The birthday was over.
Vatican Art absorbed on Monday.
A last joyous dinner at Luzzi's (corner of Cellimontana and Lataerno).


Penny and Denise and Jane stay on in Rome.
Rosie and Gina embark to Pulia to see Zina.
Melinda, Maryann, Walker, Melissa, Karen, Bill, Sophie, Alex, Candee and Sammy all return to Portland, Oregon.


Pam and Michael and Katherine rent a car and head either North or South.
Martha and Karen take the train to Florence, rent a car and go to Paris.
Diana and Gary fly to Paris, rent a car and travel to Normandy.

Becky and Jim take train thru CinqueTerra then on to Greece and Istanbul by boat.
Palermo and Ursala stay in Rome or perhaps go to Germany.
Denver continues to live in Rome.

Barbara and Luis stay in Rome because they are Romans.
Ami returns to NYC salvaging the Hospital System.

And you all know what I return to.

In the last Blog I suggested a movie re. "On the Way to Penny's Birthday Party". The sequel must be, "What Happened After".




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND NOTES IN BRIEF:

This blog is only possible because of Jennifer Dudley and is the joint partner in this Venture. Thank you ... thank you, Jennifer, for your artistic choices.

Many kudos to Rosie Williams who pulled off this Rome Birthday Party and was either the inspiration or instigator for it.

Also thanks to Gina and the twins, Sophie and Alex for all their assistance. I'm sure there were others so thank you to them.

Thanks to Walker and Martha and Luis for the musical entertainment.

Apologies for misspelling Diana's name. I take full responsibility. The buck stops here.

And thanks again to Vincent who gave some of us such an informative and gracious tour of the Forum.
If you want to get in touch with him his email is:
vincentdrago@hotmail.com

And Thank you, Penny, for having this party giving everyone an occasion to celebrate you and further, an excuse and opportunity to indulge in the eternal pleasures of Italy once again.

Many thanks to Ed and Alan for collecting and coping with my mail deliveries while I was gone.

And so, Ciao.

To celebrate Penny's nativity are the following:

Rosie, Maryann, Walker, Melinda, Pam (all the way from the Ukraine), Katherine, Michael, Melissa, Karen, Bill, Sophie, Alex, Becky, Jim, Palermo and friend, Candee, Sammy, Barbara, Luis, Denise, Jane, Diane, Gary, Martha, Gina, another Karen, Ami and Me. There may be others.

How many of us could have 30 plus people travel the globe to celebrate our birthday. I'd like to write one of those movies where everyone here tells of their adventures and\or misadventures in getting here .....and then get to pick which actor will play them. In the spirit of Four Weddings and a Funeral .... but with a different title.

The party is later today and I have to say a few words. Maybe I'll use these. We've been loosely planning entertainment. Walker, the 13 year old son of Maryann, said he will play something on the guitar. Was thinking of Panic in Needle Park. I believe that was voted down by the committee (though the park in question is mere footsteps from my New York headquarters).

Yesterday Ami and I for the first time in our lives ran into someone from NY in Rome. Michael Serby, a Dr. we worked with at Mt. Sinai some years ago. He was enroute to a Psychiatry conference in Florence. Earlier we had gone to the Giotto show. Ami's decided to collect Assumptions as she likes the concept of Heaven. (couldn't find a Giotto painting of The Assumption...so here's Giotto's depiction of St. Francis preaching to the doves...)


On Friday, friend Vincent took us for a tour through the Forum revealing all sorts of historic information. One item I'll pass on to you. The stone, Porphyry (purple), was used only for statuary of significant power people in old Rome. As a consequence it is now extinct. Every chunk has been used up. There is a registry of where every piece of porphyry can be found!!!!!

I may get one more blog in before I leave for home. And I know you're disappointed to not yet have the full list of my Annunciations. There will be an epilogue of photos and final commentary after I get home, however I hope I'll see all of you at the party tonight...

We are in Rome now ... arrived a few hours ago and many of Penny's friends are here including our nieces and grand nieces, and we all went out to eat at our place, Luzzi's.






