Firenze: Sunday Vignette/Vignetta di domenica

Pedaling into centro late this afternoon on my way to sing at St. James for a requiem eucharist. Piazza del duomo is packed. Sun's out today finally - it's been overcast all day - and the tourists are rejoicing with selfie sticks and gelato cones.

I hop off my bike and begin to walk it around behind the apse (still unsuccessfully looking for the marble plaque where the golden ball struck when it was knocked off the dome by a bolt of lightning in 1600), weaving between hastily arranged art knockoffs for sale on the pavers by nervous maghrebs. I heard some live music floating over the crowd, and as I had a spare fifteen minutes to myself before I was due to be at church, I moved toward it.

At Via dei Martelli an older busker was plying his trade, with guitar, amp, and open suitcase for toursts to flip euro coins into. Also, CDs for sale.

This corner.

He looked a bit like Johnny Depp if Johnny Depp had slept rough for decades as an Italian street musician. But he sounded super. I mean, just superb. So I stood holding my bike and watched him for a bit. Who was this stealth Zucchero? who knew? No one else was really stopping to watch him besides me.

Il Zucchero Vero

A young couple stopped to listen - mid twenties, maybe. The girl was slim with long dark hair; her boyfriend, fashionably coiffed a la 80s with a shave up the back and a mole on his cheek. They both wore white t-shirts. She started filming Zucchero Falso with her phone. I was astonished. The nerve! buy a CD people!

After Zucchero Falso finished his set, the couple approached him. A short conversation took place, and soon the young man was taking the guitar from Zucchero Due and slinging it over his shoulder. Young Zucchero clearly knew what he was doing. He suddenly started owning that mike and the guitar.

But what language was he singing in? Romanian, as best as I could tell. His delighted girlfriend was now filming him. A crowd started to gather. I felt kind of sorry for Zucchero Due. He was a better music man - Romanian Zucchero wasn't bad, but he was not at the level of Zuccero Due - but here was proof, like we needed any, that a handsome young man with mediocre talent will quickly draw a larger crowd than an older master who might could do with a shower and some laundry but who could carry a tune perfectly withut even trying.

By the time Romanian Zucchero finished, about 50 people were standing around to watch him. As he let his last chord finish I let out a little yell for him, startling the Germans to my right on the street.

Firenze: Villa Bardini

Today we met our friends from Amsterdam at the Villa Bardini, which is located along the Costa San Giorgio. The coste, or ribs, refer to the narrow streets that snake outward from the Arno and up into the hills of Oltrarno to the south of Firenze.

We snaked and snaked, staring in disbelief as the road became narrower and the voice of "the lady" (as Victor calls her) ever more laughable as she pronounced all the place names worse than an undergrad fresh off a plane at Peretola.

Most unbelieveable of all, we arrived in a parking lot atop the hill, shaded and clean, between the Boboli and the Bardini gardens. What was this alternative universe? We tried to ask fewer questions and hastened to park more expeditiously.

After snaking in the car, we disembarked and wiggled down a narrow flagstone street and up a stair into the biglieterria. I do not have my residence card yet because I STILL do not have my permesso di soggiorno (a topic for a different day; refer to the January post about our day in the Questura). This resulted in a conversation between Jason and the biglieterrista, who made a few phone calls before confirming that Jason and the kids were free, but the wife would cost 6 euros. The city parks are free of charge for residents. But you gotta prove it. The legacy of a stickler bueacracy - again, grazie, Napoleon.

Che bella vista!

Il Canale di Drago - but where is the dragon?

We entered into a fantastic gardenscape of greens, flowers, statuary, gravelled paths, and ponds and streams, with views over the river and the medieval skyline of Firenze. We picked out all the landmarks and set to eating our snacks. The kids enjoyed a disused marble horsetrough as a lunch spot. Oh impecunious nobility...

Noble trough

Our friends arrived and we staked out a table for popsicles, snacks, and coffee. Vic and Eleanor know both of their girls from school so the fun began immediately. In fact, so much fun that soon a garden official came over and asked us to stop sliding down the stair rail.

Get off the stairs, kid.

Garden view into Firenze.

The glicine (wisteria) are blooming in profusion, so many locals and tourists were taking tons of pictures of the purple clouds. We learned that "wisteria" in Dutch is "purple rain" ("paarse regen). (Perhaps Prince only wanted to see his darling in the wisteria? Wisteryah, wisteryah....) I guess wisteria is a thing in the European springtime. Our kudzu-like mess in Oklahoma never looked this pretty.

