The persimmons are beginning to ripen in shades of yellow, gold and coral.
Gardens
Florence’s rose garden in October, 2019
What a beautiful place to visit, any time of year. Somehow the blooming roses are more poignant and beautiful in late fall.
The fall sale at the Giardino dell’ Orticultura, Florence
On an early October weekend in Florence, once of the city’s best semi-annual events take place, right in my neighborhood. Florence’s Horticulture Garden (Giardino dell’Orticultura), located at Via Vittorio Emanuele II, 4, is a great place to witness fall’s bounty in the shape of plants and flowers at the Mostra dei Fiori, or the flower fair.
True Florentines are well-acquainted with these fairs which are held every fall and spring. They have been organized almost every year since 1855, and are always attended with great enthusiasm.
You may read all about the place here: www.societatoscanaorticultura.it.
I eagerly await the fall and spring sales and this year was no exception. I was greeted by this beautiful blooming plant, and couldn’t resist taking a picture of it and also a close-up. Wow! What a specimen!
Next up were the glorious displays of chysanthemum (crisantemo in Italian) and cyclamen:
This year one of the exhibitors had a fabulous showing of Italian lemons in their many forms:
Another exhibitor did the same with grapes, apples and nuts! What a display!
I took home a smallish fig tree to grow inside my home, and a couple of perennials to add color to my fall terrace garden! I eagerly await the spring sale!
All of this botanical splendor serves to remind me that, at heart, I am simply a farmer’s daughter.
The following is for die-hards:
Taken from Italian Wikipedia, with my own translation. You’ve been warned!
Nel 1852, constatato il diffondersi della pratica per l’arte del giardinaggio, l’Accademia dei Georgofili nominò una commissione con l’incarico di formare in Toscana una società d’orticoltura: la Società Toscana di Orticoltura. Da qui nasce l’esigenza dell’attivazione di un orto o giardino sperimentale, che si concretizzò nel 1859, anno in cui alla Società, venne concesso in enfiteusi un terreno posto fuori porta San Gallo all’inizio di via Bolognese di proprietà del marchese Ludovico Ginori Lisci e della marchesa Marianna Venturi.
Dopo tre anni di lavoro la Società aveva realizzato un piantatoio, una vigna ed un pomerio ed aveva impiantato nella parte bassa, verso la città, eccentriche e rare piante ornamentali.
Un radicale riordinamento del giardino si ebbe a partire dal 1876 con lo scopo principale di poter ospitare future esposizioni nazionali e mostre prestigiose. Nel 1880 la Federazione orticola italiana organizzò a Firenze la prima esposizione nazionale e proprio per onorare degnamente l’incarico, la Società toscana decise di completare il proprio giardino con la costruzione di un tepidario (serra in ferro e vetro) di grandi dimensioni che non aveva precedenti in Italia. Fu promossa una sottoscrizione fra i soci al fine di trovare i fondi necessari alla nuova costruzione. L’incarico di redigere il progetto fu affidato all’ingegnere e architetto Giacomo Roster e realizzato dalle Officine Michelucci di Pistoia, con le colonnine in ghisa della fonderia Lorenzetti, sempre di Pistoia. Il tepidarium è a base rettangolare e misura 38,50×17 metri, con una superficie coperta che tocca il 650 m2. L’interno, che era riscaldato da stufe, è abbellito da due vasche con nicchie decorate da rocce spugnose, un omaggio all’architettura manierista, opera dell’intagliatore fiorentino Francesco Marini. In totale vennero assemblati ben 9.700 pezzi, con otto tonnellate di ferro cilindrato che sostengono la struttura. Dopo l’inaugurazione del 19 maggio 1880, il cronista de La Nazione lo definì “palazzo di cristallo.”
L’attività promotrice della Società s’intensificò ulteriormente con l’esposizione organizzata nel 1887, in questa occasione il giardino venne arricchito dalla presenza di un caffè restaurant e da una seconda serra, proveniente dal giardino Demidoff di San Donato.
