Cat Colony – Part II

Previously we posted on the cat colony in Florence. Here’s the sign for the cat colony and photo of their living conditions. Pretty swanky if you are a cat on the street?

Drying Clothes Using Radiators

The radiators in our apartment serve double duty for heating and drying clothes especially now that it is cold outside and it is quicker to dry inside. We use different radiators for drying different kinds of laundry. We use the two radiators upstairs to dry clothes and sheets (one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom) and one radiator downstairs to dry kitchen towels. Pictured above is the radiator in the bathroom drying a load of “calzini” (socks) and “mutande” (underwear).

(Why do we do this? Because we don't have a dryer. Many people don't here as it is too expensive to run.)

Palazzo Medici Riccardi

 
Today we visited the Palazzo Medici Riccardi for a few hours and enjoyed it. There is a little of everything to see there: ornately decorated rooms, Michelozzo’s courtyard, the garden, the Chapel of the Magi, and whatever temporary exhibits are there. The temporary exhibit we saw was on metalwork restoration and it was interesting. It ends in early January 2008.

However, the most interesting thing we saw was something called “Lorenzo’s Workshop” and in it was an interactive multimedia presentention and exploration of the frescoes in the Chapel of the Magi. In the exhibit, you stand on a spot in the floor in front of a large screen and navigate and explore the frescoes by pointing at the screen. It was truly a good use of technology in a museum. Would love to navigate my music collection that way.

The Chapel of the Magi is a small chapel inside the palazzo that contains an altar painting by Filippo Lippi and wall frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli.     

Courtyard and Garden


Inside

Lorenzo’s Workshop

Museo di Storia Naturale Zoologia “La Specola”

Sala (Room) 2 (left) and 3 (right)


Sala (Room) 4 (left) and 5 (right)


The Zoologia ‘La Specola’ museum is part of the University of Florence. (The buzz of flourescent lights, the eerie stillness, that certain academic smell, yep, we're in a University building.) It costs 4 Euros per person to get in. We only had an hour and we made in through rooms 1-15 only. There are 33 rooms total so I guess we get to go back. The image above is from room 8, carnivores and large herbivores. There was next to no signage in English so bring a dictionary or just be content to look. Luckily most of the common animals will be familiar. We both liked this museum because there is a lot to see. Here is an interactive floor plan were you can click to see what is in each room.

There is a part of the museum dedicated to anatomical waxes (rooms 25 – 32) that is supposed to be fantastic (if you are into that sort of thing). We never saw it, so again, a trip back.

The ticket lady and the person responsible for closing the museum was clearly irritated with us slow pokes. We were in room 12 (cervi e lama) and she came through and barked at us that there was just 15 minutes left. Then in room 15 (monkeys) she shut the lights off on us for a moment – pitch black and all the little eyes came alive in the display cases - then she turned the lights back on and glanced down the hall at us. Okay, okay we’re moving. Jeez.  (All images courtesy of the museum web site.)

Sala (Room) 8 (left) and 9 (right)


Sala (Room) 10 (left) and 12 (right)

Sala (Room) 13 (left) and 14 (right)

Sala (Room) 15 (left) and 16 (right)

Sala (Room) 17 (left) and 19 (right)

Sala (Room) 20 (left) and 21 (right)

Sala (Room) 22 (left) and 23 (right)

Sala (Room) 24 (left) and Museum Plan (right)

Galleria del Costume

For some reason the lines have been incredible at all the major museums for the past few days. It seems like it is largely Italians vacationing. Today the line to get into the Pitti Palace (main entrance) was about 25 minutes long. We walked up the street a little and went in an entrance closer to Porta Romana and just walked right in. The slow point at the main entrance is the security check. Besides the main entrance at the Pitti Palace, there are three other entrances that we know of. One on the same street the main entrance is on but closer to the Porta Romana. One just outside the Porta Romana. One near the Forte Belvedere.

We walked the gardens for about 1 hour and then visited the Galleria del Costume inside the Pitti Palace. The museum is in a nice set of rooms in the southern part of the palace. You can get to the museum entry in two ways. From the main courtyard climb the huge stairs and follow the signs. Or from outside (in the garden) head to the southernmost part of the palace where there is a set of doors (not particularly well-marked).