We were up there a good three hours. It was perfect.

Prince homage.

Springtime Firenze at her most fantastic

Jason and I agree - if anyone asks us when the best time is to visit Firenze, our response is - the first six weeks of spring. All the color, fresh breezes, no heat, tourist crowds not yet at maximum capacity.

Old dude, young female, noble art.
Maybe it's Zeus and... someone...

Every concrete fruitbowl was different along the ledge. Here featuring: persimmon.

Firenze: Caccia Uova/Egg Hunt at the Museo Stibbert

I am barely on Facebook these days, instead preparing my inner revolutionary by rereading all the Owell we covered in junior high in Oklahoma. (To think of it!) But by chance I spied an event as I quickly scrolled through my newsfeed on Thursday morning. After mentioning it to Jason, I called the number on my Italian handset (which represents less than 1% of my phone usage here) and spoke with a woman who has a lovely Aussie twang to get us all signed up for the Egg Hunt at the Museo Stibbert.

Frederick's trellis.

Victor had been before, because he is quickly becoming an urbane man-about-town here in Firenze, personally visiting many museums and civic attractions with his preschool class on gite (field trips). None of the rest of us had been yet, though, and Vic talked it up a great deal. The bizarre post-colonial-threshold museum houses rooms of lovingly restored full body armour, shark teeth, shrunken heads, and the like. Miraculously, we all piled into the car with our various accoutrements at a good hour. Vic is now big enough to regularly carry a backpack without too much complaining, so Eleanor's diaper bag is now contained in one of his. We provisioned a picnic lunch, having split the list with our local friends Court and Tommy, who were also attending with their kids, who are the same ages and Vic and Eleanor.

The event host was International Babysitters (I'll plug them since they put on a lovely event). We walked up the hill past the Villa Fabbricata to the Museo Stibbert. Kids got their wristbands, we paid the nominal fee, and walked through the gardens to the lawn where the egg hunt was to be held.

Anubis will now receive you.

The park is gorgeous, whimsical, musty with old money, follies tucked into many corners: a shabby terracotta statuette of Minerva here, an Egyptian temple to Anubis there. Paths and trees and leaves glowing green - it looked like a movie set, perhaps for Pan's Labyrinth, due to its faintly menacing air, the sun shining weakly through the leaves in thin ribbons.

Mini font of Arethusa.

New tree, old wall.

New tree, old wall #2.

Aslan's stair

Italian pines

19th century glamour

Admiring terra cotta

Forest

Oh, Victor.

Gardens

A number of families milled about on the lawn, and a lone assistant was supervising the art table for the kids. It was quite a mix of Italians and various anglophones. The eggs had all already been hidden, and here was where the cultural clash began. We could see their gold foil and bright plastic winking in and out of stump hollows and tufts of grass.

Cavorting on the path.

Cultural Friction #1

A few of the Italian kids started hunting the eggs immediately with their parents. A pair of British parents in particular got increasingly upset, and began to complain to the art helper. She became flustered and said that there was only one of her, and her hands were full with the ten kids who were busy making rather wet easter eggs out of paper and shaving cream and food coloring.

Brit parents became increasingly upset and began to argue with one another. The father in particular had to retire to go smoke a cigarette very, very fast. Some of the Italian parents noticed that this was not the way to do it, and began to chastise their children to return the eggs to their hiding places.

Eleanor suverys the boomers and sooners of the Italian egg hunt.

Cultural Friction #2

The egg hunt was to begin at 11, but again in a very Italian fashion, it was 11:15, and then 11:30, and no sign of an egg hunt. Parents tried to distract their kids with coloring and the shaving cream (boring) which was pointless next to a lawn of approximately 5,000 pieces of hidden chocolate.

Finally, the kind but harried art help announced it was time to hunt. She blew a whistle for everyone to listen. The anglo childen all listened. You can imagine what the Italian children were doing, and what their parents were doing. I thought the Brit family might have a fit. The helper have instructions in English and then Italian. "Uno, due .... TRE!" she blew loudly, and the kids scattered.

Dutifully listening to instructions.

Cultural friction #3 

The kids were not divided into groups, so the one year olds were attempting to locate eggs behind 5, 6, and 7 year old boys. I will let you picture it.

"Jason! Jason!" I yelled. I practically tossed Eleanor to him. "Take her to the other side of the field! Where we were with Victor!" Jason and Eleanor went in that general direction. Victor was already there, unloading the cache from a few hollows into his receptacle.