Nel 1911, il giardino fu nuovamente teatro di una grande mostra internazionale di floricoltura per le celebrazioni promosse dal comune di Firenze nell’ambito del cinquantenario dell’Unità d’Italia. In tale occasione furono operate delle considerevoli modifiche alcune delle quali si conservano tutt’oggi, il cavalcavia sulla ferrovia, l’ingrandimento del viale d’accesso, la decorazione del cancello con stendardi e la costruzione della Loggetta Bondi da parte della Manifattura di Signa. Con nuovi padiglioni addossati al muro si poterono accogliere le esposizioni di libri, ceramiche, attrezzi da giardino e fotografie dell’epoca. alcuni padiglioni erano dedicati alle piante ad alto fusto ed uno unicamente alle rose. Oltre ai numerosi ospiti stranieri, per la prima volta a Firenze, fecero la parte del leone gli esemplari provenienti dalle collezioni dei fiorentini Carlo Ridolfi e Carlo Torrigiani.
Con la prima guerra mondiale cominciò un lento ma inesorabile declino dell’attività della Società toscana d’orticoltura: perciò, nel 1930 il giardino venne acquistato dal Comune, che lo destinò a giardino pubblico. Il grande tepidario del Roster denunciava un grave stato di abbandono, tanto che il Comune stanziò, fra il 1933 e il 1936, dei fondi speciali per il restauro di questo. Il tepidario subì di nuovo alcuni danni, specialmente durante la seconda guerra mondiale; recentemente, nel 2000, è stato restaurato, tornando all’antico splendore.
Attraverso un passaggio pedonale oltre la ferrovia si accede al cosiddetto “giardino degli orti del Parnaso”, una piccola area verde posta su un dislivello panoramico, dove spicca una fontana a forma di serpente o drago, che si snoda fantasiosamente sulla scalinata. Questo giardino, in particolare la zona vicino all’ingresso da via Trento, è uno dei migliori punti della città per vedere “I Fochi di San Giovanni”, lo spettacolo pirotecnico che si tiene ogni anno il 24 giugno per la festa di San Giovanni, patrono di Firenze. In questo giardino ha sede il Giardino dei Giusti sulla falsariga di quello esistente a Gerusalemme.
La serra oggi è utilizzata per eventi, aperitivi, party ed attività culturali, come per esempio l’iniziativa Un tè con le farfalle.
Mentre il Giardino ospita anche la Biblioteca comunale dell’Orticoltura.
Nel giardino sono state girate alcune scene dei film Amici miei – Atto IIº (1982) di Mario Monicelli e Sotto una buona stella (2014) di Carlo Verdone.
In 1852, the l’Accademia dei Georgofili established a committee to consider establishing a society for horticulture in Tuscany: la Società Toscana di Orticoltura. From that origin, came the formation of an experimental garden was established in 1859, the year in which the committee was given lease on land outside of the Porta San Gallo at the beginning of Via Bolognese, [the land] owned by the landowner of the Marquis Ludovico Ginori Lisci and of the Marquise Marianna Venturi.
After 3 years work the Societa had built a garden with a vineyard and a tomato house and had planted rare ornamental plants in the lower part [of the plot], towards the city.
From 1876 the garden was radically reorganized in order to become a suitable place to host future national expositions and prestigious exhibits. In 1880 the Italian Horticulture Federation organized in Florence the first national exposition and, in honor of that, the Tuscan Societa decided to complete its garden by construction a large tepidarium (greenhouse in iron and glass), which was without precedent in Italy.
A subscription was formed to finance the work of the new construction. The project was drawn up by the engineer and architect Giacomo Roster and carried out by the Offices of Michelucci of Pistoia, with the cast iron columns from the Lorenzetti foundry, also from Pistoia. The tepidarium has a rectangle base and measures 38.50 x 17 meters, with a covered area that is 650 square meters.
The interior was heated by 2 stoves, is adorned with niches decorate with red spongy stone, a tribute to Mannerist architecture, the work of the master Florentine stone cutter, Franscesco Marini. The entire building is made up of more than 9,700 pieces with 8 tons of cylindrical cast iron supporting the structure. After the inauguration on 19 May 1880, the reporter of La Nazione called it a “Palace of Crystal.”
