Florentine Facades

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Francis

There was a time when too many museums in Florence seemed stuck in a time warp: they were becoming museum pieces in themselves. There seemed to be no dynamic curatorship, few up-to-date guides, no provisions for children’s activities, no special events and the same rooms ‘under restoration’ since time immemorial.

The change since we first began visiting Florence in the 1980’s has been remarkable. There is a new awareness, a revaluation of the city’s extraordinary cultural heritage, management has been reorganized, and the introduction of digital technology for matters from bookings to virtual visits has changed everything. Nowhere is this transformation more visible than in the Museo dell’Opera Del Duomo, the museum dedicated to Florence’s cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. Completely renovated in 2015 it is one of the city’s most spectacular museums.

The entrance is through a spacious hall leading to a passageway with the names of those involved in building the cathedral carved on a wall.

We come face to face with Florence’s cathedral’s greatest treasure, the unfinished Michaelangelo Pietà now being restored. (I wish I could have seen the restorers at work).

We then enter a vast space where the original, uncompleted gothic facade of the Duomo has been reconstructed on a 1 to 1 scale.

A curator told me that this exhibit alone cost half the funds spent on the museum’s refurbishment. It was this facade that was torn down to be replaced, it was hoped, by a newly designed one. For almost four centuries this never occurred until in the nineteenth century there was final agreement on the present frontage as a result of a competition. Although clearly it would have been better if the original design had been completed the present facade is more suitable for a gothic building transitioning into the renaissance than the various abandoned baroque projects.

Why have so many churches in Florence (and, indeed, in Italy – Milan Cathedral’s front was only completed in the nineteenth century, for example) had problems in completing their facades. Of the great churches Santa Maria Novella is the only one with a frontage which was completed during the renaissance when Alberti built upon the uncompleted Romanesque section and finished it off with those graceful volutes which became a hallmark of many subsequent churches.

Santa Croce, the huge Franciscan church, only had its front added in the late nineteenth century. The two great Brunelleschi-designed churches of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito have no completed facades and Santa Maria del Carmine, with its great Masaccio frescoes, presents a similarly raw frontage.

What was the problem? Perhaps it’s because the facades were the last part of the churches to be built by which time funds could have run out, or perhaps styles may have changed in fashion and nobody could agree on how to complete the last part of their church.

A considerable part of the museum is devoted to this thorny issue as can be seen from the models of the facade designs submitted through the centuries before the present scheme was finally approved.

It’s significant to note that not all Italian cities have had this problem with their churches. For example, Siena, Orvieto and Spoleto completed their wonderful cathedral facades in gothic or early renaissance times.

Other sections of Florence’s museum house the original sculptures from Giotto’s bell-tower (the ones one sees on the campanile are reproductions).

Ghiberti’s miraculous doors of paradise are here too (again what one sees on the baptistery are copies).

A considerable part of the display is devoted to the revolutionary way Brunelleschi built the famous cupola without the use of centring form work or flying buttresses. The concept of a dome within a dome was one that Wren also took up when he came to build London’s St Pauls cathedral.

For me the most beautiful part of the museum was the section dealing with the cantorie or choir stalls for the cathedral. On one side is Luca Della Robbia’s design with its wonderful groups of angelic singers.

On the other side is Donatello’s more classical version. Both are quite exquisite.

Again there is a mystery for me here. Why were these beautiful features removed from the cathedral? Was it because choirs became larger and required more space which only the apse could supply? Or was it just a change in fashions. I do not even know when the cantorie were removed. Certainly the interior of Florence cathedral presents a somewhat bare appearance when compared, say, to the sumptuousness of Siena cathedral.

Because of the pandemic not all the building is open. There is a top floor viewing terrace which remains closed. However, there is so much to see and appreciate in this exemplary museum that I remained very pleased with my visit.

Popeye Lives in Malta

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Francis

‘Know what’s on the telly tonight?’ said excitedly a classmate at my primary school.’ ‘No, what?’ I answered. ‘Popeye!’ he exclaimed. I wondered who this Popeye was since I had never heard of him before. That evening I watched my first Popeye cartoon and immediately fell in love with the brazen, sometimes ingenuous but always triumphant character that had to constantly fight it out with Bluto the bully for the affection of Olive Oyl and with his can of spinach at the last moment helping him to win the day.

Fast-forward to 1980 and Popeye appeared on the big screen at our local Odeon in the guise of Robin Williams as the indomitable sailor man and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl, his scatter-brain woman.

It was the wonderful Robin Williams’ first major film role and yet I was not unduly taken by it. I couldn’t understand a musical where the songs were so unmemorable, a plot which seemed so inconsequential and a dialogue which appeared to be largely the sailor’s incomprehensible mumblings.

The best thing about the film for me was the picturesque setting of Sweethaven the seaside fishing village where the drama was played out.

We were motoring along the southern Maltese coast when, suddenly, we came across what seemed to be an attractive fishing village.

It was Sweethaven, the film set for ‘Popeye’ and appears to have been built in a much longer-lasting way than most other film sets causing the film-making budget to increase alarmingly to twenty million dollars. (In fact, the film recouped its costs making almost three times as much).

Constructed film sets are by definition evanescent articles. True, when actual places are used then they will attract visits. Goodness knows how often the two major historic buildings in our part of London have been used for shooting films. The Royal Naval College appears, for example, in the version of ‘The Bounty’ starring Anthony Hopkins and much of the TV series ‘Porterhouse Blue’ takes place in Charlton house.

