Why I came to live in Tuscany...

A long, long, long time ago in fair England, there was a boy....

     He met a girl,

girl went away to Hong Kong.

Girl came back to England, boy grabbed girl before she went away again, boy asked girl to marry him, girl said "Yes, but I'd rather like to not live in England!" 

Right from the beginning of our relationship then I had the idea that I might have to leave this ‘great’ country that we call England, although seeing as I lived in Worthing, this was not exactly such a great sacrifice!

My connection to Italy obviously went back to forces beyond my control, i.e. my Neapolitan Grandmother. When this girl, Annette, returned to England from Hong Kong in December 1997, Italy was on the list of her possible future destinations... and so with a little persuasion I managed to put Italy right at the top of that list!

I had been going to Italy, or more correctly, Naples and the Amalfi coast, for holidays since I was 9 months old, so I knew the place, right? And my love affair with the ‘bel paese’ and all things Italian had been a lifetime experience.

After we got married in August 1999, as chance would have it, we met an Italian couple who were in Worthing on their honeymoon??? Go figure! They had a villa in Florence and invited us for a holiday there. As a possible destination we were kind of thinking somewhere between Rome and Florence i.e. Perugia (which I have to say I'm glad we didn't choose!). However this would hopefully provide an opportunity to go back to a city I'd been to 10 years previous, albeit for one day! And explore a region, Tuscany, that had already become famous in England thanks to Prime ministers and pop stars.

This is the story of that visit...




June 2000

Our hosts for the two weeks live in the ‘up-market’ area of Gavinana to the south east of the historic centre. It's only a 10 minute bus ride to the centre and while the front of their villa is on a narrow road that is very popular with noisy scooters, the rear backs on to some lovely nurseries and fields. They pretty much leave us to our own devices as we can get about on our own, especially in the centre.

Florence

We're straight down to business, after settling in and getting a bearing of where we are, head into Florence. We've read up on what there is to see and do and discover that the historic centre of Florence was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982 and the sheer number of important buildings and works of art, means in two weeks we are only going to scratch the surface.

Florence is a city built on the glory of the Renaissance, the art movement that brought Europe out of the dark ages and into a re-birth. Taking the humanistic ideals of St. Francis of Assisi and putting them into tangibles, i.e. Architecture, Sculpture and Painting. Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's David and Brunelleschi's Cupola were all masterpieces created in Tuscany. These were the pinnacles of their field, but in Florence there is so much more. We stroll around soaking up the history of this place. The narrow alleyways hold mysteries and secrets...



A Return To The Past

It had an air of secrecy
as I searched out its true spirit from a labrynth of decorative corridors,
a thousand mystical stories seemed locked within it's dusty exteriors.
A kind of vacant expectancy lay like a spell,
over once triumphant statues and rich colourful frescoes,
mute to inquisitive visitors.
Cupolas and bell towers rose majestically,
sentinels of the past,
aching to peer into sumptuous rooms,
filled with rich tapestries
of loving families, long gone.

Hidden churches crafted after ancient temples,
now dormant husks.
Thier creators no longer seeking to unravel ponderous equasions
or calculate endless orders and standards of antiquity,
the conquering and mastering of forgotten ways.

Spacious Piazzas opened themselves up like gaping holes,
bringing momentary refrain from narrow passages of suspicious memories.
I heard the sound of fires, floods and the smell of blood
of those who dared to speak out and challenge her grandeur.

And so swiftly I sought escape by way of an enclosed bridge,
traversing river and finding safety on a lofty hill.
I returned my gaze upon that city, scanning rooftops of burnished terracotta,
breathless and overwhelmed
at the magical charm
that had captured my soul.

(written on my return from Florence 2000)

We gasp at the enormous edifice that is the white, pink and green marble Duomo with Brunelleschi's terracotta cupola, complimented by Giotto's bell tower and the baptistery with Ghiberti's bronze doors or 'Gates of Paradise' as Michelangelo christened them. Then it's onto Piazza Signoria, which is more like an open sculpture museum and is breathtaking, I count something like 20 sculptures there! All crowned by the imposing Palazzo Vecchio. We make our way to Piazza Santa Croce, another impressive square. I have to go inside and check out the the tomb of Michelangelo. Outside there is a huge statue of Dante, another of Florence's famous sons, who for political reasons was banished from the city.

We make a few bookings to check out some of this famous art, at the Uffizi, the Galleria Academia, where the original David sculpture is and the Bargello, which is the main sculpture museum.

