Spring 2013 in Florence

Into each life, some rain must fall.
Agreed, but thanks to the precipitation of this past winter and early spring, 2013 has been the year with the most rainfall in Florence for the past 50 years.  In my just-previous Easter blog, I predicted it might stop raining on the day of the Resurrection.
 It actually did--and on the following day, Easter Monday, as well.
Then it started again.  Above is the scene in our Borgo Albizi courtyard from the office window.
Thanks to gray, overcast skies, the wisteria has only produced a few, timid blossoms,
 and the fig tree it is wrapped around, just one leaf!

Faithful Beautiful Florence blog photographer Bree Chun and I decided to take a stroll around downtown Florence in search of some color, and warmth.
We found it on the new pedestrian-only zone comprising the sidewalk and road in front of the
designer shops on via Tornabuoni.

The medieval palace in the background is no other than the Ferragamo flagship store.
Via Tornabuoni also hosts the pricey boutiques of Prada, Armani, Gucci and Tods, just to name a few.

If this is how these shops are using the mark-ups on their astronomically prized clothes,
I applaud their efforts.  The rose pink and magenta colors stand out against a backdrop of silver gray light and matching sidewalks.

Walking back to Borgo degli Albizi, Bree and I turned into via Porta Rossa,
where a surprise awaited us--an imaginative, cheerful window display.
No, it was not the usual show of shoes, handbags and pastel spring clothes...

...it was a celebration of the new Pope!  Papa Nuovo in Italian, and popping out of an Easter egg to greet and bless the world.  Mind you, this is Florence, not Rome and the shop in question sells objects in silver.  The eggs in the silver holders--creative advertising--below the papal poster are inscribed with the member names of the college of cardinals who were in the running for the top job.


 Papanuovo is also a clever play on words since
  ovo means egg in Italian.
Easter eggs are traditional fertility symbols, so one can only hope that...
April showers will bring May flowers.



As a contrast to the scene outside our window, here is a May preview--provided by a vase of freesias on the office table.
Maybe spring is merely a state of mind.

Reporting live from Beautiful Florence
    -- Rosanna

Easter 2013 in Florence

Right at the end of the Uffizi line, through a doorway between the statues of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his father Cosimo the Elder de' Medici, is an Easter gift

 to residents and visitors to Florence alike.

Past the entrance and a room with 20th sculptures by Marino Marini and Venturini

is the crypt of the former church of San Pier Scheraggio and a display of three medieval crucifix panels

(open 9 am - 8 pm, free admission!) for the Easter holidays.

The most expressive one, in the center of the crypt, is the above 13th century Crucifix from Pisa.  With resplendent gold work framing a tranquil, wide-eyed Christ and Stories from the His Passion--including the Betrayal and the Deposition--the tempera on panel work displays a variety of influences.  Since Pisa was a seaport at that time, the town absorbed the visual languages of Mediterranean lands as varied as Syria and Palestine to Sicily, famed for its mosaics of Arab inspiration.

While this tranquil Christ, with wavy hair coiling on his shoulders, seems to have transcended his suffering,

this cannot be said for the another Crucifix panel displayed in the same room.

Head bowed, eyes closed and hands oozing blood, this Christ was also created in the first half

of the 13th century in and around Lucca, not far from Pisa.  The scenes from the Passion surrounding the figure  depict Christ in various mournful scenes, from the Judgement before Pilate, to carrying the cross, to the Deposition, the Entombment and finally and an angel standing between an empty tomb and the
three Marys
who seek Christ on Easter morning.

This Crucifix is attributed to the so-called "Master of the Cross," who in turn was to inspire Coppo di Marcovaldo, the artistic precursor to Cimabue and Giotto, who was to introduce the
revolutionary Renaissance style.
Recently restored thanks to funding by the Amici degli Uffizi (Friends of the Uffizi),
the works displayed in San Pier Scheraggio will be moved to Room 2 of the Uffizi,
in the company of the the two above-mentioned crucifix panels and another by Duccio.

Christ is KO in the third exhibit, a diptyph (a smaller, two panel piece); in fact Mary in the scene below His armpit has fainted.  Again created in Lucca early 13th century, Christ's elongated body seems to 

presage the distinctive figures in the paintings of the Renaissance artists El Greco.

Looking at this work, it is clearly Good Friday in Passion Week, which today actually is.

