Florence, July 13, 2011 – Central Market, Santa Maria del Fiore, Duomo Museum, Church of San Lorenzo, Campanile, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, Santissima Annuziata, Leonardo DaVinci museum and a weird night out

This was a big day. I let the girls sleep until about 8:30AM, knowing we had plenty to do and had an early morning start. Our first stop, the Mercato Centrale (Central Market). The market is filled with fruit and vegetable vendors. It’s beautiful to see all the foods. There are also odd fruits I have never seen, gooseberries I haven’t seen in years, candied fruits and vegetables, including candied peppers, and spices. The merchants are under one big tent, and the stands look to be somewhat temporary and somewhat permanent. Over one building is a mall filled with several vendors selling meats of all kinds, cheeses, spices, breads, sandwiches and more foods. We bought some fruits, bread and sandwiches. Sarah and I stopped at a café and got caffe – I got a cappuccino that was absolutely delicious. (I'm writing this a few days later and still dreaming about that cappucino.)

Centrale Market...dried fruits and vegetables.

Spices.

Fruits and vegetables.

After dropping off our food, we headed to the Duomo, again, a short walk. The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is one of those sites you cannot miss even if you tried. It is in the heart of Florence and the façade of the place is an unusual design of white and green marble. The top is the famous Brunelleschi designed dome, which we actually didn’t see from below until we circled around the cathedral. The dome was the largest ever built since Rome’s Pantheon. Next to the cathedral is Giotto’s tower known as the Campanile, a 270-foot bell tower. You can climb the tower (it has no elevator) of 414 steps. We passed on that. And also next to the cathedral is the Baptistery, with its famous bronze doors. Lorenzo Ghiberti designed one set of bronze doors, with biblical scenes. Ghiberti used mathematical laws to create illusion of receding distance. 

Me and Catalina in front of the church...you can see the dome in the background.

Bronze doors of the Baptistery.

Campanile (tower) to the right. You can climb 420 steps to the top. No thanks.

Duomo-closeup of the dome.

Duomo - this building is massive.

The majority of the famous works from these places mentioned above, are housed in a separate museum called the Duomo Museum. We saw the Michelangelo Piéta (the one where he used himself as a model); we saw lots of Donatello sculptures and many other amazing works. Gaby was particularly interested in seeing the relics (old bones encased in ornate structures). 

Michelangelo's other Piéta. I was so thrilled to see this upclose.

Front of San Lorenzo church - Michelangelo spent 4 yrs designing a front that was never executed.

Gaby climbing the front of the church.

We went back to our apartment for lunch of pizza and fruit, then after a short siesta, we headed toward the Church of San Lorenzo. More amazing paintings, a couple of sculptures, more Donatello works, this time, ornately carved pulpits. I didn’t hear the nun at the front tell me no photos, no video, as her accent was so thick. So I snapped away at a couple of items before I got a talking to by two separate nuns. One gave me quite a scowl. We checked out the church, including the altar that has a dome showing the exact arrangement of the heavens on July 4, 1442. We saw Donatello’s grave then headed out.

ouch

big mouths

 We next landed at the Leonardo DaVinci museum, though Sarah decided to sit this one out. It is really a reacreation of DaVinci’s “inventions” brought to life. There were wooden recreations throughout and a room of mirrors that looked like you were endless once you stepped inside and shut the mirrored door. That was cool. The inventions were okay. I liked the room with the painting recreations.

We stopped by a church that Gaby had visited on her own called the Santissima Annuziata and drew for a while. We entered the courtyard only, as there was a mass going on (and which I made a shortvideo of). Still, the courtyard walls had some fascinating murals for us to look at. Some nice, foreign-speaking woman gave us her camera to snap a picture of her in the courtyard. Gaby took the picture and the woman said something to Gaby (probably thanks), and then we headed back to the apartment.

Despite all we did in one day, we still have a little energy to go out in the evening. We headed to a piazza that had music – tonight it was a DJ and video was playing on the wall. I saw a few shots of Celia Cruz, so I was guessing this was some sort of Spanish music night. I felt very out of place here–where there were plenty of young, thin and pretty Italians congregating. They all seemed so grouped together and having a good time, jubilant in their company with one another. The women were pretty dressed up, far more than we were. Sitting below and away from the beautiful Italians were small groups of what looked like families, some with small children. It seemed they were waiting for something, hanging out and picnicking on the cement benches. After one very expensive drink, we called it a night.

