Off to a Good Start Culturally

The first afternoon of our stay in Florence, not yet adjusted to the time but needing to get out and start doing things, we went for a short walk in the Oltrarno to orient Juliet to the area. This included a visit to the Brancacci Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, a favorite of ours and one that is conveniently close to our apartment. We got there when there seemed to be a lull in attendance so we were able to stay rather longer than has sometimes been the case, to enjoy the depictions of the story of St. Peter by Masolino and Masaccio. (Last thumbnail in grid below.)

The next morning we went to the Palazzo Vecchio. While Steve and I worked our way through in a leisurely way, Juliet climbed up and then down the tower (first thumbnail below) and eventually caught up with us near the Hall of Maps--la Sala delle Carte Geografiche--which was her favorite part. It is indeed quite wonderful, housing 54 medieval painted maps representing the state of knowledge of the geography of the entire world as then known, drawing on Ptolemy's "Geographica" and newer innovations in mapmaking by Mercator and Orelius. Most of the work was done between 1563 and 1571 by Ignazio Danti at the behest of Cosimo the Great, the duke of Florence--Cosimo I de' Medici.

We all enjoyed observing a restorer working on a fresco. From an upper floor we looked out towards Santa Croce and San Miniato, both of which were on the agenda for the following day. Steve is excited to share with her the fruits of our accumulated experience, however limited, subjective and superficial that may be.

Santa Croce is huge and beautiful and filled with monuments to the great and powerful men of Florentine history--I have not noticed the mention of any women except occasionally as donors of their men's monuments, though I may possibly have missed some. The memorial to Dante (third row left below) reminded us of our trip to Ravenna in the fall of 2015, as that's where the exiled Dante was buried; and the small but beautiful mosaic apse of the church of San Miniato also reminded us of Ravenna and its magnificent and unparalleled mosaics. Maybe we'll go back there sometime; meanwhile it lives in memory.

[This new blog system is giving me fits. It is very easy to do certain things but incapable, apparently, of doing other things that I want to be able to do and used to be able to do on my old blog. By the end of this trip I may have figured it all out--I hope! ]