Monthly Archives: February 2021

Mining Magnates of Tuscany

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I recently received a whatsapp message from my friend Giovanni Ranieri Fascetti, well regarded for his books on local history, his guardianship of the fortress of Vicopisano and his full moon conducted tours to the temple of Minerva. Giovanni and his partner have a property at Montecatini Val di Cecina, not to be confused with Montecatini Terme, and have become much involved in the history of this picturesque town.

The message attached a photo of the memorial plaque to Francesco Sloane who was instrumental in contributing the major part of funds required for the marble facade of Florence’s Santa Croce Church in the nineteenth century.

Sloane became rich by managing the Caporciano copper mine at Montecatini Val di Cecina for its Russian owner Count Dmitri Boutourline. Born as Francis Joseph Sloane to an expat Scottish family he bought the Medici Villa Careggi, part of the hospital where I had my heart operation last year, and got it restored by an architect called Niccolò Matas, the designer of the Santa Croce marble facade.

Another Russian family, the Demidoffs, employed the same architect to build for them the massive palazzo San Donato (not to be confused with the Villa Demidoff at Pratolino). The palazzo, badly damaged during World War Two and for long neglected, was restored in 2018 to its former glory by Florence City council.

Matas also restored Napoleons villa in Elba used by the Demidoffs as their holiday retreat. Matas designed many other buildings including the Porte Sante cemetery surrounding San Miniato sul Monte and it is here where, among other illustrious Florentines including Franco Zeffirelli, Francis Sloane lies buried. Matas himself is in Santa Croce. Bagni di Lucca has its Demidoff connection with the hospital which the great philanthropist had built and which is now an holistic well-being centre.

There is an interesting relationship between the Demidoff chapel at Bagni and the Demidoff chapel in Florence: with their round domed shape and columned porticoes they are both inspired by Rome's Pantheon.

I’m glad that my friend sent me that note about Sloane. It goes to demonstrate how interconnected people could be in the 19th century: Francis Sloane, the principal contributor to Santa Croce`s facade; Matas its designer and builder of the Demidoff palace and the strong connection between the great Russian family and Bagni di Lucca. As precursors of modern-day philanthropic magnates like Bill Gates and Elon Musk they show how they managed to give something back to the communities which had made them so rich in the first place. As Francis Sloane so aptly put it:

“We are not called to do extraordinary  things, but we are bound to do ordinary things extraordinary well.”

Olive Oyl?

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An Italian saying describes February as a month that is nasty weather-wise but which is also thankfully short. True, much of February has been filled with some very trying times here in the Val di Lima. The month has either given us days of continuous deluging rain or inflicted temperatures descending to minus seven. For Saint Valentine’s day, we woke up to fresh snowfalls and to be outside for just a few minutes without gloves meant frozen fingers and red cheeks.

Within the past few days, the climate has completely changed. True, the nights remain still comparatively cold although now above freezing. During the day, however, the temperature has soared above twenty degrees centigrade; not only can coats come off but sweaters too and yesterday I opened a sunshade on my terrace since the midday sun had become a little too hot.

Talk of global warming! I don’t remember a heat haze quite like this in February…and it`s scheduled to continue for at least another week.

Time to look at doing some serious gardening. I walked to my little olive grove the other day and was shocked to find that two trees had almost been uprooted as a result of completely sodden ground and some strong winds.

With the help of neighbours, the trees were uprighted and I`m sure they will be saved.

Meanwhile, all the signs of spring are here including some delightful clumps of daffodils which my wife had planted with English bulbs.

Let’s hope we won’t go to the other extreme and find a water shortage as has sometimes happened at this time of year…

The Saffron Flower

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The road from Bagni di Lucca known as the Brennero and proceeding south towards Lucca has been closed in the stretch between Chifenti and Borgo a Mozzano for some months now because of a landslide. Work is proceeding to repair this important route but it’s doubtful whether it will reopen before the end of April. The current way to Lucca is via the bridge at Calavorno which has been banned to hgvs (otherwise it would have been near to collapse!) These have now to detour even further north up the Serchio valley via the bridge at Pian di Coreglia.

I avoid both bridges and stick to my favourite route which takes me though the mountain village of Corsagna. I love this road with its expansive views over the surrounding snow-covered appenines.

