And so……..

………we have begun a love affair with Italy…..how could you not…..? Italy has drawn people in search of culture and romance for centuries…..it has more than 100,000 monuments of major historical significance, it is the home of opera, the healthiest food in the world, it was the seat of the Renaissance. It is impossible to describe the inner experience of Italy, the profound effect it can have upon one, the impact of being there – of laughingly doing what thousands of other people were doing and have done before us – holding up the leaning tower of Pisa! Walking around the city wall in Lucca, climbing up the Citadel in Porto Venere, finding ourselves eating freshly caught fish with the locals in La Spezzia. Visiting monasteries and castles with bullet holes from the German occupation still evident in the walls. Climbing down into ancient cellars with acres of oak barrels aging last year’s vintage. Spontaneously being invited to attend local concerts of wonderful young classical virtuoso performers. We could go on and on and on………but once again our “life as a servant” is starting to take priority and the beautiful English autumn is beginning, it’s not too bad……... however, one doesn’t want to be walking under the chestnut trees with the HUGE conkers that are dropping…. that’s a whole other blog……..wish you were here xxxx

The people and the pageantry……..

……….We visited Arezzo on a steaming hot day – about 38 degrees. Arezzo is a beautiful walled medieval town set on a steep hill. It was like stepping back in time, literally!! The town was full of teams of “knights” on costumed horses. Arezzo is home to an annual medieval festival called the Saracen Joust (Giostra del Saracino). In this, "knights" on horseback representing different areas of the town charge at a wooden target attached to a carving of a Saracen king and score points according to accuracy. Virtually all the town's people dress-up in medieval costume and enthusiastically cheer on the competitors. On this particular day (a week before the tournament), all of the competitors and towns people ride into the cathedral for a blessing. The trophy then stays in the church until the winners claim it after the tournament. You can buy and wear scarves in your favourite teams colours to show support – these are for sale everywhere, but we didn’t fancy backing the ‘wrong’ team. We also saw a bride and groom wandering about the town – this is quite common – in Italy a couple get married, walk through the town and then hook up again with all the guests a bit later. It’s a very Italian thing to dress up and “see and be seen”…..every night in the piazza’s whole families, young people, old people just wander around, sit, talk and eat gelato until quite late, …………it’s a lovely, lovely vibe……to be continued

Duomos and drains………….

…………The buildings of Italy span almost 3,000 years and some of the drains bear witness to this fact as you walk through the streets!!!! There is a very distinctive “drain” smell!!! It’s astonishing how an essentially unpleasant pong can enhance ones sense of “place”!
We visited Duomo’s (Cathedrals) in Florence, Arezzo, Siena and Lucca. The Duomo in Siena (1136-1382) is one of Italy’s greatest, a spectacular mixture of sculpture, paintings and Romanesque-Gothic architecture. (it brought Rod to his knees!) Apart from the masterpieces by Donatello, Michelangelo, Pinturicchio and Nicola Pisano, is an astonishing inlaid marble floor throughout the entire church depicting a series of historical stories. The floor is usually covered with only parts of it exposed, but for the month of September it is uncovered and on show in all its glory.
Also on display is a collection of large, beautifully illuminated manuscripts for Gregorian chants predating the invention of accidentals (sharps and flats) and indeed the Duomo housing them, probably 8th – 9th century, it is amazing that the colours are still so vibrant…….maybe they are preserved by the “pong”.
We could have spent our whole holiday just taking in this one place! …….to be continued……wish you were there……….xxxxx

The paintings……..

…………….I crassly shocked my dear Italianate friend before we left for Italy …. “if I have to see another religious painting I’m going to close my eyes”!!!! She said “how can you consider Italy without experiencing religious art”??? Indeed, she is completely right……nothing prepared us for the Italian frescoes…….they are everywhere churches, private houses, street walls, public venues….. the sheer beauty aside, one has to consider the physical difficulty of painting something that you can only mix enough paint for a limited period, complicated, intricate and often executed on a curved ceiling lying on a scaffold many metres above the floor! The beauty, softness and intricate story telling almost made me want to embrace the Church once again. Some are vast and cover huge areas of wall and ceiling, others gracefully enhance architectural features, others are beautiful in their shy modesty………
The Renaissance painters never fail to move us and seeing Botticelli’s “Venus Rising” was definitely a highlight. It is quite weird to get so sated with amazing art that you have to say “enough” and take yourself off somewhere completely different to digest what you have seen……….to be continued xxxxxxxx

The statues………

……….Tuscany alone has many, many famous sculptor’s works ….. it doesn’t seem to be a big deal to the locals…. (it was for us however!)… famous ART seems to be part of an everyday environment. In piazzas, churches, in nooks and crannies in walls. Mostly iconic religious works, but not entirely…….many statues and frescoes high up on walls have fresh flowers placed in front of them. My question was – who does that? It was answered a few days later as an obviously regular neighbourhood guy, having placed fresh flowers in front of an icon, walked back down the street with his ladder under his arm, to him ‘no big deal’. Michelangelo’s compete with Donatello’s, Bartolomeo’s, Baccio’s and Giambologna’s (to name only a very few)…. they are all wonderful and inspires one to study art history – ignorance can only take you so far!!!
During our stay on the estate “Fattoria Petrolo” we discovered in the little church owned by the estate, works by della Robbia……. way, way off the beaten track. The villa Petrolo is in the heart of the Chianti region and produces very good Chianti, Vin Santo and wonderful olive oil……..more about that later……….xxxxxxxx

Italia……….

……………has always been very high on our list of places to visit and we can’t understand why we have left it so long! At last our “love affair’ with Italy has begun. After a bit of a false start in Milan, we arrived in Florence and despite temperatures of 35º we wandered around like kids in a candy store. Everywhere we turned we were face to face with art as a way of life. The statues, the paintings, the churches, the language, the clothes, the food, the people, the traditions, the very land which has inspired so much literature……there are going to be quite a few blogs about Italy folks……….wish you’d been there xxxxxxxxxx