Category: Travels

 

My son Spencer will be arriving in the next day or 2 and I have been scouting out restaurants with dramatic settings.  There seems to be something imposing that calls for your attention.  In this picture you see the golden globe ontop of the lantern at the top of the rotunda.  Somewhere between these settings and the Duomo is a round circle painted on the bricks fixing where the golden globe ended after being hit by lightening January 27, 1601.

Another perfect spoon for Italian Zuppa.

I got up this morning and went down to the Mercato (market central).  There is one vendor that makes hundreds of these breads every day.  They are wonderful.

Looks like the Heil’s have invited the Diehls over for dinner.

I finally had an opportunity to sit down and have a visit with the watercolor artist, Giuseppe.  He was a very interesting guy.  His first question to me was do I like Trump or Biden.  With questions like that it does not take long to get to the heart of matters.

I think it is Friday which means the soccer game was over almost 20 hours ago and there are still two Scot’s with their backs against a wall breathing loudly.  I do not think they are going any where soon.

I had to go into stealth mode for this – is that Bruce L. staring at me.  I don’t know how that beer got on my table.

I wish I had something clever to say about this, but I don’t.

Bruce L. in the morning and then Steve H. in the afternoon.  Is it possible?.

The mass and space projected by the Duomo is very humbling when you walk up a side street, stop to look up and see the Duomo’s presence overwhelm you.

Speaking of looking up.  while I was looking up I tripped over something I should have seen on the ground.  I have no idea who this person was but will try to do some research over the next few days.

It is too much to cover the entire story of the column but the short version is St Zenobius was buried in the old Cathedral of the Church of Santa Reparata.  When the Duomo was finished his remains were moved to the Duomo.  On the move the procession brushed up against an elm tree and at the mere touch the elm tree went into full bloom even even though it was deep winter.  This is the location of the elm tree and is the center of  of a celebration on January 27.

It is hard to convey the strength and presence of this Duomo complex.  It is a miracle to me that it ever came to exist in the first place and it is a further miracle that it continues to exist.

Ditto

Apparently balloons rise off the river all the time in Florence.  No one seems very excited about this event.

This is Naomi, one of the jewelry artist’s I get to work with this year.  Her strength is her patience not to take the tools out of my hand and telling me to sit in a corner and be quiet.

 

Right now it looks like a blob of siver – I hope it comes together.