Among the Giants and Chianti

A view of the Tuscan countryside.

July 22: Our last day! So we did it up BIG. And ended with a ... well, just wait.

We started by visiting our last church, the Basilica of Santa Croce, built in 1294 and finished in 1385. But before arriving there, we had to engage in some Florentine wandering, partly by choice and partly because we got a little bit lost. Those Firenze streets were a challenge for my Apple Maps and my reading of them.

So here are a couple of our early morning street scenes, recorded after we stopped for breakfast at one of those tiny coffee places with (as always!) fresh-squeezed orange juice. Two tiny tables just barely fit into the space, but we were grateful to nab one as it was already too hot outside to sit in the sun.

Terrie, incidentally, had wisely decided to continue resting her knee that morning, as she also needed to pack in preparation for her departure the next morning. We planned to meet up with her for lunch and then head to the meeting place for our winery tour in the afternoon.

After wandering both deliberately and haphazardly, we found ourselves at the Piazza Santa Croce, looking at yet another beautiful Florentine neo-Gothic facade of pink, green, and red marble polychrome panels contrasted with polished white stone. These contrasting marble facades just never failed to enthrall us.

Somehow this facade managed to look almost like a false front of the sort we see in western US historic towns. Perhaps the fact that only the front of the church had this elegant facade was due to the church's humbler beginning. Yes, a couple of wealthy families founded it (in the late 1200s), but they were most decidedly not the Medici and apparently did not have that kind of bottomless wealth. The funds were more effectively expended on the interior and the 16 chapels therein.

That statue off to the left is of Dante, incidentally. And an interesting sidebar on the designer of the facade, Niccolò Matas, who added this in 1857: Matas included the Star of David at the top. He wished to be buried there, but was denied that honour because he was Jewish. They did, however, bury him under the threshold and honor him with an inscription there.

Where we entered, the exterior wall was plain, embellished only with what looked like crests--perhaps of the families that invested in this church?

"Plain and simple" were left at the door. Once inside, we found another soaringly beautiful cathedral embellished by the ageless art of the Italian masters.

Santa Croce Church has an attribute unmatched by most of the other many, many churches, cathedrals, and basilicas (I doubt I'll ever really grasp the distinctions among these different monikers): It holds over 300 tombs of some of the greatest Italians in Renaissance history, philosophy, and art (thus, the giants we encountered that day)--both floor tombs and grand sculptures.

Here, for instance, is the tomb of Galileo Galilei:

A little background on this: Galileo was not initially entombed here after his death. We all know that the Church (specifically, Pope Urban VIII) had condemned him for discovering and declaring that the earth rotated daily and revolved around the sun, contrary to the Church's teachings. So he had to be buried in an out of the way place...

...under this space adjacent to the church, until 1737, when the monument to him was built and his remains moved inside the church proper, almost 100 years after his death. It's never been easy to speak truth to power.

So that ecclesiastical power finally acknowledged--or excused--his greater power of true knowledge and allowed him back into the church proper.

I was dumbstruck by these great entrance doors (which I conjecture are likely used now only on very special occasions):

And the beautiful hardware keeping them secured:

The floor tombs were some of the most beautiful and ornate--and plentiful--we saw anywhere

In this church, you had to look down, up, and from side to side because every tomb was remarkable. And then there were the Giotto frescoes and the Donatello sculptures...so much to see!

Ah, and the ... acolytes? pilgrims? No, they were visitors like us, but these young women had been deemed to be dressed too scantily for the delicate senses of the church authorities, so they had to be covered.

Here is a statue, Freedom of Poetry, by Pio Fedi honoring the poet and playwright Giovanni Battista Niccolini:

The tomb we had most wanted to see, honoring Michelangelo, was designed by Giorgio Vasari to highlight the three primary media in which Michelangelo excelled: painting, architecture, and sculpture.

The sculptor muse:

The architect muse:

And the painter muse:

Note that the top of this tomb is a fresco, fittingly.