Despite its supposed schmaltzy connotations, Sweethaven turned out to be a fun experience. In fact, a really sweet one. We enjoyed visiting the village’s pseudo-nineteenth century north-west American coastal architecture and found the museum exhibits on the making of the film and the history of Popeye himself fascinating. We were also entertained by the show depicting Popeye and Olive Oyl’s wedding and even joined in and were immortalized in the film that was taken of it!

Our visit to Sweethaven reminded us that Malta’s heritage is not only baroque fortifications and Neolithic temples but also involves its location for feature films. For example, ‘Gladiator’ (Oliver Reed, the owner of the gladiator school in the film, died after a drinking binge in Valletta’s ‘The Pub’), the ‘Da Vinci code’, and several James Bond films, including ‘Never say Never’, were all shot in Malta. There’s a more complete list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_shot_in_Malta

Popeye sang “I yam what I yam an’ tha’s all I yam”. He also uttered “That’s all I can stands, ’cause I can’t stands no more!” which is what a lot of us feel at the moment regarding a major world health crisis! That’s why it’s so nice to hark back to our visits before the world changed for ever and when the great Robin Williams was still alive.

May the spirit of Popeye live in all of us during these hard times!

Not a Cello!

Posted on November 20, 2019 by Francis

Every good concert should not only be an exhilarating experience but also an educational one. This was absolutely the case with Francesco Tomei’s Viola da Gamba recital given in the delightfully venerable ambience of the San Francesco convent library at Borgo di Mozzano.

Tomei pointed out that a viola da gamba is NOT the precursor of the violoncello, which belongs to a completely different family of stringed instruments including the violin and the viola. The viola da gamba (gamba is Italian for foot) belongs to a class of instruments which date back rather earlier and which includes the viola da braccio (braccio=arm) and which in the UK were particularly popular in the seventeenth century with such luminaries as William Lawes, praised in Milton’s sonnet.

Francesco Tomei opened his recital with a suite of pieces by the mysterious Sieur de Saint-Colombe (ca. 1640–1700) whose opus was only recently discovered through a manuscript found in Tournus, a place I remember well from earlier times, when travelling by car with my parents to Italy, because of its jewel of a Romanesque church

Le Sieur de Saint Colombe – even his first name is unknown -published none of his large collection of pieces from Viola da Gamba and would only play in intimate surroundings. Among his achievements was to add a seventh lower string to the instruments, adding considerable gravitas to the gamba’s beautifully melancholic tone.

The Sieur’s reclusive existence was dealt a resounding blow by Pascal Quignard in 1991 when he published his novel based on Colombe’s life: Tous les matins du monde (‘All the Mornings of the World’), subsequently made into a film directed by Alain Corneau and starring Gérard Depardieu .

Other pieces played included a Telemann suite, again recently unearthed in the depths of a German Schloss.

The Scotsman Tobias Hume, in addition to being a musician, was a Scottish army captain with the Swedish and Russian armies. He was also a bit of a joker and this frontispiece to a collection of his works advertises a piece for one Viola da Gamba to be played by two persons, one a female sitting on the male player’s lap.

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Here it is, executed by an amorous couple on top of a snow-speckled mountain peak:

The highly enjoyable recital concluded with items from that doyen of the Viola da Gamba, Marin Marais (1656– 15 1728) le Sieur de Saint Colombe’s most distinguished student.

I doubt that the Viola da Gamba has been heard in this part of the world since its heyday in the seventeenth century and it was a real privilege to hear its richly autumnal tones echo in the chambers of the convent of Saint Francis at Borgo a Mozzano.

If you were unfortunate enough to miss out on this concert there will be others in the series, all under the enterprising artistic direction of guitarist Giacomo Brunini. They all take place in some of the most exquisite ambiences of our lovely valley including, on first December, at Fornoli:

Be sure to put these dates in your diary!

cocerti borgo

La Casa di un Profugo a Londra

Posted on August 19, 2019 by Francis

C’era un tempo, prima di questo dannato Brexit, quando il governo del Regno Unito era ben più accogliente ai suoi vicini sul continente d’Europa. Con l’arrivo del nazismo, la crescita dell’antisemitismo e l’annessione dell’Austria dalla Germania nel 1938, la vita di uno dei grandi nello scorso secolo, Sigmund Freud, il fondatore della psicoanalisi, era in grave pericolo. Già nel 1933 i suoi libri furono pubblicamente bruciati e, negli anni seguenti, emigrò la maggior parte della comunità psicoanalista ebrea.

Nel 1938, con l’aiuto di amici e il pagamento di una ‘tassa’ al terzo reich, Freud e la sua famiglia riuscirono a fuggire da una Vienna sempre più violenta a una Londra aperta al suo pensiero e le sue opere. Fino alla sua morte l’anno successivo, Freud visse in questa casa, costruita nel 1920 e vicina alla stazione underground di Finchley Road.

Gli ultimi giorni di Freud, sebbene avesse in forma avanzata il cancro al palato (era un grande fumatore di sigari), sono stati passati serenamente. Disse che la sua nuova dimora londinese era molto più confortevole dell’appartamento a Vienna. Scrisse il suo grande libro su Mosè e il monoteismo e fu visitato da molti amici e ammiratori, incluso Salvador Dali, che gli fece un ritratto.

In più, continuo’ la sua pratica con i pazienti.