The Society’s promotion of its work intensified with the exhibition organized in 1887, on this occasion the garden was outfitted with a caffe restaurant and a second greenhouse, supplied by the Demidoff garden of San Donato.
In 1911, the garden was once again the site of a great international floriculture exhibition for the celebrations promoted by the municipality of Florence to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Italian Unification. On this occasion, modifications, some of which are still preserved today, the railway overpass, the enlargement of the driveway, the decoration of gate, and the construction of the Bondi Loggia by the Signa Manufacture.
With new pavilions inside the wall, exhibitions of books, ceramics, garden tools and period photography, could be accommodated. Some pavilions were dedicated to tall trees and one dedicated to roses. In addition to the numerous foreign guests, for the first time in Florence, the lion’s share of specimens came from the Florentine collections of Carlo Ridolfi and Carlo Torrigiani.
With the beginning of WWI the Society’s activities slowed and declined; therefore, in 1930 the garden was purchased by the Municipality, which turned it into a public garden. The large tepidarium of the Roster denounced he grave state of disrepair, so that the Commune allocated, between 1933 and 1936, special funds for its restoration. The tepidarium again suffered damage, especially during the WWII; recently, in 2000, it was restored and returned to its former glory.
A pedestrian walkway leads to the so-called “garden of the Parnassus” a small green area on a leveled panoramic site, where a snake or dragon-shaped fountain plays, winding imaginatively up the stairs. This garden, in particular the zone near the entrance of Via Trento, is one of the best spots in the city to see the Fireworks of St. John, the fireworks display held every year on 24 June for the holiday of San Giovanni, patron of Florence. In this garden is the “Garden of the Righteous” along the lines of the one in Jerusalem.
Today the greenhouse is used for events, aperitifs, parties and cultural activities, such as the initiative “A tea with butterflies.”
The Garden also houses the municipal Horticultural Library.
In the garden some scenes of the films Amici miei – Atto IIº (1982) by Mario Monicelli and “Under a good star” Sotto una buon stella (2014) by Carlo Verdone were shot.
Villa Pisani: Cruising the Brenta Canal from Padua to Venice, part 2
I recently posted about this day-long cruise here (here, here and here) and now I pick up where I left off. Our first stop on the cruise after leaving Padua was in Stra at Villa Pisani. This incredible villa is now a state museum and very much work a visit. It was built by a very popular Venetian Doge.
The facade of the Villa is decorated with enormous statues and the interior was painted by some of the greatest artists of the 18th century.
Villa Pisani at Stra refers is a monumental, late-Baroque rural palace located along the Brenta Canal (Riviera del Brenta) at Via Doge Pisani 7 near the town of Stra, on the mainland of the Veneto, northern Italy. This villa is one of the largest examples of Villa Veneta located in the Riviera del Brenta, the canal linking Venice to Padua. It is to be noted that the patrician Pisani family of Venice commissioned a number of villas, also known as Villa Pisani across the Venetian mainland. The villa and gardens now operate as a national museum, and the site sponsors art exhibitions.
Construction of this palace began in the early 18th century for Alvise Pisani, the most prominent member of the Pisani family, who was appointed doge in 1735.
The initial models of the palace by Paduan architect Girolamo Frigimelica still exist, but the design of the main building was ultimately completed by Francesco Maria Preti. When it was completed, the building had 114 rooms, in honor of its owner, the 114th Doge of Venice Alvise Pisani.
In 1807 it was bought by Napoleon from the Pisani Family, now in poverty due to great losses in gambling. In 1814 the building became the property of the House of Habsburg who transformed the villa into a place of vacation for the European aristocracy of that period. In 1934 it was partially restored to host the first meeting of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, after the riots in Austria.
From the outside, the facade of the oversized palace appears to command the site, facing the Brenta River some 30 kilometers from Venice. The villa is of many villas along the canal, which the Venetian noble families and merchants started to build as early as the 15th century. The broad façade is topped with statuary, and presents an exuberantly decorated center entrance with monumental columns shouldered by caryatids. It shelters a large complex with two inner courts and acres of gardens, stables, and a garden maze.
