Friday, January 17, 2014
Hello friends and family....
Update: cold is very slowly getting better... very very slowly. I've been limiting my activity because it has just zapped me! I went for my 3.4 km walk the other day and I couldn't make it back. I had to ride the bus, then I was tired, tired, tired... That cough is like a workout, I swear. But, in any case, I know I'm on the mend. I have lots of plans for next week so, gotta get better. I haven't written because it's been raining and, especially at this time, I don't want to get sick again. There is a lovely rosticceria practically across the street from the hotel, where they sell hot dishes, rotisserie chicken, pork, etc... cheeses, salads, pizza, and lots of pastries. The guys in there already know me. The food is good, maybe not memorable, but certainly VERY edible. I particularly love their vegetables and sometimes I bring only veggies to the room and have lunch and dinner.....
Well, you're not going to believe this one! My checking and savings account with Wells Fargo has been hacked into and already some withdrawals have been made, for very little amounts, but it's been compromised and I had to make a 1-hour phone call to LOCK EVERYTHING DOWN! Sort of like Fort Knox. I am going to have to go to the States to straighten all this out. None of my automatic payments will be made, mortgage, utilities, gas, water, insurance, etc.etc.etc.... Can you imagine what this is going to do to my credit score? I know that, in the States, you can have a lousy, crappy reputation but you better have a good credit score. And, to top it all off, the time difference is hard to deal with, and the cost of these phone calls is prohibitive. Then, they put you on HOLD! So, for now, nothing will be accepted as a transaction, either deposit or debit, until I open a new account and get new cards, etc... Apparently, this is due to the Target breach of data situation and since I love to shop and Target (what teacher doesn't?), and I have a credit card with them. All of this cannot be done from here, of course. So, I am buying a plane ticket and leaving here on 2/2 to straighten all that out. I will return to Italy at the end of February. There are lots of things happening in March, and tickets paid for, hotels paid for, and this situation needs prompt attention. I have already paid the rent until February 2, so I will stay here until then and then take off. It will actually save me some money to go home.
So, maybe I'll catch up with you while I'm there. I won't be home very much. I am going to San Diego for a few days, and then to Tucson to check on my house and my mail and all that and then I'm going to Mexico to see my cousins.
I do have some really good plans for next week, though, so you can expect lots of lovely pictures. This week was definitely an "off" week, which is fine. On Monday, I'm going to a cooking class to learn to make home-made pasta and tiramisu. We even go to the market to shop like the Italians do and use those ingredicnets in our cooking class. I want to impress a couple of people with my new cooking skills. Then, on Thursday, I'm going to Assissi and Cortona, both World Heritage Places. I was in Cortona 30 years ago, time to go back. I'll take lots of pictures and upload them so you can enjoy.
Next week, I'm taking the train to Vicenza (about 2 hours from here), to see a lady whom I met here at the hotel in November. Then, for New Year's she called me and said she was coming over with her two grown kids to spend New Year's here. We went out to dinner and then we waited for the New Year and had a blast. She's very nice and she works at the Army base in Vicenza in the mental health field working with soldiers who are in transition from war sites back to the States. Can you imagine how important her job is? In any case, she invited me to come, so I think I will leave Friday afternoon and return on Sunday. She's a working gal, after all, cannot impose too much.
I'm having gelato withdrawal syndrome!!! I just don't think it's wise when you have a cold and lots of mocos, mocos, mocos, all inside your chest!
Okay, till we meet again.... keep your fingers crossed about that situation with the bank! How can it happen to me twice? And then, when I heard it's been traced all the way to Russia, some of the withdrawals from my Italy fund came in Russian, so ayayay, those Russians are something else. When I went to Russia with my friend Carmen 10 years ago, we paid the travel agent for our hotel in St. Petersburg, and she sent her AX card # to the hotel. Well, when we got there, they assured us they never got the payment. We had to pay TWICE! And, the travel agent had proof, from her statement, that she had sent the money. I tell you, you can't blink these days.
Arrivederci and wait for some pictures in the next few days.
Cecilia
Friday, January 17, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
Vasari, Pisa, and Lucca
Monday, January 13, 2014
Well, my cold is sticking around, and it always does. However, I did manage to go on a guided tour of that Vasari Corridor I told you about. Here are some pictures:
And, now a few pictures of Pisa..... before the camera died on me.