The next giant to be found here was Dante Aligherio:

His allegories, Italy and Poetry, respectively:

Dante is not buried in this cenotaph. His remains are in a tomb in Ravenna, where he died. There was quite a battle between Florence and the Franciscans in Ravenna over who would keep his body, resulting in a lot of hiding and re-hiding of his bones. That tug-of-war, plus later actual wars, kept Dante's bones hidden away numerous times over the centuries. They've been resting comfortably in his sarcophagus in Ravenna since the end of WWII. Never mind where his bones are; Florence claims him for its own. Period.

Here's another giant, Nicollò Machiavelli, author/philosopher/diplomat:

He gained power as secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence when the Medici were out of power, 1498-1512. There's a reason why so many politicians are called "Machiavellian," but he was highly enough regarded 200+ years later that a public fundraising effort resulted in this tomb, which states "No praise is sufficient for such a great name."

Back to the church, where I was fast becoming overwhelmed by the tombs and the various chapels, taking too many photos without studying what they were. This tomb reminded me of our time in Chur and finding their emblematic goat everywhere. This one, however, was without balls...

One of the most beautiful representations of the Annunciation is this sculpture by Donatello:

That gilding...the fine features of Mary's face...the details of the background...just wow. (And there's that book she always seems to have been reading just before hearing the news that would ... ummm ... change her life.)

More stunning floor tombs:

This is one of the most recent of the floor tombs, in a 1910 Art Nouveau design for Emilia Toscanelli Peruzzi:

Here lies Leonardo Bruno.

Cindy paid homage to Rossini, that giant among operatic composers, nicknamed the "Italian Mozart":

And then we visited some of the chapels, all of which were breathtakingly beautiful with stained glass, frescoes, and sculptures galore.

The tombs of Charlotte Napoleon Bonaparte and Julie Clary Bonaparte, niece and sister-in-law, respectively, of Napoleon:

We discovered that the Franciscan order is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year.

And with a final look at the magnificent cross in the apse...

...we moved out of the sanctuary into the rectory, which is now a museum of sorts.

Here we saw another of those great ceilings, simple but elegant:

One of the most important pieces to be seen here is also the saddest. It's The Crucifix by Cimabue. Here's the photo I got:

And here is what it looked like before the 1966 flood:

The best that restoration could do was what you see in my photo. This wasn't the only damage from that flood; many works were lost completely.

One of the frescoes in the rectory:

Some final artworks for which I simply cannot find any information--but they were beautiful and deserved preserving in my phone:

And finally, in the last room we entered, was this magnificent fresco by Taddeo Gaddi, a student of Giotto, painted in 1335: The Last Supper and Tree of Life. This space is the former dining hall for the friars. Impressive in every way.

Here is another Last Supper, also seen in the same space, painted by Giorgio Vasari, who was also the artist for Michelangelo's tomb:

Vasari, incidentally, was the world’s first art historian, most famous for his book The Lives of the Artists.

A last look at the cloisters...

...and we finally bade farewell to Santa Croce.

It was time to meet Terrie for lunch so that we could make our way to the place where we would be picked up for our tour of wineries. Cindy and I took a long hot walk to the restaurant that seemed closest to the bus stop we needed to find, and found a few interesting sights along the way. Quite the contrast to the Renaissance art we'd been immersed in for the past few hours:

And then a contrast to the above. Street art in Florence was represented by a full spectrum of styles and periods.

Lunch in a little cafe with really good food and happy Italians, many of whom seemed to know the owners, was delicious. And then we were on our way to the major transit stop behind the Santa Maria Novella train station (Piazzale Montelungo). It was a longer walk than we had expected in the brutal heat, and it really wasn't a highly interesting area--except for this place, which turned out to be the Fortezza da Basso:

Apparently it would have been an interesting place to visit if we had been able to fit it into our schedule. It's a fort inserted into the 14th c. walls of the city, and it's the largest historical monument of Florence. These days it's the site of conferences, concerts, and exhibitions. It certainly looked quite forbidding from where we were (as were the busy multi-lane streets we had to cross to get to our destination).

