Florence, Day Three

Another guest blog post from Jim:

Dear Family,

It was about 40 hours ago I wrote you last, from Munich. I called that “Day 2”. That feels like a really long time ago!

We flew from Munich to Florence, then rode the €6 shuttle bus to the Santa Maria Novella train station in downtown Florence. We could see the Duomo from there and walked toward it, about a half mile, to meet our Airbnb host at our apartment…or so we thought. It turns out Florence has at least two house numbering systems. We stood for 40 minutes at a door distinctly marked #11 Calzaiuoli, but our host was at a different #11, about two minutes’ walk to the north. (Note to Jeff and Nelly: the correct #11 is just north of the Disney Store.)

Alessio gave us an orientation to the apartment. It’s as nice as I hoped. I conked out for a nap while Mary determinedly stayed awake. At 7:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. Boston time) we went out. We had pizza overlooking the Arno, in a covered but open-air space that doubled as an access route to several parking spaces in an interior courtyard. A rose vendor saw me as an easy mark and yes, I did buy a long-stemmed red rose for Mary for €5. She made a move to put it between her teeth. Oh, but that’s not Italian, is it. As we ate, one of the parked cars was maneuvered out, coming within three feet of our table as it went by. I love this! Florence is a marvel of compactness, mixed uses, small cars, motorcycles and scooters, bicycles, and people enjoying themselves in public and semi-public spaces. The only Jane Jacobs element missing is wide sidewalks—many of them are just barely one person wide.

Most buildings in central Florence abut neighboring buildings. The facades facing the street are continuous from one end of the block to the next. Sometimes there are interior courtyards, but to know this you have to look from above on Google. Fronts of buildings come right to the sidewalk. Buildings are four to six stories high. All construction is masonry. Most streets are wide enough for one car and two narrow sidewalks. Except for retail locations, windows are few at street level; many buildings look like fortresses. The overall effect is canyon-like. You might think it would feel oppressive, but to me it’s more like cozy (cozy, that is, until a police car or ambulance careens by with siren blaring in what is a very effective echo chamber).

After our pizza, we walked across the river to the Chiesa (church) Santa Monaca. This is a decommissioned smallish old church now used as a performance space. We heard a virtuoso pianist, David Boldrini, and a magnificent soprano, Deborah Vincenti, perform favorite arias from operas by Verdi, Puccini, and Mozart. We recognized many of them—we have a CD of Puccini arias we’ve listened to dozens of time. We sat next to a couple from England who travel most of the time. They have in mind doing a six-month American tour on a Harley-Davidson. Our walk homeward was very leisurely.

Our last stop before home was the Piazza della Signoria, which is the open space in front of the municipal building Palazzo Vecchio (built in the early 1300s, with the tower that is the symbol of Florence). A crowd was gathered at barricades set in a big perimeter in front of the Palazzo. Cars were parked with engines running at the door of the Palazzo and policemen milled around. There was a sense of anticipation, but about what? We waited a half hour or so and then a group of about 40 distinguished looking people in evening dress, including an elegant female, emerged. The people cheered and waved, and she waved back. We asked the man next to us what it was all about, expecting some exotic Florentine ceremonial hoopla. What a shock: It was Charles the Prince of Wales and Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall! See the full story, including plenty of pictures of the moment we participated in and of their tour earlier in the day all over Florence, at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4375124/Prince-Charles-Camilla-sample-Italian-food.html.

The Palazzo Vecchio, town hall of Florence, overlooks the Piazza della Signoria with its copy of Michelangelo's David statue. The original David was unveiled here in 1504 and stood here until 1873 when it was moved indoors.

All that was still Day 2! We arrived home just before midnight local time. I felt very sleepy but missed my sleep window and ended up being awake until after 4:00 a.m. (10:00 p.m. Boston time).

This morning I woke up at 11:30 a.m. local time, feeling very fine physically but not motivated to do anything in particular. Mary slept until 1:30 p.m. We then spent the next five hours in bed talking and undertaking other favorite marital activities. It was very wonderful. We finally emerged in search of a meal at 8:00 p.m., a full 24 hours after our previous meal. This was reminiscent of a trip to Orlando in April 2000 when we both went a day and a half without eating or feeling any desire to eat. Just before that trip I was at my lifetime high weight. In the following 18 months, I lost 30 pounds. I’ve never gained them all back; currently I’m up 10 from that low.