Any guesses on those three buildings? About what they have in common? If you look very carefully, you can probably figure it out. If not, I'll tell you at the end.
Our guide, Andrea, who happened to be a Spaniard living in Italy, told us that the leaning tower dates to the 12th century, and that it started to lean as soon as the first architect built the first tier. Interestingly, no one has ever been able to find out who that architect was.... He did not leave his name on any sort of documents, he never signed anything.... would YOU? To be remembered forever and ever for that huge mistake? The second architect, brave soul, who built the rest of it tried really hard to straighten it by using bigger pillars on the other side to see if more weight would help. He also did the top part. His name is Verranzano... like the bridge in New York.
We walked around a little bit and then departed for Lucca, where Puccini (the composer) was born and still revered. His house is a lovely museum with his piano, music, furniture, etc. Then, our guide gave us all a map to go to the town center, walled town center, and find several lovely piazzas. I particularly like a round one, where all the buildings form a perfect circle with a statue in the middle.
The walking was very pleasant and I paired up with a couple from Australia, Robert and Stefanie, who were recently married and were on their honeymoon. We had lunch together, ravioli a la burro (with butter sauce), and after our walk we went and got a nice big cone of gelato, of course? Mine was vanilla with Nutella, which gets sort of hard in the gelato, and it was truly delicious! I haven't met a flavor I didn't like.
On the way to Florence, we went by a bunch of those little post-card towns perched on the sides of rolling hills and remnants of Roman aqueducts, etc.etc.etc. I would love to rent a car and just ride around and stop at every single one of them. But, I figure I don't need the stress of driving, nor the expense of the "petrol". Oh, we went by a town named Collodi where the author of Pinocchio was born. It seems that, at least in this area of Italy, every single toy is Pinocchio. There is a whole store for Pinocchio, and I am sure there are many more that I haven't seen. But, he's everywhere.
So, on Sunday, a lovely day, sunny and bright, I just went for a lovely walk down the Arno River, the way I always go and then went to eat sushi because it was the only place that was opened that had food!
Came back around 5:00 pm and watched a little tennis. Then, the social hour came at 6:30. But, do you know what? There were NO friendly people. I said hello to everybody and I don't think anybody answered me! How RUDE! I miss my happy friends from Venezuela and from Russia.
So, on this Monday, after this, I am going to the corner "deli", or rosticceria, but much more better than our idea of deli, to buy something for lunch and then a walk. I might as well buy something for tomorrow, if it's going to be an indoor day. Good day to learn more about the tablet.
Tomorrow is supposed to be raining all day. Thank God for the Australian Open and that 24/7 tennis channel they have here at the hotel. My next move is to find a class to learn to make home-made pasta, and tiramisu (even though it's not my favorite. There is another class that teaches you how to make gelato.... now we're talking!
I'll keep you posted!
Cecilia
P.S. Did you guess? Okay, okay.... Andrea says that all three buildings are leaning! There is a river that flows underneath the ground and it made this area very unstable.... no kidding! :)
Well, my cold is sticking around, and it always does. However, I did manage to go on a guided tour of that Vasari Corridor I told you about. Here are some pictures:
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| This is the Piazza de la Signoria (means government), and the gentleman on horse is Cosimo I de Medici. |
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| Palazzo Vecchio, part of Piazza de la signoria, now a lovely museum. |
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| Perseus, holding the head of Medusa. No pun intended but sorry I cut off half her head and that bad-hair-day! |
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| Lovely, lit background of one of the bridges. This is from inside the Palazzo Vecchio. |
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| These are the windows by which the Medicis, the Orsinis, the Strozzis, and all the privileged few could "spy" on the merchants below. However, nobody could see them! |
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| This is the altar of the church that the corridor runs right through. You can't see it, but it has a balcony so the Medicis, et al, could attend Mass without being seen by the "lower" class. |
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| My Brazilian friend, Ian, who was on the tour with his partner, another man. |
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| I couldn't resist the incredible Italian design of these bowls. Notice how the spoon fits into the handle of the bowl, and then the lovely red color of fresh strawberries! Very unique. |
And, now a few pictures of Pisa..... before the camera died on me.