Just a few words on Venice:

One has to stay here long enough to have time to get into the infrastructure. We took the wrong boat yesterday and got a chance to see what keeps Venice working. All the loading zones. The variety of boats that perform all the things that need to be done, like bringing in the food and taking out the left overs....all the construction equipment, the many polizia, including the Finance Police...which is what I think Geitner needs. It seems much more intimate to see all these things being done in open boats rather than in enclosed trucks and semis...true transparency. We watched two men...one operating a crane...,pound huge stakes into the water rebuilding a pier. Such skill. Wonderful reverberations of clanking and smashing and banging.

And also yesterday was....THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. At the railway station we came upon a ceremony of little children carrying flowers to a Mary statue; five red and gold costumed adults carring baroque trumpets and many polizia guarding everything.

We also visited Ca' Rezzonico Palazzo where Ami read the information and relieved us from the burden of looking at Art.

One of our unexpected pleasures was the television programs from BBC. The whole night presents a variety of fast moving Hospital Dramas. Dazzlingly graphic, complex and layered and every show has the same plot line. These offerings plus East Enders must employ every available actor in Great Britain. As the saying goes, "Visit Venice ---- See BBC." I loved it!!!!!

I just want to say a few words about our location in from the Arsenale Vaporetto stop. It's east of San Marco in a quiet residential Medieval area so we can get lost with one mistaken turn and, in fact, we did the day we picked up Ami. Hauling her suitcase with her exhausted body through all sorts of deliciously twisty "calle". We finally had to ask some workman for directions and he walked us to our home. It's even more interesting at night with a few bare bulbs hanging high over head to illuminate our way. We look out our window onto rio di S. Martino. Our Campo Gate is large and plain with a plaque commemorating Ugo Foscolo...an Italian writer Penny is familiar with....in the scholarly way.



Yesterday we took the Vaporetto trip to St. Michele Cemetery where all Venetians can be buried (by Order of Napoleon). Not quite the trip envisioned in "Wings of the Dove" going off to bury Millie Theale(?). We saw the graves of J. Brodsky (complete with cigarettes someone left for him), Ezra Pound, Sergei Diaghilev and the Stravinskys. Ami was disappointed in the latters' grave stones. Unaesthetically modern and unadorned with no dates.. The we spent the rest of the day at Murano where all that endless glass is. (Picture of an Annunciation made of Murano Glass! The best one yet...)



A couple days ago we went to Lido late afternoon and walked down to the beach area where Death in Venice (T. Mann) took place. What was his name...Ansbach?

Today, off to San Giorgio Maggiore just across the Canal.

I know the following exclamations will reveal my pathetic lack of Art Knowledge, however we have discovered Tintoretto. (Ami arrived two days ago in Venice to join us.) Yesterday in the Accademia were rooms of Tintoretto fabuloso activity----it was like seeing motion pictures for the first time. And then today at the Scuola di San Rocco (a Renaissance brotherhood like The Elks), all over the place, walls, ceilings leaping out at you are all these twisting bodies. It's as if he doesn't want you to take the time to really look. It's almost exhausting.



Suddenly seeing all these action paintings hit me with almost the same power that I felt at first seeing Morandi though he offers no outward motion. However I think Morandi will have more lasting power for me. Of course there were many Annunciations but I have no time to list them now. Be patient....they will appear at a later date.

I am now perfect in my Italian in requesting "Casa Rosso" in the trattorias. I some day would like to write an essay on the varieties and intricacies of window shutters we have encounterd, not to mention the treacherous shower presentations.

We are on our way to the Ghetto in Cannaregio. Ciao

This will be my last posting from Frenzy and hope to be able to find an internet in that wicked city of Venice.







There are three major reasons to return to Firenze...if you are me. One is to see the Michelangelo Staircase and Library at San Lorenzo. It has been closed for years and just reopened to the public on the 16th. Two, is to rest my eyes once again on the wonderful Italiante profile of Lorenzo, our Landlord; and three is to have Florentine grilled steak at Sostanzas, via del Porceliana.

Of course, there are other reasons too, such as - on our way to Sostanza'a we stopped in Santa Trinita and POW POW POW POW one after another were Annunciations. Paintings, frescoes, tondos, fragments, everything. A Tosini, 1570; Jacopo di Empoli, 1603; Lorenzo Monaco, 1424; Bicci Di Lorenzo, and a famous Neri Di Bicci, 1475. I was allowed to take photos.




