And below: I will climb the stairs, I will open my door, without saying a word, I will take you in my arms and kiss you.

My nasturtium plants, grown from seed last year, have survived the Tuscan winter in situ in my terrazzo! And today one of the bloomed! In March! Che bello!

Che colore! That color!

Love is out of style but my heart is vintage.

I left my new yoga class (painful after being out of yoga for too long), and walked onto one of the prettiest piazze in Italy! The magnificent Palazzo Pitti, in all its glory, on a bright, sunshiny March afternoon!

Italian word for the day: piazza or city square. Piazze is the plural.

Alla prossima cari!

These words so perfectly describe March days! Cold and windy, warm and sunny, all in the same day!

And the same in English.

It surprised me that this very recently composed/dropped protest anthem is being played as Muzak in Italy. 🇮🇹 I wonder if any of the shoppers in this supermarket in realize this is Springsteen’s newest release and what it signifies to us. I would imagine that most of the people this day wouldn’t recognize the song or understand its significance to what is going on in our American cities??? Most Italians wouldn’t know Minneapolis from Philadelphia. This hurts my heart. The song is not muzak.

Once upon a time the space that is now called the English Cemetery in Florence was just an empty field or bit of forest. It lay outside the Medieval city walls of Florence, and eventually became a burial ground for non Catholics. Over time it became known as the English Cemetery, although those buried here are from all nationalities, including American. Hiram Powers, the American neoclassical sculptor, is interred here (in a very modest tomb, btw), for example.

This serene space is surrounded by high metal fencing from the 19th century and is open on a very idiosyncratic schedule. And now, this part of the city is torn asunder by the work for the upcoming tram system. It seemed bad enough that the Piazza Donatello, which is the area in which the cemetery is located, had become a major traffic artery with cars and trucks and motorcycles zooming around the cemetery non stop 24/7, but now there will be a tram system too. At least it is quiet.

Once you enter this cemetery/garden, it is large enough and there are trees enough to make you feel isolated from the city and with the sense that you are in a very special space. May it always be thus.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning is buried here and her tomb is one of the most elegant and elaborate within the cemetery.

Set in intarsia in contrasting black marble are the letters: OB and the date 1861. This is an abbreviation for the Latin word obiit, which translates to “he/she died.”

Her initials also strikingly set against the white marble of the tomb.

My friends Stu and Steph visited this serene locale with me that day.

In about a month, the iris plants will be in full bloom. I spotted this early bird.

Among the most lovely of all early spring blossoms to my mind is the flowering quince. It was in full flower in the cemetery this day. The coral color is almost neon! How heartwarming! Welcome spring!

A beautiful visit in a lovely place in a grand city. Alla prossima!

Below, back at my terrace garden at home. My nasturtiums plants survived the winter! I am still surprised by that!

I found myself buying a bare root rose bush and planting in one of the many empty pots I purchased over the last year. I hope it is a success!

I have a 2nd camellia shrub just now springing into bloom. It has a more delicately shaded pink and white coloring than my first one that you have already seen blooming away.

Yes, yes, yes, I enjoy my life in this amazing place!

You never know when a random walk will introduce you to a new part of Florence! Many times I have walked down this street and peered into the garden, but it has always been locked up. It is open on a daily basis, just not when I happened to be passing by previously.

Until this pretty spring day! I took advantage and entered and enjoyed the space and the blooming trees.

You know me. You know I want to know the history behind the dedication. I learned that this space was originally part of a monastic orchard and it in its present form it was officially dedicated on Sept. 20, 2021 to Wanda Lattes (1922-2018), a partisan courier and journalist, and her husband Alberto Nirenstein (1916-2007), a historian of the Shoah and fighter in the Jewish Brigade.

This lovely small garden honors the couple’s cultural and resistance contributions in Florence, including Lattes’ work with local newspapers and Nirenstein’s historical efforts.

What a beautiful day to visit the garden for the first time!

The Strozzi Altarpiece

1354-57
Tempera on wood, 274 x 296 cm
Cappella Strozzi, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Orcagna produced this monumental architectural tabernacle, the Strozzi Altarpiece, signed Anni Dni MCCCLVII Andreas Cionis de Florentia me pinxit and commissioned in 1354 by Tommaso di Rosello Strozzi for the altar of the family chapel in Santa Maria Novella.

Orcagna unifies the picture plane with the pictorial space; also new is the incorporation of the frame as an integral element of the pictorial space. Christ is depicted as if an apparition.

The work makes use of the Early Christian motif of the Traditio legis et clavium, whereby Christ entrusts St Paul with the doctrine of the Church and St Peter with its authority, although here St Thomas Aquinas takes the place of St Paul. The message conveyed by the Strozzi Altarpiece is that grace can be obtained only through the Church; this links it to Nardo’s frescoes in the same chapel, with which it forms a unified programme.