2019 is the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci and Italy is doing it up right to mark the occasion. All over Italy, but especially in Tuscany and Florence in particular, and in Milan, exhibitions are celebrating his art and life.
I love the comic relief one get’s from a poster like the one below. At least we can have a little fun with the fact that he often wrote backwards!
I’m enjoying a springtime journey through northern Italy and the famous lakes. First stop: Lake Garda
Starting in the province of Brescia in Lombardy, Sirmione is a sweet little town whose historic center stands on the peninsula that divides the lower section of Lake Garda almost in half.
Sirmione is known to have been a popular resort town since the 1st century B.C.E., largely because of its thermal hot springs; there are Roman ruins in the historic center. The remains of a Roman villa are at the end of the peninsula, and are called the Grottoes of Catullus – the name of a Roman poet whose family lived in Sirmione in the 1st century B.C.E. Another attraction is the Rocca Scaligera, a 13th-century castle. More recently, Maria Callas built a villa on the pennisula and, the 2017 film “Call me by your name” was partly filmed in Sirmione.
Below: there is nothing like sailing into a medieval port to start your day!
A very chic pastry shop and cafe, with wonderful looking treats:
So, of course, I’m only human and had to try the strudel:
And yes, it was as tasty as it looks!
First, in traditional architecture:
Then, a modern adaptation:
I was told that the tall narrow apparatus that looks like a crane, on the top of both sections of the high rise, is actually a part of the irrigation system that keeps all this plant material alive.
Apparently the first high rise has been quite successful, for as you can see, a second high rise is going up nearby.
When I was in Milano at Christmas, I saw this beautiful galleria decked to the 9s. It was a bit less hectic today, and, even without the Christmas finery, this early shopping mall is still a sight to behold. I enjoyed it from inside and underneath the glass ceiling, but then I went hunting for a way to get outside and on top of the galleria. Do you think I found a way?
If you said “no,” then you don’t know me very well! I have the will and I find the way!
So, here it is from the outside, above the rooftop.
The elaborate facade on the Florence duomo was not created until the 1880s. Here’s a side by side of the duomo as it looks today, and the unfinished facade as work began in 1883.
In a church decorated with lots of New World gold. Sant’ Anna, Genova.
I must admit I don’t remember which palazzo this was. Sorry!
get back, lauretta! 
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