Arrived! But then there was a long wait; we had been told to arrive 15 minutes before the tour departure time, and of course we were even earlier than that. There were a couple of other tours taking off from that same place, so we first had to figure out which group we were with. That done, we tried to find a place to sit. No luck for all three of us, but there was a sort of covered bench for the adjacent regular bus stop, so Terrie managed to snag a seat there.

(Sidebar: I look at all of my photos, and I never see any evidence of how hot and sticky we always felt in Florence. Just take my word for it: it was really uncomfortably hot there. Good thing Cindy and I like an occasional blast of heat as a change from the Bay Area temperatures.)

After we watched a huge bus loaded with people ready to drink their way through the Tuscan countryside, our small 25-passenger bus pulled up and we breathed a sigh of relief that we would indeed be with a small group and an excellent guide. As we headed out of the city, our guide gave a good overview of the history of Firenze and the Medici.

Soon we were in the country, and in about half an hour we arrived at our first winery, Casa di Monte, a family business that has been farming their land since the 1870s.

(Not my photo; borrowed from the website)

Our tour guide was a member of the family (by marriage) and she walked us through the entire winemaking process. I was reminded of our friend Scott's winery near Fairplay in the Sierra foothills, sadly closed now but never forgotten.

The views were sublime...

...even when we blocked them...

The best part, of course, was the tasting. We started with their olive oil, which was delicious--but we already had our olive oil from our Pistoia farm, so we weren't inclined to buy.

We were tutored in the Italian wine classifications, specifically DOC and DOCG. In case you don't already know this, DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) means "designation of controlled origin, " similar to the French appellation system. Italy takes this a step further with the DOCG designation (same as above with "Garantita" added), which guarantees that it is the highest quality wine of that area. Each DOCG-labeled wine must pass a governmental wine quality tasting panel, while DOC wines must merely be grown and made in accordance with the rules of the appellation.

The patio where we were hosted for the tasting was beautifully shaded and breezy. However, that welcome breeze capriciously turned into something that toppled glasses and threatened to blow away anything that wasn't held down, as evidenced by Cindy's determined grasp of the situation.

But it was an enjoyable way to spend our last hours in Italy, for sure.

We even had a dog to pet while enjoying the wine.

And all the while, lovely wine. Naturally we bought a bottle to bring home.

From Casa di Monte we went to another winery with a different sort of presentation. I think the Casa di Monte wine must have gone to my head, because I have no pictures of the second place--which was hospitable and generous. Here they seated all of us at a long table laden with all kinds of antipasti, all delicious and conducive to conversation with our fellow travelers.

Back on the bus to return to Florence, our guide answered questions and generally kept us entertained. When we returned to our beginning point, the Piazzale Montelungo, we had a heckuva time getting a taxi to take us back to a more central place.

Finally we did get a taxi, which we took to the Piazza della Repubblica--where we had had dinner two nights before (at Caffe Gilli) and where we hoped to find an ice cream place. I recall that we also were hoping to find a place where Terrie could recharge her phone, which was close to dying. There was an Apple Store right on that plaza, so I went there to see if we could just bring it in for a while (while we ate ice cream), but they were five minutes from closing, so no go. Oh well. At least we could have ice cream. None of us felt up to having any more food than that; the second winery had fed us well.

And then it was time to bid farewell to Terrie. We walked to the taxi stand right there at the edge of the piazza and found a taxi immediately.

Having seen Terrie off, we turned toward our place. Our flight was scheduled to leave bright and early at 6-something, so we planned to go to the airport that night so we could already be there at least two hours before departure. We felt that was the best option for ensuring that we would be there on time.

That plan led to a most memorable departure from Florence. But that is another story, for which you must wait just a bit longer.