A small Italian girl, about 4, cried bitterly in the middle of the lawn while her mother yelled at her. She was clearly overwhelmed by the competitive nature of the whole affair. "Go sit down then!" her mother screamed at her. "If you can't do it, just go sit down!" Fortunately I did see them later, having achieved a filial detante, and she was collecting a few eggs.

Yay we got some!

Culturally Amusing Point #4

Boy, they did not know how to hide those eggs. What did they expect would happen, if they put 20-30 eggs and pieces of chocolate in one place? Yes, an older boy is going to come by and take them all. Smh. I bet Barbara Sharp could have come and shown them a few tricks to hide the eggs in leafy branches and the like.

Victor obtained a respectable amount. Eleanor was jazzed to have gotten five pieces of foil-wrapped chocolate in her little bag. Victor gallantly gave Jason three of his eggs to re-hire for Eleanor behind a different tree. I distracted her, shooed away the hovering older boys, then showed her where to look.

Victor and Eleanor both also ran the Egg Race, with a hardboiled egg balanced on a spoon. Vic must have run it six or eight times, consistently in the rutty lane so kept dropping his egg. He had a ball though. Eleanor ran it once, and immediately gave her egg to Victor for race recycling.

Fine. I'll do it once.

Victor on race 4, 5, or 6.

Cultural High Point

The part where all the families spread their blankets on the lawns and had a 3-hour lunch after the egg hunt. This does not happen in the US. I think it should. That way, parents too can look forward to the egg hunt. Why make it just a kids' affair? In Italy, everything is better with your family along for the ride.

Firenze: Serata in Coppia/Date Night

What do we do when we have a sitter for three hours on a Saturday early evening, and it is a perfect day in Firenze? (Overview: leaves: light green and abundant. Sunshine: glowing, but not hot. Breeze: gentle.)

We don't want to ride our bikes or walk into centro, because the cat is out of the bag about Firenze's beauty, and the three piazze that form the belt of the centro - Duomo, Repubblica, and Signoria - are thronged with tourists on all their connecting streets.

Teeming Corso

Oriuolo, Corso, Borgo dei Albizi, Pietrapiana, Ricasoli, Servi, Calzaiuoli, Calimala, Strozzi, all flow and overflow to the buildings with tight group of tourists, couples in arms, single nonne and nonni and mamme scurrying on errands.

We ask our weekend sitter Emily, an Ameritalian high school student who lives in Oltrarno, where she would go.
"Mmm, my parents like to walk in Bellosguardo," she replied.
We are usually looking for a place where we can grab an aperitivo and a light dinner. "Where is it exactly?" Jason asked.
"Oh, it's above Tasso," she replied, referring to Piazza Tasso.
"I think I can get us there," I said. We headed downstairs to our car parked on our piazza, its laminated ZTL B placard skittering back and forth on the front dash. Our other idea was to go to Poggio Imperiale, where our friend Kim was part of a local fiera/mercato selling some of her crafts. After that, we had no further ideas, beyond a glass of wine.

Heading over to the other side of the river, we meandered through Piazza Ferrucci (helpful, since I always wonder where it is, as it is a capolinea for the tiny D city bus) and around toward Tasso, then up, up, up a hilly narrow lane. And up. We saw a couple of signs for Bellosguardo, but then nothing but crumbling walls and vigneti, the tufts of green grass already thriving between lines of vines slowly coming to life. We lost our 4G signal, no map. We kept turning right, going up, turning right, going up, along what I took to be one of the famous "ribs" (coste) that run up through the hills surrounding the city, perpendicular and outward from the sternum of the Arno.

Is Marignolle like Mary Knoll? anyone know?

We finally stopped, having no idea where we were. I got out to sniff around in the chiesa di Santa Maria in Marignolle, and admire the villas at the end of long lanes carpeted in last winter's cedar fronds. It was calm. Florence was nowhere to be seen. The wind gently shushed through the tops of the trees, and the avian choir was nonstop and cheerful. The plaque on the church indicated that the Medici and Capponi, among others, maintained their country homes in the area, and I could believe it.

We decided to try to find Poggio Imperiale, where Kim was with the fiera. My phone was back on grid, so I pulled up instructions, and we began to wind our way down the steep hillside again, hemmed in on both sides by stone walls bordering vigneti and oliveti. Halfway down, Jason said, "You know, can we just go to the certosa? I'd really like to go." I had no objections, and so we changed course to follow the way to the Certosa di Firenze, in Galluzzo. We'd seen it many times from the road, but had never been inside it. The monastery was in the news even in the US a few years back for closing and relocating the few monks left.