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| This is just about it, I mean all there is to see. In the front, the baptistery, behind it, the Cathedral, and you guess it! The learning tower of Pisa! Throughout these pictures, try to picture something they have in common..... |
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| They are beautiful buildings, very ornate, very white, and so ornate. |
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| The Baptistry is beautiful |
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| Here's the trio of buildings again. |
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| I'm also leaning, to the left, like my political views. |
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| The beautiful facade of the Cathedral |
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| Just check out the ceiling made of wood and 24-karat gold plating. The upper gallery you notice is where the woman were allowed to worship. Notice the pillars. There's 68 of them and they were brought here, by boat, from Sardinia and they were all made from ONE piece of stone. |
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| This is inside the Cathedral, the pulpit.... it is so absolutely beautiful. Notice the incredible ornamentation. Of course, every little figure has a meaning. For example, in one of those panels, is the story of how the Virgin Mary had to hide the baby Jesus from Herod... and there's a soldier holding a dead baby and the Virgin sort of walking off with the covered baby. I believe all these monuments were the medieval "picture books", because they were meant to teach the bible and history to people who couldn't read or write because they always tell a story or an event. |
Any guesses on those three buildings? About what they have in common? If you look very carefully, you can probably figure it out. If not, I'll tell you at the end.
Our guide, Andrea, who happened to be a Spaniard living in Italy, told us that the leaning tower dates to the 12th century, and that it started to lean as soon as the first architect built the first tier. Interestingly, no one has ever been able to find out who that architect was.... He did not leave his name on any sort of documents, he never signed anything.... would YOU? To be remembered forever and ever for that huge mistake? The second architect, brave soul, who built the rest of it tried really hard to straighten it by using bigger pillars on the other side to see if more weight would help. He also did the top part. His name is Verranzano... like the bridge in New York.
We walked around a little bit and then departed for Lucca, where Puccini (the composer) was born and still revered. His house is a lovely museum with his piano, music, furniture, etc. Then, our guide gave us all a map to go to the town center, walled town center, and find several lovely piazzas. I particularly like a round one, where all the buildings form a perfect circle with a statue in the middle.
The walking was very pleasant and I paired up with a couple from Australia, Robert and Stefanie, who were recently married and were on their honeymoon. We had lunch together, ravioli a la burro (with butter sauce), and after our walk we went and got a nice big cone of gelato, of course? Mine was vanilla with Nutella, which gets sort of hard in the gelato, and it was truly delicious! I haven't met a flavor I didn't like.
On the way to Florence, we went by a bunch of those little post-card towns perched on the sides of rolling hills and remnants of Roman aqueducts, etc.etc.etc. I would love to rent a car and just ride around and stop at every single one of them. But, I figure I don't need the stress of driving, nor the expense of the "petrol". Oh, we went by a town named Collodi where the author of Pinocchio was born. It seems that, at least in this area of Italy, every single toy is Pinocchio. There is a whole store for Pinocchio, and I am sure there are many more that I haven't seen. But, he's everywhere.
So, on Sunday, a lovely day, sunny and bright, I just went for a lovely walk down the Arno River, the way I always go and then went to eat sushi because it was the only place that was opened that had food!
Came back around 5:00 pm and watched a little tennis. Then, the social hour came at 6:30. But, do you know what? There were NO friendly people. I said hello to everybody and I don't think anybody answered me! How RUDE! I miss my happy friends from Venezuela and from Russia.
So, on this Monday, after this, I am going to the corner "deli", or rosticceria, but much more better than our idea of deli, to buy something for lunch and then a walk. I might as well buy something for tomorrow, if it's going to be an indoor day. Good day to learn more about the tablet.
Tomorrow is supposed to be raining all day. Thank God for the Australian Open and that 24/7 tennis channel they have here at the hotel. My next move is to find a class to learn to make home-made pasta, and tiramisu (even though it's not my favorite. There is another class that teaches you how to make gelato.... now we're talking!
I'll keep you posted!
Cecilia
P.S. Did you guess? Okay, okay.... Andrea says that all three buildings are leaning! There is a river that flows underneath the ground and it made this area very unstable.... no kidding! :)
Friday, January 10, 2014
A temporary stop
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
Haven't posted because I caught a WICKED, WICKED cold, and I practially cooped myself in my room, except to cross the street for manicure/pedicure. Tomorrow, I have a big outing so I will just have to "bite the bullet".... I am going to Lucca (World Heritage Center), and Pisa. I mean, somebody's got to straighten that thing out! And, Dennis, I will look up the Armani place.