To get a bird’s eye view of the city and as it's a beautiful sunny day, we decide to climb the 414 steps of the bell tower. Exhausting, but well worth the effort, especially on a day as clear as today. Even though it's called Giotto's bell tower, the early Renaissance artist only designed the first level.... However the views are spectacular! You can see down onto the terracotta roof tiles and out towards the hills.

Florence is actually situated in a valley and surrounded by huge hills and mountains. Fiesole to the east, Mt. Morello to the north and the Chianti hills to the south. I like the fact that even though you're in a city, you are surrounded by the countryside. You can also get a bird's-eye-view of Brunelleschi's magisterial terracotta cupola.








In the evening we stumble across an outdoor classical concert in a pretty loggia, the Mercato Nuovo I believe.





The Uffizi

We are advised to pre-book for Florence's most famous art gallery and so here we are, inside, having skipped the queues! The gallery is on the 1st floor, which seems more like the fifth! And it kind of snakes round in a u shape, meaning you start at one end and finish at the other, sounds neat!

The Uffizi is the World's oldest public owned Museum, designed and started by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 it was completed in 1581 by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti. It was constructed for the Granduke Francisco de Medici son of Cosimo I originally as offices for the Florentine Magistrates, hence the name 'Offices' or 'Uffizi'. Over the preceding years the building evolved into a display place for the many paintings and sculptures collected by the prolific Medici family. Interestingly over the years because of the sheer size of the collection, many sculptures were moved to the Bargello sculpture museum and the Fra Angelico paintings to the San Marco church. Still thousands of paintings remain locked in the basement, due to lack of floor space.

The collection starts sometime after the middle ages around 1200 with masterpieces by Cimabue, Giotto, Masaccio and continuing with Filippo Lippi, Botticelli and the mesmerising birth of Venus and Spring. There's the Michelangelo Doni Tondo, Leonardo's Annunciation (my personal favourite), Adoration of the Magi and Baptism of Jesus. Titian's Venus and Caravaggio's Bacchus. Two notable absences are Caravaggio's Medusa and Raphael's Madonna of the Chaffinch, both being restored. Piero della Francesca's Duke of Urbino, with the big nose is cool and the octagonal tribune, with the famous angel playing a mandolin by Rosso Fiorentino and a statue of Venus thought to be an original by the great Greek sculptor Praxiteles.

There is a cafe halfway round and very welcomed it is too... giving our feet a rest and our brain a rest from all this beauty! The Uffizi is an incredible testament to the quality and originality of the Renaissance. By now we have a spot of 'Stendhal syndrome' and must go home and lie down...


Siena

Our first foray out of the city is south to Siena. Siena we discover is the sworn arch enemy of Florence. That doesn't seem very nice? I don't recall the people of Worthing having any particular malice for people from Lancing or Brighton? No! No! our host tells us, we are in Italy! To begin to understand the Italian people we have to remember that the history of Italy as a united country goes back only 140 years to 1861. Before that time Italy was a country of individual sovereign states, a bit like San Marino and the Vatican state are today. Each city built towers and huge, thick walls to protect themselves not only from French, Spanish and Austro-Hungarian invaders, but also from neighbouring cities. Hence the reason why some residents of Florence are not so keen on their Siena or Pisa cousins! It's a hatred that goes back more than 500 years. Some Florentines will refuse to step foot in the centre of Siena, it really is that strange... for an English person anyway!

We've heard that Siena is quite pretty, so we go and investigate... We have to take a coach there, which we pick up near the station in Florence Santa Maria Novella. The drive is very pleasant and takes us through some very pretty Tuscan countryside, rolling hills, tall cypress trees and small stone farmhouses dotted about. The countryside in Italy we learn, is protected by the government from building developers. Apparently it is very complicated to get any kind of building planning permission approved, even if you want to put a new window in! Still it keeps the countryside looking beautiful...

We arrive in Siena after about an hour and we're straight into the centre by way of..... the buildings are all made of these burnt Siena coloured bricks, which are quite dark, but on a gorgeous sunny day are warm and inviting. Siena is built on a large hill and the narrow streets go in concentric circles from the outside to the centre. We make our way to the very impressive white marble Cathedral which has a wonderful Romanesque facade with lots of interesting gargoyles and statues. There is a huge bell tower, a baptistery and lots of white marble steps. We don't have time to go inside, but press on to Siena's 'piece de resistance'... the Piazza del Campo. Wow! It's a huge shell shaped square, if that makes sense. With the half brick half white marble town hall and bell tower, which appears to be touching the sky! Around the edge there are restaurants and cafes and in the middle people have spread themselves out sitting on the dark brown stones, chilling out chatting, picnicking and just generally appearing to be having a great time! We join them and soak up the atmosphere of this magical square...

