FLORENCE - A LATE WINTER VISIT

It's February 12th 2014 and once again the weather here in the UK is terrible! As I look outside my study window it's raining heavily and windy to boot. The media are telling us this has been the wettest winter for 250 years and the Thames Valley and Somerset Levels are flooded - thousands of people are either suffering water drenched homes or being evacuated to safer places! Not surprisingly my thoughts keep drifting back to Italy and I realize its exactly a year this coming weekend since we made our second journey there to contemplate the purchase of a holiday home. It's a good time to report what we decided to do during that eventful weekend. 

Once again we decided to travel to Umbria via Stanstead airport, but this time we thought it would be a change to fly to Pisa and to take the shuttle bus into Florence from there. We had a good Thursday afternoon Ryanair daytime flight and arriving in Pisa it was a delight to once again realize we were at a small airport with no marathon walks to undertake to get out of the place. The shuttle bus into Florence cost the modest sum of 6 euros each and took about an hour, dropping us right outside Florence's main city centre railway station - Santa Maria Novella. We'd booked in to a nearby hotel for the night deciding to journey down to Umbria the following day, so first we decided to have a quick look inside the station to get our bearings for our train trip next day.

The site of Santa Maria Novella Station in central Florence

The front facade of Santa Maria Novella station in Florence.

Inside there is a vast top lit, wide and airy concourse giving direct access to the terminus platforms and plenty of information about arrivals and departures. I'd read back home that this is one of Italy's busiest stations dealing with approximately 59 million passenger visitors a year and if this afternoon was anything to go by then I could easily see that to be the case! There were trains listed on the boards destined for Venice and Naples and I had to pinch myself again that we were here at this Italian hub where we could, if we wanted, travel the length and breadth of the country.Architecturally the building is quite interesting, the front part of it being designed in 1932 by the Mussolini approved "Gruppo Toscano" - a consortium of Tuscan architects. It was completed in 1934 and replaced the former Maria Antonia station. Books dealing with Florence's 20th century history indicate the building was a work of the Italian modern movement and it certainly does have that plain but functional simplicity about it. I liked it a bit less on the outside where its stark, flat and austere front elevation face the back of the nearby complex of buildings which form the basilica of Santa Maria Novella. After looking backwards and forwards from one to the other and thinking of the centuries dividing them, it was time to set off to check in to our nearby hotel just a few minutes away.

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The interior of Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence

After dinner an evening stroll took us to the piazza directly in front of the church of Santa Maria Novella - the basilica which had lent its name to the railway station we'd been in during the afternoon. We'd visited this church on one of our previous trips, but it was a pleasure to call in on it this particular evening and see the flood lighting illuminating the beautiful medieval/Renaissance facade. A quiet evening like this was perfect for a contemplation of the detail of the amazing black and white marble design. I found myself thinking that I never seem to tire of coming to Florence to see these text book sights and once again it motivates both of us to think we are right to come back for this weekend. 

Evening view of the front facade of Santa Maria Novella church in Florence

The church was named "novella" (new) when, in the early 13th century, the decision was taken by two Dominican friars, to build a new church and cloister on the site of the 9th century oratory of Santa Maria delle Vigne. When it was largely completed in 1360, only the lower part of the marble clad front facade had been finished. The semi-circular arches which characterize this part of the front elevation, are essentially Romanesque/ early medieval in character and its interesting to contrast this part of the frontage with the upper section which is later in date and completed between 1456 and 1470 - almost a hundred years later. This was designed by Renaissance architect Leone Battista Alberti, sympathetically also in black and white marble, and following a commission from textile merchant Giovanni Paolo Rucellai. Here, paying respect to the lower section, it is more classical in its proportioning and detail and it pays homage to Alberti's interest in reviving the precepts of design advocated by classical Roman writer Vitruvius. The pediment and frieze are inspired by classical antiquity and other details, such as the flanking scrolls which contain billowing sails - emblems of Alberti's patron Rucellai - can be found on many other later churches all over Italy. Its a good comparison to make on just one elevation.

After a comfortable night and a hearty breakfast we had time  for another walk in the morning sunshine before returning to the station. We decided to amble over towards the the 19th century market hall near San Lorenzo which is always a fun thing to do. Outside the building the narrow street is always lined with tightly packed stalls selling traditional and brightly coloured leather goods of one sort and another and its a great place for people watching as tourists try on leather jackets in the street, or attempt to make a selection from the hundreds of handbags on offer. At the end of the street we walk across the Piazza San Lorenzo and I cast a sideways glance at the front of what was the parish church of the Medici family during the Renaissance. I imagine them taking the short walk from their Palazzo just across the road. Its fascinating to compare the front of this building which has a plain, rough stone appearance with that of the elaborately decorated Santa Maria Novella facade for it was never completed. Originally it was intended it would have a frontage designed by Michelangelo. Where the churches are similar, however, is on the inside for each has a magnificent interior stuffed with outstanding Renaissance works of art - lots of material for discussion in future posts. We stroll up the side of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi and walk across another block to the east for I am looking for a shop we discovered just a few weeks earlier when we were in Florence for Christmas; its a small speciliast shop called Tissoti which sells beautiful paper and hand crafted stationery. (I was shocked to discover in January this year that it was no longer there!) I'm a sucker for this this sort of stuff and we spent the next hour making a selection of items to take back to the UK. By the time we'd finished it was time to get back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head for the train station. 

