Florence

Florence 9th–14th November
Tomorrow we take off, become sea borne again (and must warn our readers that we may no be able to regularly post as we make our way home). It seems therefore quite fitting to have spent our last few days on land in the most glorious of cities, Florence. There is nothing quite like walking around the Duomo, admiring Florence’s greatest contribution to architecture, and seeing it at a distance from the beautiful terraces of the Giardino di Bardini. While here we took a bus tour to Siena (another glorious essay in architecture), San Gimignano (a 13th Century antecedent of Manhattan), and a Chianti fatoria, in classic Tuscan countryside. Incidentally, our fellow passengers included at least three whom we will join on the MV Athene. We’ve really enjoyed Florence, stepping out into streets once walked by Dante and admired by characters in Room with a view. Of course we made mandatory visits to places like the Uffizi and admired the Botticelli’s, the Fra Angelico, went to the Pitti Palace where we were overwhelmed by the scale and breathtaking ostentation. We also indulged in more than a little retail therapy. Leather is almost a perversity here, but we resisted the allure (at least Claire did) of lambskin jackets, kid gloves and wallets, though Colin couldn’t resist a pencil case! W

e also saw an exhibition of Bronzino paintings—he wrote also poetry on the side—in the Palazzo Strozzi, which was magnificent. We may have noticed in this travel(b)logue that we complained about not seeing much Australian ‘art’: well, surprise, surprise there was an Australian painting on display; it was a Bronzino, from the Gallery of New South Wales no less. We also ‘loved’ the Museo Nazionale Allinari della Fotografia, where there was survey of Camera Work, which included one photograph from Julia Cameron, whose work we have first encountered in Freshwater, Isle of Wight. It’s a small world. Next door (well, practically next door) to our wonderful little hotel (Hotel Casci, via Cavour) is the Palazzo Medici-Ricardi and which has a wonderful panel by Fiippino di Lippi.

We also indulged our love of food in Florence, where such delights of the Tuscan cuisine as tripe can be indulged ad nauseam. While we might have written quite a lot of tripe in these pages, neither of us has been courageous enough to eat it yet (there is still tonight), but we have enjoyed the bread soups, the beef stew and sea bass, the fresh artichokes and so on. All-in-all, we’ll be very sad to leave the pleasure and retail palaces of Florence.

Milano

Milan and Milanesia* 6th-8th November
Milan is a disease—at least it appeared that way on Saturday afternoon when we arrived from Switzerland, after a dramatic railway journey through the St. Gothard Pass. The Milanese and visitors were in a frenzy of buying. Thankfully, things have only improved since then: today is Monday and most of the shops and museums are closed although we did visit the Museo Teatrale alla Scala in lieu of the scheduled concert (Valery Gergiev’s Mariinsky Orchestra which we saw in Paris) and the opera (Carmen) which were both booked out. On Sunday we were able to visit the Pinacoteca di Brera which has some wonderful Renaissance and twentieth century paintings.

As our introduction to Italian food we have had two wonderful meals, both very authentic and reasonably priced. Our first dinner in Milan was at a Sardinian restaurant, where the dishes were flavoured with fresh myrtle and the desert with wild honey was superb and today a light lunch of stuffed eggplant and zuchhini flavoured with fresh rosemary and cheaper than the coffee we had earlier in the not to be missed and very stylish Gallerie, near the Duomo. Prior to becoming designer label heaven it was a place where Milan’s café society met. It is still a nice place to have a coffee. However there is danger that the communal values once celebrated are fast becoming excuses for the Gucci’s of this world to seduce locals and tourists with dubious, overpriced merchandise, and all this opposite the Duomo—a celebration of religiosity on a gargantuan scale, enrobed not in designer clothes but stone flesh.

We are only here for two days and have probably not planned the best two to fit in all we should have. However the Hotel Regina is comfortable and well located (has three stars in the Michelin Guide) and we are using the efficient and economical trams to move around the city.

*A propensity to shop at all costs.

Lakeside in Luzern

Luzern and Lake Luzern: 4th – 5th November

An installation in the Musee Carnavelet, inspired by Louis Vuitton, gave us the urge to be water-born again; hence, today’s trip, on the MV Gotthard, which plies Lake Luzern. The day-long lake trip, especially those parts near to Fleulen, is nothing short of lacustrine heaven. Of all the ship and boat trips we’ve undertaken in the last four months, nothing rivals it for topographic drama.

With ragged ten thousand feet mountains, capped with snow and lower slopes coated with the rusted leaves of autumn, the colour and light effects were spectacular—beyond the capacity of a lens, let alone words, to convey. The commentary on MV Gotthard while brief was intelligent and even included a few stormy bars from Rossini’s William Tell overture to underscore Tell’s contribution to Swiss culture. Even the food and service on board was tasteful and beyond reproach, a million miles from the crass humour of US and UK tour boats (and better still no tips).

On our second complete day in Luzern we explored the old town, which is dominated by a line of towers punctuating the old town’s walls, affording views to the Luzern’s suburbs (which have expanded on to the lower slopes of the Alps), as well as towards the lake and city centres old and new. A highlight of our day was the visit to the Museum Sammlung Rosengart, which holds a magnificent collection of late Picassos and an even more comprehensive collection of Paul Klee’s whose miniaturist, often droll approach, provides a foil to the more visceral Picassos. Lest we forget, we reacquainted ourselves with Utrillo, the painter not the sea going vessel—of whom we have seen very little on our many visits to galleries and museums. This collection is of particular interest because it was donated to the city of Luzern by Angela Rosengart, who visits her beloved collection daily.