Certosa di Firenze

We parked, and were greeted amicably by a man missing most of his teeth doing a crossword puzzle laid across his knees.
"You here for the guided tour? They left at five, you might be able to catch them," he called.
We walked up the path to the entrance. The certosa was deserted. It was hewn out of solid rock, as is the Franciscan shrine in La Verna. The high walls glowed golden in the evening sun. Gates were locked. The group was somewhere touring. We hadn't really planned to be part of a guided tour, so not much lost, but it would have been nice.
Just past the distillery was an open shop with another very old man in it. I couldn't tell with the sunlight streaming in from the window behind him, but he seemed to be wearing clerical vestments. "You missed the tour!" he called out from behind the counter. The shelves were lined with bottles of chartreuse, wild honey, and various liquids described only as "elixirs," with saint's names prefixed.

We took a few pictures, admiring the quick peek of the soaring steeple through a courtyard arch, and went back down to the car.
"What year was this established?" I asked Jason.
"1341," he replied instantly, and rattled off some amusing historical facts about the letters of Boccaccio and Boccaccio's poor appraisal of the establishment to his Acciaiuoli patrons. "The building was in the middle of nowhere, no one would ever come there, it was crumbling," Jason laughed. "He was really mad."
I wasn't too sad to have missed the tour after all.
"Did you miss the tour?" crossword man yelled.
"Siiii," we said.
"Well, next time!" he called.

We ambled out of Galluzzo and tried in vain to locate Poggio Imperiale, winding up again at Porta Romana, where the traffic always spins too fast to read the signs.

We parked the car at Jason's office and walked into centro. Where for the glass of wine? We skirted the outside chancel at the eastern end of the duomo, breathing easy in the cool shadow. Dove? We found ourselves on Proconsolo, and both thought of the fish restaurant with the frescoes we've been meaning to eat at. Said fresco in question features the fourth crown of Italian literature, Zenobi, who was deleted from history by the other three crowns, who are recognized today as "le tre corone." It wasn't really a frescobombing as Zenobi was prominently featured in the central foreground.

We did not take our own picture,
but this is the best I could find online,
and I think might I know who took it and posted it!

We stopped outside Fishing Lab to review their offerings and went in.

Soon we were each holding a crisp white in a stem. Jason ordered the croquettes, and I ordered a pan of what was described as "street food." I will tell you now, the literal hot mess of fried tiny seafood in waxy newsprint was something I have not seen since Pontevedra, Spain, in 2005. Tiny squid, calamari, bitty shrimp, and assorted other pescaditos, tossed in impanatura, then fried in very hot clean oil. British style chips on the side. Housemade rich lemony mayonnaise, fat with egg yolks.

We walked home. The kids were tired from their nonstop play in the last 24 - two different playdates, mass hours in park on swings and scooters. Eleanor fell asleep before 8, which is why I am able to give you this account now.

If anyone comes to visit, I will take you for the fried seafood pentola with the mayonnaise and the white wine. Certosa tour will probably feature Jason. No promises on Poggio Imperiale.

Firenze: Primavera

Firenze in primavera really makes you understand where Botticelli got his inspiration.

The days turn sunny, the evenings mild. Two weeks ago I watched the leaves come out on the trees bordering Piazza d'Azeglio. One Sunday morning there were just the tiniest of tight light greenish brown buds that you had to squint to see, and by lunchtime, their leafy textiles had rolled out like so many small bolts freshly dyed.

Plus: Eleanor's pronunciation, "primavela." which poetically might translate to "first sail," which I like even more than "first green." We're setting sail for summer.

Piumini have been hung on hangers in the wardrobes of our apartment, waiting for next year, even though many Italians still have not given theirs up. One armadio is so big and old it looks like the gateway to Narnia, but the kids are too small to know about that yet. The thickest scarves and hats and gloves are put away. I'm going to slip the sweaters into some creaky drawers this weekend.

The Mercato Sant'Ambrogio is taking on new energy as the verdura looks happier and happier, and every ortolano on side streets has pushed their plastic crates of produce a few few out onto the flagstones.

I've got a new regular caffe. Far from undiscovered, it is the caffe on the other side of the Roberto Cavalli shop on one of the fancy streets. It's called Giacosa, which translates into "already something," perhaps hinting at their brand optimism before they opened. I was referred to it by our friend Ellen, and the place is always elbow to elbow. I randomly flipped into a guidebook recently and saw it was listed for tourists as the #1 caffe in Firenze. But I suspect the average tourist pokes his head in, and unless made of stern stubborn stuff, is immediately put off by the press of people, the noise, the chaos, the cassa hidden behind the rows of bodies, the Italian requirement to munirsi con il scontrino (get your receipt - gotta prepay) before you ask for anything in that scrum.

