along the "heel" of Italy, you start seeing lots of stone walls in the fields and then, a bunch of these conical-roofed buildings in the fields, called "Trulli"

They are built from local stone without any mortar. There is a theory that they were built in such a way to be dismantled quickly to avoid taxation.

The town of Alberobello has whole neighborhoods with these trulli. The architecture is right for its environment as the buildings are cool in summer and retain heat in the winter.

The trulli are decorated with symbols and topped with a capstone, sometimes indicating which family lives inside.

Puglia: Castel del Monte & Trani

The November trip this year took the students to Umbria. I instead went down to the "heel and instep" of Italy, to the regions of Puglia and Basilicata. These regions, along with the "toe", Calabria, make up the southern part of Italy, historically the poorest in the country. Why did I go? Because it's off season (this is the place where Italians like to spend the summer) and well, because there it is. I found a cheap flight from Rome to Bari, rented a car and off I went. First stop, Castel del Monte, near the town of Andria and the city of Trani.

The Castel del Monte, built by the great Fredrick the II between 1240 and 1250, stands high on a hill. It's also a tribute to geometry as it is an octagon with octagonal turrets.

Historians debate why it was built at all, because it doesn't have any traditional defensive characteristics, such as a moat. Perhaps because it sits high on a hill, it is easy to defend, but some think it was a pleasure palace.

Here'a plan of the Castel del Monte! Octagons and trapezoids too.

Not sure if you can make out the trapezoid shape of the room.

A staircase

Next stop was the coastal city of Trani. I arrived in port just as the fisherman were unloading the days catch.

I was offered this entire basket of fresh shrimp for 5 Euro. Alas, I didn't have a kitchen, but later on that evening, I had the first of my many great meals. The best of this evening was a ceci (garbanzo bean) and squid soup.

The great site of Trani is the cathedral.

Like many of the great sites in this region, it was built in the late 1100's to early 1200's, when it was under Norman Rule.

Ta Da!!!! The cathedral is built RIGHT ON THE WATER. It's a fantastic site.

This region was the crossroads of the Mediterranean, and Fredrick II had the goal of uniting Northern Europe with Jerusalem and the Arab world. The arch here has some of the whimsical touches of the Arab world.

Two people mauling each other? Or something else?

These HUGE bronze doors were cast in 1175 and were in place until 1990 when they were moved inside.

Even though the Renaissance passed this region by, the panels show the inklings of what we consider to be Renaissance artistic developments. Yeah, art history!