So, by tomorrow, I will have something interesting to say and some pictures, of course. Arrivederci!
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
Haven't posted because I caught a WICKED, WICKED cold, and I practially cooped myself in my room, except to cross the street for manicure/pedicure. Tomorrow, I have a big outing so I will just have to "bite the bullet".... I am going to Lucca (World Heritage Center), and Pisa. I mean, somebody's got to straighten that thing out! And, Dennis, I will look up the Armani place.
So, by tomorrow, I will have something interesting to say and some pictures, of course. Arrivederci!
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Uffizi and Vasari Passage
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
My cold got worse, so today, I stay indoors and warm. I'll go to the pharmacy to pick up some cough syrup or pills or something. I asked Gabriele to teach me how to say: I have a very bad cough. Are you ready? Ho tosse molto forte. (Tengo tos muy fuerte)... thank you God for the Spanish language!
Drink lots of fluid, mostly chamomile tea, nice and hot, and watch tennis matches, or CNN.
Well, I was going to write yesterday, but the tour ended almost at 7:30 pm and by the time I got back, it was the social hour and I just HAVE to be sociable! Besides, the two computers were being used.
So, let me tell you about this experience.
First of all, the neat thing about the Uffizi galleries (uffizi means offices, and it was thought that at some point this area was "prostitution alley", but the Duke called them "offices" to hide that fact),
MEN! Well, if the story is not true, it certainly fit the times..... What's neat about the Uffizi Galleries is that the art is displayed in chronological order. You start by looking at religious art from the 1200-1300 and then the Renaissance period art, around 1400-1500 maybe more. We saw pieces from Lippi, Caravaggio, Michaelangelo and many many others. My favorite one is Botticelli's Venus, I don't know if you know it, but she's in the nude (strategically covered) standing on a shell. Everything is so allegorical and unless someone is telling you what the painting means, you can't fully appreciate its beauty. There are actually two Venus by Botticelli and both are equally impressive, not just the painting but their meaning. Every drop or every stroke has some kind of meaning. Okay, then when we finish with the Uffizi Galleries, we are taken to a big, big side door and this lady opens it with a secret code. We go down a bunch of steps and we start walking the corridor. By the way, the whole corridor is one kilometer long and it starts off by displaying lots and lots of self-portraits of famous painters and important people of the time. One that I found particularly interesting was that of a woman, a painter, by the last name of Carriere. It'd beautiful, soft, and she painted herself painting herself... I'm not just repeating myself. The guide told us she was looking at herself in a mirror while she was painting and that's what she painted! If she could have just waited for digital cameras! I had NEVER of a female Florentine painter, until now. There was actually two of them in the exhibit.
Okay, we're in the corridor looking at all the self-portraits and the self-portraits begin to be of a more modern style, even present-day artists like Kandisky,and many others. These self-portraits is just a sampling of the 1780 self-portraits that the Uffizi galleries has. Okay, we keep waking and the guide tells us to stop at this window and take a look! OMG! The corridor even crossed the Church of Santa Felicita, and it had a balcony overlooking the gorgeous altar, and they could attend Mass without even being seen. The corridor is really, really cold and it's pretty high above the street level. The windows are small, because you couldn't see inside, but they could see YOU! Apparently there was a lot of that going on, a sort of "peeping Tom" idea. My, those people were something else. They kept buying papacies, and one of them became pope, but first he had a baby with a woman! MEN! Okay, after the church, we kept walking and then we came to a pretty abrupt halt. It seemed like it was the end of the corridor. What happened here is that there was another palace there at that time, and the owners of the palace didn't want to sell the palace to the Medicis, just plain refused. Of course, the tower of the palace was blocking the way for the corridor to go through. So, the Medicis, without losing a beat, made a smaller crossway AROUND that same tower, sort of like a balcony, but covered, of course.
Clever, clever, clever.... I just want to know where the homeowners' association went wrong? We ended up exiting through a small side door and onto the Boboli Gardens, which are HUGE and they are Pitti Palace's gardens. By the way, there is NO picture taking throughout all this. So, you will just have to use your imagination!
