Tuesday, June 29, 1982
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| View from Hotel Balestri towards Piazza della Signoria |
The bells in
Florence would ring at 5 minutes and 10 minutes after the hour, so their time
is a bit different than Biel time! We were ready to leave and I went to the
bathroom without the room key, and Jan pulled the locked room door behind her
thinking I had the key. We had to get a bell boy to unlock the door so we could
retrieve the key. Then we made a wrong turn and walked an extra block to the
Ospedale degli Innocenti. It was 8:05, but only the Dutch girls were waiting.
The Drs. Milani-Comparetti and Gidoni arrived and again had to get someone to
unlock the door. We were actually in the Ludoteca, which translates to game
room. Ludoteca sounds more studious!
We were supposed
to start at 8:00, but it was 8:30 before we did. We got out at 13:30 and Jan
and I headed straight for the other side of the Arno River. We looked at menus
at a few recommended places like Mamma Gina’s and Angiolino’s. Decided to find
a pizza place on the way to the church Jan wanted to see, S Maria del Carmine
(1268), and ended up at the church which was closed until 15:30. So we returned
to Angiolino’s for lunch. The place had the requisite dusty wine bottles, but
was not a touristy place. Jan started with the minestrone (vegetables and rice)
and I ordered the panzanella, even
though I had no idea what that was! It was a bread salad with chunks of bread
soaked in oil, tomatoes and onions. Pretty good! For the second course we
wanted to share a meat and a vegetable dish, but weren’t sure if that was
allowed. The waiter proclaimed in Italian that he recommended the musculo stufato, which I was thinking
was stewed mussels, and the zucchine
ripieno/stuffed zucchini, and he would divide them in half so we each could
taste both dishes. Well! That works! However, musculo means muscle and was beef stewed with potatoes. The beef
was very good, but the stuffing in the zucchini was like sawdust. Jan left her
stuffing and potatoes, and I had a coughing fit, so I am sure the waiter
thought we hated our meal. I had cherries and Jan had another macedonia. I figured up the bill, and we
were undercharged 400 ITL/30 cents, the bill coming to 17,500 ITL/$12.50. We
made it back to S Maria del Carmine by 15:20 and sat to write postcards. The
church didn’t open until 16:00. We went straight to the Brancacci Chapel (begun
1425) to see the frescoes by Masaccio; they were half covered by scaffolding.
In the sacristy we looked at postcards to see what was hidden. Next we headed
to Palazzo Pitti, getting 700 ITL/50 cent lemon ice cream cups along the way.
Our goal was actually the Giardino di Boboli/Garden
behind the palace to see a sculpture of a fat nude man on a turtle. All the
Palazzo Pitti museums were closed, but we could enter the courtyard with an
ugly grotto fountain with a few statues, and coins in the water. There was an
open door to the grounds and we had to climb up to the garden, only to find
ourselves still at the bottom of the hill!
We climbed halfway up, then decided to head to the right to the bulk of the park. We still had to climb, but reached a crossroads at the top of the hill. Continued straight down the other side through an arbor of Holm oaks pruned to arch over the path.
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| Holm oak arbor |
We saw a
friendly-enough looking fellow who turned out to be American, who was sitting
on a bench and sketching, whom we asked about this sculpture. He pulled out his
guidebook but it didn’t have the info we needed. Something on Jan’s map was
called Bobolino, so we headed there. Passed a large fountain with a statue in
the center of an isolotta/islet and statues all around its surrounding fence.
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| Isolotta/Islet |
We ended up coming out
through Porta Romana/Roman Gate.
Turned in the other direction past the Istituto
d'arte Porta Romana/Art Museum, climbing a winding road to a small circle
with a fountain filled with carp and backed by plants. I think the Bobolino was
just a smaller section of the Boboli. We continued up this Viale Machiavelli,
hoping to find a back way to Piazzale Michelangelo. We turned up Via di San
Leonardo, a long curving street with tall walls on both sides. I jumped up to
see what was on the other side of the wall and saw gentle hills with olive
trees! An occasional car would toot to let us know it was coming, but once we
heard someone leaning on his horn and turned back to see a car careening
towards us. We flattened ourselves against the wall with breaths held!
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| View from Forte Belvedere |
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| Forte Belvedere |
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| San Miniato |
Inside the wood beam ceiling was intricately painted
and behind the altar was a sunken chapel. Two men were talking in the pews and
Jan noted one was a monk. Returned to the Piazzale that has a copy of the
statue of David. Kids were zooming around with Italian flags and banners, shouting
“Forza Italia!” We guessed Italy had just won a match in the World Soccer
championships, and, indeed, they went on to win the World Cup.