With rain non-stop since Christmas, no government formed as a result of the February elections and problems stemming from a deep recession, Italy can be said to be currently experiencing its own

Via Crucis,
Stations of the Cross before the Crucifixion.

But guess what?  Easter is around the corner--that means Resurrection and a new start.

Maybe it is no coincidence that the other part of the diptych panel portrays
 Mary and a newborn Christ.

There is even an angel in a pink rose robe holding a globe with feet firmly on a dragon devil.
Evil will be overcome, life goes on.

Maybe it will even stop raining.

Buona Pasqua 
from Beautiful Florence

Rufina: Finding Old Acquaintances in a Tuscan Villa

This past weekend, Beautiful Florence blog photographer Emilia Gambardella and myself
were invited guests at an event hosted at Villa il Petroio.  Upon arrival, after going up the Tuscan hills near Florence between Rufina and Pontassieve, I recognized host Eduardo Robiglio (left). whom
I had interviewed in Florence seven years ago.  He introduced me to his mother, Carole Bolton (right).
I discovered that Carole and I had studied, in different years, at Florence's Università per Stranieri
(University for Foreigners).  She told me that right before she was to leave, she met her future husband,
Eduardo's father.

Why did I talk to Eduardo in 2006?   I am best known as an art writer, if not art,
then food.

The dessert that was served to the guests at lunch, chocolate truffles, gives the idea of the subject of
our talk, which was hot chocolate.  I reported that the premium Italian hot chocolate served at the Robiglio café on via de' Servi "represents a family tradition spanning 75 years."
Just a year later Eduardo sold the business and they started a new chapter in life.

The Robiglio had renovation work done on their weekend home in the Tuscan countryside.

This is the view from Villa Petroio on a variable March day.
The Robiglio family now rents the villa, guest wing and medieval village to host weddings or family reunions as well as producing estate-bottled olive oil and wine.

Speaking of wine, above are bottles of Villa Petroio wine, a blend of Tuscan Sangiovese and Canaiolo grapes with Merlot, on the lunch table.  As you can see, the floral arrangements matched the furniture.

Ever curious, I wandered into the kitchen for another surprise.

One of the cooks was a family friend just giving a hand.
"I've known Eduardo since he was a child," said Anna Bini (above).

The surprises continued.  Holding up eight fingers to represents decades, she confided her age.
Initially working in fashion in Florence, she moved to Paris to open a restaurant in order to legally employ her three sons.  "With a work contract abroad, this meant they were exempt from the draft,"
she told me.  "And one of my sons liked Paris so much that he is still there today
to manage the Casa Bini restaurant," she added.

Anna's proud demeanor was a mix between Parisian and Tuscan.
Pointing to the risotto with Tuscan porcini mushrooms that she had prepared,
Anna said in a whisper, "the rice is parboiled."

It was delicious.  I explained to Anna that parboiled rice is common in the U.S., which was
after all Carole Robiglio's homeland.

The hospitality continued with a concert of Florentine folk songs.

The group sang traditional stornelli which they heard as children.
The instruments ranged from the accordion, guitar and tamborine to
(surprise again), a saxophone.

The group's name is Gli Amici del Chianti, but talking to them I discovered the musicians hailed from the nearby Valdarno area, only part of which could be loosely defined as "Chianti."
Maybe the fact that Disney has also hired them to entertain Americans on tour in Tuscany
inspired their name.

The accordion player, named Simone, told me that he comes from
a village of 100 residents named
Bombone.

"But I have been there!" I exclaimed.  "During my first summer here during the '80s, I was hosted by a family in a remote area called 'Marnia' in the woods near Rignano.  One hot August evening, we drove over to Bombone, as we found out, the place were artist Ardengo Soffici was born, to attend
a donut festival.  Townswomen wearing comfy slippers were frying and serving
donuts (bombolone) on the streets of Bombone at midnight.
As usual, I was the only American in sight.

Simone was dumbfounded, and highly amused.

"Bombone is near Rignano sull'Arno, the home of Florence's mayor
Matteo Renzi," he said.

"And did you know him?" I asked.
"Of course, I remember him as a child walking down the street with the newspaper under his arm,
a sure sign of his future calling," he replied.

"And now?"
"Well, I voted for him...and he disappeared, a true politician," he told me.

"Let's drink to that," said everyone else within earshot.