La casa è rimasta tale quale era al tempo della morte e, nel 1982, la figlia Anna, anche lei psicoanalista, la aprì come museo.

Il ‘Sanctum Sanctorum’ nel pian terreno contiene il famoso sofà, dove i pazienti di Freud, in libera associazione d’idee e di pensieri, svuotarono la loro psiche all’orecchio dell’esperto dottore che rimase seduto, fuori della loro vista, sulla poltroncina verde a sinistra.

Qui si trova lo studio di Freud con la sua magnifica collezione di reperti archeologici provenienti dall’antica Grecia e Roma, l’India e (il suo preferito) l’Egitto dei faraoni.

Freud disse che la psicoanalisi era analoga al lavoro dell’archeologo: come l’archeologo ricostruisce la plausibile forma di un vaso dai cocci trovati, così lo psicoanalista ricostruisce l’origine della psicosi del paziente dai frammenti della memoria e dei sogni che scoperchia.

In più, disse Freud che il conscio si corrode mentre l’inconscio rimane. Le cose delle quali siamo meno consapevoli della nostra vita mentale sono proprio quelle che persisteranno e che la condizioneranno.

Freud era particolarmente ben letto e nella sua biblioteca si trovano titoli di filosofia, arte, medicina, storia e archeologia.

Il piano superiore contiene la camera della figlia Anna.

Inoltre c’è una stanza che, in quest’occasione, ospitava una mostra sull’antico Egitto e il suo significato per Freud.

In questo rispetto mi è piaciuto sentire il seguente aneddoto: una volta i gatti erano antipatici al dottore affinché entrasse un giorno, per l’aperta finestra, un gattino che si diresse verso la statuetta della dea Bastet davanti alla quale cominciò a fare le fuse. Da quel giorno Freud ordinò un piatto di latte per il gattino, che ritornò quotidianamente.

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Freud era particolarmente innamorato del suo cane chow chow e del squisito giardino:

Ambedue Sigmund e Anna amavano questo pianerottolo pieno di luce. Mentre lui leggeva lei faceva maglieria e ricami. (La begonia è sempre quella pianta del 1938…)

Nella limonaia che apre sul giardino c’è un piccolo negozio dove si possono comprare libri su Freud e la psicoanalisi. Tra questi ho notato questo, scritto da un mio compagno di università che, purtroppo, anch’esso è morto di cancro, nel 2015.

Per me Freud ha un significato ugualmente importante come pensatore e come dottore; la sua casa mostra come una Londra, già con la tradizione di ospitare profughi rivoluzionari come Mazzini e Marx, abbia potuto trovare posto anche per Freud.

Speriamo proprio che questi valori di ospitalità e tolleranza, già mostrati in un paese minacciato dal nazi-fascismo teutonico, possano aiutare a superare la tragedia del brexit che sta ora travolgendo la nazione per più di tre anni.

Perchè del perchè?

Domande mai risposte:

la mente arcana.

Il Veliero Più Veloce nel Mondo

Posted on August 7, 2019 by Francis

Da una tenera età ho conosciuto la ‘Cutty Sark’ che si trova a Greenwich. Il nome della nave viene dal scozzese per ‘camicetta per donna’.

Costruita sul fiume Clyde, Glasgow, nel 1869 per la Jock Willis Shipping Line, fu una delle ultime clipper (la parola ‘clipper’ significa sveltezza) per il trasporto del tè ed è una delle più veloci, arrivando alla fine di un lungo periodo di sviluppo del design, che s’interruppe quando le navi a vela furono sorpassate da quelle a vapore.

La velocità era importantissima perché le prime navi che sbarcavano nel porto di Londra dalla Cina comandavano i prezzi più alti nel mercato per il tè.

L’apertura del Canale di Suez nel 1869 indicava che le navi a vapore ora avevano una rotta molto più breve verso la Cina, quindi la Cutty Sark trascorse solo pochi anni nel commercio del tè prima di dedicarsi al trasporto di lana dall’Australia, dove detenne il record di velocità dei clipper della Gran Bretagna per dieci anni (73 giorni per salpare 19711 kilometri, equivalente a 270 kilometri al giorno, cioè quasi 12 kilometri all’ora.)

I miglioramenti nella tecnologia del vapore fecero sì che anche le navi a vapore gradualmente arrivassero a dominare la rotta di navigazione per l’Australia, e la nave fu venduta alla società portoghese Ferreira and Co. nel 1895 e ribattezzata ‘Ferreira’. Continuò come nave da carico fino a quando non fu acquistata nel 1922 dal capitano Wilfred Dowman, che la usò come nave da addestramento a Falmouth, in Cornovaglia. Dopo la sua morte, la Cutty Sark fu trasferita al Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe nel 1938, dove divenne una nave di addestramento per i cadetti come si usa ancora l’Amerigo Vespucci nella marina Italiana. (Vedere il mio post sull’Amerigo Vespucci a

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/10/13/sea-fever/

E a:

https://longoio.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/a-top-secret-establishment/

Vedere anche i modellini di questi velieri in una mostra a Prato nel mio articolo a:

https://longoio.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/prato-tuscanys-manchester/

Nel 1954 la ‘Cutty Sark’ fu trasferita nel bacino di carenaggio permanente a Greenwich, Londra, per essere aperta al pubblico.

La Cutty Sark fa parte della flotta storica nazionale. È una dei soli tre rimanenti velieri del XIX secolo costruiti di legno su un telaio di ferro del XIX secolo.