Tomorrow, Thursday, I go for a manicure/pedicure in the morning and then I'm meeting some of the other guests, 2 from Australia, to show them the restaurant that is, so far, my favorite in Firenze. There are thousands of them, but I know how to get to this one, which is in a pretty hidden alley by the Santa Croce church. I made sure I knew how to find it because I knew I would be going back there whenever I was nearby. The tricky situation is that MANY of these fantastic restaurants, or trattorias, are called here. Let me tell you something interesting: in Italy there are different "levels" of restaurants. BAR is just for a quick snack, panini, espresso. OSTERIA is the next level up where is still pretty "fast" food, but you can sit down at a table inside and/or outside. Then comes the TRATTORIA, which is your typical restaurant with service and all that. Finally, the RISTORANTE,
mostly upscale places, and restaurants that are housed in big hotels, and, typically, very expensive.
So, now you know. Of course there are many, many PASTICCERIAS , which sell mostly pastries and coffee. By the way, all of these have any kind of liquor, wine, or beer that you may desire, at ANY time of the day! Ya ves, amiga Carmen, hasta en los restaurantes hay "niveles".
Okay, time to go to the pharmacy. I need to calm down this @#$%& cough! Ciao!
My cold got worse, so today, I stay indoors and warm. I'll go to the pharmacy to pick up some cough syrup or pills or something. I asked Gabriele to teach me how to say: I have a very bad cough. Are you ready? Ho tosse molto forte. (Tengo tos muy fuerte)... thank you God for the Spanish language!
Drink lots of fluid, mostly chamomile tea, nice and hot, and watch tennis matches, or CNN.
Well, I was going to write yesterday, but the tour ended almost at 7:30 pm and by the time I got back, it was the social hour and I just HAVE to be sociable! Besides, the two computers were being used.
So, let me tell you about this experience.
First of all, the neat thing about the Uffizi galleries (uffizi means offices, and it was thought that at some point this area was "prostitution alley", but the Duke called them "offices" to hide that fact),
MEN! Well, if the story is not true, it certainly fit the times..... What's neat about the Uffizi Galleries is that the art is displayed in chronological order. You start by looking at religious art from the 1200-1300 and then the Renaissance period art, around 1400-1500 maybe more. We saw pieces from Lippi, Caravaggio, Michaelangelo and many many others. My favorite one is Botticelli's Venus, I don't know if you know it, but she's in the nude (strategically covered) standing on a shell. Everything is so allegorical and unless someone is telling you what the painting means, you can't fully appreciate its beauty. There are actually two Venus by Botticelli and both are equally impressive, not just the painting but their meaning. Every drop or every stroke has some kind of meaning. Okay, then when we finish with the Uffizi Galleries, we are taken to a big, big side door and this lady opens it with a secret code. We go down a bunch of steps and we start walking the corridor. By the way, the whole corridor is one kilometer long and it starts off by displaying lots and lots of self-portraits of famous painters and important people of the time. One that I found particularly interesting was that of a woman, a painter, by the last name of Carriere. It'd beautiful, soft, and she painted herself painting herself... I'm not just repeating myself. The guide told us she was looking at herself in a mirror while she was painting and that's what she painted! If she could have just waited for digital cameras! I had NEVER of a female Florentine painter, until now. There was actually two of them in the exhibit.
Okay, we're in the corridor looking at all the self-portraits and the self-portraits begin to be of a more modern style, even present-day artists like Kandisky,and many others. These self-portraits is just a sampling of the 1780 self-portraits that the Uffizi galleries has. Okay, we keep waking and the guide tells us to stop at this window and take a look! OMG! The corridor even crossed the Church of Santa Felicita, and it had a balcony overlooking the gorgeous altar, and they could attend Mass without even being seen. The corridor is really, really cold and it's pretty high above the street level. The windows are small, because you couldn't see inside, but they could see YOU! Apparently there was a lot of that going on, a sort of "peeping Tom" idea. My, those people were something else. They kept buying papacies, and one of them became pope, but first he had a baby with a woman! MEN! Okay, after the church, we kept walking and then we came to a pretty abrupt halt. It seemed like it was the end of the corridor. What happened here is that there was another palace there at that time, and the owners of the palace didn't want to sell the palace to the Medicis, just plain refused. Of course, the tower of the palace was blocking the way for the corridor to go through. So, the Medicis, without losing a beat, made a smaller crossway AROUND that same tower, sort of like a balcony, but covered, of course.