The largest room is the ballroom, where the 18th-century painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo frescoed the two-story ceiling with a massive allegorical depiction of the Apotheosis or Glory of the Pisani family (painted 1760–1762).[2] Tiepolo’s son Gian Domenico Tiepolo, Crostato, Jacopo Guarana, Jacopo Amigoni, P.A. Novelli, and Gaspare Diziani also completed frescoes for various rooms in the villa. Another room of importance in the villa is now known as the “Napoleon Room” (after his occupant), furnished with pieces from the Napoleonic and Habsburg periods and others from when the house was lived by the Pisani.
The most riotously splendid Tiepolo ceiling would influence his later depiction of the Glory of Spain for the throne room of the Royal Palace of Madrid; however, the grandeur and bombastic ambitions of the ceiling echo now contrast with the mainly uninhabited shell of a palace. The remainder of its nearly 100 rooms are now empty. The Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni described the palace in its day as a place of great fun, served meals, dance and shows.
Check out this sunken bathtub below:
Bear with me: in the next few photos I am trying out all of the fancy settings on my new camera:
To be continued.
Some snapshots of Padua in September 2019 and playing around with my new camera
Last weekend I returned to Padua for another opportunity to see the Giotto frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel. Since the visits are only 20 minutes long, it takes me more than one trip to Padua to really see the frescoes as I want to see them.
But, I also wanted to return to Padua to enjoy more of the city, now that I have discovered it fully. I went armed with my new fancy smartphone and its powerful camera. Some of the pictures below are of pretty Padova and some are just experiments with my camera.
I love any city with a street named for one of my favorite sculptors, Donatello.
The Botanic Garden of Padua dates back to 1545 and is regarded as the most ancient university garden in the world. Founded to foster the growth of medicinal plants, in Italian called semplice, since the remedies were obtained directly from nature without any manipulation. The garden was named Hortus Simplicium. The first keeper of the garden was Luigi Squalermo called Anguillara.
Nymphaea:
‘
Below, fall blooming crocus:
More water lilies:
Random plant life:
Nature with a background of Italian church bells:
Gigantic lily pads:
The horticultural complex in Padua is very impressive and state of the art.
Porta Portello:
Reminders of the influence of Venice on Padua are everywhere in this city:
Padova is surrounded by water. The canals make lovely views. I love to think back to the times when people and goods moved here by gondole, burci and mascarete, all typical boats, along internal canals, following the waterways and floating under bridges.
Padua has a lot of beautiful architecture. I want to make another trip there to enjoy and photograph all the great sculptural embellishments on the palazzi.
Claude Monet’s lunch
Have you seen this series of videos? I just discovered them through the one on Monet and I loved it!
Building and maintaining gardens
Late summer flowers in Florence
Flowers and butterflies
The wonders of Padua (Padua, part 3)
Padova or Padua is a big subject! I’ve recently posted 2 times about it, here, here, here and here. And, still, I am far from done!
This post includes a list of the major features that grace this lovely, historic town. But first, a sweet little video about the town itself:
Undoubtedly the most notable things about Padova is the Giotto masterpiece of fresco painting in the The Scrovegni Chapel (Cappella degli Scrovegni). This incredible cycle of frescoes was completed in 1305 by Giotto.
It was commissioned by Enrico degli Scrovegni, a wealthy banker, as a private chapel once attached to his family’s palazzo. It is also called the “Arena Chapel” because it stands on the site of a Roman-era arena.
The fresco cycle details the life of the Virgin Mary and has been acknowledged by many to be one of the most important fresco cycles in the world for its role in the development of European painting. It is a miracle that the chapel survived through the centuries and especially the bombardment of the city at the end of WWII. But for a few hundred yards, the chapel could have been destroyed like its neighbor, the Church of the Eremitani.