Gli altri sono la ‘città di Adelaide’, arrivata a Port Adelaide, nel South Australia il 2014 per conservazione e lo scheletro spiaggiato del ’Ambassador’ del 1869 vicino a Punta Arenas, in Cile.

La nave è stata danneggiata da un incendio grave nel 2007 mentre era in fase di conservazione. Non l’ho più voluto vederla per tanto tempo dopo l’incendio, tale fu questo magnifico veliero vicino al cuore. Poi, quando la rividi, non mi piaceva per niente la sua nuova sistemazione con lo scafo mezzo affondato in una struttura che sciupava le elegantissime linee del clipper.

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Comunque, ho preso coraggio e l’altro giorno l’ho rivisitata. Certo, la nuova sistemazione consente di vedere l’esterno della nave molto meglio.

La ‘Cutty Sark’ non è più navigabile, però, imprigionata tra il cemento. D’altra parte tali ‘clipper’ furono costruite per una vita di non più di una ventina di anni: è, così, un miracolo che questo magnifico esemplare ha sopravvissuto fino ai giorni d’oggi.

La vita dell’equipaggio di venti sei persone è molto ben presentata, persino al tipo di cibo di cibo che mangiavano. (Per la più parte, carne secca, uova – tenevano le galline a bordo – fagioli e le lime contro lo scorbuto).

C’è anche un divertente gioco, dove si può navigare un veliero dalle Indie fino a Londra senza affondarla (c’è lo fatta io in ottanta sette giorni). Tutto è spiegato molto bene.

Interessante è la collezione di polene da altre navi: tra di loro sono Florence Nightingale e Garibaldi.

Intanto, qui ci sono degli scorci della ‘Cutty Sark’, con le cabine per l’equipaggio e il suo capitano. Notate la polena della ‘Cutty Sark’ con la sua camicetta.

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Veliero, mai più volerai

per i mari del mondo:

sempre svelato.

Lascivious Luxury at Viareggio

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Francis

Viareggio isn’t just sea, sun, sand and ice-cream. It’s also history with beautiful mansions ranging from classical to art nouveau. It’s a major luxury yacht building and service area. It’s a great fishing and sea food centre and it has a considerable artists’ colony. Together with its nearest English equivalent, Brighton, Viareggio has been the holiday haunt of the rich, the famous and the princely. Within its boundaries there are no less than two regal residences: the Villa Borbona on the Viale dei Tigli (‘Lime Tree Avenue’) and the Villa Paolina by the square which has a monument to Shelley, who unfortunately met his briny death in 1822, aged 29, off the Viareggio coast in a violent storm.

For last week’s fish Friday, I couldn’t miss my cod and chips. What better place to have it fresh from the sea of Viareggio with crispest batter but no soggy chips, and mayonnaise instead of vinegar…. mind you, I did miss my mushy peas… but not the rain!

P.S. The cat below is Ettore – a favourite of fishermen – sadly no longer with us on this planet since 2016 but in spirit with his statue. (Still miss my beloved cat Napoleone badly…..)

Other must-see places in Viareggio are the stunning art nouveau Villa Argentina (see my post on that at

Tiger-Hunting in Viareggio’s most Exquisite Art Nouveau Villa

and Puccini’s residences. (For more on them see my posts at

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/where-turandot-grew-up/

and

https://longoio3.com/2018/06/30/the-house-of-the-princess-of-my-dreams/

Recently, as part of international women’s week, at Bagni di Lucca’s casinò, Renata Frediani gave a fascinating talk on Paolina Bonaparte Borghese and her times. (See my post on this at https://longoio3.com/2019/03/13/dont-miss-out-on-pontes-casino-this-week/).

Renata mentioned that she had helped to refurbish the princess’s rooms in the Villa Paolina. Last Friday I visited the villa and was certainly not disappointed!

The exhibition is set up in the stately rooms of the ‘piano nobile’ of the emperor Napoleon’s sister, Paolina Borghese. It has been refurbished with furniture and artistic items of the Napoleonic age, all curated by Renata Frediani who is an antiques collector from Lucca and an expert on ‘style empire’. Most of the precious furnishings, including the entire collection of exquisite dresses on display, were supplied from Renata’s own collection.

The exhibition is further enriched with evening dresses, also from Renata’s collection. They are of special interest as they are by the famous fashion stylist from Lucca, Dina Bigongiari Santini who died in 2004 aged 89. If you’ve never heard of Bigongiari, you should know she was Giorgio Armani’s favourite designer as well as of the Royal House of Montecarlo. Dina was much appreciated for her novel dress designs which have a truly refined, aristocratic quality. She opened her atelier during the post-war period in the historic centre of Lucca and also created the silk museum, (upon which textile Lucca founded its fame and fortune).

Dina Bigongiari ’s styling was innovative and of the highest quality. For me a definition of beauty would be to meet a lady wearing one of her dresses…

Set in the exquisite ambience of Princess Borghese’s pleasure palace with its delightful frescoed rooms, the Villa Paolina’s collection is certainly something to seduce one away from the esplanade and the ozone-laden air of Viareggio’s seafront.

These are the villa’s current opening times.

1 September to 14 June: Wednesday to Saturday 3.30 PM to 7.30 PM, Sunday 9.30 to 1.30 PM, 3.30 PM to 7.30 PM.

There’s more information on the villa at https://www.visittuscany.com/en/attractions/villa-paolina-civic-museum-in-viareggio/

If your thing isn’t fashion then the villa Paolina houses no less than three other museums:

Museo Archeologico e dell’Uomo A.C. Blanc (local prehistoric and Etruscan finds.)

