Il Duomo e la Fortezza

On Wednesday, word of an open-air market at the fortress was all over school, so a few of my classmates and I hiked around past San Domenico to Fortezza Medicea, once military fortress housing Florentine troops, and now an enormous public park.

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Merchant stalls surrounded the ancient brick walls like the camp of an army laying siege, selling everything from clothes and shoes to kitchen utensils to beautiful meats, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables.

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(I was much more interested in the latter.)

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The fortress was built in the 1560s by order of Cosimo I de’ Medici after his Florentine forces conquered the city. With its perimeter of over one kilometer, it’s a popular spot for walking and jogging, as well as picnicking. I love to pick up a sandwich from a nearby bar or a bit of fruit and cheese from the market just across the bridge, and eat with a view of the majestic Tuscan hills or the city’s three great towers.

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My friends and I wandered back through town and parted ways at the Duomo, which I’d seen last year but wanted to visit for a second time.

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One of my classmates asked me an impossible question: between the Duomo of Siena and that of Florence, which one do I like better?

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I think I prefer the exterior of Santa Maria del Fiore, with its pastel colors and gentler Renaissance architecture. Siena’s intensely Gothic façade and bold black-and-white stripes are a little too jarring for me.

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Doesn’t stop me from photographing the heck out of it, though.

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The structure is mostly 13th-14th century Gothic, influenced by what was then quite fashionable in France. Note the similarities between this facade and that of Notre Dame, particularly on the upper levels. (The Duomo’s first story, begun in 1215 and worked on until just before 1300, is more Romanesque, while the upper stories and the belltower were designed in the early 1300s.)

If you read my blog last year and are currently going, “but wait, this all looks so familiar!”, then you are right. I featured several shots from Siena’s Duomo last year. That day, however, my camera battery died partway through the trip, so this year, I have taken pains to ensure that you’ll get to witness as much of the Duomo as possible!

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I mentioned before that I prefer the outside of Florence’s cathedral to Siena’s, but the reverse is true inside. While there is something to be said for the contemplative simplicity of Santa Maria del Fiore’s interior (Siena’s San Domenico is similar, and it’s one of my favorite cathedral interiors), the tightly-woven complexity of Siena’s really comes together for me. It is order just bordering on chaos, it’s a bold celebration of contrast.

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The interior includes works by Michelangelo, Duccio, Donatello, Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Bernini, Pinturicchio, and still others.

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From the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, you can climb up to a vantage point on the wall of what might one day have been the new façade, if not for the bubonic plague. The Senese intended to expand the existing cathedral to fill the entire piazza, making it the largest church in Europe (and more importantly, larger than that in Florence); after the plague, the project was abandoned, the populace fearing that the plague was punishment for their hubris.

In addition to another lovely view of the countryside, this place gives you an excellent angle on the cathedral itself.

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Note the changing widths of the white stripes on the bell tower. From ground level, this creates the illusion that the tower is much taller than it actually is.

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Later, I returned to Piazza del Campo to people-watch and get a bit of sun.

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Next up: San Domenico, and a day trip to San Gimignano!

2012!

Belated Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

It’s 2012 already. I’ve had an eventful year–working hard and recovering from my injury–and I’m happy to announce that I will be going abroad again from February 15th to March 15th of this year. I am extremely excited to return to Italy, and have also planned to spend some time in Paris. I hope you will travel vicariously through me again this year!
I will update later with more details as the departure date draws closer. For now, here are some photos to tide you over–these are a few last shots from Florence that never made it onto the blog last year. (I’m getting nostalgic just looking at them.)

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A presto, belli!

January 21: Il Battistero, e Firenze di Notte

My mother came to visit for a week at the end of January, but because I am doing this thing in a mostly chronological fashion, those adventures must be left for another time. I mention it because I went into the Duomo’s Baptistery while I was waiting for her to arrive.

The Baptistry sits at the west of the Piazza del Duomo and is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Florence. The structure itself dates to the 11th century; the bronze north doors, by Ghiberti, to 1401, effectively marking the very beginning of the Renaissance. The ceiling, a mosaic made of Venetian glass, was made in the 1200s.