Firenze (Florence) - July 12, 2011: Getting to, Checking In, Fra Angelicos

4:00AM - time to get up to leave for Florence. We had a 6:45AM train to catch, and with 4 women, it is necessary to allow for about 2 hours before we can get out the door. I figured we could sleep on the train, since we were taking the “slow” train that was four hours long. There are faster trains, such as the Eurostar that get you into Florence in 1 ½ hours, but they cost 45 euro vs the 17 euro per ticket. And since we’re going the least expensive route, slow train it is. First, we needed to take the bus, and thank goodness I found an open newspaper/magazine stand that sold bus tickets.We took a bus to the train station. The bus dropped us directly in front of Termini Station, a man helped us navigate the ticket machine, and then we walked LONG distance through the terminal to the actual train we needed. It was not with all the other trains in front, it was in some oddball location, and I just kept asking men in blue vests which way to go. They pointed. We followed.

This train was not nearly as nice as the last train we took (from Trani). The seats were very hard to sleep in, and didn’t recline in any way. But there was plenty of room.

The landscape was again beautiful and serene. It was hilly and definitely a lot more greenery than what we saw on our way to Trani. It was dotted with lots of stone or brick homes nestled in small valleys, with a little bit of a farm or small communities squeezed together. Often I saw very small ponds, with accoutrements for swimming or boating.

When we came into the Florence train station, the heat was unreal. We were suppose to come out at Piazza Adua, but I couldn’t find it. Mind you, signage is not like in America. It is hard to find places or sites, as the signs are tucked away or non-existent. Sometimes the wording for places don’t match one’s map, or the name of the place is carved somewhere on the building in small lettering. So one must memorize or keep checking a map.

We found the information place across from the train station and got some maps and then headed in the right direction for the hostel. It took about 15-20 minutes to drag our bags there.

Our hostel is location on a beautiful small street, via San Gallo. It is lined with dozen of small shops of all kinds – cafes, an art store, perfumeries, jewelry stores, kitchen and household goods, and pizza shops. Of course, like everywhere else, the streets are lined with cobblestones, but instead of the small 3-inch sized cobblestones we saw in Rome, these streets are lined with large 1 ½-foot cobblestones. There’s less graffiti near our hostel, and less traffic and this time, no bus route on this street. I read that some of the streets are too small for buses, and that would be true for our road.

The room we’re staying in is spacious, with a high ceiling. It is clean, with a new floor, two large mirrors, four beds, a large wardrobe, three small end tables and one larger round table with three chairs. The bathroom is nice and clean. Our two windows overlook the street (which can get noisy from the little bit of traffic that occurs).

The view directly across from our room's window.

Another view - showing the actual window, and the sun just setting. TV set in upper left.

A word about garbage

Residents in the city pay hefty taxes. Part of those taxes goes to garbage collection. On the street, and on nearly all streets everywhere, there are medium-sized dumpsters for garbage collection. These dumpsters have a bar you step on, which opens it, and there you put your garbage. In some cases, you need to separate the garbage from foodstuffs, plastics and then other. From what I can tell, it “sounds” like the garbage is collected every day.

The road we are on is very well-located to the action, without being a massively tourist location. There is no specific tourististy thing to do here, so we are in a quieter, less trafficked place. Yet we can walk just five minutes to the first attraction, and likely as much as 20 minutes to the far end of where the action is. Florence is that small. There are buses, but so far we have been able to walk everywhere within just a few minutes.

This place is stunning. It is so beautiful, I am overwhelmed at every turn. I think I am overwhelmed that some of the greatest artists have lived and worked here, that their sculptures and paintings live on hundreds of years later, and that despite the hoardes of people going through here, the history and beautiful is intact.

Aye-Yi-Yi, everywhere I go.

In our room.

Silly girl.

The street where we will be located for the next 7 days.

