Michelangelo, Michelangelo, Michelangelo, Bravo!

Florence
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October 1, 2007

By Christina

I am writing this on our laptop which now has a new hard drive and appears to be in good working order. Hopefully, our blog entries will now be a bit more timely…..but, you never know!

We have been happily residing in the Tuscan hills near Castellina in Chianti for close to two weeks and have been quite content with the combination of tourist time and relaxation time. The place where we are staying is really great. It is on the top of a hill surrounded by vineyards and olive/walnut/almond trees (of which we indulge on a regular basis). Evidently, the “estate” on which our house sits, once belonged to the Medici family (yes, the same folks who single handedly financed the renaissance art explosion in Florence), who sold the property to the present owner’s family in the early 1800s. Our place is at least 300 years old and comes with the wood-beamed ceiling of which we have grown accustomed. There is a pool with a large grass area from which you can watch the sun set over San Gimignano (we call it St. Jimmy in honor of Green Day) about 7 miles in the distance.

Atop the Duomo
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Located about halfway between Siena and Florence, we chose to spend our allotted “tourist” time the first week in Florence. That was partly due to the fact that we had business to attend to (missing debit card, broken laptop, etc.), but also because we wanted to see an Orinda family that is living in Florence for the year: Gina, Greg, Bailey and Sydney Smith. It was great to spend time talking to them about living in Italy and what the year abroad meant to each of our families. They also introduced us to a great ceramic shop in their neighborhood (a painful expenditure, but a lasting memory to be sure) and a marvelous trattoria down the street from their apartment. Last Sunday, they came out to our place for the entire day and we had a great time hanging by the pool and chatting while the kids ran around catching lizards, swimming and making friendship bracelets. We look forward to connecting with the Smiths to share stories when we are all back in Orinda next August.

With the Smiths
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As I mentioned, our tourist time the first week was focused on Florence. In addition to the usual sites (Duomo, Baptistry, Ponte Vecchio, Uffizi, and dell’Accademia (where Grayson sat and sketched David for close to an hour), we checked out some other places that we really loved. Notable was the library at the San Lorenzo Cathedral which has a beautifully designed staircase by Michelangelo. Any description I could give would not do it justice, but let’s just say I agreed with the guard at the Cathedral who described it as “the most beautiful staircase in the world”. We also were in awe of the marble statues in the Medici Chapel by Michelangelo and the design of the New Sacristry there – Michelangelo’s first architectural work. Needless to say, ole Mike played a big part in our appreciation of Florence.

Florence
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Another day (our first rainy one, I might note), we visited what is widely claimed to be the first Rennaisance building - Spedale degli Innocent, Europe’s first orphanage. Designed by Brunelleschi (the man of Duomo fame), in the 15th century, it is an architectural marvel. At one end of the building there is a revolving door where unwanted children were left and all children raised at the orphanage were given the last name Innocenti (or a derivation thereof). If you look in the Florence phonebook today, there are a ton of people with that surname, who can trace their roots to the orphanage.

Our place in Tuscany
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In a nutshell, that sums up our first week in Tuscany.

Note: in deference to my many Stanford friends (not to mention my husband), I am resisting the temptation to constantly note how great the Bears are doing and the fact that they keep moving up in the national ranks (#3 as of this writing). I did take the time yesterday to look up the exact date and time of the SC game and noted where we will be – Istanbul. Not sure I will be able to watch that one, but I will certainly be there in spirit. Go Bears!