It is not large, and the ceilings are not high, but they have some seating indoors and out that they don't charge extra for. I do not know where they procure their pastry case - I seriously doubt they are baking - but their cornetto integrale alla frutta di bosco is something I think about when I am far away from pastry hour. It doesn't approach the Platonic form of the pastry that I somehow managed to eat at 6 am in the train station in Venice almost exactly four years ago, outbound for Trieste, but it was close.

One of the best things about Giacosa is the people watching is superb. Not many tourists frequent it, and it is full of Italians, nay well-heeled Florentines, who amiably monopolize the leather benches and bistro tables. Impeccably groomed men in blue suits and expensive glasses listening to morose companions and saying repeatedly, "Ma mi dispiace. Non e facile. Che brutto. Mi dispiace." Or an elderly quartet I snooped on last week, sitting in a row and looking around appreciatively (average age: 80) as they enjoyed their morning coffee and cornetti together. Or the grandmother in a huge fur coat, a glittering diamond brooch fastened askance atop her head. I suspect there are quite a few stealth nobility in Firenze, all about 80 now, who recall a Very Different Time.

Palm Sunday is this week, and for a while already the fancier caffes and pasticcerie in town have been putting out their fancy eggs. It seems the egg hunt, that most Saxon of pagan rituals, has not spread across Italy. Instead, Italians prefer a huge chocolate egg. Who tortures people by hiding the chocolate and then watching them look for it? Barbarians. Just give me a gigantic gorgeous egg please. Solid chocolate is preferable, artful bunny face ideal. These, from the case in Gilli, the sister bar caffe of my other haunt, the always welcoming Paszkowski.

Jason's program, Gonzaga in Florence, did host a group of children from Victor's school yesterday for Easter activities. It's a fairly international crowd of multilingual, savvy kids, so they were into the Easter card making, and the face painting (I finished a few Princess Jasmines, to great delight), but they were into the egg hunt. Caccia uova! The eggs were hidden in various nooks and crannies of the library, and the children hunted for them in three heats. There was a strict egg audit on: two plastic, one decorative. Some of the eggs were crayons shaped like eggs, which was VERY confusing to little hands. The event was a success - next year they might do it across the street, in the Orto Botanico, which is as I write bursting with effusive color.

Firenze: The Hands of the Medici/Le Mani dei Medici

Yesterday, Victor, Flavia, and I went out to see the Bill Viola exhibit that just opened this past week in the Palazzo Strozzi.

Incredibly, we were able to take the 19 and the C1, which made the day pretty much perfect for Victor. I was surprised the schedules lined up on a Saturday.

The tiny C1 makes its way down Via Cavour but then detours through San Lorenzo on the way to Piazza del Duomo. I love how the drivers patiently nose their way through hoardes of tourists and locals.

In Piazza San Lorenzo, I asked Victor, "Do you know where we are?"

I often ask him questions of orientation when we are in town in case he gets lost, but also, like his mama, Victor likes to know things.

"No," he said.
"This is San Lorenzo," I said.
"San Lorenzo," he repeated.
"We almost named you Lorenzo," I said. "Do you wish you were named Lorenzo?"
"No," he said. Well, that's a relief.
"Do you know why this church is important?" I continued, hoping I did not sound too pedantic. "It's a very important church."
"Why?" he said.
"The Medici are here."
"They're HERE?"
"Well, what's left of them."
"What!?"
"They're buried here."
"When?"
"Like, super horsey times."
Vic looked out the window as the bus curved around the Cappella Medicea.
"I want to see them," he said.
"You can't see them, because they're buried. You can see what's left of them," I said, with a half chuckle. Now an Italian woman to my left was laughing and glancing back at us as we discussed this topic.
"What's left of them?" Victor asked.
"Not much," I said. "They've been there a really, really long time. What do YOU think is left of them?"
Victor really put this question to some thought. The lady bus driver gently beeped at a tour group gawking at leather items hanging out of a store. "I don't know," he said. "Their... hands?"
I laughed, picturing the phalanges of the Medici in the great stone vaults, cast like some augury. "Hopefully it's more than their hands," I said. "It's their bones. Le ossa."
"Ossa," Victor repeated, looking out the window.
The hands of the Medici.