October 25 walkabout

On Saturday, October 25, I decided to explore the western side of Florence. Most of my dealings are on the east and north sides of town. And since Sarah was busy with school work I took the opportunity to look around a little. I had no real plans except that I wanted to go into two of the three remaining large churches that I had yet to visit in Florence. So after this excursion I had been into all of the major churches in Florence with the lone exception of the one for which Florence is best known: the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, aka the Duomo. That church will have to wait.


I began by casually strolling along the north-south streets in the center of town from Calzaioli (a street with which I am very familiar) west to Via de Tornabuoni (a street with which I am less familiar). The picture above is from Tornabuoni looking west towards the spot where Via della Vigna Nuovo and some other street come together.


Then I worked my way back east and north to San Lorenzo (seen above). It is a huge church. Unfortunately, there are no pictures allowed inside this church or in Santa Maria Novella, my other destination. I was going to use some online images of the works of art in these churches but decided against it. There is nothing inside that I had heard of before, but I am definitely glad I went into both. I think that some things like Bronzino's Martyrdom of St. Lawrence in San Lorenzo and most of the works in Santa Maria Novella would be well worth seeing in person, but the little images of these works of art wouldn't be adequate. So, too bad. No images for you. Donatello's two bronze pulpits are also definitely worth seeing. I did not pay the extra fees to go into the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library this time. But I do plan on going sometime with Sarah.


Here is a shot of people on top of the Duomo from inside San Lorenzo's courtyard.


Next to San Lorenzo is a market of sorts, which is next to the building that houses the market that I went to with Sarah and Kellin many moons ago. There's a posting of that day somewhere.


I then walked by the Fortezza di Basso, which is now a conference center, on my way to find some lunch.


I settled for kabob since I had no luck finding anything else that looked apetizing. Then I went into Santa Maria Novella, not the train station (which I've been in many times) but the church right around the corner. Again, no pictures allowed but it is an amazing church. After walking around the interior twice I sat and just enjoyed the view for a while. Meanwhile, I became aware of a growing amount of noise outside. So I left to find out what was going on.


Typical. There was some sort of rally going on. I have no idea what the flags they were waving represented so I have no idea what the rally was about. Oh well. Nothing new.


Here is the front of Santa Maria Novella, the side I see on our route to the train station. The piazza in front of the church has been under construction since before I came to Florence and I have no idea why. It looks ready, whatever they've done to it.


From there I walked south and west toward the Arno and stopped at a church that not even Sarah has been to. The little church of Ognissanti is near where Sarah and Kellin were originally supposed to live, before the last minute flea infestation, on Borgo Ognissanti.


Pictures were allowed in this church, but I felt bad since some people were praying. This robed fellow got up while I was looking around. When I went into an open door to explore more, I almost interrupted his hearing of another person's confession. Not to worry. I don't speak Italian so I don't know what her sins were.


There was some Ghirlandaio and some Botticelli (who might be buried there) and this statue of Mary that looked like it was crying.


From Ognissanti I went across the Ponte Amerigo Vespucci and down to a little concrete area along the river. I don't know if it's true, but someone told me that without these little dams in the river it would slow to a trickle at times. So it looks like the river is always full o' water.


I saw this rare and beautiful creature and managed to catch a couple of photos of him before he strolled away. Nature! Goulet.


This stick would surely have drowned had it not been fo this passing life preserver.


From there I walked along the old city walls for a while. I was going to walk along them as long as I could to see where it took me, but I got tired and hungry and confused.


This is the Porta San Frediano. Neat.


From there I tried to see another small church but they were about to start mass. So I wandered around the Oltrarno for a while heading in the general direction of home. I made it back to the river and took some boring pictures. Here is the Ponte Vecchio. You can see the backs of the shops that line both sides of the bridge, the constant crowd of people, and part of the Vasari Corridor (above the arches) that goes from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti.
There you have it.

Bologna - part 2: The Two Towers

Bologna is also famous for its Two Towers. It has other medieval towers remaining, but one of these two is the tallest in town (and one of the tallest of its kind in Italy), they are right next to each other, and they serve as a symbol of the city.


Oh yeah. And they're both leaning, especially the shorter one. Apparently it has been leaning since at least the Renaissance since Dante specifically mentions the leaning tower called Garisenda in the Inferno. The taller tower is called Asinelli. They were supposedly built in the 12th century.


Bologna has many towers still in existence. It is thought that there may have been as many as 180 towers in town (though it is more likely to have been closer to 80), probably built by rich families for status and defense. During the 14th century the town took control of the two towers, turned them into a prison and a stronghold, and even connecting them by a wooden bridge about 90 feet high. There were five gates in the medieval town, and the roads from the gates all came together in the center of town. These towers stand right in the middle of their intersection.


The medieval tower is leaning you say? Oh well. We'll still let people climb to the top. I'm sure it's safe.


