Christmas in Florence!
Light show projected upon the Ponte Vecchio gives the old bridge a fresh new look:
And the Palazzo Vecchio also is brightened up for the holiday:
The Palazzo Medici has a lovely tree in the cortile:
Say it isn’t so! Starbucks in Italy
I’ve made my feelings on Starbucks in Italy known before, so I’ll skip that rant for today. I was recently in Milano and I made a special trip to the new Starbucks there and to try their coffee. My expert opinion below.
They chose a beautiful building, not far from La Scala and il Duomo, for their home. Obviously Starbucks wanted to land with a big impression. So far as the location goes, they were successful. Money was clearly not an object.
It’s fancy and high tech inside. Instead of the green that typifies all of the other Starbucks in the world, they have chosen warm and coppery colors and materials, maybe to match the coffee beans (ha ha) or to express wealth (metallic colors can do that). Either one works for Starbucks.
This message board above changes every few seconds with new info. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to linger and decode the information. It reminded me of the departures/arrival times at the Termini train station in Rome as it used to be. Now it is digital too.
The usual coffee paraphernalia on offer.
Every sort of bean imaginable is for sale.
The coffee roasting area:
The symbol for the Starbucks “roastery” shops. I think there are 4 worldwide.
A few artworks pay homage to Starbucks.
Oh, and the aspirational wall. This metallic globe is “dedicated to Milan, the city that has inspired our dreams. Every coffee that we have served came from here.”
Cheesy or what?
Oh, and here’s my cappuccino, the worst one I’ve ever had anywhere in the world:
It doesn’t even LOOK right, does it? I drank a few sips and then found one of the thousands of workers milling around and told her that I am from the US and that I know Howard Schultz (he used to be a neighbor), and that I thought he’d be sad about my cap.
She asked what was wrong and I said, well look at it.
She asked if she could make me another one and I agreed, as long as it was takeout. I needed to catch a train. She refabricated my old cap, making it milkier, and dumped it into takeout cup. It was still awful.
Don’t come to Florence, Starbucks. I’m warning you.
The Roman amphitheater in Verona, Italy
I just returned to Florence from a trip up north to Verona and Milano. This is not an exhaustive post (I’m sure that is good news for once!) on the subject, but I wanted to share what the amphitheater looks like from inside. It is on my to do list to attend an opera in this venue some summer soonish.
And from the outside:
Coffee on trains in Italy
Everybody knows Italians invented the coffee culture that is beloved around the world today. I will never forget seeing a Starbucks in Dubai. I almost fell to the ground in gratitude for something I recognized in that (to me) very foreign place!
But despite how many places I have seen coffee on offer in Italia, nothing surprised me and yet didn’t surprise me at the same time as much as seeing fresh coffee beans ready to be ground and brewed on an Italo train from Milan to Verona last week. I mean, per che no? It only makes sense!
And this was a self service coffee maker at the end of a train car. There is also a cafe car that serves freshly made espresso…but this machine is available closer to your seat and avoids the messy interaction with live people! And sometimes train workers will pass by and offer you coffee or other things from their carts. But, Italians, at least on this train, have yet another coffee option. They might want to grind and brew their own joe on their own.
You have got to love this culture!
Eat your heart out, Starbucks!
Milano, dicembre 2018; ready for Christmas
Arrived in Milan from Florence and admired the fabulous Milanese train station. It always awes me.
It was fun to see American Tomaso Edison inscribed as one of the world’s great minds.
No time to linger: places to see, people to avoid (crowds that is!). Here’s the archway leading to the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel; I’ll be back to admire the Christmas decorations when the sun sets. See below.
A quick glance of our first stop: il Duomo. We bought our tickets and got in line to wait for our turn to enter the cathedral and then climb to the roof.
I’ll talk about the duomo in a separate post, coming soon.
So, the duomo took up the entire afternoon and the sun set. Back into the Galleria to admire the amazing Christmas decorations.
Absolutely spectacular! Milan knows how to play up its strong points!
Milano plays host to one of the great Florentine artists: Leonardo da Vinci.
La Scala is nearby to add its gravitas:
The downtown streets of Milan have a modern Christmas vibe:
Back inside the Galleria, we approach the Dolce and Gabbana store, all lit up and no place to go. D&G has no need to go anyplace: the crowds throng to it!
You can see D & G’s neon sign at the end of these over-the-top decorations.
See it?
And that’s how Milano preps for Xmas!
Crèche scenes in Italy
Every church, chapel, and town in Italy has a crèche scene. Sometimes an entity can have multiple crèche scenes. They are always fun to examine.