Museo degli Strumenti Musicali C. Ciuffreda (Musical instruments collection, including items from Tibet).

Atelier A. Catarsini: an artist’s studio and contemporary art exhibitions including paintings by one of my favourite local artists, the brilliant Fornaciari who lives round the corner from the villa.

To sum up do look at this leaflet about Viareggio’s civic museums:

Terminal Infection for the Greatest City in the World

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Francis

Exiting from Rome’s Stazione Termini – itself one of Rome’s iconic buildings and the mis-en-scene of Vittorio de Sica’s heartrending 1953 film ‘Stazione Termini’, AKA in a bad US cut version as ‘Indiscretions of an American wife’, starring Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift –

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one enters the city’s largest square the Piazza dei Cinquecento (incidentally, named cinquecento, ‘500’, in memory of the Italian soldiers who died in the 1887 battle of Dogali against the Ethiopian empire. I would have preferred Piazza Termini or even Terme….imperialism is somewhat out of fashion now!)

(Battle of Dogali – Italy’s late bid for an Empire…)

The square has, beyond the seemingly interminable bus stands, the ruins of the greatest Roman baths of the city, Diocletian’s, which date back to 300 AD.

1174

(From Bannister Fletcher’s plan of the baths)

These baths, besides comprising the Michelangelo-designed Santa Maria degli Angeli, contain the main part of Rome’s (and perhaps the world’s) finest museum of classical antiquities.

The National Roman Museum was founded in 1889 with the intention of being one of the main “Centres of historical and artistic culture of re-united Italy”.

The museum has been reorganized into four separate divisions, each in a different location:

These are:

The National Museum of Rome in Diocletian’s baths (visited in 2011).
The Palazzo Altemps (which I visited in 2017)
The Palazzo Massimo (visited in 2011 and again this year)
The Crypta Balbi (not yet visited).

The palazzo Massimo is conveniently placed near the Stazione Termini and on the morning of my departure from Rome I was able to visit it in the company of my two friends, John and Carol.

The palazzo itself is a massive nineteenth-century neo-Renaissance style building with great views over the ‘cinquecento’ square,

It houses one of the most important ancient art collections in the world: sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, coins and goldsmiths’ work document the evolution of Roman artistic culture.

Here is the plan of the Museo di Palazzo Massimo:

We wisely started on the second floor where frescoes, stuccoes and mosaics document the decoration of prestigious Roman residences. Here I was particularly struck by the evocative frescoes of the pomegranate gardens of the Emperor Augustus’s wife, Livia Drusilla’s villa, recomposed from its original location at Prima Porta, and the Farnesina villa.

Isn’t it easy for any ornithologist or botanist to recognize the life in these pictures, even after two thousand years? Spot the hoopoe (Upupa in Italian).

The mosaics and intarsia are equally astounding.

Suddenly I felt a déjà vue. Of course, I have been here before! It was in 2011, with my wife Sandra on a visit to meet school friends John Wagstaff and Martin Cardwell at Piazza dell’Esedra.. Such is the richness of the Imperial city however, that I saw these wonders with new eyes.

(Me and old school-mates with consorts at fountain in piazza dell’Esedra, 2011)

The first floor is dedicated to the development of sculpture and portraiture. Here is the girl from Anzio and Roman copies of celebrated Greek statues: the discus thrower, the crouching Aphrodite:

Surely Bagni di Lucca’s own bather is inspired by her.

Ninfa_Termale_androne_Comune_di_Bagni_di_Lucca

(Statue in foyer of Bagni di Lucca’s town hall)

Then there’s the discus thrower, and the gender-bending sleeping hermaphrodite.

I was particularly taken by the bronze sculptures which are all that remain of Caligula’s ceremonial ships dredged from the lake of Nemi in 1930’s after centuries of futile effort in recovering them.

Sadly, the hulks were the victims of the last war. The description in the museum states they were destroyed by arson in 1944. My HM government pamphlet on destruction of monuments in Italy in WW2 issued in 1945 states that they were set alight in a revenge attack by retreating German troops. A more recent report describes the situation thus:

“At that time, Allied forces were pursuing the retreating German army northward through the Alban Hills toward Rome. On May 28, a German artillery post was established within 400 feet (120 m) of the museum … An official report filed in Rome later that year described the tragedy as a wilful act on the part of the German soldiers. A German editorial blamed the destruction on American artillery fire. The true story of what happened that night will probably never be known”

What will also never be known is what happened to ‘Project Diana’ of 2004 to rebuild these ships in their original size (sufficient drawings exist for this to be achievable – the Nemi museum now only houses copies built to one fifth the original size). Anyway, let us be grateful that at least these impressive bronze pieces have survived from what must have been hugely impressive galleys. But if only they’d waited to dredge them after that war!

Also to wonder at on this floor is the Portonaccio sarcophagus: a virtuoso piece of sculpture describing battles fought by one of Marcus Aurelius’ generals.

Isn’t the lighting in this museum superb!

The ground floor houses stunning original Greek sculpture found in Rome: the Boxer, the Hellenistic Prince and the Niobe from the Sallustian gardens, and culminating in the statue of the emperor Augustus, Pontiff Maximum.

Time was now no longer on my side and, besides, there is only so much one can take in, even if it is the finest collection of Roman antiquities in the world.