Like all of the bell towers and other towers I've climbed so far in Italy, this one afforded a wonderful view of town and the surrounding hills. Unfortunately the pictures always pick up too much of the haze in the distance. You can see farther in person.


A couple of other towers. Ha! They're puny.


The town's roads radiate out from our central location.


The red-tiled roofs of Bologna.


And more of same.


The Asinelli dwarfs the Garisenda.


The Chris dwarfs the Sarah.


The ominous steep stairway back down from the roof.


Here is one rendering of what Bologna may have looked like with all of its towers in the Renaissance. It looks like a modern city with skyscrapers.


And here is more wall-mounted reading material on the way up. These are the tallest medieval towers in Italy. I've been to five of these towns so far. I will do my best to climb more of them.

Bologna - part 1

So apparently B-O-L-O-G-N-A isn't pronounced the way I was taught as a child. Oscar Meyer deceived us all.
Sarah and I went to investigate the matter one weekend and we didn't learn anything about low quality meat products. But we did learn many other things. At least I did. Sarah already knew everything since she had been there before. Here are some facts: Bologna was yet another Etruscan settlement that was conquered by the Romans. What is now called the University of Bologna (and was originally called the Studio) is the oldest university in the western world, having been established in 1088. It is also considered by some (depending on who you ask) to be the oldest continually operating degree-granting university in the world. Bologna had been one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe until much of it was destroyed by bombs in 1944. Bologna is well-known for its cuisine due to the area's location in the fertile Po River Valley. Despite this, Sarah and I were not thrilled by the food we had for dinner.
Anyway, on with our trip...


Some areas of town reminded me of an old American downtown area with its wires above.


Bologna is famous for its porticos. Many of the streets around town don't have sidewalks, but instead they have these covered walkways.


See. More porticos.


See. More porticos.


See. More porticos.


See. A church. This is Santo Stefano. This religious complex is often referred to as the Seven Churches. Unfortunately some of them were closed when we were there.


But here's the interior of one of them. There was a presentation going on, not a mass. The church was supposedly built over a temple of Isis.


This fountain was, uh, interesting. The figures around the bottom shoot water from their nipples. And why not, I ask you?


Behind the Nipple Fountain is the San Petronio Basilica in the Piazza Maggiore. It is supposed to be the fifth largest church in the world, and once was planned to be even larger than St. Peter's in Rome. Pope Pius IV didn't like that idea and demanded that the proposed addition of larger transepts be halted.


I guess this might have been the result. I don't know that for a fact.


This a building in front of which only white cars are allowed to park. That was tricky. I almost ended a sentence with a preposition. That would have been embarassing.


Here is the road to Venice. Actually, we don't know what the purpose of this canal is, but there was a boatload of people on it.


I certainly hope that this church moves the little store before mass starts.


While we were exploring Bologna we heard some music in the distance. It sounded very much like the music in The Godfather, part II when Vito wacks Fenucci during the religious parade.


According to a sign it was the Solemne Fiesta Paronal en Honor al Senor de los Milagros. A milagro is a miracle of the Lord and apparently involves the Holy Tweety Bird

Protest!

I don't feel like working today. I don't feel like going to school today. Hey, let's go on strike!
Okay. So I know that there are actual reasons why most people go on strike, but it gets pretty annoying. Italians seem to go on strike a lot. Here's a short posting about some of the recent school strikes. Well, actually I don't know what the issues are because I don't understand the Italian news and newspapers. But here are some pictures from one of the student strikes that have been happening a lot lately.

Protesting in front of the church of Santa Croce. Yes, you are correct. That's my hood.

Most of the protesters, accustomed to being in the classroom, sit down in nice rows and columns, perhaps in alphabetic order.

The school riots here have been nothing compared to what has happened in Rome and some other cities. This one was peaceful.

If you look closely you might be able to see our local liquor store in the distance. Oh, back to the strike...

This student was not too serious to take some time out of her busy striking schedule to pick her nose.

As I sit here at Sarah's school writing this, there is a bus strike in effect which led to me having to bum a ride home from a co-worker and will make us late for dinner on the other side of town where a visiting friend will surely be sad by our absence. There's also a train strike. These nationwide transportation strikes are not uncommon here, while bus strikes are even more common. The thing that gets me is the manner in which they strike. They plan these usually day-long strikes in advance and let everyone know as to cause as little inconvenience as possible. Well it is still quite inconvenient. They also only strike for a predetermined amount of time. The funniest thing is that, like today, they ran the buses until 9:15 this morning, stopped service, ran them again for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and then stopped service again for the rest of the day. Admittedly I know nothing about the situation. But it seems to me that they might get more accomplished if they would go on strike less often, but stay on strike until some type of demands were met or settlement was made. But what do I know? Stupid know-it-all American.