Heading towards Bagni di Lucca from Corsagna yesterday I came across this delightful patch of crocuses near an old paper mill.

These flowers, harbingers of Spring, go back a long way. They are mentioned in the Bible’s Song of Songs and in ancient Greece they were scattered in wedding beds. In ancient Rome it was customary to decorate the tombs with this flower as a wish for a peaceful afterlife.

There are various legends surrounding the crocus. In one of these Croco was a young man in love with the shepherdess Smilliace who was transformed into a crocus by Venus. In another legend the crocus flower sprouted when Paris gave his judgment on the most beautiful of the goddesses.

The crocus is famous for producing the world’s most expensive spice, saffron. It must be an incredibly labour intensive work to produce just an ounce of the spice. A couple from a village near us, Guzzano, set out to grow crocuses for saffron but someone the project never materialized.

A warning. Don’t eat a freshly picked crocus since it is very poisonous! There are so many beautiful flowers and plants in nature that, like enticing dryads, bring one closer to that easeful end which all must face one day. In the meanwhile let us enjoy these wonderful spectacles the Earth presents to us…

Signs of Spring

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Barely a week ago the weather around Longoio was like this:

Longoio recorded temperatures of minus 5 and l have rarely seen the ice in my tub so thick.

I was worried for my camellia buds:

And Cheeky looked despondently on the desolate scene.

It’s been all change this week, however. Temperatures have risen by over ten degrees and the skies have turned to muggy mists rather than the freezing blues we’ve been having.

In the wood surrounding our cottage a welcome bunch of daffodils are blossoming, ready for March and Saint David’s day.

The hardy hellebores line our forest paths:

 

Our scattering of garden flowers are recovering.

The fountain in our outside wall retains its hardy foliage 

while the terracotta Madonna I placed there all those years ago when I first came here looks benignly on the scene.

My coveted calendar, given free at the Erbolario natural medicine shop at Fornaci, reflects the patch of snowdrops nearby.

In English the name ‘snowdrop’ implies that these bold little flowers have dropped onto the white stuff from above. In Italy these flowers are even more audacious since the name given to them is  ‘bucaneve’ – literally ‘snow piercer’.

Let us emulate these flowers and all that spring promises in our own hopes at these difficult times and may they be equally positive. 

 

 

The Magic of Equi Terme

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I have translated the following article by our friend Giovanni Ranieri Fascetti, an authority on the area.

The article first appeared in ‘Toscana Today’ magazine, a very interesting publication dealing with Tuscan events, history and places. Here is the link:

Il segreto di Equi Terme

We love this area and have done many fine walks there. In addition, we have taken part in the living Christmas crib, described in the article, on several occasions. All photographs in the translation are mine.

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Equi Terme’s Secret

One can easily fall in love with Equi Terme. What is its secret? Is it the scenery with an abundance of rivers and streams or is it perhaps its inhabitants? Maybe it is the legends attached to EquI dating back into the mists of time. What is certain is that Equi is a special place and offers magical moments for everyone.

How many of you reading this have been to Equi? Many, certainly, have visited the living nativity crib, one of the most beautiful in Italy. It almost seems that the landscape has been specially chosen to create a town so that it would one day become the setting for a nativity scene. At a certain point the villagers chose St. Francis, who invented the Christmas crib representation at Greccio, as their patron.

When in 1986 some villagers decided to create a living nativity crib, they could never have imagined the success that  it would have. The influx of visitors during the four evenings of the Nativity scene reaches up to fifteen thousand persons. In the upper Lunigiana area, in Versilia and beyond, many places began to participate in this tradition. However, despite the competition, the beauty of the Equi living crib remains unsurpassed.

This village of stone houses clings to a steep rock face. Opposite is another very high almost vertical rock face. Eons ago the two were joined together to form a basin filled by a lake fed by a stream descending from the Pizzo d’Uccello mountain peak and by a source flowing from a cave.

This lake has produced a huge waterfall with a powerful beauty when the snows of the mountain melt or when it rains a lot in the Garfagnana. The water flow has caused the collapse of the rock wall revealing a cavity, the source of so much water known as “la Buca”. This crevasse in the rocks with its inspiring beauty releases a gentle flow of clear streams. Thunderstorms and heavy rains swell the underground rivers and the water from the Buca bursts out powerfully with a continuous roar.