Our time is up for today as we have a coach to catch, but this is definitely somewhere I wouldn't mind returning to... especially if I only lived 40 miles away!


The Galleria Accademia

One of the reasons I'm drawn to Florence is it's the birthplace of someone who has become my favourite artist, Michelangelo. During the 10 years that I first visited Florence, I've read up loads on the guy and come to know about as much as one can about his works without actually seeing them! So obviously I'm very excited to be actually coming face to face with one of my heroes and what better place to start than here at the Galleria Accademia.

I'm very excited as the original statue of David is housed here, along with four of the unfinished prisoners that were destined for the Julius tomb in Rome, (the other two, 'Rebellious' and 'Dying' being in the Louvre in Paris). There is also a statue of St Matthew by Michelangelo and a Pieta, although experts now doubt its authenticity.

The Accademia di belle Arte was first founded in 1563 and Michelangelo's David, originally on the steps of the Palazzo Vecchio was brought here in 1873 to protect it from the elements and a copy put in its place.

It took the then 26 year old Michelangelo 3 years to create and from a block of marble that had been badly damaged! He carved it in over -sized proportions as it was to go on a high pedestal in the Duomo and therefore you are meant to look up to it.

Again we have pre-paid tickets and so get straight in... One corridor and there he is! All seventeen feet of him, the David really is an immense statue, although the carving on it is quite incredible. You can see the veins on his hands and the Carrara marble is almost translucent. We stand there open mouthed gazing at this incredible work of art...

The four prisoners are pretty cool too, all in various stages of realization

Atlas, The Bearded Slave, The Young Slave and The Awakening Slave

Michelangelo said that he didn’t sculpt figures into marble, he liberated them out of it. He quarried his own marble in Carrara to the north west of Florence, seeing the figures in the living rock before driving in the first nail that would split it off the rock face. The unfinished slaves are deeply compelling examples of how Michelangelo chipped away the marble enclosure, gradually exposing more and more the sculpture trapped inside.

San Gimignano

Today we have a date with somewhere I remember reading about in a book... I've no idea of the title, but I remember the author visiting this charming medieval town and his little son having trouble saying the name! They settled on 'Jimmy Jimmy', after that famous English football pundit with the strange beard, Jimmy Hill! The town as it turned out was San Gimignano... which has that classic Italian 'gn' which is pronounced 'ny' in English.

Anyhow, today we are again on the coach from Florence as we are told, yes, San Gimignano is a delightful place... as it turns out, this proves to be our favourite excursion from Florence. We just wander aimlessly and there seems to be something amazing around every corner. A spectacular view, a tower and all buildings carved out of the most wonderful honey coloured stone. It's a boiling hot June afternoon and we can hear the strains of a distant harp. We follow the sound and end up in a tiny square where a blind harpist is strumming away and a few people have gathered to listen.

The 'Torre Grande' is calling and we climb up inside for some even more incredible views of the surrounding countryside, wow!

I think it was probably about now that we both looked at each other and said, "Ok, so when can we move here?"

The Bargello

This is the art gallery that is dedicated solely to sculpture. One of the oldest buildings in Florence, it was built in 1260 to house the Magistrate of the Florentine council or 'Podesta'. When the Medici did away with the 'Podesta' the Bargello became a prison and executions took place in the courtyard. It became a National Museum in 1865 and the Palace was enriched by some of the most important Renaissance sculptures including masterpieces by Luca della Robbia, Verrocchio, Donatello, Michelangelo and Cellini. There are some special pieces in here that I just cannot miss...

For starters there is one of Michelangelo's earliest sculptures, Bacchus, created when he was only 22 years old. The marble has been smoothed out and depicts the young Roman god of wine, with grapes for hair, tipping his cup lasciviously in a state of inebriation, wonderful! Bacchus is depicted with rolling eyes, his staggering body almost teetering off the rocky outcrop on which he stands. Sitting behind him is a faun, who eats the bunch of grapes slipping out of his left hand. The figure, with its swollen breast and abdomen, suggested to Giorgio Vasari "both the slenderness of a young man and the fleshiness and roundness of a woman", and its androgynous quality has often been noted.