We both liked the museum. I took us about an hour and a half to see it, reading everything. It definitely is not like the smaller museums where you can stop and talk to the people “watching” the rooms and there is definitely a larger volume of people flowing through. However, we still thought it was interesting and worth a visit. The collection spans the 18th - 20th centuries. Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the rooms that the fashions are in as well. Two things that stood out for us:

• A collection of buttons that are a temporary exhibit (11 dic 2007 – 27 apr 2008). It is called “Appesi a un filo. Buttoni all Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti.” “Appesi a un filo. Buttoni…” translates to: Hanging by a thread, buttons… An Italian fellow, Alberto Riva (? – 1924) collected 2,900 buttons from the 18th to the 20th century. Most of the buttons on display were from the 19th century and were for men’s clothes as that’s what most buttons were used for at that time. The buttons run the gamut from simple to complex, stamped metal, precious stones, painted, carved, and even little dioramas under glass. I kept wondering about the person who collected these buttons? What was he like?



• The clothes that Eleonora di Toledo (1522-1562), her son Don Garzia (1547-1562), and her husband Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574) were buried in. Both Eleonora and her son Don Garzia died of malaria within days of each other. Their coffins along with other Medicis were opened in 1857 and it was discovered that most had been broken into and valuables stolen. They were again opened in 1947 and again in 2005 for examination. In one of the last times the coffins were opened (not sure when), they removed and reconstructed the clothes they were buried in (what was left of them). It was a bit surreal.

Auguri di Buon Natale e Felice 2008

The photo above was taken a few days ago. The city is projecting the greeting “Auguri di Buon Natale e Felice 2008” on the Ponte Vecchio. You can see the Vasari Corridor making a 90 degree turn as it comes from the Uffizi and heads over the Ponte Vecchio. The corridor is the very top part with the regularly spaced windows. By the way, there are over 1500 self portraits in the Uffizi collection. Over 400 of them are on display in the corridor. The group Friends of Florence is looking for a sponsor to pay for photographing them all, producing a book, and sponsoring a US tour. Any takers? Happy New Year to all of our readers (all 3 of you) and everyone who made our trip possible.

Americans in Florence

The guide book Americans in Florence is published by the Florence Tourist Board. The twist in this book (written in English) is that it is part tour guide and part history of the American fascination and influence in Florence. The guide part focuses on 8 different walks (some fairly long) around the city and surrounding hills while along the way calling out points of interest where Florence history intersects with an American visitor/expat of days gone by. Short back stories of various Americans are given.

I thought the book was useful because after being here several months it opened up a different layer of exploration. It reveals points of interest that go beyond the typical “sites” – and the focus is on getting out and walking – which we love to do. Florence is a very walkable city and really is best enjoyed that way.

It’s a relief to know that they were complaining about tourists in Florence even back in the mid 19th century as this quote from the book indicates:

‘Sight-seeing’ from its original purpose of information, has been perverted by these travelling pests into a frigid duty. Nothing must be allowed to escape their observation that has attained the dignity of being a ‘sight’. They neither study, examine, nor look. ‘They have been there’…‘To see’ is the entire creed – to know, remember, or understand, are indifferent points.

This quote is attributed to James Jackson Jarves and it is still very relevant 150 years later.

Casa Siviero - Florence, Italy

 

Some folks at the Museo Horne told us about this little museum in the Oltrarno, near Piazza Poggi. The Casa Siviero is located in a small palazzo at Lungarno Seristori, 1/3, along the river. There is no entry fee and you’ll probably get a personal guide through the ground floor rooms. It’s best if you can speak and understand Italian. (Again, it was like an hour long conversation class for us.) The other floors of the house are not open to the public but may be in the future (as in years from now).

Who was Rodolfo Siviero (1911-1983)? There is a good biography on the museum’s web site. Briefly, he was an Italian who was sometimes called the “James Bond of the art world” and is celebrated for his work in protecting Italian works of art during the German occupation in World War II, and later recovering Italian works of art after the war. On his death in 1983, he donated his home and his collections to the Tuscany region. (Kind of like Horne and Stibbert. Was Florence a magnet for these bachelors? Or maybe art collecting gets in the way of marriage?)

It’s worth a peek if only to see the inside of one of these palazzos. Be sure to ask the guides lots of questions, they love to talk.

To learn more about this museum and it’s relation to other interesting spots nearby go to its Italian wikipedia page and use the city zone navigator control on the right.

Images of the exterior and interior of Casa Siviero in Florence, Italy.