The town has always remained tenaciously clinging to the rock face with some houses reaching to the edge of the stream near the Buca. These dwellings used to be mills grinding chestnuts and cereals and those crushing olives.

Equi crowns the valley of the shiny river whose waters, passing through the Aulella and the Aulla, reach the Magra river and from thence to the sea. From the sea, almost as if Neptune wanted to thank them for the gift of water, a temperate air climbs up the corridor of valleys reaching Equi softening the climate during winter. Here, around the Lucido valley, extensive terraces of olive trees are to be found and there is no shortage of vineyards producing distinctive wines like that of Monte dei Bianchi. In winter while the mountains that surround it are all white Equi is rarely covered with snow.

Arriving in Equi in autumn and winter – I recommend that visitors coming from Pisa, Lucca and Bagni di Lucca go by train on the Lucca-Aulla line – one has a vision of the town surrounded by a steamy mist arising from another torrent descending from Mount Ugliancaldo. This evocative steam comes from Equi’s thermal springs and is the origin of its name which derives from Latin ‘Aquae’ indicating the presence of a thermal source. The Roman structure came to light in the early twentieth century; Mrs Vinicia, the grand Lady of Equi now sadly departed, said that one could see the walls and floors of the rooms decorated with black and white mosaic tiles.

(Vinicia and Giovanni)

Equi is truly the Queen ruling the waters that in the Nativity setting with their sound, the waterfall’s noise at its foot and the steamy vapours play a decisive role in enhancing the area’s fascination. These streams give rise to the river called Lucido “because it never gets murky”. Where there is water there is life and in prehistoric times the area was rich in animals: bears would hibernate in the Tecchia, a cave next to the Buca.

A museum near the Equi caves tells us about these ancient events and also about the hunting of these animals by the first men.

Those who leave the town eastwards towards Ugliancaldo, can walk along the Via del Solco which winds through a ravine with vertical walls eroded over millions of years by the force of the waters. The path, of a unique picturesqueness, slips into long tunnels, dug by pickaxes when extraction of marble was first started at the foot of the Pizzo d’Uccello. At one point the path crosses a deep gorge on a bold single-arched stone bridge. After the last tunnel, one faces an amphitheatre made entirely of sparkling white marble which, although a wound inflicted by man in the mountain’s bowels, has all the drama that mining landscapes can sometimes inspire.

In the caves scattered at various heights along the Via del Solco, men from a tribe, well-defined culturally by the objects they used, laid the bodies of their dead. This neolithic human group is called “facies of Vecchiano”. But what does Vecchiano have to do with it?

Vecchiano is a town close to Pisa on the banks of the Serchio. In the caves of Vecchiano hill remains of individuals from the same tribe populating the mountains of Equi have been found. And here is visible the thousand-year-old, unwritten history of transhumance when shepherds followed the flocks that in the cold months left the Apuan area to come and graze in the Serchio, Arno and Era valleys. In the warm season the shepherds returned from the Maremma to the mountains.

Equi holds many stories, both ancient and more recent, and all always surprising. At the spa there is a small monument commemorating the engineer Carlo Tonelli (1855 – 1929). A native of Equi, after completing his studies at the Polytechnic of Turin, Carlo collaborated in Rome with the Mayor Ernesto Nathan in the planning of residential areas and parks that were to give the city the appearance of a modern European capital without distorting the complex and evocative context of historic districts. However, Carlo’s generous heart had not forgotten his native village and he dedicated his resources and skills to Equi’s economic development: the start of marble extraction, the creation of the thermal baths and the construction of the Hotel Radium with its very elegant art nouveau architecture. Tonelli finally conceived the project of getting the Lucca-Aulla railway line pass through Equi, contributing to the design of monumental architectural structures that recalled the grandeur of Roman imperial buildings. In a short time, Equi became an exclusive resort for the thermal holidays of the Roman nobility. Development smiled on the village and Carlo watched over and provided for all Equi’s needs, as when he took over its reconstruction after the 1920 earthquake that affected the area causing considerable damage to Casola, Ugliancaldo and Codiponte.

It was in Codiponte that Tonelli took care of the restoration of the Romanesque church, one of the most beautiful in the Apuan area.