A surprisingly good lunch was followed by a heart-felt goodbye to my dear friends

and a hasty departure to catch my train to Pisa and thence to Bagni di Lucca, homeward bound to Longoio.

It was a journey of a little over six hours on the coast railway which always gives splendid views and is somewhat cheaper than going on the TAV to Florence (which actually doesn’t cut the journey time very much especially when one considers it takes longer to get from Bagni di Lucca to Florence than from Florence to Rome!)

Goodbye beautiful Eternal City. See you soon again!

PS As I approached Lucca I thought of the words of the magnificent ‘Inno a Roma’ composed by that city’s most famous son, Giacomo Puccini. Here it is conducted by acquaintance Andrea Colombini in Vienna’s Musikverein. (yes we were there!!!!!). See words below with my translation,

PPS Here are my return train tickets:

In case you didn’t work it out, it cost me £22.59 to travel 237 miles without any rubbish pre-booking – just on the spot. Check that out with a typical UK train fare….

Inno a Roma

Roma divina, a te sul Campidoglio
dove eterno verdeggia il sacro alloro,
a te, nostra fortezza e nostro orgoglio,
ascende il coro.

Salve, Dea Roma! Ti sfavilla in fronte
il sol che nasce sulla nuova Storia.
Fulgida in arme, all’ultimo orizzonte,
sta la Vittoria.

Sole che sorgi libero e giocondo,
sul Colle nostro i tuoi cavalli doma:
tu non vedrai nessuna cosa al mondo
maggior di Roma.

Per tutto il cielo è un volo di bandiere
e la pace del mondo oggi è latina.
Il tricolore canta sul cantiere,
su l’officina.

Madre di messi e di lanosi armenti;
d’opere schiette e di pensose scuole,
tornano alle tue case i reggimenti
e sorge il sole.

Sole che sorgi libero e giocondo…

(My translation:

Hymn to Rome

Divine Rome, our choir’s voices soar towards you

on the Capitoline hill

where the sacred laurel is eternally green;

our choir rises to you, our fortress and our pride,

Hail, Goddess Rome! the sun, born in a new chapter of history,

shines before you.

Victory strides

resplendent in arms, upon the new horizon,

The sun, rising free and jubilantly,

tames the horses on our hill:

you will not see anything in the world

greater than Rome.

Throughout the sky flags are flying

and today the world’s peace is Latinate.

The tricolour flag sings on the construction site

and on the factory.

Mother of harvests and woolly flocks,

of honest work and diligent schools,

our regiments return to your homes

and the sun rises.

A sun that rises free and joyous …)

PS The basement of Palazzo Massimo displays a large numismatic collection and the sceptres of the Imperial Insignia, in addition to the jewels coming from sumptuous funerary furnishings such as that of the girl from Grottarossa. Another reason to return and see what jewels the girl was wearing when she died so young…

John Wesley a Londra

Posted on November 22, 2018 by Francis

John Wesley (1703-1791) è stato un chierico e teologo inglese che, assieme al fratello Charles e il compagno chierico George Whitefield, fondò il Metodismo.

Se uno pensa ai santi detti ‘sociali’ di Torino, come Don Bosco e Cottolengo, e alle missioni dei passionisti in Italia si può avere una buona idea dell’impatto speciale sulla chiesa anglicana del settecento che ebbe il metodismo.

Dopo essersi laureato a Oxford Wesley fu ordinato prete anglicano. Formò un ‘club della santità’ il quale scopo era di studiare la Bibbia a fondo e di riscoprire le radici di una vita cristiana devota.

Si deve capire che la chiesa anglicana in quell’epoca non aveva grandi aspirazioni ad una vita di profonda ispirazione religiosa. Era, in fondo, niente altro che un riflesso della società inglese con il suo sistema di classi stratificati di nobili, mercanti e manovali.

Wesley cambiò tutta questa struttura ortodossa dettata dai politici in potere. Nel 1738 si sentì nel cuore uno ‘strano calore’ che gli segnò una seconda conversione ad un cristianesimo più vicino al popolo e più corrispondente alle esigenze sociali.

Per quasi tutto il resto della sua lunga vita John Wesley fece più di trecento mila (!) kilometri di viaggi a cavallo predicando all’aperto, in qualunque luogo si trovava, ad una folla senza distinzione di classe o di cultura o di colore, portando il messaggio che tutti potevano essere salvati se aprivano il cuore alla grazia di Dio.

In questo senso Wesley abbracciava la dottrina Arminia di redenzione a dispetto del compagno Whitefield che rimaneva calvinista e credeva nella predestinazione.

Quando fu chiesto qual’era la sua parrocchia Wesley rispose ‘tutto il mondo è la mia parrocchia.’

La Chiesa anglicana diventò disturbata da questo predicatore, che molti pensavano fanatico, e lo proibì di predicare nelle sue chiese. Wesley, però, rimase sempre un prete anglicano e solo dopo la sua morte si fondò una congregazione separata, chiamata metodista, dopo la maniera meticolosa nella quale si studia le sacre scritture.

Questa congregazione ora conta più di ottanta milioni di devoti nel mondo.

Oltre a essere un grande predicatore Wesley fu anche un notevole benefattore dei poveri. Nelle sue missioni c’era sempre la mensa per gli affamati, la scuola per i bambini (molto prima che le scuole diventassero obbligatorie), e un centro sociale dove il popolo poteva riunirsi per discutere questioni religiose e laiche.