Our first day here we are still tired from traveling, but we are told it will be two hours before our room is ready. The young man cleaning our room has some repair work to do. So we left our bags in our room and landed in a small café across the street to eat pasta salad. Catalina and Gaby are barely hungry and only pick at the food. Later, we head toward one of the sites which is just a block away called the Museum of San Marco.

The Museum of San Marco has many early Renaissance master works by Fra Angelico and some by Fra Bartolomeo. Also located in this “museum” is the cell that once housed Savonarola, the crazy Christian-right monk who got rid of the Medicis and their ruling power over Florence and who sponsored the bonfire of the vanities. We saw his itchy belt and robes, his desk, and a painting of him. (Savonarola was finally burned at the stake when the government changed again.)

Back to our room, it was still not quite down, but we sat down on one of the beds and connected to the internet. Shortly thereafter, we crashed and slept for a while.

The Baptistery to the right (note the brass door panels).

Catalina strolling one of the many typical streets. Click on to see larger...note cobblestones.

Another typical streeet, lined with Vespas and Vespa-like traveling devices.

Rome - July 11, 2011:II Santa Maria in Trastervere

Tomorrow early morning we leave for Florence (Firenze). Today is our last real day in Rome. I will be sad to leave, as I feel like there’s so much more to see and do. I’m hoping this doesn’t go into my memory as if this were a dream, like my other trips seem. I should’ve been a Rick Steves as a career so that I can see the world. Oh well, another lifetime.

We bussed it to Trastevere which was across the river from where we are staying. We rode just the one bus, #3, no transfers this time. After being deposited in front of a building with protesters on the outside, we hoofed it to Piazza Santa Maria where the one of the first churches dedicated to Mary is located and called Santa Maria in Trastevere which was built in the 4^th century. It is one of the oldest churches in Rome with 12^th and 13^th century mosaics and Domenichino’s gilded ceiling. I lit two candles for friends. From Fodors: … just under the figure of the Virgin in the Nativity scene, with a stream of oil flowing from it. It recalls the legend that on the day Christ was born, a stream of pure oil flowed from the earth on the site of the piazza, signifying the coming of the grace of God. Off the north side of the piazza, there's a little street called Via delle Fonte dell'Olio in honor of this miracle.

At one point we came across one of the many outdoor water fountains. This is really the best water. We saw a young woman drinking from the fountain by holding the opening and making the water spout up, so the girls tried it. Unsuccessfully. Water squirted every which way, there was girl screaming and a bit of annoying moans emanating from them upon learning they soaked their sandals. Oh well, we tried.

Front of Santa Maria.

Inside Santa Maria.

Inside Santa Maria.

Gaby just about gets the water to shoot up correctly, until she drinks.

More water fountain fun.

We headed to Villa Farnese, but it closed at 13:00. So we walked through the area, stopped for some lunch and headed back. On the bus ride, we saw a part of Circus Maximus (once an elaborate and huge racetrack) and we saw a pyramid. Pyramid?!? What’s that doing in Rome, we wondered. So we looked it up: It is called the Pyramid of Cestius, built in 12 BC as a tomb. It was incorporated into the Aurelian walls.  

Inside Santa Maria.

 

On the way to Villa Farensina (Catalina in background. No matter how much walking we do, she never complains.)

Jesus before we enter our courtyard.

In our courtyard, by now Gaby is using the third key to get inside the apartment. There's lots of keys.

Back at the apartment, we skyped Stephen then took a nap. We had leftover arroz con pollo, fruit salad and cucumbers for dinner. 

Later, Sarah left for the nearby park and Gaby and I followed about 20 minutes later to draw and paint. We threw tiny white stones onto the ground and a pigeon raced after each and every one. I know, that was mean, but we had nothing else to offer. Gaby drew a rose, I painted a watercolor of the colosseum, and then we took pictures as the sun was setting - closeups of things along the way. 

I was captivated by the trees.

