Alla Firenze - Giotto, Giotto, Giotto and the Dead Florentine Society
Giotto! Giotto! Who the mangiaforte is Giotto? Some of you might know. For others.. nope, Giotto does not play for AC Milan. And that is a good thing.
During my senior year of high school, our AP English teacher had us write a term paper. Uh oh, I feel an aside coming on... cannot resist... editorial aside in 3.... 2.... 1....
In complete transparency, I had forgotten or never really knew that I took any AP classes in high school. I've probably told some of you that my beloved Foothill High School (Go Mustangs!) did not offer them. Apparently, I was wrong and forgetful. Prior to this trip while celebrating Ella Zumot's graduation (whattup Ella!??!) at the Zumot Residence, Michelle politely reminded me that we had in fact taken a few AP classes. Thank you, Michelle! (some of you are just now saying "you went to high school with Michelle too?" and some of you are like "Who the hell is Michelle?") If you went to Foothill, you could understand why I still find this incomprehensible. Shout out to the Zumots!! Word to Mr. Linde!
Where was I? Oh yah, Ms. Bettis' 12th grade AP English class. Had to write a research paper. Ms. Bettis sat down with me asking what I might wish to write about. I had no clue. I liked some things - Italy. History. Soccer. Pretty girls. Tacos and Pizza. Beverly Hills 90210. So, she told me I should write about the history of the Italian Renaissance, but more specifically how the Italian Renaissance began... all with a guy named.. Giotto!
I have been fortunate to go to Europe now on six different occasioins and now to Italy three different times. If you have not figured it out yet, I found that I really love exploring old churches. I just fine them amazing, breathtaking, and full of history. Step into a grand cathedral or even a neighborhood church in Rome, Venice, Lucca, Pisa, and Florence for sure and you will find a mini or major art gallery and at times a who's who cemetery. The same can be said for London, Paris, etc. Art in a museum is convenient. Art in a church, where it was meant to be, is alive.
In my prior visits, I have had the desire to see more of Giotto's works given I did a little bit of research on the guy ...gasp... 31 years ago. My first trip to England with Alan Churchill 10 days after I left Foothill High School, we stumbled into an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. I ignorantly asked a docent - "do you have any Giotto in the museum?". If you have never been to Scotland, trust me, you cannot decipher a THING that they say. Except the word "no". Because even though it doesn't sound like "no" - it sounds more like drunk toothless guy saying "whatchabloodyfckingsayingyouwanker?" which makes is completely indiscernible, you quickly pick up on the snarled nose and angry eyes and a slight clinching of the fist and you realize the answer is "no".
Okay. No Giotto in the Scotland. I was never willing to try in London. Even though Londoners are much happier people (denial) than Scotsmen.
Next trip to Europe was 2003 - London and Cavaso del Tomba to meet my Rizzardo family for the first time. Not trying London. No notable museums in Cavaso.
2004 took us to Veneto again to see my family, Rome, Milan (siempre con te!), Florence, and a day trip to Pompeii. By now I had figured out that Giotto would mostly be based in Florence or Tuscany or possibly elsewhere in Italy. The 1992 research told me he is considered the "Father of the Renaissance", but it was not focused on where to find Giotto today. Silly me, if Giotto was the "Who's your daddy" of Italian Renaissance art, I figured he'd be in more places than a few kilometers from where he was born. Anyhow, in 2004 we did visit the Uffizi and Florence and I remember seeing a Giotto painting and being excited. I also recall seeing a Giotto mosaic in Rome and thought that was cool too. But I had resigned myself to figuring that there was not a lot of Giotto to go around - after all, he was painting and developing the concept of depth in art in the 1300s - or a few hundred years before Michelangelo, Raphael, etc.
2015 and 2017 - too busy doing other things. Plus the infatuation with finding Giotto (that sounds like a movie title) had kind of passed, or so I thought.
Our arrival in Florence, minus Alyssa, was early - we had 930am tickets to the famed Uffizi art museum. The great collection of Renaissance art in the world, all under one roof. Maria was very excited to visit the Uffizi and I was eager to revisit what I had last seen 19 years ago. We made the 15 minute walk from the Santa Maria Novella train station to the Uffizi gallery, walking quickly past the main Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio along the way.
Snarfed down an iced coffee (yes, they have it specifically for the Americans) and a pastry (when in...err Florence...) and arrived just in time for our entry window.
We entered the ground floor of the museum and wandered through some more contemporary exhibits before coming to the signs directing us to the "main" gallery upstairs. Stairs or elevator? Didn't look like too many stairs. Should have reminded myself of the same exact thought in 2017 in a London underground station - key word: underground (you can see the story in my blog from 2017 if you wish). About halfway up 4 levels of stairs, I heard some dude exclaim "Holy Jesus!" when realizing there were MORE stairs ahead. And while Holy Jesus is the subject of many of the paintings we were about to see, this guy was praying for his lungs. Finally, we summited Everest and found ourselves in a long hallway gallery of Roman statues - all situated in a temperature apparently to match a Roman summer day. It had to be 90 degrees in that gallery, and there were a lot of people smooshed in there staring at a bunch of Roman statues. (Ever seen a Roman statue before? No? Let me tell you, they all look the same).