Reporting live from Villa il Petroio
for Beautiful Florence.
                                              --- Rosanna

Italian Elections in Florence, Part 2

Who are all these cameramen and journalists crowding around in Piazza Signoria?

As recorded by faithful Beautiful Florence blog photographer Bree Chun, 

the sought-after gentleman found just behind the tripod is

no other than Florence's mayor, Matteo Renzi.

Renzi is just trying to report for a day's work in Palazzo Vecchio (city hall).

The excitement stems from the fact that although Renzi lost the Democratic primary for prime minister,
the candidate, Pierluigi Bersani, did not win enough votes to form a government.
There may be a new election, and before that, a new Democratic primary.
Renzi is aiming to win the eventual rematch with Bersani and become Prime Minister.

Here we are back during the February mock election in which both Italian and American university students participated at the Florence campus of Pepperdine University.
 Professor Alessandro Chiaramonte is explaining possible post-election alliances.
Perhaps he did not take into account that the Movimento Cinque Stelle founded by Beppe Grillo
 could win an unexpected 25% of the vote, and refuse to ally with any existing political party.

What is especially interesting is that the vote tallied at Pepperdine (see previous post, Italian Elections, the American and Italian 'Vote') corresponded to the write-in vote of Italian living overseas--with the coalizione di sinistra (the center-left alliance including Bersani's Democratic Party and Vendola's Left, Ecology and Liberty movements) winning a clear majority, and the rest of the parties (the center coalition headed by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, the right wing coalition run by Silvio Berlusconi ) winning a nearly equal number of votes.
The exception overseas was the Movimento Cinque Stelle, which finished last, not third as back home in Italy.  There are fewer angry Italian residents abroad who wished to cast
 a protest vote, it would seem.
The result at Pepperdine was also remarkably similar to the actual election results in the city of Florence.   The voters here are strongly left of center.

Where does Italy go from here?  Good question.
Media reporting to the contrary,
life goes on.

After the political conference and mock election at Pepperdine,
the Italian and American students and faculty adjourned to the nearby countryside,
where they prepared homemade pizzas, which were placed into a outdoor brick oven to bake.

Besides wondering what will happen politically--whether Italians will return to the polls or if another interim government composed of technocrats will be formed--preparing food and sharing a meal is still big on the country's agenda.  Here it also provided a chance for Pepperdine students to become acquainted with and make friends with fellow students from their host country.

And what do Italians, as well as these students, occasionally do after lunch?

Play bocce of course, especially on the weekend.

Italian Elections--The American & Italian Student 'Vote'

Not only did Italians vote in an all-important national election yesterday and today, but
American and Italian students in Florence expressed their preferences as well.  This was the result of a political conference which took place at the Florence campus of Pepperdine University involving their students as well as students from the University of Florence.

As can be seen in the photo above, the ballots in the mock election were facsimiles of the actual
Italian ballot--no names, just party symbols.  At stake are the seats--with a few exceptions--of the entire Italian Parliament, from the House of Deputies to the Senate, up to and including the Prime Minister.

Pepperdine in Florence director Elizabeth Whatley is holding the the ballot box
 containing the newly-cast votes.
As we are going to press, Italian polls officially closed an hour ago, and the entire country is waiting for the results with bated breath.  In the meantime, your faithful Beautiful Florence blogger can report
the student results:  41% support the coalizione di sinistra (the center-left alliance, including
Bersani's Democratic Party and Vendola's Left, Ecology and Liberty movements);
15.3% are for the center coalition, with lists headed by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti,
Casini and Fini;  15.3% for the Movimento Cinque Stelle (the anti-politician, populist movement created by the angry comic Beppe Grillo);  15.3% in favor of the coalizione di destra,
the right-wing coalition run by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
(who up to now gives the impression that he was prepared to even rise from the dead in order to participate.  Forgive my unprofessional comment as a journalist).  The Ingroia list (Civil Revolution) headed by this former Mafia prosecutor received not a single vote, while five ballots were declared null and void (schede bianche).

How did the participating students arrive at their decision?  Prior to the election,
Professor Alessandro Chiaramonte of Florence University's political science department
gave an explanation of the Italian political system, including historical background (above).  His speech was followed by presentations of each political coalition or party in English by selected students.