Rome, Italy, July 10, 2011: Catacombe di Priscilla and Santa Maria Maggiore

Today is Sunday. This morning, while the girls slept, I went out for food stuffs, only to find most shops closed. I may have timed it incorrectly, I’m not sure, maybe shops were opened earlier. I did find the local fruit and vegetable stand open – and bought four small potatoes, some green grapes, two white peaches, a handful of cherries, a bulb of garlic and another fresh loaf of bread. I returned to the apartment and made sliced potatoes, scrambled eggs, sliced up fruit and bread and butter. The girls were so happy to have a real breakfast. A note about breakfast: it has been hard for Catalina and Gaby to accept the cereal with milk here, their favorite breakfast. I had bought some cereal, similar to Total, but the girls do not like the flavor of the milk, Parmalat. So breakfast has been croissants, fruits or bread and butter. Just recently I bought some Nutella to add to the repertoire. I did find another brand of milk today, that tastes very similar to American milk, and unlike Parmalat, it needs refrigeration. Parmalat does not need refrigeration until after it’s opened.

So the girls were so happy to eat before beginning our day’s adventure – The Catacombs!

I had read in Rick Steves book that the Catacombs of Priscilla were more intimate and less crowded. They are northeast and a couple of bus changes, on the outskirts of the city. All four of us took off for the first part of the journey to the highly active Termini Train Station. Sarah had made friends and they had planned on going to the beach, so off she went, while the two younger McKays and I headed north. I tried to look out for the bus stop, but missed it by one stop. So we had to doubleback in excessively hot, humid weather. We knew we couldn’t walk back to the stop, it was too far and uphill in the stifling heat. We lucked out, got on the right bus and a bus inspector was kind enough to let me know when to get off.

After hopping off, I realized I had not brought my dog-earred and worned map, but I had visually memorized where we needed to walk. Plus I had written the directions down, but really, the street map of Rome (that came with the Roma Pass) were worth their weight in Roman gold. So we headed where I thought we should go, and just a couple blocks later we unknowingly were standing directly over the catacombs. A passerby must have heard me say, “I know the Catacombs are here somewhere…” because from across the street she said, “here!” and pointed upward to a sign painted on brick wall, “Catacombe di Priscilla.” Yup, that’s it.

The catacombs are within a small convent run by nuns. The ticket office was quaint, manned by an elderly Italian-speaking-only nun, and an elderly gentleman who translated. Because Gaby is only 15 years old, her ticket was only 5 euro, while Catalina and I got tickets for 8 euro each. We were then shuttled quickly to catch up with an existing tour in English (though barely English). As we headed down the tunnels, it was significantly cool in the catacombs. I was thankful! This is where you want to be when the heat is unbearable. Catalina eventually had to put on a sweater (we had brought scarves for covering just in case). Gaby drew and wrote in her sketchbook while we were inside and we were told no photographing. 

The small courtyard at the Catacombs of Priscilla.

More of the courtyard.

The back of the building above the Catacombs.

In the area we were shown, the tombs were empty as the bodies had been relocated out of respect for the deceased. But you could clearly see what was what. There were two-person tombs (gee, the people looked like they were pretty small); childrens’ tombs (very small); and babies tombs (downright tiny). There were also many frescos of Christianity and its symbols – sometimes pieces of coverings for the tombs. We saw one of the first paintings of Mary and the infant Jesus. The tour guide claimed it WAS the first; and that it was painted in 2 A.D. There were paintings of Noah, Lazarus, Susan, Daniel and more.

The poor people that were buried in the catacombs wanted to be close to the martyrs, and so yes, there were martyrs buried there, too. There were also a couple of underground chapels rich with Christian symbolism all around, the fish, the dove, the anchor…and more. It’s funny, but after all those ornate and elaborately decorated churches, I felt closer to Jesus I the catacombs than any place. I think it was the strong belief and devotion to Jesus, God and salvation in all the symbolism, all throughout the iconography painted or carved only within 200 years after the death of Christ. They believed salvation was right around the corner, so embalming wasn’t necessary, just wrapping in linen and being placed in the tomb (then it was sealed with a decorative cover of sorts, usually terracotta).

It as a short tour, relatively speaking, and we bought some postcards then headed to an outdoor café for some, that’s right, gelatto. 

Waiting for their chocolate and vanilla gelatto.