Clever, clever, clever.... I just want to know where the homeowners' association went wrong? We ended up exiting through a small side door and onto the Boboli Gardens, which are HUGE and they are Pitti Palace's gardens. By the way, there is NO picture taking throughout all this. So, you will just have to use your imagination!
Tomorrow, Thursday, I go for a manicure/pedicure in the morning and then I'm meeting some of the other guests, 2 from Australia, to show them the restaurant that is, so far, my favorite in Firenze. There are thousands of them, but I know how to get to this one, which is in a pretty hidden alley by the Santa Croce church. I made sure I knew how to find it because I knew I would be going back there whenever I was nearby. The tricky situation is that MANY of these fantastic restaurants, or trattorias, are called here. Let me tell you something interesting: in Italy there are different "levels" of restaurants. BAR is just for a quick snack, panini, espresso. OSTERIA is the next level up where is still pretty "fast" food, but you can sit down at a table inside and/or outside. Then comes the TRATTORIA, which is your typical restaurant with service and all that. Finally, the RISTORANTE,
mostly upscale places, and restaurants that are housed in big hotels, and, typically, very expensive.
So, now you know. Of course there are many, many PASTICCERIAS , which sell mostly pastries and coffee. By the way, all of these have any kind of liquor, wine, or beer that you may desire, at ANY time of the day! Ya ves, amiga Carmen, hasta en los restaurantes hay "niveles".
Okay, time to go to the pharmacy. I need to calm down this @#$%& cough! Ciao!
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Cavalcade
Monday, January 6, 2014
Well, my friends are alll gone and I really miss them. However, more will be coming tonight.
Wee bit of bad news: I caught a cold (if that's bad news I'm happy to be the bearer.
I just want to share with you the unique ceremony that Florence puts for the 6th of January, our King's Day celebration. They call it Cavalcata Die Magi... ahd this is how it goes:
At 2:00 pm, everybody gathers at the Pitti Piazza and the procesion departs with characters dressed in Renaissance clothes. I am pretty sure the costumes are NOT authentic, but they are spectacular. The procession must have been 100 sections long. It lasted over 1.5 hours (my feet were killing me!) and there were thousands of people lining the huge plaza and all the streets the procession walked through:
Pitti's Square, Guicciardini's Street, Loggia della Signoria, Calzaiuoli's Street, until you get to the Piazza Duomo, huge piazza, where the cathedral is. At 3:30 the break out this colubrina, or small cannon and they do a "blank" detonation. At thagt time, the Cardinal of the Duoumo delivers the Epiphany stockings to the children of Florence's churches. They must have had 2,000 stockings.
As we well know, in many countries, this is the day when children really get their presents. It was lovely, lovely, and the day was sunny and you could appreciate all the colors and everthing.
I am going to put some pictures here and then do a caption, because I have to go someplace right now. I am going on a tour of the Grand Vasari Corridor which is the authentic medieval corridor that connected the Medici Palace with the Pitti Palace. The corridor was meant to let those VIPs come and go unnoticed by us mere mortals and apparently the scene was quite fantastic. At the corridor, they also have a fabulous exhibit of self-portraits of many of the most important Florentine and Italian painters which has never been shown. So, I am getting my dose of culture today.
Here are some pictures:
So, as you can see, it was a very colorful, very celebratory event. I wasn't close enough to the area where they were giving the children the stockings, so I didn't take any pictures. It was about 8-10 people deep and I'm only 5'3"!
Tomorrow, Tuesday, I am going to the Uffizi Palace to get a tour of the artwork and THEN, (for a fee, of course) the very famous VASARI CORRIDOR will be opened and we are going to be able to cross it. This is the famous bridge where the Medicis and the Pittis could go to each other's palaces without being noticed.
I will tell you all about it. Ciao!
Well, my friends are alll gone and I really miss them. However, more will be coming tonight.
Wee bit of bad news: I caught a cold (if that's bad news I'm happy to be the bearer.