Here a student is talking about the Movimento Cinque Stelle, whose five star logo is next to a picture of its leader, Beppe Grillo.  The audience learned that Cinque Stelle political agenda stresses ecology and energy, is strongly anti-euro, while calling for a complete and radical renewal of the political elite, in addition to promoting online bureaucracy and free access to the Internet.
Grillo himself has taken the unprecedented step of declaring that he is not running for a seat
 in the Italian Parliament.

Those in attendance learned that the Italian Parliament is composed of
the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
Although Italy has 60,000,000 inhabitants as compared to the U.S. population of 300,000,000,
the Chamber of Deputies comprises 618 members versus 435 congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The Italian Senate is made of of 315 senators--excluding a handful of senators-for-life appointed for merit--versus 100 elected U.S. Senators.

Another student is talking about the left spectrum of the Italian party system, characterized by a platform that emphasizes jobs, education and sustainable development, civil and social rights (including civil unions for gays), and a United States of Europe.  Apparently what he said was convincing, as the Center-Left Alliance won the most votes in the mock election.

The gentle reader may ask why such an unusual subject is featured in Beautiful Florence?
Your faithful blogger, along with professional photographer Marco Giacomelli (on loan from our publishing company's English language magazine Vista, Florence & Tuscany), find quite beautiful as well as extraordinary the intercultural dialogue--resulting in informed political expression--organized as a joint effort by Pepperdine and Florence University.
In this way, the American students also feel part of the country they are currently living in,
 not just temporary guests.
Also, the roots of Beautiful Florence find support in the vibrant, living continuity intrinsic to the discoveries and traditions of Florence's remarkably beautiful past.

Where does Beautiful Florence go from here?

This past Friday, center candidate Prime Minister Mario Monti concluded his campaign in Florence, home of the Renaissance, to underscore that he would like to work towards a rebirth of Italy, a new Italian Renaissance.  A brave gesture in the stronghold of a strongly left constituency.
In any case, Beautiful Florence will report on the outcome of this election and compare it to the student vote.  Along the way, the Italian national vote will recount, as Professor Chiarmonte stated,
 whether the agony of the Italy's Second Republic will continue or
or if the outcome signals the birth of the Third Republic.

reporting live from Beautiful Florence 
--Rosanna

Traditional Tuscan Carnival Desserts

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday in Italy and all predominantly Catholic countries.

Lent is a time of self-examination, of mental spiritual and physical cleansing

that ends with Easter, symbolized by the Resurrection.

Yet, here in Tuscany, a respite can be obtained by
indulging in typical pre-Lent Carnival desserts that continue after Mardi Gras to be available
 in local cafés and bakeries.
One is schiacciata alla fiorentina (above), whose golden color comes from locally grown
saffron, which is mixed with flour, yeast, eggs, vanilla and sugar.  Always dusted with powdered sugar,  a more decadent version is layered with whipped cream.
 As its name implies, it is a speciality of Florence.

While every Italian housewife (including my later mother) also makes these at home, this sweet varies in name according to the Italian region.  In Tuscany these scraps of dough composed of flour, eggs, a little sugar and usually a touch of alcohol--either Vin Santo, rum or sherry--are known as cenci (rags).  Locally they are also called chiacchere (talk or gossip) as in pre-TV Italy, it was the custom that friends would gather at home for hot cenci, coffee and conversation.
 Cenci are best served just at the moment when they are deep fried (peanut or olive oil), cut with a pastry wheel and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
A simple dessert that is soul-satisfying.

As mentioned, schiacciata alla fiorentina and cenci provide warm respite during the pre-Lent Carnival period as well as most of Lent.  Towards the end of Lent, fritelle (above) appear.
Again, many an Italian housewife makes these at home especially on Sunday.
Fritelle herald the arrival of the Feast of St. Joseph (March 17), a sort of unofficial Italian
Father's Day.  Boiled rice enriched with milk, eggs, golden raisins and grated lemon zest are shaped into balls, deep fried and brought to the table hot with a dusting of granulated sugar.
Fritelle are richer than cenci and just as irresistible.

When in Tuscany, blog photographer Bree Chun and I suggest you stop at a café and enjoy these local winter specialties.  And, before you know it, the local Italian parish priest will ring the door bell, sprinkle holy water and bless your home, afterwards waiting quietly for the expected donation.
 Yet another pre-Easter tradition here in Beautiful Florence.