The Palazzo della Ragione, with its great hall on the upper floor, is reputed to have the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe; the hall is nearly rectangular, its length 267.39 ft, its breadth 88.58 ft, and its height 78.74 ft; the walls are covered with allegorical frescoes. The building stands upon arches, and the upper story is surrounded by an open loggia, not unlike that which surrounds the basilica of Vicenza.
The Palazzo was begun in 1172 and finished in 1219. In 1306, Fra Giovanni, an Augustinian friar, covered the whole with one roof. Originally there were three roofs, spanning the three chambers into which the hall was at first divided; the internal partition walls remained till the fire of 1420, when the Venetian architects who undertook the restoration removed them, throwing all three spaces into one and forming the present great hall, the Salone. The new space was refrescoed by Nicolo’ Miretto and Stefano da Ferrara, working from 1425 to 1440. Beneath the great hall, there is a centuries-old market.
In the Piazza dei Signori is the loggia called the Gran Guardia, (1493–1526), and close by is the Palazzo del Capitaniato, the residence of the Venetian governors, with its great door, the work of Giovanni Maria Falconetto, the Veronese architect-sculptor who introduced Renaissance architecture to Padua and who completed the door in 1532.
Falconetto was also the architect of Alvise Cornaro’s garden loggia, (Loggia Cornaro), the first fully Renaissance building in Padua.
Nearby stands the il duomo, remodeled in 1552 after a design of Michelangelo. It contains works by Nicolò Semitecolo, Francesco Bassano and Giorgio Schiavone.
The nearby Baptistry, consecrated in 1281, houses the most important frescoes cycle by Giusto de’ Menabuoi.
The Basilica of St. Giustina, faces the great piazza of Prato della Valle.
The Teatro Verdi is host to performances of operas, musicals, plays, ballets, and concerts.
The most celebrated of the Paduan churches is the Basilica di Sant’Antonio da Padova. The bones of the saint rest in a chapel richly ornamented with carved marble, the work of various artists, among them Sansovino and Falconetto.
The basilica was begun around the year 1230 and completed in the following century. Tradition says that the building was designed by Nicola Pisano. It is covered by seven cupolas, two of them pyramidal.
Donatello’s equestrian statue of the Venetian general Gattamelata (Erasmo da Narni) can be found on the piazza in front of the Basilica di Sant’Antonio da Padova. It was cast in 1453, and was the first full-size equestrian bronze cast since antiquity. It was inspired by the Marcus Aurelius equestrian sculpture at the Capitoline Hill in Rome.
Not far from the Gattamelata are the St. George Oratory (13th century), with frescoes by Altichiero, and the Scuola di S. Antonio (16th century), with frescoes by Tiziano (Titian).
One of the best known symbols of Padua is the Prato della Valle, a large elliptical square, one of the biggest in Europe. In the center is a wide garden surrounded by a moat, which is lined by 78 statues portraying illustrious citizens. It was created by Andrea Memmo in the late 18th century.
Memmo once resided in the monumental 15th-century Palazzo Angeli, which now houses the Museum of Precinema.
The Abbey of Santa Giustina and adjacent Basilica. In the 5th century, this became one of the most important monasteries in the area, until it was suppressed by Napoleon in 1810. In 1919 it was reopened.
The tombs of several saints are housed in the interior, including those of Justine, St. Prosdocimus, St. Maximus, St. Urius, St. Felicita, St. Julianus, as well as relics of the Apostle St. Matthias and the Evangelist St. Luke.
The abbey is also home to some important art, including the Martyrdom of St. Justine by Paolo Veronese. The complex was founded in the 5th century on the tomb of the namesake saint, Justine of Padua.
The Church of the Eremitani is an Augustinian church of the 13th century, containing the tombs of Jacopo (1324) and Ubertinello (1345) da Carrara, lords of Padua, and the chapel of SS James and Christopher, formerly illustrated by Mantegna’s frescoes. The frescoes were all but destroyed bombs dropped by the Allies in WWII, because it was next to the Nazi headquarters.
The old monastery of the church now houses the Musei Civici di Padova (town archeological and art museum).
