The Fugates are coming! Part 4 - Orvieto (St. Patrick's Well)

On the way down to Rome Sarah, her parents, and I stopped for the day in Orvieto, a small city in southern Umbria that sits atop the summit of some volcanic rock. Some of the cliffs drop straight down a long way and is emphasized in areas by defensive walls. In order to get into the city you have to take the train to Orvieto Scalo (the town at the bottom of the hill) and then take the funicular railway up to the top.


I always wanted to ride a funicular railway, ever since I saw To Catch a Thief and Cary Grant says, "I can't even spell funicular." That's all it took.
Anyway, a funicular railway (unlike a cog railway, or some such nonsense) is one in which two cars counterbalance each other on a cable that is attached to both cars.


They pas each other in the middle of the track on the way up the very steep incline. It wasn't really exciting, but now I can spell funicular. Or funicolare in Italian, of course.


One of the first things we did was go to a cafe. Then we went to this little unassuming building. This is the entrance to St. Patrick's Well.


Down we go.


There are two spiraling slopes that wind down to the bottom in a double helix.


And it keeps going and going...deep into the hill.


It does have a bottom though. And at that bottom there is water. It is a well, after all.
Here's the view down into the well with the flash.


And here's the shot without flash.


Here is the view back up from the bottom.


There's a little bridge over the water that goes from one path to the other, and they don't meet again until the top.


Sarah and Steve a few levels above me. It was a very tiring trip back to the top. Apparently they used to lead mules down to haul the water back up in jars. They took one path down, crossed the bridge, and took the other path back up so that there could be continuous, unobstructed trips.


Pope Clement VII built the well while he was taking refuge in Orvieto during Charles V's sack of Rome in 1527. He feared that they might run out of water in the event of a siege.


It's a neat but touristy little town.


It kind of reminds me of Assisi, only a slight bit smaller. They both have train stations in a little town at the bottom of a hill and separate methods of travel to get up to the city. And they're both in Umbria, about thirty mile from each other.


And they're both beautiful.


See! Proof positive.

The Fugates are coming! Part 3 - The Dome (outside)

For the second half of this posting from the dome of the Florence Cathedral I've just decided to start with a picture that looks straight out towards the front of the church and then rotate clockwise.


So here we are from the top of the dome. You can see the roof over the nave of the Duomo and can just barely see the top of the Baptistery in front of it. On the left is the companile (a free-standing bell tower) that was designed by Giotto. The picture looks west (as the cathedral is oriented towards the east and west) and you can kind of make out the line of the Arno (if you zoom in) and the mountains in the background. The nave and the facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is also barely visible to the right of the picture.


Sarah and Steve oversee their realm. This is actually not the next picture in directional order, but since Steve is pointing that way I thought it would work. Follow the finger.


You can see these better if you click on them to expand them. Here you see the Basilica of San Lorenzo which is the largest and one of the oldest churches in Florence. It was the parish church of the Medici family and many of their members are in different areas of the church. Supposedly the family were still paying for the Medici Chapel when the last member of the family, Anna Maria Louisa de'Medici, died in 1743. Donatello is also buried here. You can also see the top of the San Lorenzo market (the bluish, greenish roof) and the lines above the train tracks leading out of the Santa Maria Novella train station.


This shot goes pretty much straight towards the north. Not too much of note here, just Florence heading up towards the hills.


Here we look northeast. The line of road is Via Gino Capponi (which originated as Via dei Servi when it radiated out from the Duomo, but changed names once you pass the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata) which is the road we usually take to get to Sarah's school, although we opt for the quicker but less scenic Borgo Pinti route more often now.


This isn't a great shot, but it shows the general direction towards I Tatti, up in the hills. The white tower-like thing is at Fiorentina's Artemio Franchi Stadium. I don't think that I Tatti is actually in this picture because I don't see a construction crane. But it's in this general direction. I couldn't spot it from the duomo. It might be kind of tucked behind a hill or something.


Here we look roughly east. The road you see is Via dell'Oriuolo which leads towards the post office and the Standa grocery store, then Via Pietrapiana, then Piazza Sant'Ambrogio, then Borgo la Croce, then Piazza Beccaria with its old city gate, but you can't see that far in the picture. Also visible is the light bluish dome of Tempio Maggiore, the synagogue.


Here is the front of the Basilica of Santa Croce on the left, and in the middle are the two short towers at the Biblioteca Nazionale just below the tall Porta San Niccolo' across the river. Above and to the right of that is the Piazzale Michelangelo with its statue of David replica. Just visible above and to the right of that is the front of San Miniato al Monte. We've taken some great pictures of the city from the Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato.


Here's our neighborhood, kind of. Santa Croce is on the left and the two towers of the Bargello and the Badia Fiorentina are on the right. You can't see where we live from here, but it's roughly above the two towers. Again, you can see the Porta San Niccolo', Piazzale Michelangelo, and San Miniato above.


Here's a close-up of the area. Again, you can't see our place but it's in this area (on this side of the river).


Here are the same two towers along with the Tower d'Arnolfo of the Palazzo Vecchio which faces the Piazza della Signoria. The Palazzo Vecchio is the large building that stretches back from the tower on the right almost to the tower on the left. Our old apartment was about a block to the left of the left-most extent of the palazzo. Our new apartment is another block farther left and closer to the river. Our old rooftop might be visible, but our new one isn't quite as tall.