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Like the frescoes in the Renaissance dome of the neighboring cathedral, the mosaic depicts the Last Judgment.

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The marble walls and almost all of the windows are gilded and decorated.

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I left the Baptistry and went to meet my mother at the station. We proceeded to have a very busy weekend (including, but not limited to, the last day of a special Bronzino exhibit in Palazzo Strozzi, the lavish rooms and the Modern Art museum at Palazzo Pitti, and a day trip to Fiesole, which I will share with you soon), but because it’s all too much to write about at once, I will beg once more for your patience and tide you over with some shots from the last few weeks of Florence by night.

The Arno after sunset:

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Piazza Santa Maria Novella:

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Palazzo Vecchio, from Piazza della Signora:

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The streets begin to clear as the temperature drops:

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Piazza della Reppublica:

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It’s not hard to see why I love this city so much.

12 January: Sul Duomo, Sopra il Mondo

After falling down a flight of stairs at a restaurant yesterday (this was before the wine-tasting, thank you very much), I did wonder if attempting to climb the Duomo’s 463 steps was the smartest of ideas. Thankfully, my ego was the only part of me that was hurt in the incident, and not only was today’s weather magnificent, but there was no line to get in, either! How could I pass it up?

The entrance to the cupola is hidden away on one side of the cathedral, where you pay, receive your ticket, and then start the long climb. How long is it? Well, I didn’t count the number or keep track of the time, but there are signs all over the ticket booth warning you that if you have a heart condition, you should not attempt it. The signs say that there are 463 steps, plus some additional walking as you circle the inside of the dome or go between staircases.

The staircases are narrow stone-and-brick passageways lit by electric lights and windows at regular intervals. At first, the stairway structure is rectangular, but it soon becomes a tight spiral. Along the way, you stop off at a few rooms with statues and art and so on.

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More staircases and passageways.

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A bit before the halfway point, you circle around inside of the dome, with an excellent view of the frescoes painted therein. From the ground, due to the distance and the angle, they’re pretty hard to see, but from here, it’s much easier to absorb the details.

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Although you can’t see the entire work in this photo (I was shooting over a plastic barrier and couldn’t get an angle that would capture all of it), the fresco depicts the Last Judgment and was painted by two artists, Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari, from 1572 to 1579. (The structure of the dome itself, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, was built between 1420 and 1436.)

For a little perspective, you can see how high up I am at this point:

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(Shot through the plastic barrier, hence the lousy colors.)

You follow a catwalk about halfway across the interior of the dome, and then go up…

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… and up…

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and up.

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In this shot you can see that you are entering the upper part of the dome, as the surface begins to curve.

Now, I’m proud to say that I am in decent shape at this point in my life, and while I was not huffing and puffing like some of the tourists that I passed in the corridors, my legs were aching by the time I reached the top. It was quite the workout!

Anyway–at last you come to a short but extremely steep bit of stairs that is more of a ladder than a staircase, leading up through a hole only a few feet in diameter, and once you haul yourself up through that, you emerge at the top of the dome to what is certainly one of the most beautiful cityscapes in the world.

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In the above shot, there is the Church of Santa Croce on the far left, and behind it, Piazzale Michelangelo. The Arno river is also visible if you look for it.

Facing the opposite direction, the stunning Tuscan hills…

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… and looking down, the shadow of the Duomo and the belltower to the left.

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Capelle Medici to the right, the Church of Santa Maria Novella to the left, and the train station (Stazione Santa Maria Novella) in the middle.

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Looking down again, the body of the cathedral, and the belltower.

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Like I said, the weather was just astounding. There was hardly any wind, so I was quite warm, even all the way up on the roof! The sky was wonderful as well.

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On the way back down, you could stop and look at some of the old tools and mechanisms used for building and restoring the cathedral.

Finally on the ground again—how small it looks from down here!