Our meal was lovely. We paid €56 for it plus tip. We had a very leisurely walk back. We sought out the plaza in front of the Basilica Santo Spirito, because that is where we had a restaurant meal with you in 2001. This was the restaurant where I requested tap water to drink and got a dismayed look, and an argument, from the waiter. We saw posters for Opera St. Mark’s. This is at the “English Church” of Florence, still active as a church but, like Santa Monaca, also a performance venue, for full operas. We’ll go to one or two performances on this visit.

We arrived home at midnight. I’ve now spent a couple of hours writing to you and thinking of you. We’re having a wonderful time.

Love,

JimDad

Florence, Italy, Day One and Two

Here's the first in a series of guest blogs by my beloved husband, Jim:

Day One

The Cannon Chronicle  went to Lexington Graphics Thursday night. I saw the proof Friday. It should go into the mail tomorrow or Tuesday. This issue has some very good parts (when have I ever thought a Chronicle issue was not great?). [Mary's note: this is Jim's primo newsletter of his grandparent's (Mary and Alan Cannon) family. It has 100 subscribers and is published twice a year. Let me know if you'd like a subscription: $10/year, domestic postage.]

International air travel seems very spacious and relaxed so far, compared to the flying buses of domestic flights. We’ll see how I’m doing after flying all night. We land in Munich tomorrow and then fly to Florence. Our Airbnb is at Via Calzaiuoli 11, within a five-minute walk of the Duomo. We’ll be there the whole time. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Nelly arrive Thursday (Jeff, is that right? What time?). We arrive back at Logan at 9 p.m. on Apr 13.

I really enjoyed the call from Sam and Savannah last night.

Day Two

It’s Day 2 of the Florence trip, but we’re not in Florence yet. It’s 4:14 a.m. in Boston and 10:14 a.m. here in Munich. Our flight to Florence boards in about 30 minutes.

The A350 was very nice. The seating is 3-3-3. We had an aisle seat and a middle seat in the middle rank. The flight was quite empty, so I moved to an unoccupied row in the back, and slept for four hours. Mary stayed put and also had three seats to lie on.

The last thing we did before boarding in Boston was buy tickets to an performance of favorite numbers from Italian opera, at the Chiesa Santa Monaca on the south side of the river, about 0.7 miles from the Duomo. We’ll walk there. The walk through city streets and the opera numbers should be a good intro to Florence!

Die Walküre

Jim and I recently saw the Metropolitan Opera high definition cinecast of Die Walküre, the second of the four Der Ring des Nebelungen. It touched me deeply and unexpectedly. I originally decided to go on the strength of the other HD operas we’ve seen. I’ve never been interested in Wagner, although I have always loved his “Pilgrims’ Chorus”. The length of each opera was daunting and off-putting. However, the movie, Wagner’s Dream,  which chronicled the production of the recent Met Ring cycle, piqued my interest.

I was totally unprepared for the emotional experience I had during Die Walküre. There were no hummable tunes, I understood very little of the German and was aware that the subtitles didn’t offer a complete script. Yet, I was swept away and mesmerized. The four and a half hours seemed short.

One reason for the peak experience was the skill of the acting. Perhaps because I couldn’t follow all of the lyrics I was keyed into the facial and bodily expressions of emotional and intent. I especially appreciated Wotan, but I was drawn in by all the characters: Siegmund, Sieglinde, Hunding, and Fricka.

But I think, even more than the acting, the themes and emotions captured my imagination. The interactions: between husband and wife, father and daughter, lovers, and enemies were so compelling. They touched chords deep within me and I discovered that I yearn to explore those primal emotions.

I’m intrigued with the concept of myth describing the human condition. I enjoy thinking about how the Ring cycle compares to biblical accounts and how George Lukas must have been influenced by Wagner and the original Norse myths themselves.

Some religious parallels I saw: Siegmund is like Adam. He’s imperfect and fallen and unable to save the world. Siegfried, born of an outcast mother, but protected by Brunnhilde, is a savior figure. Fricka is justice, Brunnhilde mercy.