Not one day goes by that I don’t enjoy this ever changing view! The buildings are steady, but the sky puts on quite a show!
Month: April 2018
Moving is such sweet sorrow…
I’m a week into this move and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here are a couple of shots from today. My priorities are straight: flowers trump kitchen cabinet organization!
Purely Tuscan words: mesticheria
I posted about this great shop recently, and want to dig in a little deeper on the roots of such a business in Florence. Let’s focus for a minute on just exactly what kind of “paint store” is being advertised here and in a few other Florentine businesses.
From Wiktionary (https://it.wiktionary.org/wiki/mesticheria) we learn that the word mesticheria in italiano is a feminine singular noun and means the following:
Sostantivo
mesticheria f sing
- termine prettamente toscano, indica una bottega dove si vende l’occorrente per dipingere o verniciare, e piccoli utensili per la manutenzione della casa (è molto frequente però trovarci le cose più svariate, come prodotti di giardinaggio o prodotti tessili) A rough English translation: a purely Tuscan work indicating a shop wherein one can buy paints and small tools needed to maintain a home.
mesticherìa s. f. [der. di mestica], region. – Bottega di colori già preparati, di vernici e di tutto ciò che occorre a pittori, verniciatori, imbianchini, e sim. Rough English translation: Shop selling prepared colors, paints, and all that is needed for both. http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/mesticheria/
The latter definition speaks more clearly of the ancestry of these Tuscan shops: for a flourishing fresco tradition to exist and develop, extensive site preparations are necessary. In order to prepare for a fresco, certain agents are needed to make the colored paints adhere to and chemically interact with the plastered wall below them.
I recently had a conversation with Jeremy Boudreau, the head of the art history department at the British Institute in Florence, and he said that only in Florence does one find this kind of shop, or a meticheria, selling the materials needed to create frescoes.
My guess, though, is that if you walked into one of these shops, they would be hard pressed to provide you with the materials needed to prepare a surface for the art of fresco. It has been a while, I would imagine, since the likes of Giotto or Michelangelo needed paint supplies for this specific art form!
And, again…call me crazy, but I wonder where artists and their assistants purchased these materials in say Padua or Roma? Did someone have to go to Florence to buy artistic materials for frescoes?!
Call me crazy, but…
do you find it entertaining, as I do, that in Florence there is at least one shop that sells paint, hardware and perfume?!
This great shop is on Borgo Santi Apostli, one of my favorite antique streets in Florence. When I walk along the road, I think crazy stuff like “Dante walked this street a few centuries ago” and I feel amazingly fortunate to be living my dream.
But, then I encounter a store like this and just the concept of a shop that sells hardware and perfume makes me joyful! Would Dante have found it funny?
Fall in love with Tuscany all over again
And with almost no mention of art, but lots of animals, including cinghiale (wild boar), goats raised for cashmere production, and chiana cattle grown in Maremma to supply the famous bistecca fiorentina.
Then there is horticulture as well, as in the San Giovese grapes used to make chianti classic.
And busatti textiles made in Anghiari.
So much Italy, so little time.
Signs of the artist Clet, all around Florence (pun intended)
Early spring blossoms
I’ve been fortunate to enjoy some lively blooms on my terrace recently. Four large containers hold these Tuscan succulents, which are attractive all year long.
I am calling this pretty, hardworking plant an “Easter cactus” since, like the succulent known as the “Christmas cactus” blooms around December 25 each year, this hardy plant blooms each spring.
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So pretty! It grows both upright and with suspended trails of stems, leaves and blossoms.
Bellissimo!
Florence at night
Things I’ve learned
…in the past 18 or so months. As anybody who reads my blog knows, it is not a how-to blog. There are many expats living in Italy who blog about the ins and outs of living here. I usually avoid the subject, but I’m in the process of moving from what is called a transitory lease to a long-term lease, which could involve a stay of up to 8 years or longer.
To say it has been a learning process would be like saying a a flower seed will grow a flower. It can happen, but it might not depending on infinite variables. I’m not sure that is a good example, but my brain is currently cooked.
So, it set me to thinking about the many small things that go on here, such as waiting in line this morning to buy your milk, eggs and bread (which you thought would be a quick trip, but it isn’t because there are 10+ people in line before you. You have the luck to be behind an older signora who has 2x the normal amount of shopping in her cart and she keeps dropping pieces of paper that she can’t bend over far enough to retrieve and so you have to do it):
Or the fact that you thought your were covered for the furniture delivery that was set up for this morning. The doorman works during the hours you planned the delivery and he knew about the delivery and so you didn’t worry.
That is, until you got several angry phone calls in Italian from the delivery man who couldn’t get into the building. So you sent an SOS text to the landlord who you happened to know was in your apartment at that moment. The delivery man got in, in the end, and you received this text from the landlord:
There are more, many more, and I may be writing about them soon. But right now I am taking some Advil and taking a nap in my old short-term but beautiful apartment. :-)
Graffiti in Florence
Walk through a pedestrian tunnel in Florence and you will most likely encounter some brightly painted graffiti. There are some very talented painters out there!
get back, lauretta! 
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