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That’s all for now. I don’t have any specific plans for what’s next, but there are still many, many places in Florence that I have not seen, so rest assured that our adventures are far from over. Until next time, ciaociao!

6 January (part II): Siena e il Palio

I wrote last time that I have been in love with Siena, very deeply and in secret, for a long time. Because of this, I wanted to devote an appropriate amount of effort to the story (and to the photos), and I simply didn’t think I could do it justice in the little time I had this morning. I also had been lazy and hadn’t finished processing the photos, but I like the first excuse better.

When I was little, my mother had all of these books from her childhood by an author named Marguerite Henry. The books were all in hardback, with gorgeous color illustrations, and they were all dramatized but ostensibly true stories about horses. I was in one of those phases at the time and I must have read all of them cover-to-cover a dozen times each. A number of them were about a family on the island of Chincoteague on the American east coast, but there was one about a boy in Italy and a horse that he rescued, trained, and raced in the Palio in Siena. The book was called Gaudenzia–the name of the horse, which one character translates as “the joy of living”–and because of it, I became obsessed with the Palio for a good few years, in spite of how dangerous it was made out to be. I would play make-believe with props made hastily from whatever objects and art supplies I could find lying around and run around the yard, pretending that I was racing in the Palio.

The obsession faded after not too long, but you know, that sort of childhood love for a thing or a place never goes away. Even if I have not read that book in probably ten or twelve years, I remember the story in glimpses, in fragments of prose and mental images. Ever since reading it, I have secretly wished that I could see the place where it is held and experience it first-hand.

But before we get to that, I’ll roughly follow our guided tour and show you a few other things first.

Siena is very much a Tuscan city; the streets are narrow, and generally stone rather than cement pavement, with no real delineation between sidewalk and drivable surface. A defining feature of Siena is its hills; the city is built over three of them, with prominent city features placed on each one. When walking through Siena, you’ll go up and down, up and down, on steep terrain with abrupt changes in inclination.

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The dominant architectural style is medieval; there is lots of old stone and terracotta brick. Some areas have an almost Roman feeling to them.

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Our first stop on the tour was the Church of San Domenico, important to the Sienese because it was built in honor of St. Catherine, the patron saint of Siena and one of the two patron saints of Italy (along with St. Francis of Assisi). The story goes that Catherine, who had entered the public eye by traveling throughout Italy to help the poor and the ill and to advocate for clergical reform, went to Avignon (at the time, the seat of the Papacy) to ask the Pope to return to Rome. Less than a year later, her request was granted, and Pope Gregory XI moved to Italy. She died and is buried in Rome, but her skull and her thumb are preserved as relics in San Domenico.

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There were no photographs allowed inside the church, though some members of our group were taking photos anyway. Let me take this moment to say that it really frustrates me when people do not respect the wishes or regulations at historical sites. Regardless of one’s religious belief, I think it’s important to at least give respect to the people who live in, worship at, and take care of these places, and above all, to never use your flash at historical or artistic sites, EVER. I could rant forever on this subject, but I will spare you.

Our next stop was the Duomo of Siena, formally the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.

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Constructed in the 13th century but including works from the Renaissance and additional chapels and structures from even later. As such, this Duomo is unusual among Italian churches in that it incorporates four architectural styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque.

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The black and white marble is all from Siena (and other colors and varieties of local marble can be found inside, mostly in floor mosaics). Black and white, the colors of Siena, are said to represent the colors of the horses owned by the city’s founding brothers, Senius and Aschius.

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The façade is distinctly Gothic, and in fact reminiscent of the Duomo of Milan.

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The interior is rich with frescoes and statues, and of course, the black and white stripes.

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The Duomo has a library that was, until recently, closed off from the public and kept dark. As such, the frescoes on its walls (our guide attributed them to Rafael himself, but Wikipedia says differently—I shall leave it to you to decide!) are preserved in astounding color.

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After leaving the Duomo, our guide took us at last to Piazza del Campo, where the Palio is held twice a year (once in July, once in August).

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It is a surprisingly small space for a horse race! In fact, the race itself takes only a little over a minute.