One last word about Annunciations....The special chapel in the Basilica Annunziata is a wondrous sight of many hanging glittering lanterns of different sizes and candles glistening off silver decorations in a very dark space not unlike something you could find in the hidden home of the Beast in Beauty and the Beast....or was that in Phantom of the Opera? And in this chapel is an Annunciation which, the story goes, miraculously painted itself after the artist gave up on task.

Dear Readers....I hope I haven't been too politically incorrect.

Tomorrow we leave this Theatre of Piety and head for the hedonism of Venice.



* More on Badia...
From what Penny could interpret, the frescoes in that Orange clositer have to do with the monks refusing to pay their taxes. There's one frescoe of a crumpled down building with bloody bady parts of monks. I guess that was their punishment. We did go back the next afternoon so I could get of photo of the Annunciation. Found we could go upstairs to the cloister balcony. Got a photo of the teeny orange tree heavy laden with teeny oranges. We could hardly find our way into the church this time since that main door was locked. Wandered around and down some narrow alley and found the side entrance.

3/15

We slept late as one should do on the day of rest. Penny's friend, Candee (correct spelling) walked our feet off yesterday mostly looking for a good restaurant. In spite of late morning I still appear exhausted .. not unlike Anna Magnani in Open City.


We went to Noon mass at the Duomo .. big empty gray building with busy Vasari painting up in the Dome...he was never one for restraint. I tried to follow the Italian. As the Priest speaks there is an incessant humming drone resonating off the walls varying in intensity according to the volume of the Priest's words. Very unworldly as I guess it's meant to be. This probably happened in the Caves of our ancestors too. It's a warm day but damp and cold in the Church.


Penny is busy arranging excitements for her birthday crowd such as a tour of the Forum by our friend, Vincent, and a private tour of the Vatican galleries and Sistine Chapel. If anyone who is reading this wants to go let us know pronto.

Sunday continued. After late late pranzo we saw a big open old wooden door up some steps and of course wandered in to see a non-descript church door to the left. Inside it was quite bare of adornments. A few people were sitting in the pews, and down in front of the altar were kneeling white robed figures. At first I thought it was an Art display of plaster of paris Nuns but they turned out to be real. They were so still, like a George Segal work or those unmoving figures in front of museums dressed like the statue of liberty. Hanging over the Altar was a small exquisite gold cross. The church was dimly lit but we could make out an elaborately carved wooden ceiling. The silence was enormous...like a substance you could touch. Soon other Nuns came out from a right side gated area and knelt with the others. Priests, also all in white, began emerging from the back of the altar. The folds of their garments were almost sensuous. This all occurred so slowly, like some Dance drama or a Butoh performance.. Some knelt in a more prostrate position with little prayer stools to perch on over their ankles. And then, when they had all gathered together they all stood up...Nuns on one side and Priests on the other, and they began singing the Mass in post Gregorian melody.....Acapella. And then when the organ started to play solo Penny became ecstatic because she's always waiting to hear those massive chords. Why aren't all Music Halls built out of stone. And while this was going on we did discover a small Annunciation up on high.

For all of you who are familiar with these rituals I apologize for my Pagan take on all this. It's not that I haven't been to lots of churches lots of times but for some reason this was totally unique. Perhaps it was the purity of the voices. If you ever get to Florence it's the Badia di Fiorentina* right across from the Bargello on Proconsolo.

Will continue the Annunciation Report tomorrow and then on to our secular life.


*Badia Fiorentina

The spire of the Badia opposite the Palazzo del Bargello is an unmistakable feature of the skyline of Florence. This church and its Benedictine abbey were founded in 978 by Willa, the mother of Ugo, Margrave of Tuscany. The church was enlarged by Arnolfo di Cambio in the 13th century and then internally rebuilt by Matteo Segaloni in the 17th century. Interesting features are the portal by Benedetto da Rovezzano (1495) with a "Madonna and Child" (early 16th century) in glazed terracotta by Benedetto Buglioni, Filippino Lippi's masterpiece (1485) "The Madonna appearing to St Bernard", the tomb of Ugo, Margrave of Tuscany (d. 1001), built between 1469 and 1481 by Mino da Fiesole, and the beautiful 15th century cloister, known as the "Chiostro degli Aranci" because of its orange trees, with a fresco of scenes from the life of St Benedict dating from the completion of the cloister (ca.1436-1439).