We descended the
zig zag street to the river, noting the blooming oleanders and Quercus
ilex/Holm Oak or Holly Oak
tree that was related to the Quercus
agrifolia/Coast or California
live oak tree. Walked along this side of the river, seeing the hotel across the
way. Jan bought a bottle of water for only 600 ITL/40 cents at a local grocery
store. We stopped at Gailli and I had the usual crema/cream, mousse, and limone/lemon
ice cream for 1000 ITL/70 cents. Returned to the hotel at 21:00.
During our walks
in Florence, we have not been hassled much; there are just the men who won’t
get out of the way and manage to bump shoulders with you. One man was tapping
his thigh with his rolled up newspaper and managed to swat me on the rear when
he passed.
Wednesday, June
30, 1982
Slept fairly well
despite “Italia” chants late into the night.
We arrived at the
Ospedale at the appointed time of 8:10 and again only the Dutch girls were
there. The seminar got started at 8:30. Dr. Milani-Comparetti spoke English
slowly, but well-modulated and had good command of the language. Today Dr.
Poccianti, the orthopedic surgeon, spoke and he made me homesick! He sounded
like all our first-generation Italian neighbors in Suffern, NY. In fact, he had
practiced a little in New Jersey.
We got out at
13:30 and Jan and I returned to the hotel via a shop where Jan bought 11
lipstick cases with silk covers in prints of old paintings. Also shared a slice
of pizza and had Mangiabevi/eat-drinks
which are macedonias in their own fruit juice that you drink, and eat! Stopped for ice cream and this time I got stracciatella/ice cream with tiny
chocolate chips blended in, stracciatelle
di caffe/coffee, and melone/melon.
After a rest and writing session at the hotel, we went out at 16:30. We went to
a couple shops on Ponte Vecchio, one selling modern gift items from around the
world, including paperweights that looked like eggs, a life-size wooden lamb
with real wool, a clock in clear acrylic case with the hands on the bottom and
the second hand was a mobile that clicked around in a circle, and a Noah’s Ark
with simplistic carved pairs of animals. One shop had loads of stationery of
cream paper with the characteristic Florentine intricate flower designs. We
borrowed a guide book at a kiosk to learn the fat man in Boboli Gardens was to
the left of the main entrance. We entered through the courtyard and turned left
heading downhill and soon felt like we were leaving the gardens. We asked a
young man filling containers with water for directions to the grotto, and he
directed us to three of them. Who knew! We continued left and found ourselves
at an entrance to the left of the main one, and there was our statue of the fat
man on a turtle (Fontana del Bacchino/Fountain
of Bacchus, 1560 by Valerio Cioli of the figure of the obese dwarf Morgante)!
The grotto here was artificially made out of stone, even the moss and
drippings. A cat was sitting up on one of the moss outcroppings. We saw another
fountain pool on our way out the Porte
Romana/Roman Gate where we were to meet the seminar group at 18:30. We were
divided up into cars; Jan got to sit next to Dr. Milani-Comparetti! I was in a
car with Julie from Canada and Francie, with Dr. M Luisa Fantini, another
doctor from the Centro. We followed Dr. Milani-Comparetti out into the
countryside of Tuscany hills where the roads became narrower and turned into
dirt. A half hour later we arrived at Dr. Milani-Comparetti’s old brick house
surrounded by olive groves!
We were introduced to Signora Milani who spoke
perfect British-English and looked the part of a perfect hostess. Some of us
were taken to the bathroom, past the jumbled kitchen, up book-lined stairs,
past the daughter’s bedroom with an antique bed, to very modern facilities.
Later we sat on the patio and adjacent lawn with wine and crostini di fegato/toasted bread with a liver paté. There was a
little excitement when the two Milani dogs weren’t sure how to welcome the
German dog, and Monika ended up putting her dog in the car.
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| Jan with Morgante |
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| Seminar group at Dr Milani-Comparetti's house |
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| Tuscany hills |
We went to the
buffet table to get plates of panzarella/bread
salad, a very typical Florentine dish! There were slices of breads, cold cuts,
a green salad, and a salad of rice, beans and zucchini. Later desserts of
macedonia, zuppa inglese/layer cake
of lady fingers dipped in a liqueur with mousse, and twelve flavors of ice
cream! Also biscottini, little hard cookies with almonds to be dipped in a
white Chianti wine. Some people started singing “My Darling Clementine.”
There was a big
to-do at 22:30 when the three drivers wanted to stay and others wanted to get
back to the city. Finally Adriana took Jan and me, Jeanie and Francie and
dropped us off by Ponte Vecchio. Jan and I stopped for another ice cream; I had
mousse and limone/lemon.
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