Visit any tourist location in Italy, or in any other part of the world on the visitor trail for that matter, and you are likely to come across shops selling fridge magnets; they are usually displayed on suspended boards at the entrance to a retail outlet to catch the eye and entice the prospective shopper to purchase one when entering or leaving the establishment. They are the perfect item for the would be souvenir hunter for they cost little and when you get home and stick one on the fridge you have a permanent reminder of a visit made to a favourite place and the opportunity to reminisce about it.
I don't think they make the ideal gift though, for give one to a friend and you run the risk of incurring jealosy if they think you are rubbing it in about your visit to a particular spot they haven't been to, or they may not like the image anyway. I have friends who consider fridge magnets to be the height of naffness. Personally I view my collection as a pleasing permanent record of enjoyable places I've been to, or of buildings and art objects I've seen.
I also know I don't want to add other peoples destinations and paraphenalia to it. I find it fascinating that friends think that because you collect fridge magnets - any old magnet you haven't already got will do. A few weeks ago one good friend gave me a magnet from Gizza in Eygypt showing an arab bloke on a camel with a pyramid in the background. He's one of the rare species of being who has dared to venture down the Nile in a cruise boat in recent times, but even this didn't dispose me to treasure it. I threw it in the bin when he'd gone home! I just hope he doesn't go looking for it next time he comes round, but I have a strong suspicion that he will!
Italian fridge magnets come in a variety of shapes and sizes and I have a distinct preference for the type I like best and know the ones I hate most. Most of my magnets are simple straightforward photographic images which have been stretched over board and then had a strip magnet applied to the back. The ones I really dislike are the plastic moulded variety that attempt a bas relief impression of a place or building. These are usually ghastly as far as aesthetics go and they never get my attention. I also eschew the ones which have a clear plastic frame to which an image has been stuck from behind. In England the National Trust have gone in for these and I can't understand what possessed them to do so.
Whilst travelling round Italy since Jon and I bought our apartment in Umbria a couple of years ago I've had plenty of time to build up an extensive collection of magnets on a small budget. Rarely have they cost me more than 3 euros each. What has been even more fun is choosing ones that appeal to me aesthetically or perhaps those that arouse some sort of academic curiosity. I've been impressed by the fact that these days many don't just show the usual standard image of a place from the most popular viewpoint (St Mark's Square comes to mind) but show an unusual aspect or perhaps a detail from a work of art. I've got very interested in these and will share some of them with you in later postings.
In short I like to think of myself as a budding Italian fridge magnet connoisseur - now there's ambition! What I like most about my Italian fridge magnet collection however, is that I am the sole creator of it. Just like a museum curator I'm responsible for acquisitions, research, cataloguing the collection, display and interpretation and sometimes I even organize themed exhibitions on part of the fridge based round particular topics if I feel the urge to make links or explore ideas. The side of my large American style fridge is my very own gallery space and I control every aspect of it. In the quiet world of retirement these notions have proved to be an extraordinarily powerful fantasy as well as inspiring creativity. They always say you should try and keep the brain cells active in impending old age and its struck me that this is one interesting way to do it. I've decided the first one I will write about will be one of many I have collected whilst in Florence.
The Italian city of Florence, which I visited again for a few days only last week, has always had a special place in my heart. I first visited it getting on 50 years ago when I was in the 6th form doing my A levels. My mum was friendly with the wife of the Head of Modern Languages at the local Girl's High School in Skipton and I had the good fortune to be invited to accompany Mr and Mrs Taggart on a school trip to Italy in 1967. We stayed in Rimini for a week and to this day I can vividly recall the visit we made to Florence.
I remember the first stop was the Piazza Michelangelo to see the wonderful vista over medieval Florence and that experience can still raise hairs on my neck today. Later I would get the opportunity to have an hour on my own exploring the narrow passage ways between the Ponte Vecchio and the Piazza della Signoria and as I write this blog, for a brief moment, I'm walking out into Florence's main civic square for the first time and marvelling once again at its scale and beauty. In more recent times my partner Jon and I chose Florence as our Christmas holiday destination the year after my mum died and now that we have our own place in Umbria we are regular visitors to the Tuscan capital. I bought the fridge magnet I'm introducing today on our Christmas visit in 2011 and it has pride of place in my display. I find myself being surprised at how powerful a simple tourist souvenir like this one can be - acting as it has done as a trigger for a bit of Italian "mindfulness" and generating vivid visual memories which have been stored in my subconscious all these years.
The magnet shows a wide view of Florence in the late 15th century. It's actually an image of a painting in the museum of the Palazzo Vecchio (the main civic building in the Piazza della Signoria) done by an artist named Rafaello Petrini in 1887 who was reproducing a woodcut cut in the workshops of the early cartographer Piero del Massaio in 1472. The artist was Francesco de Lorenzo and original prints from his block are now in the Vatican Museums and in a museum in Berlin. For the first time Florence is depicted in its entirety and the view includes many of the city's important landmark buildings of the time.