Panic starts to sit in. It was a warm and muggy walk from S. Maria Novella to the Uffizi. We figured the inside of the museum would offer respite from the heat. It was the opposite. How on earth were we going to make it through about 2 hours of this misery? All kinds of options enter you mind... do we leave? Maybe we just find a bench and see if we acclimate? Maybe we just skip a bunch of stuff? None of those are ideal - especially when this is one of the pinnacle attractions for your vacation and you have a budding artists as a child. Minutes from giving up, I decided to just wanter down the long hallway gallery of naked Romans with no eyeballs and poke into one of the gallery rooms. The first one had a nifty sign outside pointing you into the..... drum roll.... GIOTTO gallery.
Giotto?! Giotto?? He's here? In masse? Suddenly I felt 20 degrees cooler. I'm going in! I don't care how hot this place is. God... you really mess with me sometimes. Don't you? Walking into the Giotto room, immediately you see several pieces of his craft - alter pieces, paintings, crucifixes, etc. And... the room was AIR CONDITIONED! Hallelujah! Holy Jesus heard that man! Thank you, Father of the Renaissance Giotto! And God Bless air conditioning!
I was in such a great mood. So much of this I wanted to see for so long. 19 years ago, I recall one or maybe two small pieces. This was room upon room of major pieces. The signs did indicate that some of these had been moved from other museums in more recent years.
The fun did not end. The Uffizi is arranged much different than I remember it being 19 years ago. It now is in a very sensible chronological order that also takes you through how the art matured and processes improved over time. Coupled with Giotto's work were his students and those he influenced until you came across the next Italian master 50-100 years later and then his contemporaries or students and so on. And all of it air conditioned.
And so, you take it all in. It can get overwhelming. Most major museums are. The British Museum takes the cake for overwhelming. 5 or 6 floors of everything the British conquered at one point. The Louve was large. The Vatican Museums are enormous. and the Uffizi. Not the size of the Vatican Museum or the British Museum, but a TON of breathtaking content. It does become Renaissance sensory overload and you find yourself scanning the placards to see who painted what and thus focusing on the "fame" of the artist rather than what pieces you enjoy the most. I was all Giotto-geeked out and after that, I started to lose some focus. But each piece is amazing in its own right.
Uffizi roll call - Giotto, Boticelli, Raphael, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Vasari, Lippi, Ruebens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, etc. If you have the chance, go to the Uffizi. It is great. But I still prefer to see the art where it was meant to be, and that usually is in a church for Renaissance art.
With Alyssa staying back at the AirBnB in Lucca, we were not going to spend a full day in Florence, but rather head back mid-afternoon. After the Uffizi, I had a ticket to go see Santa Croce - a much older cathedral in Florence compared to the famed Duomo. I had attempted to see Santa Croce back in 2004 but it was closed that day. Odd. Jule and Maria were going to head to the School of Leather which occupies former monastery buildings behind Santa Croce. Florence is well known for its quality leather products - but you have three choices to purchase them while in the city. 1) Designer leather shops are everywhere, and they are EXPENSIVE! 2) Take your chances at the street markets scattered around town to buy EXPENSIVE knock off-crap (and if you explore enough of the markets or multiple markets, you find that every vendor has the exact same items for sale) or 3) head to the School of Leather behind Santa Croce where the items are EXPENSIVE but reasonable and you have the pleasure of buying direct from the artisans who are making the wallets, purses, bags, coats, belts, etc. Some items you can buy direct from the artist. Others are in a common area and every purchase helps offset tuition and expenses for the apprentices. Either way, leather is EXPENSIVE here either because it is designer, quality, or just crap meant to look good.
We had about 90 minutes to kill before my entry into Santa Croce so it was perfect time to grab lunch. Florence has developed quite a reputation now for selling "street food" which is essentially a focaccia panino filled with any mixture of salami/prosciutto/mortadella with cheese or arugula or eggplant or... all kinds of options. The most famous of these places is All'Antico Vanaio which is a stone's throw away from the Uffizi. Walk past there and you will find a long line of people all waiting to taste the legend. But if you just walk a block or two in any direction down any street, you will find the same basic thing over and over. Some are more well known that others. I found myself waiting outside of a much quieter panini shop while Jule and Maria were getting a smoothie a few stores down. I noticed a couple ordering from this shop while the guy was eating a panino from All'Antico. So, I asked him - "does the panino live up to the hype?" He said it was pretty good. So, then I asked, "are you here to compare?" (The panini are not small; you definitely don't need two). He said they stopped at this place because it had gluten free options. Anyhow, after a few other folks walked away with their panini, I took the bait. I was happy.
