Lovely, tiny quail eggs, found in my local supermercato ieri.
I’ve said it before and I’ll happily say it again, I never tire of grocery stores in Italy!
Footage of Frank Lloyd Wright
In a very surprising setting!
The wine windows of Florence.
Anyone with a careful eye can spot interesting little windows, set in century’s old palazzi, all around Florence. There are allegedly 130 of them in the city.
These little windows, known as the bucchette del vino, are relics of Florence’s wine trade in the medieval period.
Whenever such a window appeared, indicating the home of a wine producer, a customer could knock on the nearby door of the palazzo, order the amount, and collect their merchandise from the small window. The windows thus served as a counter for the exchange of the product and the money. The small openings were a crucial component of how local wines were bought and sold, directly from producer to consumer.
Customers typically brought their own jug, bottle or glass, placed it through the window, waited for a servant inside to fill it, and then passed money through to complete the transaction.
A typical window featured a small door, and when the customer knocked, it was opened for business.
Windows were generally large enough to accommodate a fiasco, the straw-bottomed bottle traditionally used for Tuscan wines.
Millions of bottles were passed through the windows without the need for “go-between” taverns or wine vendors: this intriguing commercial enterprise was unique to Florence.
Of course there is an association devoted to preserving the historical heritage of Florence’s wine windows: http://www.magentaflorence.com/association-ancient-wine-windows/ You might be surprised to learn the the Association was formed formed only last year, but has the mission of acquainting the modern world with the story of the wine windows.
Of the more than 130 extant wine windows in Florence, most of them belonged to prominent dynasties such as the Ricasoli, Antinori, Niccolini and Martelli families. The wine producing family would bring wine produced on their Tuscan estates to their city homes and market it in the city using this informal manner, a forerunner to the ever-present vinaio (wine and sandwich counters) of today.
How Italy does postage stamps.
A very handsome profile of Michelangelo’s David for a .79 Euro stamp. The stamp is the entire image, including the gold frame.
Natural beauty
Lovely, tiny quail eggs, found in my local supermercato ieri.
I’ve said it before and I’ll happily say it again, I never tire of grocery stores in Italy!
Cultural contribution: Neapolitan pizza
Orsanmichle is more than Orcagna
The glorious Orcagna tabernacle in Orsanmichele is so overwhelming, it is hard to notice anything else in the church.
But, there are other paintings of note, each one a beauty in its own way:
And, lest we forget that the building was originally a wheat market and storage facility, the grain doors are still extant.
Bella Firenze!
Let the holiday lights begin!
Orsanmichele, Firenze, 11 Dicembre 2017
My subtitle would be: I love Florence in the winter!
I wandered into Orsanmichele today and had the masterpiece all to myself. I lit candles for some beloved family members and took a pew, gazing at Orcagna’s magnificent altarpiece for a long, long time. It was a gorgeous moment in Florence, the kind of thing I live for.
I started thinking about the name: Orsanmichele. It is not a common name for a church. What is the significance, I wondered?
“San Michele” or Saint Michael is easy to extract from the name, but I had to head to Wikipedia for the full answer. Orsanmichele (or “Kitchen Garden of St. Michael“, from the contraction in Tuscan dialect of the Italian word orto) is a church that was constructed on the site of the kitchen garden of the monastery of San Michele, which no longer exists.
Located on the Via Calzaiuoli in Florence, the square building was constructed as a grain depository and market in 1337 by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante, and Benci di Cione.
Between 1380 and 1404, the building was converted into a church, to be used as the chapel of Florence’s powerful craft and trade guilds.
From the exterior, the ground floor contains the 13th-century arches that originally formed the loggia of the grain market.
The second floor was devoted to offices, while the third housed one of the city’s municipal grain storehouses, maintained to withstand famine or siege.
Late in the 14th century, the guilds were charged by the city to commission statues of their patron saints to embellish the four facades of the church.[1]’
Orsanmichele’s sculptures are a relic of the fierce devotion and pride of Florentine trades, and a reminder that great art often arises out of a competitive climate. Each trade hoped to outdo the other in commissioning original, groundbreaking sculptures for public display on Florence’s most important street, and the artists hired and materials used (especially bronze) indicate the importance that was placed on this site.
The Renaissance sculptures have been removed to museums, but faithful copies of each work of art have been placed in the niches.
Another day I will illustrate the niche sculptures, but today I felt like sitting inside the church and studying Andrea Orcagna‘s seemingly bejeweled Gothic Tabernacle (1355-59), which encases a repainting by Bernardo Daddi‘s of an older icon, the ‘Madonna and Child’.[2]
I don’t think there are actual jewels in the tabernacle, but the encrusted mosaics make it seem that way.
One of the first things I noticed is that the exterior of the cupola of the altarpiece is shaped and decorated like a Fabrege egg. You can see what I mean in the photo below.
Here’s a detailed look at the egg shape, right behind the triangle of the facade:
If you are ever fortunate enough to spend the winter in Florence, you can enjoy Orsanmichele all to yourself as well. Here’s info on opening hours. The museum on the upper floor is NOT to be missed.
Atlantic sunrise
get back, lauretta! 
You must be logged in to post a comment.