On our way back, we took a bus back to Termini, where we looked at some of the outdoor vendors cheesy wares. Nothing was worth purchasing. It was just junk. I had asked the woman at the Information Booth where the #60 bus stop was located, but she simply said, “Nazionale, to the left.” I thought I understood that direction, but couldn’t find that bus stop, so we walked quite a way towards our apartment. We stopped at a church called, Santa Maria Maggiore and were pleased to see such a gorgeous and huge church. Gaby had to cover her legs and we all covered our shoulders to go inside (they had they papery/tissue shawls on the outside for us to use). There seemed to be some sort of service going on, so we only entered the front of the church and out of respect, we left right away and did not take photos of the inside. We did take some photos of the outside.

We finally found a bus stop, but I spied a supermarket across the way and picked up some chicken and fruit. I made arroz con pollo with a side of fruit and bread for dinner. While TV usually consisted of just Italian-speaking shows, we happened to turn on the set and found American shows in English (not dubbed in Italian for once). It was a nice treat to watch TV for a bit.

Rome, July 9, 2011: The Pantheon, Church of St. Ignatius, and the Caravaggios at the Chapel

My plan for the day was to go to the Pantheon, up Via Corso to the Cerasi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo to see the Caravaggios, then to the Catacombs of Priscilla. But things close down in the middle of the day, and the Catacombs closed at 5PM, so we missed going there. We’ll try tomorrow. The Pantheon was so awe-inspiring as well as the Caravaggios, it was okay to have missed the catacombs. Getting to the Pantheon was easy. By now we had purchased 3-day bus passes and felt somewhat confident getting on and off the buses. Sometimes we just asked the driver the final destination and sometimes they shake their heads yes and sometimes no. This time we just had to take the bus up via Corso (a main drag with TONS of shopping) and get off somewhere in the middle.

On the bus.

The Pantheon was in a square (piazza) that was so impressive, we didn’t want to go in right away. We just wanted to soak in the area, try to memorize the outside of the Pantheon with its massive Corinthian columns, round top, and beautiful portico with its decorative pediment.

On the way to the Pantheon.

Catalina outside the Pantheon.

Inside the floors were of different types and color of granites. The light streaming in from the top was magical. There was artwork all around the walls and sculptures and reliefs. I wondered how all this was protected despite the top opening. I read there were small holes in the ground so that the rain water doesn’t accumulate. 

Me inside the Pantheon.

The top of the dome that allows a lot of sunlight, rain and lets out smoke (back in the day).

Gaby sitting in a chapel, drawing.

We headed on out toward via Corso again, and wandered around looking for a restroom. Public restrooms are nearly impossible to find. We decided to go inside a building, which I thought was some sort of auditorium, but turned out to be a chapel called the Church of St. Ignatius. Again, amazing! So many beautiful paintings and so wonderfully decorated. No bathroom though. I burned a couple more candles…well, I flipped on some switches for electric candles.

The “mall” had some restrooms. It was not far away, so we were pretty happy about that. Then we headed to the Cerasi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo. This particular chapel houses some of the most impressive Caravaggios, including the The Conversion on the Road to Damacus - something I have wanted to see since the day I saw the slide in Art History class in college. On the other side of the small chapel was the Crucifixion of St. Peter. I couldn’t get enough of looking at the Caravaggios. The whole chapel was gorgeous, with many more famous works. We spent a good amount of time here.

The Crucifixion of St. Peter.

Internet image: The Conversion of on the Road to Damacus by Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio.

Bella Catalina.

Painting at Santa Maria del Popolo.

Skeleton image at Santa Maria del Popolo.

Street art.

As we headed home, we walked through Piazza del Popolo, where an Egyptian obelisk of Seti I. I was blown away to see a real Egyptian obelisk. The obelisk was brought to Rome in 10 BC. Across the piazza we got back onto the popular and very crowded via Corso. We tried to wait for a bus, but decided they were no longer running on this part of the street (we heard the buses re-routed without notice).

Street artist.

The Egyptian Obelisk.

Back on the bus toward the apartment. Note Colosseum in background.

By the time we got back to the apartment, we ate what we had leftover, then the girls headed out to meet some new friends. They hung out at the Colosseum. Gaby recounted a few choice phrases they said, “I listened about Windsor before,” and “my favorite line in English is ‘what’s up friend?’”

Tomorrow, the catacombs!