Category: Travels

 

I think this is Wednesday I am reporting on now.

I can’t think of a better way to start the day than this picture.

I took a walk after the espresso and found this new pop up art at San Lorenzo Cathederal.  As I was organizing my approach to this photo, the man standing with the lady in the red sweater came up to me and said “is all wrong!!!”  I shrugged my shoulders and he said “How do you hold something up without touching it.”  Even though he was speaking english I could not keep up with him.  The rest of the story, as near as I can, tell was something along the lines of those young geniuses in Milan never thought to take into consideration the little bumpout at the bottom of the wall that keeps David from touching the wall.  Why go to Milan for an artist when he can lean out of his office window and see that it is wrong.

So this was completely unexpected.  It seems Italy and Scotland were scheduled to have a soccer match in Florence on Thursday but all of the fans showed up on Wednesday morning.  Well what is a soccer fan to do with 40 hours before a soccer match – drink beer of course.  They have several intresting customs that get acted out during this time.  First, they sing songs at each other.  To be fair these are pretty agressive songs with lots of “f” bombs embedded.  At the same time they have a soccer ball that they keep in play in my front yard.  Someone will kick the ball in the air and then it will decend somewhere in the crowd and if the person selected by the ball executes a worthy effort by keeping the ball in the air and inside the Piazza then there is an explosive chear, however if there is an oppisite result then there is a collective moan.  If the ball ends up in front of a policeman there is no end to songs that breakout.

Did I mention they have drums as well.  The next morning the maintenance people were sweeping all of the broken bottles and trash.  The last thing I found interesting is that they all had to get to the stadium.  People with the same team jerseys on were getting into fights as to who got the cab.

The match was over 24 hours ago and I am still hearing soccer songs out my window.

A little bling from the alter at san Lorenzos.

There is a lady I know in Eugene who is taking the first steps to become a sculpter.  This would be cool to have at the front door.

And now the street art begins.

This reminds me of the farm in Sun Downer, Kansas.  You never knew who was ciming to dinner.  Those are the barn coats hanging on the wall – you could tell who was at the table by looking at the coats hanging on the wall.

I don’t know what this is about.

I don’ know anything about this or the one following.

 

And we will end with Peace Street.

When a butterfly flaps its wings in Africa it is the begining of a hurricane in Florida.  Something like that happened with my Jewelry class in Florence.  An instructor I have used for years was suddenly on her way to Florida to take care of family busness through no fault of hers and she worked very hard to get alternative instruction for me and all went very smoothly.

My substitute instructor was in touch with me by email and cell putting a class together that was in her skill set and would be interesting to me.  She hit a home run.

Meet Valentina.  Her specialty is Italian Filigree.  There are very few artist who keep this art form alive and Valentina is one of them.  As you will see Italian Filigree is a young persons sport.  My failing eyesight, shaking hands and fat fingers are exactly why I should not be doing this.  I spent 2 full days with Valentina and I was wornout at the end of both days but accomplished a lot of work with her help.

I still have a lot of work to just understand the possibilities and I am looking foward to  learning more.

I will try to quickly explain what the process is without boring you.  Filigree is the art of creating structure and then inserting into the structure elements or shapes that have compression built into their design so outward pressure from the elements push up against the structure and holds the element in place.  There is then a soldering process I had never heard of before but will be a big help in other projects separate from filigree work.

Above are samples of elements that have been used for hundreds of years and as you can see all have open space built into thier design to create outward pressure.

and now you can see the fitting of the element into the structure.

After 2 days the finished project.  There is still lots to learn but I thoroughly enjoyed the class.

Valentina reluctantly gave me a break for lunch and as I dug in I noticed once again yet another resraurant was serving soup with the proper spoon.  It was a tuscan bean soup.

I am about to horrify some of you but some of you will be in the kitchen before I finish typing trying to figure this one out.  Monday night I was at a restaurant in the North East part of town.  I am not sure I have seen Foie Gras on a menu in Florence before but I am glad I stumble across this.

Foie Gras pan fried in a Porcini and olive oil sauce with a citrus glaze on top and served on a baked pizza dough.

Off to bed!!