Santa Sofia is probably Padova’s most ancient church. The crypt was begun in the late 10th century by Venetian craftsmen. It has a basilica plan with Romanesque-Gothic interior and Byzantine elements. The apse was built in the 12th century. The edifice appears to be tilting slightly due to the soft terrain.
Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico)
The church of San Gaetano (1574–1586) was designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, on an unusual octagonal plan. The interior, decorated with polychrome marbles, houses a Madonna and Child by Andrea Briosco, in Nanto stone.
The 16th-century Baroque Padua Synagogue
At the center of the historical city, the buildings of Palazzo del Bò, the center of the University.
The City Hall, called Palazzo Moroni, the wall of which is covered by the names of the Paduan dead in the different wars of Italy and which is attached to the Palazzo della Ragione
The Caffé Pedrocchi, built in 1831 by architect Giuseppe Jappelli in neoclassical style with Egyptian influence. This café has been open for almost two centuries. It hosts the Risorgimento museum, and the near building of the Pedrocchino (“little Pedrocchi”) in neogothic style.
There is also the Castello. Its main tower was transformed between 1767 and 1777 into an astronomical observatory known as Specola. However the other buildings were used as prisons during the 19th and 20th centuries. They are now being restored.
The Ponte San Lorenzo, a Roman bridge largely underground, along with the ancient Ponte Molino, Ponte Altinate, Ponte Corvo and Ponte S. Matteo.
There are many noble ville near Padova. These include:
Villa Molin, in the Mandria fraction, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1597.
Villa Mandriola (17th century), at Albignasego
Villa Pacchierotti-Trieste (17th century), at Limena
Villa Cittadella-Vigodarzere (19th century), at Saonara
Villa Selvatico da Porto (15th–18th century), at Vigonza
Villa Loredan, at Sant’Urbano
Villa Contarini, at Piazzola sul Brenta, built in 1546 by Palladio and enlarged in the following centuries, is the most important
Padua has long been acclaimed for its university, founded in 1222. Under the rule of Venice the university was governed by a board of three patricians, called the Riformatori dello Studio di Padova. The list of notable professors and alumni is long, containing, among others, the names of Bembo, Sperone Speroni, the anatomist Vesalius, Copernicus, Fallopius, Fabrizio d’Acquapendente, Galileo Galilei, William Harvey, Pietro Pomponazzi, Reginald, later Cardinal Pole, Scaliger, Tasso and Jan Zamoyski.
It is also where, in 1678, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia became the first woman in the world to graduate from university.
The university hosts the oldest anatomy theatre, built in 1594.
The university also hosts the oldest botanical garden (1545) in the world. The botanical garden Orto Botanico di Padova was founded as the garden of curative herbs attached to the University’s faculty of medicine. It still contains an important collection of rare plants.
The place of Padua in the history of art is nearly as important as its place in the history of learning. The presence of the university attracted many distinguished artists, such as Giotto, Fra Filippo Lippi and Donatello; and for native art there was the school of Francesco Squarcione, whence issued Mantegna.
Padua is also the birthplace of the celebrated architect Andrea Palladio, whose 16th-century villas (country-houses) in the area of Padua, Venice, Vicenza and Treviso are among the most notable of Italy and they were often copied during the 18th and 19th centuries; and of Giovanni Battista Belzoni, adventurer, engineer and egyptologist.
The sculptor Antonio Canova produced his first work in Padua, one of which is among the statues of Prato della Valle (presently a copy is displayed in the open air, while the original is in the Musei Civici).
The Antonianum is settled among Prato della Valle, the Basilica of Saint Anthony and the Botanic Garden. It was built in 1897 by the Jesuit fathers and kept alive until 2002. During WWII, under the leadership of P. Messori Roncaglia SJ, it became the center of the resistance movement against the Nazis. Indeed, it briefly survived P. Messori’s death and was sold by the Jesuits in 2004.
Paolo De Poli, painter and enamellist, author of decorative panels and design objects, 15 times invited to the Venice Biennale was born in Padua. The electronic musician Tying Tiffany was also born in Padua.
get back, lauretta! 
You must be logged in to post a comment.