One evening in 1926 Carlo Tonelli was returning with his gig from the town of Gragnola when he found the road blocked by blackshirts. The engineer understood that they were waiting for him and, raising his whip, exclaimed: “Get out of the way, you who have souls darker than your shirts!” Hit with batons he was left in agony on the roadway. Taken to Fivizzano hospital he died some hours later. Why was such ferocity towards such a generous man? I had guessed why and mentioned it in town. I was told it was not what I thought; in an Italy often gripped by taboos it is difficult to speak of Freemasonry but Ms. Vinicia, the dean of the town, who discreetly kept the secrets of the entire community of yesteryear said that the day after the engineer’s death Masonic insignia was found in his safe. After the approval of the law of 25 May 1925, with which the Prime Minister Benito Mussolini had banned Freemasonry in Italy, the engineer had kept alive the “Fiume Lucido” Lodge in Gragnola, thus challenging the Regime. Unfortunately, in the world there are those who build and those who destroy.

Those gentlemen wearing black shirts also provoked war and the war brought the occupation troops of the Third Reich who in the nearby village of Vinca made an unprecedented massacre of the people and then turned to Equi. They blew up every other house, even the house from which a paralytic could not get away. The inhabitants of Equi were shaking, hidden in the basement of the station. They trembled until the Germans hurried off after a comrade’s abdomen had been ripped apart by his own grenade.

Finally peace came and returned to the village, now made safe and sound. Vinicia’s husband, Giovanni, a handsome Sardinian financier, and she, as he had promised, made the path from Equi to the sanctuary of the wood, on top of the rocky ridges where the Madonna appeared to a shepherdess in 1600, who was on her bare knees on the stones of the mule track. Trade resumed, the Lupacino tunnel was inaugurated and trains finally began to run on the newly completed track from Lucca to Aulla and vice versa. Tourism developed. The living Nativity crib was born and the future seemed even brighter. However, more recently there has been an economic crisis, the abandonment of the mountains, an earthquake that caused considerable damage in the area, a lack of initiative by the administrators and finally, today the pandemic emergency. Despite all these difficulties, the inhabitants of Equi are resisting and look towards the futured The difficulty of life during past centuries, the river’s incessant flow, the changing of the seasons has taught them. They know how well the Czech people living along the Vltava River realize that “in this world nothing remains the same, the longest night is not eternal”. We wait with them and light will return, as every year, in January Candlemas occurs when, after months of shadow, sunlight filters again from the crests of the Pizzo d’Uccello  to illuminate the stream and announces the arrival of spring and summer.

 

But Not Love

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With Saint Valentine’s day just passed and with all the time in the world to listen to music (which hopefully we will be able to hear live once again) I have been delving into Italian song. No, not the operatic arias of the likes of Verdi or Vivaldi but popular song on which so much of these great composers’ music is based.

The archetypal Italian tenor from Caruso to Bocelli has never disdained these products of a less sophisticated milieu and, in particular, the Neapolitan song of which my favourite is that melting ballad ‘cor ‘ngrato’ as sung by the unforgettable Giuseppe di Stefano who I am old enough to remember singing with La Divina Callas (her voice was by then sadly rather less than divina) at a farewell concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 1974.

My Milanese-born mother, who was classically trained in piano at the conservatoire of her birthplace (among her graduation pieces was Bartok’s ‘Allegro Barbaro’), would occasionally sing a lovely tune to the words ‘Ma l’amore No.’ She said she remembered it from a wartime film.

I looked into this song recently; it’s interesting how lockdown can conjure up so many early recollections in the deprived social world we are forced to live in these days!

“Ma l’amore no” (But not love) is an Italian song, dating from 1942 and written by Giovanni D’Anzi and Michele Galdieri, which was sung for the first time by Alida Valli in the film directed by Mario Mattoli, “Stasera niente di nuovo”. (‘Nothing new tonight’).

A few months after the release of the film the song was recorded by Lina Termini. The version by Alberto Rabagliati is the one that is the best known but the song has been covered by many other artistes including Mina and Gigliola Cinquetti (my favourite cover version) and US singer Mike Patton (very upbeat and to my mind rather terrible). Several of these singers would come and perform at Bagni di Lucca during its fifties heyday. I wonder if those times will ever return…

Although there was an international trend in Italian songs during the war years largely due to the increasing presence of the Allied American army and there were numerous songs with exotic rhythms and strong jazz accents, this enchanting piece, with its classical tinge, soon became one of the Italian musical leitmotifs of the forties. Indeed, “ma l’amore no” has become a perennial favourite…a sort of Italian equivalent of ‘we’ll meet again’ and that most touching of Second World War songs and one which transcended enemy frontiers to be sung alike by both Allied and Axis powers: ‘Lili Marlene’, originally performed by Lale Andersen.