The rough stone facade of the basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence

Back on the busy station concourse we checked the time of our train and picked up some things to eat on the train. I admire one of the sleek red and silver bullet trains bound for Bologna on a nearby platform and wish we were getting on such a glamorous mode of transport, but we are destined for a Trenitalia local train heading, stop by stop, for Rome where we will be getting off at Chiusi - about half way between the two cities. The expected journey time is 1 hour 35 minutes. This was the first time we'd done this so it was interesting watching the train leave the station  and starting to make its way north and then south. First stop was the recently constructed mainline station in the Florence suburbs where the high speed bullet trains travelling between Milan and Rome stop and then its out into the countryside first crossing the Arno and then following its valley for the first part of the journey. There are several station stops between Florence and Chiusi and after about 40 minutes we arrive in the broad Chiana valley famous for its beef cattle from which the equally famous Florentine beefsteaks are derived. I know we are getting fairly near Chiusi when we stop at Arezzo. At this point I have little knowledge of Arezzo other than that the oldest painting in the National Gallery, London, an oil on panel of a madonna and child with saints, was done by an artist from here and it is also renowned for its contemporary monthly antiques market. I will definitely be coming back here. A little further on and we stop at Cortona. The old part of town sits high up the mountain side to the left of our direction of travel and once again I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of new and old as this alluring and ancient hill town, which I'd read about in Frances Maye's books and studied in connection with the artist Pietra da Cortona, made me want to explore there soon. 

The hill top town of Cortona, Tuscany - visible from the train on our way to Chiusi

Another half an hour or so and we were ready to get off the train at Chiusi, the nearest town to our destination - Citta della Pieve. It had been a good experience and now, not having the luxury of a hire car, we had to take a 20 euro taxi ride to our destination a few kilometres away. We knew the route and where the hotel we were booked in to was, so it was annoying not to be able to make our driver understand exactly the directions we were giving him  and even more so when we knew at the top of the hill, that he took us the long way round the town to rack up the fare! No matter, we had arrived and this hotel had been booked and recommended to us by our estate agent Laura, so we were looking forward to finding out what it had to offer. 

PLEASE NOTE: IF BY ANY CHANCE YOU ARE READING THIS BLOG FOR THE FIRST TIME - YOU MIGHT WISH TO CONSIDER TRYING IT FROM THE BEGINNING WHICH INVOLVES GOING TO THE ARCHIVE AND STARTING WITH POSTING NUMBER 1. - THANKS, - IAN

A MAIOLICA RENAISSANCE POT TURNS UP IN A HOUSE IN SOMERSET, ENGLAND

After returning to the UK from Italy after our January house search we had talked over and over about what to do next and still had the three properties we'd looked at in our sight line to the extent we decided to go back and have a second look with the prospect of making an offer on one of them. Jon went ahead and booked for us to fly back to Italy during February from Stansted to Pisa. 

Italian Maiolica Dish - c1540

I'm passionate about the history of ceramics and have indeed been lucky enough to have written several books on the subject. I was thus looking forward with anticipation to being able to research and write about Italian ceramics. It's strange how when you become involved with something that all sort of co-incidences occur which bring related items and subjects together. So it was on the morning of February 16th last year when I picked up a stray copy of the Daily Mail during my morning commute in to London. On an inside page there was a picture of an Italian Renaissance ceramic dish of the type I have only ever encountered in major museum collections like those of the Victoria and Albert Museum or the Wallace Collection in London. The illustration was accompanied by a short article entitled "THE RENAISSANCE COMES TO SOMERSET". Here was a story to cause salivation in abundance for anyone interested in Italian pottery for this piece was a rare and important dish.

It was made from a type of ceramic ware called tin-glazed earthenware and it was hand-painted in a colourful Mediterranean palate with a narrative scene. A representative from Charterhouse auctioneers in Sherborne, Dorset had visited a Somerset cottage in November 2012 to do a general appraisal and found this dish hanging on the kitchen wall by a slender wire the likes of which gives anyone with an interest in historic ceramics palpitations! The valuer knew he had made a massively important find and immediately told the owner, subject to confirmation, that it could be worth as much as £100,000 at auction. The dish was subsequently examined by an Oxford museum curator who confirmed it to have been made in Urbino, in about 1540. Measuring 16.5 inches across the dish's colourful subject matter was also identified by the curator as being biblical - the story of "The Feast of Herod" and probably painted after an engraving made by a German print maker, Sebald Beham (1500 - 1550). The piece was in excellent condition apart from a single re-stuck chip to the rim. 

Detail of the chip on the rim of the 16th century dish

The dish was finally put up for sale by the auctioneers in their Dorset rooms on February 14th 2013 in a single lot sale. It sold for the magnificent sum of £460,000 plus 19.5% buyer's premium taking its sale price overall to £587,000. It was bought by a Bond Street specialist. This wonderful dish had turned out to be a very special and important type of pottery known as "istoriato" maiolica made in Renaissance Italy in the mid 16th century and owned by the likes of the powerful Medici family. How on earth had it ended up on the wall of a humble cottage in Dorset, England? No one will ever know the answer to that simple question.


Well - that's a small introduction to the subject of Italian ceramics and I'll be back with more about this topic in another posting.