There are also two older 'Davids' one by Verrocchio and the other by Donatello. Also a very famous sculpture from the Mannerist period, is Giambologna's 'Mercury'

The gallery also features the competing designs on Isaac's Sacrifice, that were performed by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi to win the contest for the second set of doors of the Florentine Baptistry.

The Bargello is somewhere that usually gets overlooked by visitors to Florence as there simply isn't time to see everything on a day trip, a weekend or even in a week. In fact many art students will come to Florence for six months or a year to study the embarrassment of riches that this relatively modest sized city holds. Even in our two week trip there are so many other treasures that we are going to miss the only sensible thing to do would be to move here!


Boboli Gardens

After seeing so many buildings and museums we have to check out some greenery, which in Florence is few and far between. If we were to move here, I think it wouldn't be in the historic centre, but somewhere in the surrounding countryside, which we agree is very beautiful. The most well known green space in Florence is Boboli Gardens, which is actually part of the Pitti Palace, one time home of the Medici and King of Italy, when Florence was briefly the capital of Italy.

The gardens are extensive and set out in the very formal Italian style with lots of close cropped hedges, statues, fountains, pathways and well not much grass! We've picked a scorchingly hot day to come here, it's just too hot to enjoy fully, however there are some great views over the city.

Lucca

Now this is somewhere that was a very nice surprise. Before I'd come here I'd never heard of Lucca, a small city near Pisa. One thing that makes it unique is that unlike many old Italian cities the original city walls remain.

We take the train to Lucca and enter through one of the many gates, through the very thick walls. Infact the walls are so thick you can walk on them, which we do. Many people seem to be riding bicycles along the walls, apparently there are many bicycle shops, where you can hire them.

The city itself is very elegant and there are very few tourists here. We spend a very enjoyable afternoon strolling round this very pretty place, there are many interesting churches and towers. If we moved to Florence, Lucca would be one of our neighbouring towns and definitely worth further exploration.

Greve-in-Chianti

One trip that are hosts accompany us on is here to Greve. Greve is one of the first towns you come to in the area known as Chianti. Now I knew Chianti was a type of wine, but now discover that it is a whole area, a bit like Burgundy in France, or the Napa Valley in California.

Aldo drives us out to this tiny town on a road called the Chiantigiana and I have to say it is one of the most stunning roads I've ever been on. Rolling hills, tall cypress trees, rows of neatly trimmed vines and silvery green olive groves everywhere. Greve itself is a very picturesque town with an old colonnaded square that is more triangular in shape. We stop for an ice-cream and soak up the atmosphere. A very pleasant trip.

Pisa

Of course no trip to Tuscany would be complete without a trip to Pisa and a look at the famous leaning tower. Again an hour train journey from Florence. To find the tower you have to go on a short walk to the 'Campo dei Miracoli', this is an incredible complex, a symphony of white marble! Including the leaning bell tower, the Cathedral, the baptistry and mausoleum. Unfortunately at the moment you can't go up the tower as it is having strengthening work done on it, with a series of steel cables attached, insuring that it doesn't fall over!

 

 Still you can still take the obligatory silly photo of yourself trying to prop it up and admire the sublime craftsmanship, albeit with the dodgy foundations. I wonder if it would be as famous if it weren't leaning? Well it's still pretty impressive.

Apart from this very impressive square, there doesn't seem to be much else to see in Pisa... I'm sure another visit here would prove me wrong.

 San Giovanni

We somehow managed to time our holiday to co-incide with Florence's patron saint's day San Giovanni, we kind of stumble upon it really and it proves to be the icing on the cake for us. San Giovanni is the most important day of the year for Florentines and everybody goes all out to make it a spectacle. In Piazza Santa Croce there is an historic football match and the square has been transformed with sand and bleachers round the edge. We install ourselves in Piazza Signoria, which is crammed full of people and enjoy the costumed parade. There are horses and even white bulls being paraded and some very elaborate costumes, including the four football teams who will be playing for top honours later. We stay in town for a meal and at ten o'clock it appears the whole city has come out to witness an incredible firework display from Piazza Michelangelo above the city. The fireworks are being reflected over the river Arno for a truly wondrous experience.

A very fitting end to two magical weeks in Tuscany. Obviously on a holiday you do get to see the best of everything, but what's not to love about this place? We return to a dismal, grey, wet England, vowing to do all we can to make the move to Tuscany a reality...

Footnote
It would take us 16 months to prepare ourselves for the move, and this is where Lee (and Annette's) Tuscan Odyssey begins...