Travels in Italy 2019

The last post concentrated on the Museo Bargello and its statuary.  I visited a few other museums while in Florence, and how could one not?  I hadn't been to the Uffizi Galleries in a very long time, so I had to see these.  The Uffizi Galleries are made up of Gli Uffizi (the galleries one usually thinks of as "the Uffizi"), Corridoio Vasariano (the hallway that is at the top of the Ponte Vecchio, but is closed for renovation at this time), Palazzo Pitti, and the Giardino di Boboli. One aside before we continue.  After visiting these museums, all of which were houses of wealthy bankers (e.g., Medici) or merchants, or nobility, I was often exhausted.  There are a LOT of stairs.  Today, there is the occasional elevator.  But not in 15th and 16th centuries.  The Piano Nobile is usually the first floor above ground level, so most of the important rooms in these palaces were at least one or two floors up.  And a floor is not your usual 9 or 10 fo...

After leaving Bologna, I arrived in Florence.  Due to a desire to leave Bergamo early, I cut what was to be 7 days to 5 days, shifted the 5 days in Bologna up by 2 days, and added the extra 2 days onto the beginning of my stay in Florence (making it 9, instead of 7, days). The Florence Duomo Now that I've left, I'm wishing I'd stayed longer.  One thing I wished I had studied a bit more was the combined tickets available to visit a large collection of museums over a 3 day period.  It's fairly pricey, but it includes the Uffizi Galleries, the Pitti Palace museums, the Boboli Gardens, the Bargello, and a large number of permanent and temporary exhibits (e.g., I used it to get into the Natalia Goncharova exhibit in the Palazzo Strozzi). Natalia Goncharova, Self-Portrait with Yellow Lillies, 1907-1908 (Sorry about the skewed picture, but they used reflective glass and it was hard to get an angle that didn't ruin the picture.) When you but that combined ...

I read this morning of the inundation of Venice this week with Acqua Alta (high water) 6 feet 1 inch above sea level (when 4 feet 5 inches is considered "manageable").  When I was there 2 weeks ago, there was no sign of any flooding.  The pavements were dry and the shopkeepers busy selling to the tourists. And therein lies the second drowning.  Venice is the epitome of the tourist inundation of Italy.  Tourists are everywhere.  The language you hear spoken on the street is less often Italian and more often English (or some other).  The cultural clash is also evident between the non-Italians and the locals.  Most often this takes the form of abrasiveness.  When you walk into a shop, you are always greeted, "Buon Giorno!" or "Buona Sera!".  The locals (and wiser tourists :-) all respond in kind.  It's a pleasant departure from the abrupt encounters we have in America.  The shopkeepers all care about their shops--they are all tidy, f...

I spent 5 nights in Bologna at an Airbnb that I've stayed at before, 4 years ago.  This has the advantage that I know the area, where the markets and pharmacies are, where the good restaurants are (or were), etc.  I had a good time visiting old haunts and reacquainting myself with the geography. But also visiting new places I hadn't been before. Bologna is a civilized place.  Back a few centuries ago (1500s?) there was a huge building program and the duke decided that all new buildings should have porticos. These are set-backs on the ground floor that are quite wide, up to 20 feet.  In the summer the porticos provide shade and a cooler place to walk.  In the fall and winter, they provide shelter from the rains.  Since the construction replaced much of the historic center (think the Haussmann project in Paris), these porticos are nearly everywhere to provide a retreat for all.  The picture above was taken at night along the front of a palazzo ...

Sorry to get this out of sequence.  I was reviewing my photos and found several that deserved a posting from Treviso.  These are posters by the company Editioni Ricordi (aka Casa Ricordi).  I know there is at least one other poster aficianado of posters among the readers of this blog, because we have both joined the Poster House museum in New York. The Editioni Ricordi are marvelous examples of the art of the poster.  They have always focused on publishing musical scores under their editorial brand, and also published some posters.  In this way, they competed with the masters including Alfonse Mucha.  I went to an exhibition of Editioni Ricordi's posters in the Salce Collection National Museum in Treviso.  Some of the posters will be self-explanatory, such as those of the more famous operas, and some will need further information, but here are the images, including some for car lovers.... I will get to hear performances of I Tr...

I have been complaining about the lack of good things of all sorts in Bergamo.  I found a restaurant wandering in the area after going to the Accademia Carrara.  The Accademia Carrara is a museum focusing on artists that visited or lived in Bergamo from the Renaissance through the 19th century. Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout, 1659, self-portrait It sounds pretty restrictive, but means that you'll see good to great artists that are not normally seen in musea (or museums, depending on your Latin).  There are some that look like a Dutch master, like the self-portrait of van den Eeckhout that looks vaguely like a Rembrandt. Or another that looks like a Frans Hals (something about the angle of that light...). Matthias Stomer, 1640-1650?, Man with lighted Candle and Wine Carafe But then there are some like this one, as poignant as any... Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, 1889, Memory of Sorrow (Portrait of Santina Negri) And at least one that is somewhat int...