Time & the New Year--An Antique Clock Repairman in Florence

Tempus fugit--a Latin motto meaning in Italian
il tempo volo or time flies.
Your faithful Beautiful Florence blogger is at home at the beginning of a
New Year.   Above left is a Morbier clock from France, which has been keeping count of the flight of time and the New Year since 1830.

Like its faceless companion, it strikes every 15 minutes.  Upon my request, antique clock repairman Franco Lisi placed the missing face on the clock to reveal another

Morbier, this one from 1860.

I and photographer Bree Chun were in Lisi's workshop on via Romana, in Florence's Oltrarno neighborhood.  Lisi revealed that during the 1970s he had studied at Porta Romana's Art Institute and wanted to become a goldsmith.  Through word of mouth, however, he heard that a master of antique clock repair, Gino Mori, was seeking an apprentice.  Mori's former space is now
Lisi's shop.  It still bears Mori's name, and Lisi continues to answer the phone by saying
"Gino Mori."

Tradition knows not time, it would seem.

Here we are back at Vittorio Lombardini's antique shop, subject of the Beautful Florence 2012 Christmas blog, found directly across from my office on Borgo degli Albizi.
It was here that my quest for an antique clock began.  I had caught the bug from my
cousin's husband Antonio Gerardi.  His passion is reflected in a house in Policoro filled with antique clocks.  As a guest, I became fascinated with their sound.

Visiting Vittorio's, I felt an attraction to a 1930s reproduction of a 19th century clock (below).
One day I noticed, however, that the pendulum was moving too fast--it almost made me dizzy.
A metaphor for my fast-moving lifestyle, I would discover.
Did I move to Florence only to live like an American?

2011 faithful Beautiful Florence photographer Carly Vickers came to the rescue.  At the back of
Vittorio's shop, she discovered a mute 1910 German clock from the Black Forest.
It was love at first sight.  Vittorio was dubious.  "It will never tell time again," he said.

Here is my clock, at Gino Mori's.  I had discovered where the clock could be fixed by walking down via Romana one day on my way home by foot during a bus strike.

I asked Lisi whether it was an impossible task to make an antique clock tell time again.
He answered, "it is impossible not to fix a timepiece."
He immediately classified my clock as one with a trappola mechanism, made of wood and not of metal like his French clocks.  After all, it was created by a craftsman in the deep of the Black Forest.
And unbeknowst to me, in the course of a century, it had attracted hungry termites.

No problem.  Next door to Lisi at Gino Mori's is the workshop of carpenter
Nello Fancelli.   He possesses a gas chamber to kill temites, a trick of the trade.

Here he is with his hand-lettered sign advertising his services--tarli means woodworms or
termites, preventivi gratuiti means free estimates.  After getting rid of termites, Fancelli brings antique wooden furniture back to the original time period by careful restoration.  In the case of my Black Forest clock, it was returned to Lisi, who made it keep track of hours once again.

He reminds me of a surgeon--in fact, Lisi wears a white smock, while most Florentine craftsmen wear
either green or blue smocks.
Like a surgeon, his is fine, precision work.

Ogni orologio è particolare e ha la sua bellezza ("Every clock
is distinctive and has its own beauty,")  he explains.
"Each has its own movement, and sound."
Over time, Lisi has restored life to 17th, 18th and 19th century
French, Italian, English and German clocks, even a Breguet pocket watch from 1700.
He taught me to pull the chain of my Black Forest clock once a day in order to rewind the mechanism.
How ecological is that?  Antique clocks run on their own renewable energy.
Another thought for the New Year...

"Clock makers of the past had capabilities that today would be
unthinkable," says Lisi.  "Every clock piece was constructed carefully by hand, and the result was precise to the second.  It is my job to restore that as it was."

"Are you ever in a hurry?,"  I asked the craftsman.
"Sometimes," he replied, "but the job of repairing antique clocks
doesn't allow me to hurry much."
Mio lavoro non mi concede di avere tanta fretta.

When I was on my way to via Romana, I saw
Guido Giannini, master bookbinder craftsman, just outside
his shop in Piazza Pitti, founded by his ancestors in 1856.
This too, is Beautiful Florence.  Guido inquired where I was going.
Of course, he knew fellow craftsman "Mori,"
"So you are going to interview the man who works with time," said Guido.
As you can see, I did just that.

As timepieces can be repaired, so can our concept of time.

I learned that time stops, and moves, and above all...

has its own pace.

No small lesson.

Happy New Year from Beautiful Florence.
Buon Anno!