In spite of some quite convincing covers I have to go back to Alida Valli’s performance. It is simply unbeatable in spite of the fact that the great actress of aristocratic descent – who threw back in the face of the fascists any attempt to make her an icon of Mussolini’s propaganda films – never recorded the song outside its film setting and who, compared with LinaTermini, did not have a particularly projecting voice.

(Alida Valli)

There is another reason why I prefer Alida. She includes a very sweet introductory passage which all subsequent versions cut. Furthermore, in her singing of the chorus stanza Valli introduces a grace note a third interval above which makes all the difference.

Anyway, here is that delectable song interpreted by the wonderful Alida Valli who left us as recently as 2006 after an exceptional career with all the greatest that Italy has produced including Luchino Visconti.

And here is my translation of the Italian words.

”Looking at the roses that bloomed this morning
I think they will be withered by tomorrow
And all things are like roses
Which live a day, an hour and no more.
But love, no, my love cannot
Be dispersed in the wind with the roses.
It is so strong that it will not give up.
It will not fade;
I will watch over it, I will defend it
From all those poisonous snares
Which would like to snatch it from my heart.
Poor love
Maybe you will leave
And you will seek caresses from other loves.
Alas
And if you come back already withered
All sweetness you will find in me
But love no, my love cannot
Dissolve with the gold of your hair
As long as I live it will be alive in me
Only for you
Maybe you will leave
And you will seek caresses from other loves
Alas.
And if you come back already withered
All sweetness you will find in me.
But love no, my love cannot
Dissolve with the gold of your hair.
As long as I live it will be alive in me
Only for you.”

Great songs last for ever whether they have been written by Schubert or Bixio. They are also the best way to enter into the mentality of a nation and to brush up one’s language skills!

Saint Valentine Locked Down in the Snow

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Clearly it’s going to be a difficult time for Saint Valentine’s day lovers this year. What a decision to pick February 14th as the day to implement orange zone lockdown measures in Tuscany! Obviously we shall have to celebrate in the privacy of our own homes but at least we’ll be comforted by the umpteenth new Italian government and by the wonderful winter wonderland surrounding us this weekend…

These are Orange zone regulations in operation from 14 February 2021 until further notice.

Travel.

You can travel within your own municipality between 5 am and 10 pm in compliance with the  restrictions introduced for travel to other private homes. In this case, visits to friends or relatives are allowed once a day to another private house in the same municipality between 5 am and 10 pm for a maximum of two people, in addition to those already living in the destination home. One or two persons can bring with them children under 14 (or other children under 14 under their care) and disabled or non self-sufficient people living with them.

Travel to other municipalities are allowed only for work or health needs (e.g. medical appointments.)

Return to one’s home is always allowed. The curfew also remains in force: from 10 pm to 5 am only travel for work or health reasons is allowed. If you are allowed to return to a second home you will have to prove that you have reason to reside in that house. 

Those who live in a municipality with less than five thousand inhabitants are allowed to move between 5 am and 10 pm within 30 km from the border of their municipality (therefore  into another region or province), also for visits to friends or relatives as described, without, however, travelling to provincial capitals.

Bars and restaurants.

One  is not allowed to consume food and drinks in restaurants and other catering establishments (including bars, pastry shops, ice cream parlours, etc.) and in their neighbourhood

From 5 am to 10 pm sale of take-away food and drinks is allowed as follows: from 5 am to 6 pm without restrictions; from 6 pm to 10 pm it is forbidden for bars without a kitchen or retail outlet to sell beverages. Home delivery is allowed without time limits, in compliance with the regulations on packaging and product delivery. Consumption of food and drinks inside hotels and other accommodation is only allowed for customers staying there.

Shops and supermarkets.

There are no restrictions on the types of saleable goods. On public holidays and the day before public holidays, retail establishments inside shopping centres and markets are closed, except for pharmacies, health centres, food outlets, tobacconists and newsagents.

