Peeping......

Saturday, December 6, 2013
:( The buses are still on strike.   Taxis are so expensive, I just prefer not to go and wait.  I hear they are going to stay on strike until they get their demands.... it literally means paralysis for most normal citizens.  I don't know how they make it to work, errands, and stuff.....   And, so La Dolce Vita continues.   Do you know how much gasoline costs here?  $10 a gallon!  No wonder taxis are soooo expensive.  At least I am so well-located that just by crossing the bridge I have all of the old city within walking distance.   It is great just to meander around through all the little streets, and eat LOTS OF GELATO.   Oh my gosh, nothing, nothing like it, never ever ever.....   not like here anyway.   There are at least two three shops per block, all with the mounds so high and beautiful colors, all adorned with real fruit, like a real pineapple on top of the pineapple one, real bananas on top of the banana one, real coconut on top.... you get the picture.   I have taken lots of pictures and I hope to surprise you in the next couple of days with pictures.   I have my computer class this afternooon to learn exactly how to load them onto the computer and then to the blog.   I am going to have a lot of fun!

Palazzo Corsini

I told you that Gabriele had invited me and a couple of other of the hotel guests, a family from Australia, and another family from California (whose daughter went to the UofA and are rabid Wildcat fans...does it remind you of anyone you know?) to the charity event benefitting the hospice costs for terminally-ill children at the Corsini Palace, which is literally across the river from my apartment.   So, dutifully, at 5:00 pm, I walked over there and met the other families and Gabriele.
We were greeted by the OWNER of the palace, Bianca Corsini, whose family has owned the palazzo since, as she said, "forever and ever"....  She is a lovely lady, in her 50's, and a great raconteur of the family's very colorful history, including a Pope who later became a saint (after paying MOLTO $$$ to the Vatican, interesting tidbit).  The palazzo is huge, consisting of 6 smaller houses which were joined and built upwards.  She rents some of the spaces to visitors, and the other spaces she rents out for events, movies, etc....   She says the palace consumes 12 hours of her day, because it is 350-years old and something always needs her attention, so she prefers to live elsewhere.  Yesterday, for our group and for Gabriele she wanted to give us her personal attention.  Every room we went to had the WOW factor... especially this one room, reminded me of Versailles, where Weddings and dinner events are held.  There are two wooden chandeliers, hand-made for that room, that must measure 12 meters across.   They are so massive, and they hold real candles.   She says that for those weddings and events, they actually light every single candle, and for the last two years, thanks to electricity, she installed a lowering mechanism so that they can be lowered and lit closer to the ground, although still on ladders.   You don't even want to know how they did it before this was possible, but you wouldn't want to be involved.  There are lots of colorful stories to tell about the Corsinis, who were very tight with the Medici family.  As a matter of fact, the Ponte Vecchio, originally, was built as an incognito passage way for all these rich families to be able to reach the Uffizi Palace with the Pitti Palace in their finest garb without anyone noticing their comings and goings.   They disguised the Ponte Vecchio by installing all the butcher and fish shops on the lower passage way.  The upper passage way was for all of them.   Except, they started to be bothered by the smell of those items, especially the fish, so they took out the butchers and the fish mongers and installed all the jewelers.   That is why, today, if you want jewelry or anything in Firenze gold, you go to the Ponte Vecchio because it is nothing but jewelry shops.  And, I guess the "smell" of gold is much nicer than meat and fish!  Bianca told us that Nicole Kidman filmed a movie at this palazzo:   Portrait of a Lady, which I haven't seen, and that one day she came to the palazzo to see what was going on only to find it totally surrounded by papparazzi and cameras and loads and loads of people, and the doors locked!  Well, guess who was in town?   Tom Cruise!  I guess he had come to look in on his former wife.  Bianca sais he put off the shoot by about a week with all the commotion that he caused, and she doesn't understand why because, in any case, he's so short and therefore the movies must be all fake because they make him look taller than he is....   she was laughing when she said this.....  Throughout the visit, she tells us about how the Germans bombed Florence and the palazzo suffered, but her greatgrandmother had been very smart after watching the Medicis take everything out of their palazzos and take it elsewhere.  Florence was a "protected city" and was not supposed to be bombed, but it wasn't to be.  The greatgrandmother sent a lowry with lots of the paintings to a house in the countryside, but when the driver got there, the Germans were already around.  So, SHE took the lowry, drove it over there, and safely tucked all the paintings away.  Later, everything is recovered and much of that artwork is on display at this palace.  

She Leaves us at a grotto with water running through it of Trident and other sea gods.   The grotto is lined with shells that came from as far as the Indian Ocean.   All of these were gifts to the Corsinis to gain their favor for something or other.  We are now at street level.   And, now, she tells us, we are going to let you go through our Christmas market where you can purchase absolutely exquisite presents for your loved ones.  She opens the door, and it was like Santa's workshop.   There must be thirty or forty "shops" of every single thing Christmas you can imagine... including FOOD!  I am so glad I cannot buy anything because I'm not leaving for a while and I'm packed to the hilt, but I did so enjoy all the ornaments, the clothing, scarves, jewelry, perfumes, oils, soaps, like a mall within a palazzo.  All the proceeds will go to the charity and Gabriele organized everything!   Did I tell you he's a gem of a man?  The traditional dessert here in Florence, and in much of Italy, is panettone.   We get something "similar", but not like this one!!!!   OMG, I had to get one to give to Gabriele's family for Christmas.   In the meantime, they had tastings of it at the table and I just parked myself there for a few minutes and chatted, in very bad Italian, with the lady and ate, and ate, and ate.....   yumyum!   Then, in another room, I see a huge table with lots of construcion paper and crayons, markers, glue, etc.etc.....   Well, it's where the bambinos get to make Christmas presents and ornaments for their families.   I took pictures of the things they were making because they were so clever and so cute.  I hope I can load them up for you to see.  The lady who was running the activities and her daughter are teachers and she and her husband also run a B&B not too far from here.   She invited me to her house for a tea or a coffee.   The market goes on all weekend, so maybe next weekend I will give her a call.  She's been teaching for 37 years and is so friendly....  I felt as if we had known each other for a long time.  These Italians, I will tell you.... they're something else.
Well, it's time for me to get ready to go to my computer class at the hotel and maybe grab a nice hot soup on the way.    It's about 1:00 pm.  And, it's sunny and beautiful for that walk.  
Keep your fingers crossed on those pictures! 
Arrivederci per noai,
Chechilia