The race represents a traditional rivalry between the seventeen districts, or contrade, that make up the residential sectors of the city. Each contrada has a mascot and a distinct identity. If you are born in a contrada, you belong to it for life, no matter where you may move. In each Palio, ten of the seventeen contrade contribute a horse and a jockey; the jockeys ride bareback, and use their whips as much to disturb other jockeys and horses as to encourage their own. Preventing one’s rival from winning is as much a part of the sport as aiming to win oneself, and a surprising amount of physical interference is permissible. It is not uncommon for jockeys to fall (or be pushed) off, though it is important to note that a horse can win the race with or without its rider.

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Standing in the Piazza del Campo was certainly one of the top ten most amazing moments of this trip. (Also among the top ten were: the tower in Lucca, my first cappuccino, standing in the Colosseum, the bistecca fiorentina that I had for dinner last night.)

After Siena, we went to a wine-tasting at a small Chianti vineyard called Sant’Appiano, which ages its wines in oak barrels in a traditional underground cellar that is more a cave than a constructed space. It’s beautiful.

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The wines (and the olive oil) were excellent.

Day 11: Milano Sfaccettata

Well, I had a small adventure with regard to my hotel. It was a listing in one of Rick Steve’s guidebooks from 2008. I called in the morning to reserve a room, being sure to ask, “is this Hotel XYZ?” and the man on the phone said that yes, it was, so I made my reservation. When I arrived at the address, the hotel had a completely different name, different management, different prices (though, fortunately, not outrageously so), and fewer of the amenities listed in the book. I’m slightly bitter, but I suppose that that is my karmic retribution for accessing the book via Google Books instead of ponying up for a legal and up-to-date copy.

Also part of my karmic retribution is that the Museo del Duomo was, in fact, closed; the Duomo itself, however, was open as promised, and it was spectacular.

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Unlike many other cathedrals in Italy, il Duomo di Milano is built in the Gothic style. It lacks the smooth cupolas and frescoes characteristic of Renaissance architecture, instead opting for jagged spires and angular shapes on the exterior, and an interior that contrasts simple stonework and vividly stained glass.

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Construction began in the late 1300s; heavy French influence in the early years is likely the reason for its Gothic design. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the completion of the façade in 1805, and it was not until 1965 that the last elements of the building were officially completed. Thus, the Milanese dialect has the expression fabrica del dom, “building the cathedral,” which figuratively refers to a task that is egregiously long or difficult.

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Opinions on the cathedral vary widely, from the eloquent praises of Mark Twain to the damnations of Oscar Wilde.

The interior architecture itself features large but fairly boring columns, some instances of detailed carving over the chapels and niches, and vaulting ceilings without much to offer per se. The stained glass, however, is another story.

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The windows depict people and scenes relevant to the Christian faith in shocking color, and when the angle of the sun is right, gray stone is transformed into glowing frescoes.

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During November and December, paintings of St. Charles Borromeo by a variety of Renaissance painters are hung along the walkways. The Duomo also houses the largest pipe organ in Italy, a small part of which is visible here on the left.

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For a fee, you can climb a staircase to the roof of the cathedral and walk along the north-facing side. (For a slightly larger fee, you can take an elevator.) I recommend it, because otherwise it’s essentially impossible to see much of the roof’s architecture, including dozens of statues and the Madonnina that sits on the main spire, over 350 feet above ground level.

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At the end of the day, I have to side with Mark Twain; I find the array of contrasts in the Duomo’s architecture beautiful in spite of its discord. It is a perplexing juxtaposition of solidity and ethereality. Now that I’ve met my sesquipedalian quota for the week, here’s another photo of the façade.

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I took a walk around the Duomo district and ended up in Parco Sempione by Castello Sforzesco, a 14th century castle that was once home to the Duchy of Milan, as well as Spanish and Austrian forces in later years. It’s full of museums, but–as we’ve all come to expect on a Monday–they were closed.

Given that tomorrow is not a Monday, it will be a museum day.