Retail activities can be carried out on condition that compliance with anti-contagion regulations is ensured, such as social distancing of at least one metre, not staying inside the premises for more than the time necessary for the purchase of goods, etc.

Museums and events.

Opening of museums, institutes and cultural places to the public is suspended, with the exception of libraries and archives upon appointment, subject to compliance with pandemic emergency measures.

One can use open spaces for film and audio-visual shooting. Live shows with the public are suspended.

Religious functions with a congregation can be carried out, as long as they comply with the protocols signed by the Government with the respective religious organizations.

Sport.

Outdoor and individual sports are allowed. For free sporting activities you must remain in your municipality.

You are allowed to go to public and private sports centres and clubs in your municipality or, in the absence of such structures, in neighbouring municipalities, to carry out basic outdoor sports activities in compliance with the rules of social distancing and without any gatherings. The use of internal changing rooms is prohibited.

Gyms, swimming pools, wellness centres and spas are closed, except for  rehabilitation or therapeutic services and the training of professional and non-professional athletes participating in national competitions and events.

Contact sports are prohibited. All competitions, competitions and activities related to amateur contact sports are prohibited. 

 

 

Some of The World’s Most Beautiful Women…

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The Uffizi, along with Italy’s other national museums, was re-opened at the end of January. I could not resist going to Florence to pay a visit to one of my all-time favourite art galleries. Designed by Vasari as the Medici’s government offices the Uffizi incorporates perhaps the first comprehensive city street design. From the connecting portico at the end of its two arms there is one of the most memorable views of Florence.

 

And looking across from the other side this is what one sees.

 

In this case it was a river Arno boiling with mud brought down from the mountains as a result of the heavy rains we’ve been continually having. It is this sort of situation that caused the terrible floods in the autumn of 1966. Now, with the new overflow channels and improved weather forecasting let’s trust that these things never happen again to devastate one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

The delight of having one of the world’s greatest collections of renaissance paintings virtually all to myself as if it was my own private gallery was quite marvellous. The Uffizi was originally the Medici’s own personal collection  but in the eighteenth century it was opened to the citizens of Florence to create the world’s first public art gallery.

The Uffizi web site is very comprehensive and well designed. It’s at https://www.uffizi.it/en.

I’ve been to this treasury of all that’s finest in human artistic creation many times so I was wondering what new things would attract me on this visit. I noticed how the display of the Uffizi’s collection has improved considerably over the years; for example, there’s this room starting the museum’s itinerary and displaying the earliest Italian art, including the great Madonne by Duccio, Cimabue and the painter who changed the course of Italian art, Giotto.

The Botticellis remain ever sublime and are spaciously displayed. It was wonderful to be able to admire the great neo-platonic paintings of the Birth of Venus and the Primavera all by oneself!

I was astounded by the new Leonardo gallery and, in particular, by his ‘Adoration of the Magi,’ returned here after a seven-year restoration which has done so much to give back the freshness of this unfinished painting.

This is the painting before restoration:

And this is it after:

 

The adoration of the Magi remained unfinished because Leonardo got an irresistible invite to the court of Milan where, among other things, he painted his ‘Last Supper’. It was left to Filippino Lippi to paint a properly finished version for his commissioners. This painting is also in the Uffizi:

 

Two things in the Uffizi particularly struck me this time.

First, the wonderful representations of nature details in so many paintings. Surely landscape art starts here as part of the background to religious themes. Perhaps the painters, having to depict their sacred subjects according to strict ecclesiastical rules, let themselves go in these beautiful scenarios where they were able to introduce Tuscan landscapes and further display their descriptive skills.

Second, the sublime beauty of the Madonne. These endearing women must have been clearly based on the beauty of the models the painters took from the best-looking women of renaissance Florence. What love affairs and physical adoration must have lain behind these stunning faces!

 

Each one of us will have their favourites but I was particularly transfixed by this face painted by the Sicilian painter Antonello da Messina. I just had to fall in love with her!

But then one falls in love with so much of Italian art. It is just beyond value!

Here is another selection of the photos I took of the  paintings:

The Uffizi museum is open from Tuesday to Friday only. To be absolutely sure of getting admission it might be worth booking ahead. Certainly if the tourist season starts in earnest pre-booking is essential. I could just turn up and got my ticket at 12 euros which is 4 euros less than if you book it.