Last week in Vernona, I saw this crèche in the duomo there. It is a sweet crèche and reminds me to tell something I have only seen in Italy. The figure of the baby Jesus is always left out of the scene until midnight on December 25. Only then can the baby be added, for indeed, he was “just born.”
Verona, Italy in December
What a lovely small city is Verona. I understand why Shakespeare chose it as his setting for Romeo and Juliet!
I had the good fortune to spend a few days in Verona recently and the city was all decked out for Christmas.
To begin, here is our home away from home, with a beautiful terrace next to the Adige River. A large persimmon (cachi in Italiano) tree attracted many local ucelli!
Here are some of my favorite pictures:
L’amore materno–Mother Love
I love a decorative octopus!
Check out the foot still attached to this prosciutto! OMG!
Verona’s magnificent Duomo below:
The bell tower:
The apron front of the facade reminded me of church architecture in Lucca.
The altar below is painted and has matching sculptures in front. I’d never seen anything like this before.
The altar below beckons from across the church. Such lavish gold, again, I’ve never seen anything quite like this and I’ve seen a lot of altars in my day. I love that Italy is always surprising me.
See what I mean below:
The ubiquitous December creche scene: the figure of the baby Jesus will not appear until midnight of the 25th.
I guess the placard below is for those sinners who don’t remember or know how to confess.
These pictures are from the interior of the duomo in Verona. It is a beautiful church. Verona was obviously a wealthy city during the Renaissance and after, as it still is today.
I’ve looked at a lot of paintings in my day, but I’ve never seen such a foreshortened putto flying in from this angle, to crown with laurel the knight in armor.
While this sculpted doorway below looks to be monumental, it was actually at my eye level on a wall in the duomo, and measured about 12 inches tall.
Back out in the lovely streets of Verona, I admired this art nouveau wrought iron in a window. It’s unusual for Italy and I love it.
Below is the gorgeous facade of the duomo.
There are Roman ruins on the hillsides in Verona. I took this picture to remind me of this new (to me) fact: I want to go back and see more of the town.
The facade below is getting some TLC.
Walking along on the sidewalk along a wall, there are death notices posted. I find these fascinating.
Flower shops are magnets to me:
I am obsessed with this crystal lamp with the red tassels. Obsessed.
Obsessed I tell you!
Finally, the end. A shout out to my girl, Jenny, for being an awesome traveling companion. More to come, I am sure!
Oh, and p.s., I have a few more Verona posts coming, including Giardino Giusti. Watch this space!
The Bridal Chamber frescoes, Andrea Mantegna
One of the two most enchanting places I have ever been is in the Bridal Chamber of the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy. I won’t share my other top most favorite place here, but I will tell you it is a Renaissance room of about the same size somewhere in Tuscany and was painted by Benozzo Gozzoli.
But recently in Mantua, I found Andrea Mantegna’s Cameral degli Sposi, and I fell in love. Again. I knew it would happen.
It was December and I was alone in this beautiful chamber, with time to study the details to my heart’s content. I took about a million photos and I am sharing them here.
Let’s start with a video:
I’m not even going to talk about the paintings, except to say that they –the 4 walls and the amazing ceiling– were frescoed by Andrea Mantegna between 1465 to 1475. Mantegna’s painted scheme creates an illusionistic space, as if the chamber was a loggia with three openings facing country landscapes among arcades and curtains. The painted scenes portray members of the Gonzaga family.
But, for once, that is all I will say with words. My million photos will become this post. If you can get to Mantua, DO SO!
Va bene, it’s time to look up:
Executed between 1465 and 1474, the room, which is entirely painted, shows the marquis, Lodovico, going about his courtly business with family and courtiers in tow in impressive 3D. Painted naturalistically and with great attention to perspective, the arched walls appear like windows on the courtly world – looking up at the Duke’s wife Barbara, you can even see the underside of her dress as if she’s seated above you. Most playful of all though is the trompe l’œil oculus featuring bare-bottomed putti (cherubs) – the point of view is quite distastefully realistic in places – balancing precariously on a painted balcony, while smirking courtly pranksters appear ready to drop a large potted plant on gawping tourists below.
Orsan Michele, Firenze
A while back I took the opportunity to pay a visit to the famous Florentine church, built in a former granary. It is opulent and lovely.
Above the church is a museum where all of the significant Renaissance sculptures originally placed in niches on the 4 facades of the church are now housed. Copies of these grand works are now in the niches on the building’s facade.
Here are some of the original works:
The views of the city from the 2nd floor of Orsan Michele are pretty amazing.
get back, lauretta! 
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