Le prime cappelle metodiste furono costruite su pianta ottagonale per avere un’acustica migliore per sentire le prediche e cantare gli inni. Il metodismo è famoso per la sua grande tradizione musicale. Il fratello di John, Charles, scrisse 6,500 inni tra i più belli mai composti e certi dei quali, in traduzione, hanno trovato posto anche nella Chiesa cattolica d’Italia.
Questa grande tradizione musicale fu continuata con i figli di Charles: Samuel, detto ‘il Mozart Inglese’ e Charles Junior, anch’esso compositore di bellissime sinfonie. Il figlio di Samuel, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-76) fu un grande riformatore della musica liturgica anglicana.

Ora, però, le chiese metodiste sono generalmente costruite più a forma di grandi capanne.

Pochi passi a nord della City si trova la cappella madre del metodismo. Costruita nel 1778 da George Dance the younger è un sobrio e elegante edificio molto adatto alle prediche e con delle bellissime vetrate.

Al retro della Chiesa c’è un piccolo camposanto dov’è sepolto Wesley:

Nella cripta c’è un interessantissimo museo che illustra la storia del metodismo.

Per me, però, la parte più suggestiva è l’attigua casa di Wesley che, tra altri cimeli, contiene un suo apparecchio che generava elettricità usato per trattare certi malanni. Il giardino cresce semplici che usava Wesley come descritti da lui in uno dei suoi tanti scritti sulla salute e il benessere.

L’energia inesauribile di Wesley poteva stancare molta gente, in particolare l’amico Doctor Johnson, menzionato in un mio recente post. Fino all’età di 87 anni, però, John Wesley fu sempre in forma, un fatto alquanto raro quando si parla del secolo diciottesimo!

Potrei definire Wesley un religioso pressoché socialista. Le sue preoccupazioni verso le ineguaglianze sociali dell’epoca furono fonte delle grandi opere che fece nell’aprire le mense, le scuole, gli ospedali e nel diffondere, non solo un più aperto approccio alla spiritualità, ma un rinnovato senso di responsabilità e di amore verso l’umanità.

Le sue ultime parole furono ‘la migliore cosa di tutto è che Dio è con noi’ .

Non è per caso che John Wesley sia stato elencato cinquantesimo fra i cento inglesi più amati ed importanti di tutti i tempi.

Cor riscaldato

nelle fiamme divine:

l’amor di Dio.

Vicenza’s Palladian Splendour

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Francis

Such iconic London buildings as Greenwich’s Queen’s House or Whitehall’s Banqueting Hall (in front of which King Charles I was beheaded) and Saint Paul’s church at Covent Garden – London’s first true ‘piazza’ – could never have been built had it not been for Inigo Jones’ (1573 – 1652) visit to Italy and, in particular, to Vicenza where he studied the buildings of Andrea Palladio (1508 –1580). Jones truly initiated the architectural style revolution marking the vast difference between such buildings as Hatfield House and Chiswick House.

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(From top left clockwise, some buildings by Inigo Jones, Banqueting house, detail of same, Queen’s House, Saint Paul’s)

Palladio exemplified the English eighteenth century architects’ ideal and his ‘Four books on Architecture’ (1570) (of which Inigo Jones annotated a copy, now at Worcester College Oxford) were incredibly influential for the Augustan movement and the development of neo-Palladianism in Britain. Palladio’s villas, especially, became models for the distinctive English country house. In short, without Palladio there would have been no Wren, Campbell, Chambers, Hawksmoor, Adam or even Soane. As Goethe stated when he saw Palladio’s works for the first time on his famous first journey to Italy ‘n 1786

‘There’s something divine in his designs, nothing less than the strength of a great poet, who from truth and fiction derives a third utterly fascinating reality.’

I have always wanted to visit Vicenza. The serendipitous invitation of a visit to this city by a friend I had not seen since university days, and who has since become a distinguished restoration architect, got me jumping on a train for a town which is a UNESCO world heritage site. I had to delay my visit by one day because of the atrocious meteorological conditions Italy has been massacred by, with landslides, floods, inundations and several dead. However, despite this, I did manage to reach Vicenza and the sun was shining there!

(Friends re-united in Vicenza)

Because of the fine weather we decided on a walking trip to see the city’s exquisite palazzi. One of the first we came across was the palazzo Porto in piazza Castello, clearly unfinished but no less gorgeous because of that. Note the wonderful entasis of the columns, tapering in slightly thinner upper form to give sheer elegance to the mansion’s appearance.

There are also many buildings dating earlier, to the Venetian gothic style, including the fabulous Ca d’Oro (golden house).

My architect friend pointed out that Palladio was as much a low-cost (in materials used) architect as he was a high-class one. Columns which seem of marble are, in fact, brick covered with stucco. Even rusticated blocks are jagged bricks spread over with rendering!

Image00153 - Copia

Palladio has been criticised for this but, after all, he saved his clients a lot of money by not having to transport expensive blocks of marble large distances from mountain quarries, (Vicenza is built on an alluvial plain).

Palladio has also raised problems for restorers of his creations. How much should be restored before the thing becomes overdone? Another problem is that so many of Palladio’s buildings were left unfinished at the time of his death and only completed, largely by his pupil Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616), who may have altered his master’s plans to some degree and who has been saddled with a sort of Mozart-Salieri type syndrome which fortunately has now been largely discredited.