A caveat. If one is a lover of seventeenth century painting including the Dutch school then one in for a disappointment. Only half of the Uffizi is open. So no Caravaggios or Rembrandts!

However, surely to be able again to see the Botticellis, the Michelangelos, the Raphaels and the Leonardos is more than adequate compensation for those of us who, in this continuing world health crisis, have been starved of museums and art galleries for so long…

 

Malta’s Old Capital

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Before La Valletta became Malta’s capital in the 16th century the island’s capital was Mdina, Arabic for ‘walled city’ but known in Italian as ‘La Notabile’. Situated in the centre of the island it makes a welcome change from the busy life of La Valletta and entering inside the town’s austere Arab walls we found it very pleasant to wander through quiet, almost deserted streets lined with several noble mansions.

The cathedral of Saint Paul is Mdina’s most ‘Notabile’ building. Mediaeval in origin it was completely reconstructed after a major earthquake in the late seventeenth century whose epicentre was at Noto in Sicily.  Saint Paul now presents an elegant baroque appearance which is not unduly fussy.

We also visited the cathedral’s museum with its rich collection of ecclesiastical vestments and paintings.

Malta has a total of 359 churches in a country with a population of just 514,564 inhabitants. Most of these buildings have something of interest distinguishing them. Clearly it would be impossible to see them all. However, of the handful that we visited we remember the following as outstanding:

The parish church of the Assumption (Mosta Rotunda) – Mosta.

St John’s co-cathedral – Valletta (already described in my previous posts on Malta).

The Collegiate Parish Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck – Valletta. Here are some of our photos of this lovely baroque building in La Valletta.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Paul – Mdina (described in this post).

Here is a useful list of some of the best Maltese churches:

9 Of Malta’s Most Beautiful Churches

As a young lad I collected stamps and was particularly proud of my Commonwealth collection especially the section on Malta. In the definitive series of Queen Elizabeth II stamps was this one showing the Mosta Rotunda. It had always been my ambition to visit it and finally I did!

Mosta Rotunda church was built in the 19th century to a design by the Maltese architect Giorgio Grognet de Vassé who believed that his island was a remnant of the great kingdom of the now underwater Atlantis. Its dome, with a diameter of 37 metres, is reckoned to be the fourth largest in Europe and the ninth largest in the world. Clearly inspired by Rome’s Pantheon the building was completed in 1860.

We found the rotunda’s interior very noble with its neo-classical style. The religious devotion of the Maltese must be truly intense to have been able to raise funds in their little island for such a magnificent church.

Malta is strictly speaking the name given to just the larger of its two main islands. We still had to take the ferry to Gozo, the other island, and discover its very special charms harking back to pre-package holiday times…

Florence’s Angelic Fountain

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Florence now has three new tramways, the latest of which was opened in 2019. It did once have an old tram system running through its mediaeval centre but this was dismantled during that phase when the authorities believed that petrol buses alone would solve their transport problems.  Like London’s own system running from Wimbledon to Beckenham, Florence has re-embraced this ecologically sound mode of transportation and there are now even two new routes planned, one which will reach the big Coop store at Il Bandino south of the river Arno.

However, having arrived yesterday at the magnificent Santa Maria Novella train station, a masterpiece of modern architecture by Michelucci, I was unable to find the bus that l needed to reach my destination in the city of the lily.

The new tramway had taken over part of the bus route but I was told to proceed past the ghastly three golden arches eating place (near which Shelley had written his Ode to the West Wind…obviously before the arches had appeared) and suddenly came face-to-face with one of the most delightful tabernacles I have ever encountered in this wonderful city, the epicentre of a renaissance which spread throughout the Western world.

The tabernacle of the Fonticine is one of the most beautiful tabernacles in Florence. Framing a large Della Robbia altarpiece it also consists of a basin with fountains and is located in via Nazionale, a few steps from the San Lorenzo market. Created by Girolamo della Robbia in 1522, it is called ‘delle fonticine’  because of the seven cherub heads pouring water, through the spouts on their mouths into the marble basin. I tried a palmful of this water and it was truly angelic in taste.

I eventually reached Piazza dell’Indipendenza, one of Florence’s largest squares where the bus I was looking for soon appeared. I was so glad that the bus route had been altered else I would have never chanced upon ‘le fonticelle’!