Penny's had a bit of a chest cold and I'm waiting to catch it so have been dipping into our repository of nostrums leaving none unsampled.. Penny and I automatically divide up the travel responsibities such as I am in charge of the molto keys to get into our building and Penny is in charge of locating the keyhole for me. Such is the advantage of contact lenses. Tomorrow her friend, Candy, arrives from Lucca just for the day but will join us again at the end of the month in Roma for Penny's birthday. Don't forget...everyone who reads this is invited.

Our Internet place is in the way way back of Feltrinelli's bookstore*... upstairs ...run by a middle aged laid back Italian hippie. Italian men continue to be the most beautiful in the world.... aside from the men I know back home. And they dress with such casual elegance..even the workmen. The women continue to be able to walk on cobblestones in spike heels.




Today we went to San Marco to once again be appalled at the gorgeously horrific Fra Angelico paintings of crucifixion torture. Alas, I will never understand religion. Yesterday was Maria Novello and the Annunziata Churches but more about that later when I give the ANNUNCIATION REPORT.



I hope you are all well and if you are or aren't let me know.


*The founder of the Feltrinelli bookstore chain was Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, a left-wing extreme radical...who happened to be born and to stay very rich, rich, rich. While building his incredibly successful bookstore empire, he was moonlighting as a terrorist, inspired by the revolutions led by his friends Che and Fidel. He met his death in 1972 when a bomb he was strapping to the main electricity pylons in a suburb of Milan inadvertently exploded. His son Carlo now runs the bookstore chain.

Here's an interesting link: http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=2956
or: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giangiacomo_Feltrinelli

Yesterday (3/10)

In the late afternoon, after we had successfully extracted some of our devalued dollars from the Banc-o-mat and bought stamps at the P.O. ... 85 cents, Penny and I decided to have our first gelato of the trip. Penny had Cafe and Bacio, and I had Straciatello and Crema. We huddled on a cold stone bench in the Piazza della Repubblica watching the young kick soccer balls around and the old smoke cigarettes


Earlier, we spent 2 1/2 hours or more at the Santa Croce - which in retrospect seems an unreasonably long time since half of it is under "restauro". Two interesting Annunciations in the Bandini Baroncelli Chapels by Gaddi which I could barely photograph. Only Annunciation post card was of a Donatello marble piece that was not on view.

How tedious all this Annunciation seeking must be to you---all. The exciting parts of our lives will have to wait to be revealed in our memoirs....posthumously. However, to continue, there is a faded barely visible Annunciation on a column in the Orsan Michele AND a post card!!! It was after that excitement we had the gelato.



Today, the Uffizi so this will be short. Beside us are the perpetual teen school groups. The entire continent must be on Spring Break.


And now for the ANNUNCIATION REPORT.

(Feel free to skip the following as it's primarily my "Work in Progress" AND I want to thank my sister, Penny, for her patient help in my endeavors.)

1. Pitore Toscan c. 1210-15 Wood Panel, bottom
2. Gentile Fabriano c. 1370-1427 Top of "Adoration....."
3. Lorenzo Moinaco & Cosimo Rosselli Top of Adoration
4. Bernardo Daddi c. 1290 San Pancrazio polytych, bottom right
5. Simone Martini 1284 -1344 Whole Wall...Gold...(she doesn't look happy)
6. Baldovinette c. 1457 He's mainly a Mosaicist, trees in back ground look H.Rousseau-ish
7. Filippo Lippi c. 1452-53 Wood Panel in Tondo, "Coronation...."
8. Botticelli c. 1489 She says "Oh No, Not Me"
9. Hugo Van Der Goes c. 1474 Verso can't see it.
10. Leonardo c. 1475 She says "Let me think about it."
11. Garafolo 1481 - 1550 (in little room)
12. Veronese c. 1556 Very very big. Looks like it wasn't finished
13. Albertini 1474 - 1515 Small in Predella
14. Bartolomeo c. 1477 small in Vitrine..pale or color faded...exquisite
15. Memling? on back of panels with marriage of Pierantonio Baroncelli 1489 cannot see it.

In gift shop bought Phaidon book of Annunciations recommended by a fellow friend of the Annunciation.

It's 5:35 PM who knows what pleasures lie ahead. Buono Sera