It was a wonderful time visiting this noble city which has the great advantage of being free of the tiresome cruise-ship rabble which now sadly infests nearby Venice and has even caused one-way pedestrian circuits to be installed there.

Here are some of the Vicentine buildings and streetscapes we saw.

(PS Do note the original Juliet balcony for it was in this very house that Luigi Da Porto wrote the novella which Shakespeare turned in the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’)

For lunch we stopped to eat in the city’s Piazza dei Signori where I feasted on Vicenza’s dish par excellence ‘Bacalà alla Vigentina con Polenta.’ (Stockfish vicentine-style with polenta). Delicious!

My favourite building was this one: the palazzo Chiericati (1550) which houses a marvellous art collection.

I love the loggias at each end which clearly must have inspired Inigo Jones’ Queen’s house at Greenwich.

I stayed at my friend’s apartment at https://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/it/veneto/bob-and-jennys-bed-and-breakfast-vicenza/6761 . To be highly reccommended!

The following day was dull and showery so we spent the morning in the very cleverly (perhaps too cleverly) arranged Palladio museum housed in a wonderful palace he designed.

The models of the architect’s principal buildings were brilliantly done and the explanation of Palladio’s theory of proportions (which he derived from studying ancient Roman buildings and, especially, from the treatises of Vitruvius) was clear.

I gasped at the perfection of Palladio’s ‘Teatro Olimpico’, the world’s first purpose-built theatre, with its fantastic stage perspective.

I can now say that I’ve seen the three great renaissance theatres of Italy: the other two are at Sabbioneta (which we visited in 2007)

and at Parma ,(Teatro Farnese) which we saw in 2015.

In the afternoon we climbed the Monte Berico via ‘Le scalette’.

There’s also a three-kilometre gallery by Francesco Muttoni (1780) which will get one there.

At the top is the sanctuary of the Madonna of Monte Berico, originally built to commemorate an apparition of the Virgin who also saved the city from the plague. The sanctuary’s mediaeval nucleus was expanded by Carlo Borella with a Palladio- based centralised classical church built at the end of the seventeenth century.

The best thing about this site, however, are the wonderful views one gets of the city of Vicenza and beyond to the Alps, which already have their peaks covered with snow. It’s a pity the day could not be clearer – a good reason, however, to return.

In the evening we went to the Piazza dei Signori where the city’s symbol the ‘Basilica Palladiana’ is situated. Palladio surrounded the mediaeval hall with a beautiful arcade which he had to fit around the often irregular ancient vaults. Indeed, if one looks closely one can see that the end arches are not quite the same as the rest of the porticoes.

Here we were treated to an imaginative son et lumière which also recounted the disastrous event of 1945 when allied bombing set fire to this wondrous building and almost destroyed it. We also took in some halloween celebrations – Vicenza style.

The very high and very slim bell-tower next to the basilica was fortunately unharmed and somehow adds a slightly oriental touch to the complex of buildings – a classical minaret perhaps.

We had to depart on our separate ways the following morning: I for Longoio and my friends for Bologna and Ravenna.

I cannot wait to return to Vicenza in brighter weather for there are all those beautiful Palladian country villas still to visit. At least I have already seen one of them, the Villa Emo, on a visit to the Treviso Region!

Le Ostriche di Whitstable

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Francis

Situata sulla costiera nord della contea di Kent, Whitstable è un ridente centro le cui fondazioni risalgono all’era romana. Cresciuto da un villaggio di pescatori è poi diventato una meta per le scampagnate dei Londinesi che la raggiungevano per vaporetto lungo l’estuario del Tamigi.

Ci siamo stati per la prima volta nel 1983 e poi nel 1985.

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Ultimamente eravamo li nel 1998.

Ora, dopo un periodo di decadenza nelle sorti della cittadina, quando gli inglesi l’abbandonarono per le vacanze attorno il Mediterraneo, Whitstable è ritornata di moda ed è frequentatissima – affatto com’era quando siamo prima stati lì molti anni fa’. Questo cambiamento si riflette nel prezzo delle case e nell’offerta più vasta dei negozi. (Speranza per Bagni di Lucca?)

Il mare di Whitstable non è per niente profondo ed è idoneo per la raccolta di crostacei, ostriche e vongole. Il porto fu ideato da Thomas Telford, il grande ingeniere del secolo diciannovesimo che ispirò Nottolini, l’architetto del ponte delle catene a Fornoli. Attorno il porto ci sono le caratteristiche capanne dei pescatori, un mercato del pesce e dei gustosi ristoranti ittici.

Sebbene non abbia edifici di altissimo interesse storico, Whitstable contiene un suggestivo insieme di caratteristiche case ‘clapperboard’, cioè rivestite di assicelle di legno e degli edifici dell’era Giorgiana che ne fanno della sua high Street un attraente insieme pieno di varietà.

La spiaggia non è un gran che, composta dalla più parte di ciottoli. Ha, però, la sua atmosfera nordica con il miagolare dei gabbiani e le famiglie che vanno in cerca di granchi. Ho notato pochi nuotatori….

La galleria d’arte merita una visita.

Come lo merita anche il museo, che contiene un’antica locomotiva a vapore del 1830, Invicta, costruita da Stephenson figlio, e che operò nel primo servizio regolare di treni per passeggeri sulla linea conducente a Canterbury.

Come consueto, abbiamo concluso la nostra giornata a Whitstable in un pub. Ci è particolarmente piaciuto questo di epoca vittoriana. Evidentemente il landlord era appassionato di vecchie radio….