Jule and Maria decided they wanted a more sit down ristorante experience, so I followed them to a few places near Santa Croce. Great menu options, but they'd prefer me to not sit at their tables and snarf down my panino from a few blocks away. That's fine - I'll do like the locals and go sit on the steps of the cathedral in the shade and eat my panino while I people watch. And that is exactly what I did.
People watching at a place like this is interesting. For nearly 45 minutes I enjoyed the cool breeze in the shade, a very yummy panino, and gobs of entertainment watching people. First are the scam artists who do one of two things. 1) these guys, mostly from Africa, come up and pretend to be nice and have a conversation and it is all about love and then because you have brightened their day, they want to give you a cheapy bracelet of colorful string and if you are at all lazy with where your hands are (they try to shake your hands) you will end up with a bracelet on your wrist that is not easy to remove and they demand 10 Euro. So, you just start right away with telling these bozos to leave you alone. They cannot believe you don't want to give joy and love... buzz off. 2) these guys put large reproductions of art, Florentine scenes, etc. on the ground and they put it right where you need to walk, usually in a crowded area too. And so help you God if you step on these, you will instantly owe them 30 Euro for stepping on their "original" art. Thus, you tell them you'll call the police, and they back off. I never had an issue with the art on the ground idiots, but they had strategically placed their stuff at the base of the steps leading up to Santa Croce. The bracelet mafia was in full force, and I was offered love and joy and bracelets and even a small figurine of an elephant (that is SO Florentine). Like flies, I just swatted them away. It may seem rude, but all they want is to con you out of 10 Euro and the most leeway you give them, the more aggressive they become. Swat them away instantly. Its okay, I was about to go into Santa Croce - I can ask for forgiveness there.
The other people watching involves the obscenely large walking tour groups that go by every 3-4 minutes. Same basic make-up - the leader holding a flag, umbrella, scarf on a stick, etc and walking and talking followed by 30-50 zombies who paid 100 Euro or more from their cruise ship or Trafalgar tours or something so they could do a "walking tour" of Florence. By the time they've made it to Santa Croce, they've no doubt already trudged past Santa Maria Novella, the Duomo, Palazzio Vecchio, the Uffizi, maybe the Ponte Vecchio, etc. And it was hot. And they looked like cattle being taken to the barn, or the slaughterhouse. You maybe saw my brief post a few days ago on this. Just don't do it. What a waste of money. If you want a tour, pay for an individual tour for just you and your smaller group. Tailor it to what you wish to see. Florence is a walkable city, but there is a lot to see, the streets are cobblestone (foot killers), and if you are here in the summer, it is HOT. Don't do it all in one day. And don't do it like these poor folks were. If you really want to fork over 100 Euro to be hot, bored, and tortured, give it to me and I'll drive you to Red Bluff (CA), and we'll just wander around the McDonalds and Taco Bell parking lots for a bit. (Merced, CA and Winnemucca, Nevada would also work).
Anyway, after a bit, I got tired of my people watching, finished my panino, and wandered off to poke into the School of Leather before my ticket entry at 130pm. The Leather School was awesome, but I only had a few moments to poke in there. Jule and Maria arrived just after I did and spent a lot more time there exploring the options and talking with the craftspeople.
With eager goosebumps, I entered Santa Croce - another bucket list item for me along with seeing Giotto. The Cathedral of Santa Croce is beautiful, historic, etc. - but it is literally the burial site for most of the major artists, poets, writers, etc. in Florentine history. Michelangelo is here. Rossini the composer. Machiavelli. Galileo (magnifico!) is here. Dante....is not here. But they have a cenotaph for him. Essentially a runner up prize. Dante was born, raised, and lived in Florence blocks from Santa Croce. But he wrote a book about hell and that was not a good thing in the 1200 and 1300s. Thus, he was banned from the city. And when he died in Ravenna, they kept him. After being dead for roughly 100 years the Florentines were like "oh thaaat? pshaw. total misunderstanding. We totally want Dead Dante here." And Ravenna was like "no". Cenotaph it is.
In addition to the Dead Florentine Society walk of fame, Santa Croce has several impressive pieces of art including a crucifix by Donatello and frescos by.... you guessed it... GIOTTO!
This dude is everywhere. Uffizi - got Giotto, Santa Croce - got Giotto. Tower next to the Duomo - Giotto. Night club overlooking Palazzo Vecchio - Giotto has a private booth. Heck, I even saw Giotto's personal designer leather store within spitting distance of that famous panini shop. Next Halloween everyone should dress up at Giotto. That would be awesome.
Anyway, by now it was getting near 3pm. I was hot, but quite happy. My feet were proud of their 16,000 steps but happy to stop. Jule and Maria had shopped like pros, so they were happy. We were eager to get back to Lucca and spend time with Alyssa who had been mostly sleeping all day.
Florence - a GREAT city, even if you don't like Giotto. So glad to be back after 19 years. Hope I return again soon (spoiler alert).
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