Here is the front of the Palazzo Vecchio on the left. Just in front of it you can see the top of the three arches of the Loggia dei Lanzi whhich are at this end of the Uffizi Gallery. In the top right of the picture is the Palazzo Pitti. Even though you can't see it here, the Palazzo Pitti and the Palazzo Vecchio are attached by the Vasari Corridor, an enclosed passageway raised above the streets and across the Ponte Vecchio and Uffizi.


Most of this picture is of the Altrarno area across the river to the southwest. The large church is Santo Spirito.


Here is the Palazzo della Republica at the bottom of the picture.


And that pretty much brings us back around to the west. So, do you have the layout of Florence memorized now? Good.

The Fugates are coming! Part 2 - The Dome (inside)

A day or two before, I had gone into the Duomo for the first time. Finally. I'd been inside almost every other large church in Florence, except for the most famous one. Now Sarah, her dad Steve, and I were going to climb up to the top of the dome. I had climbed to the top of the dome at St. Peter's in Rome, so I figured I knew what to expect. It's a tough climb but well worth it.


First you climb up to the point where the walls of the church meet the dome, which is pretty high. At this point you walk part of the way around the dome to the steps up to the top. While you're at this level you can get a much better look at the 38,750 square feet of painted space on the inside of the dome. I think that most of it was done by Giorgio Vasari and other collaborators.


There's a Last Judgment scene, choirs of angels, scenes of hell...you know, typical stuff. It looks different though, since it's so huge and you're so high up.


I don't know why, but I'm always fascinated by medieval and Renaissance scenes of hell. The artists would no doubt be upset by this since the images were meant to scare people into being good.


Most of them are pretty gross and scary, but I think some of them are humorous. Funny little demons poking people.


In order to get to the top you have to walk by some scary things. Only the brave shall pass. And me. I made it.


On second thought, these images do still have the desired affect.


Dad and daughter contemplate the demons.


Oh yeah, then there's also a church down below.


Way down below. But we still had farther to go.


Now we had to start walking up inside the dome. It's 375 feet to the top. We didn't meet much opposition on the way up. Later, on the way down, we constantly had to stand aside and wait for the stairs to clear because up and down traffic were using the same narrow stairs. You often have to walk at an angle since the roof is angling in towards the top.


Almost there...

The Fugates are coming! Part 1 - The beginning

I don't remember the exact dates (since I waited so long to post this), but I think Sarah's parents Bonnie and Steve Fugate (for those of you who don't know them) came over to Florence on the 10th of December. They were here to see us, to sight-see, but also to be with Sarah when she presented her paper at the symposium which would also be her graduation from Syracuse University Florence. I don't remember everything that we did, and they did some things without me while I was at work. So I'll just follow and describe the pictures, like I do.


Even though I had already lived in Florence for almost six months, this was the first time that I had been inside the Duomo, aka Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, aka the Florence Cathedral. The term duomo does not refer to the dome, but instead is the word for a cathedral church. It was begun in 1296 but wasn't finished until 1436 when Brunelleschi designed and finished the famous dome. The dome was one of the largest in the world until the modern era, and is still the largest brick dome ever built. It weighs 37,000 tons and contains over 4 million bricks. The inside of the church is actually quite plain. I know that there was quite a bit of damage from the 1966 flood, but I don't know the specifics. Ask Sarah next time you see her.


Here's the inside of the dome. That will be shown more later because Sarah, Steve, and I climbed to the top of the dome at a later date.


So there seems to always be one strike or another in progress. Whether it's an education strike, a transportation strike, or whatever, there always seems to be some unrest. I actually don't know what this strike was about. I think it was related to the education business, but this on didn't involve students, unlike the other school strikes I'd seen.


So a lot of things were closed due to, or in support of, this strike.


I don't think they knew where they were going.


We tried to go into San Marco, which was supposed to be open at that time but was closed due to the strike. We'd have to try again later.


Instead we went to the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. We went into the enclosed area that comes before the church but no further. There was a mass in progress. I like this area though because some of the little fake windows above have people painted into them.


Now we move on the the day of the symposium. All of the grad students' hard work came down to this one day. Here the girls (Stephanie, Lara, Sarah, Kellin, and Mary) in the group re-enact the gestures that they were researching, kind of.


They nervously await their turns.


Sarah presents her paper on the silence gesture, which changed meaning over the years. Ask her about it. I dare you.


After the presentations were over Barbara Deimling congratulated them all since this was, in effect, their graduation ceremony. Here's Tom (blocked), Mary, Sarah, Deimling in front of Stephanie, Kellin, Lara, and Clark.


And again: Tom, Mary, Sarah, Stephanie, Kellin, Lara, and Clark. Glad to be done.


Sarah applies the suspenders.


Steve and Sarah discuss the finer points of gesture in art.


After the dinner with the professors, parents, and students, some of the new graduates went out to Moyo. And I must apologize to Clark, but I got two great pictures of him so I'm going to show them to the world. Or at least three members of this world.


Sarah, Lara, Kellin, and Clark. Four of the six new TAs. Someone's education is now in their hands.