I just want to share with you the unique ceremony that Florence puts for the 6th of January, our King's Day celebration. They call it Cavalcata Die Magi... ahd this is how it goes:
At 2:00 pm, everybody gathers at the Pitti Piazza and the procesion departs with characters dressed in Renaissance clothes. I am pretty sure the costumes are NOT authentic, but they are spectacular. The procession must have been 100 sections long. It lasted over 1.5 hours (my feet were killing me!) and there were thousands of people lining the huge plaza and all the streets the procession walked through:
Pitti's Square, Guicciardini's Street, Loggia della Signoria, Calzaiuoli's Street, until you get to the Piazza Duomo, huge piazza, where the cathedral is. At 3:30 the break out this colubrina, or small cannon and they do a "blank" detonation. At thagt time, the Cardinal of the Duoumo delivers the Epiphany stockings to the children of Florence's churches. They must have had 2,000 stockings.
As we well know, in many countries, this is the day when children really get their presents. It was lovely, lovely, and the day was sunny and you could appreciate all the colors and everthing.
I am going to put some pictures here and then do a caption, because I have to go someplace right now. I am going on a tour of the Grand Vasari Corridor which is the authentic medieval corridor that connected the Medici Palace with the Pitti Palace. The corridor was meant to let those VIPs come and go unnoticed by us mere mortals and apparently the scene was quite fantastic. At the corridor, they also have a fabulous exhibit of self-portraits of many of the most important Florentine and Italian painters which has never been shown. So, I am getting my dose of culture today.
Here are some pictures:
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| These are two of Italy's finest mounted police. They began the cavalcade. |
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| First come the horses. |
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| I won't bore you with descriptions. Enjoy! |
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| Every "society" had its own banner. |
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| Theis would have been more rural manner of dressing. |
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| Same here, not for formal occasions. |
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| Regal |
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| Lots and lots of drummers |
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| So elegant! |
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| Peppermint, anyone? |
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| Wanna dance? |
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| Where are our husbands? |
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| Maybe these two are the husbands. |
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| Proud to carry their flag. |
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| I told you there were lots of drums. |
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| See above.... |
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| These were really cool, they kept waving them. |
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| Beautiful people |
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| Best dressed I |
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| Best dressed II |
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| Another very cool group... keep looking. |
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| They had a very interesting coreography. |
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| They would throw them up in the air, and catch them. Is this what you call medieval majorettes? |
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| Best dressed III |
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| He's competing with Pope Frances for Best Dressed Man. |
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| See how all the people are lined up? |
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| The Grim Ripper? |
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| This is the basket with the offerings/presents. |
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| You can see the front of the Pitti Palace in the backgrtound. |
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| Best dressed couple |
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| Loved the red and white. All of these groups have DIFFERENT colors and patterns. |
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| It wasn't snowing, but that's how the picture came out. Don't ask me how!!! |
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| More banner coreography |
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| The beautiful Florentine people.... definitely upper crust. |
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| Those two boys were so cute. |
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| They were definitely not cold. |
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| This is the beginning of the Red Hat Society..... |
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| The Medieval Darth Vader? |
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| Can you handle TWO of them? |
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| Same as above |
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| Those are definitely YOUR colors! |
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| The material for all the costumes was very elaborate. |
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| Notice the masks.... |
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| I don't know how they do it, but ALL the men had the same shoes, except in different colors. |
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| Notice the stockings |
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| I think this was my favorite man's costume. |
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| The medieval trend of color matching and combining |
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| This was my favorite for the ladies' costumes. Because it's RED! |
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| Quite a number of horses. |
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| They have falcons on their arms. |
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| Beautiful horse |
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| See above |
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| Gorgeous! Horse or the guy? You tell me! |
So, as you can see, it was a very colorful, very celebratory event. I wasn't close enough to the area where they were giving the children the stockings, so I didn't take any pictures. It was about 8-10 people deep and I'm only 5'3"!
Tomorrow, Tuesday, I am going to the Uffizi Palace to get a tour of the artwork and THEN, (for a fee, of course) the very famous VASARI CORRIDOR will be opened and we are going to be able to cross it. This is the famous bridge where the Medicis and the Pittis could go to each other's palaces without being noticed.
I will tell you all about it. Ciao!
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