When examined closely the original and the reproduction present a lively view of the city with a huge amount of detail. In the foreground to the right there's a young man sketching the city and on the left a dead beast being picked over by carrion. There's lots of activity on the river including fishermen and men on a scaffold perched above a weir. It's the overall highly accurate depiction of the city however which is fascinating. By the 1470's despite a smaller population after the 14th century Black Death, Florence is flourishing as an independent city state, its wealth based on luxury textiles production and banking. Arnolfo's magnificent walls - encircling the urban development on both sides of the river, remind us of the city's vulnerability to attack from rival city's both near and far.The city's organisation and powerful institutions are expressed in the imposing buildings which reflect different aspects of it's social structure. Almost in the middle of the view is the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore complete with Brunelleschi's recently completed amazing dome and the campanile is visible too. To the right of it and no less important is Florence's most important civic building, the Palazzo della Signoria - the city hall and military garrison - complete with its iconic crenellated tower. Florence's aristrocracy - patricians of wealth and derived from the mercantile and banking communities are well represented in the Palazzo Pitti visible on the right bank on the Via Romana. The Palazzo de Medici by Michelozzo can also be spotted complete with its own church, San Lorenzo and monastery at San Marco. Other major religous institutions of the time can be seen at Santa Croce and Santa Maria. And don't forget to note at least four of the city's medieval bridges including the famous Ponte Vecchio! Notice on this video clip that when you see them enlarged the buildings are named!
Ciao & KBO
Ian
I don't think they make the ideal gift though, for give one to a friend and you run the risk of incurring jealosy if they think you are rubbing it in about your visit to a particular spot they haven't been to, or they may not like the image anyway. I have friends who consider fridge magnets to be the height of naffness. Personally I view my collection as a pleasing permanent record of enjoyable places I've been to, or of buildings and art objects I've seen.
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| PART OF MY COLLECTION OF FRIDGE MAGNETS |
Italian fridge magnets come in a variety of shapes and sizes and I have a distinct preference for the type I like best and know the ones I hate most. Most of my magnets are simple straightforward photographic images which have been stretched over board and then had a strip magnet applied to the back. The ones I really dislike are the plastic moulded variety that attempt a bas relief impression of a place or building. These are usually ghastly as far as aesthetics go and they never get my attention. I also eschew the ones which have a clear plastic frame to which an image has been stuck from behind. In England the National Trust have gone in for these and I can't understand what possessed them to do so.
Whilst travelling round Italy since Jon and I bought our apartment in Umbria a couple of years ago I've had plenty of time to build up an extensive collection of magnets on a small budget. Rarely have they cost me more than 3 euros each. What has been even more fun is choosing ones that appeal to me aesthetically or perhaps those that arouse some sort of academic curiosity. I've been impressed by the fact that these days many don't just show the usual standard image of a place from the most popular viewpoint (St Mark's Square comes to mind) but show an unusual aspect or perhaps a detail from a work of art. I've got very interested in these and will share some of them with you in later postings.
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| FRIDGE MAGENT SHOWING A DETAIL FROM THE MASACCIO'S FRESCO SERIES IN THE BRANCACCI CHAPEL, FLORENCE |
The Italian city of Florence, which I visited again for a few days only last week, has always had a special place in my heart. I first visited it getting on 50 years ago when I was in the 6th form doing my A levels. My mum was friendly with the wife of the Head of Modern Languages at the local Girl's High School in Skipton and I had the good fortune to be invited to accompany Mr and Mrs Taggart on a school trip to Italy in 1967. We stayed in Rimini for a week and to this day I can vividly recall the visit we made to Florence.
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| ENLARGED VIEW SHOWING RAFAELLO'S "VEDUTA DELLA CATENA" OF 1887 |
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| ORIGINAL WOODCUT - VIEW OF FLORENCE BY FRANCESCO DI LORENZO ROSSELLI c1472 |
There are two more points of interest. I'm captivated by the notion that at the time the original woodcut was constructed a young Michelangelo was growing up in the city - his home was near Santa Croce and he would have walked the streets and known the buildings we can see in this view of Florence. The other point concerns the fact that when you visit Florence today the central area is well preserved and though much of the city wall has disappeared, within its original boundaries the layout of the streets and the positioning and survival of all the major buildings is largely as it was in the late 15th century.This final video shows just how little the city has changed over the last 500 or so years.! Amazing.
I visited quite a few places whilst in Florence last week so look out for new postings in the coming days; I've rather got the blogging bug again whilst its all fresh in my mind! There will be one on Florence's most famous statue, another on a fabulous recently renovated church cross and a further one on Florentine paper crafts. Don't miss them.
Ciao & KBO
Ian
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