Arezzo building closeups

By request, here are some closeup shots of Arezzo's beautiful buildings. The designs and colors are still current, wouldn't you say?

Sorry that the shots are not in the best focus, but they'll certainly give you a good idea.

Left side:

Right side:

More...

For additional photos of excellent quality, see the book The Painted Facades of Florence, written by Eleonora Pecchioli and photographed by Antonio Quattrone. It is full of stunning photographs of Florence's exquisite sgraffito facades. As the book's introduction says: "This phenomenon, particularly in the case of sgraffiti, derived from the late fifteenth century discovery of frescoed underground rooms ('grottoes') in Rome, which were decorated with stuccowork motifs of flora, fauna and monstrous figures mostly dating from the Imperial Age; those found in the Domus Aurea, the splendid palace built for the Emperor Nero in the heart of Rome, attracted particular interest. Fascinated by this innovative vision of polychrome antiquity and by the imagination that it revealed, late fifteenth century artists were quick to imitate it, referring to their own decorative work influenced by those models, as 'grotesques'." (ie: grottesca) I will be posting on this favorite type of art in my upcoming post on our visit to Rome.


Here are a few peeks at the book's photos.

Theresa Cheeks, over at the Art's the Answer blog, just posted about her grottesca class with Carolina D'Ayala Valva, of the Artelier Studio in Rome. The class was held at the San Antonio studio of Leslie and Nicola Vigini. Both Carolina and Nicola are the best of the world class grottesca artists. (Can you tell how much I love it?)

Misc Italia / Tuscany and Umbria

We decided that while we loved seeing the main sights in various cities, what we enjoyed the most on our trip to Italy was to spend time wandering in the smaller towns and interacting with townsfolk. 

After leaving Venice, we drove to Roma via Arezzo, Assisi and Orvieto. The driving in the countryside is decidedly tamer than the cities, especially Rome. I think the Roman drivers are worse than in NYC and Boston!

Now grab your cup of tea, settle in and come with me. (And, again, please forgive the Ipod's not so great photos!)  Shopping? Did you say shopping? 

Hmmm, I'd like to see that architectural scrollwork on the floor and the candlestick in the back, please.

 I also like the shield lampshades.

This is in a woodcarver's Assisi shop. It was so crammed in there that you really had to look slowly. A claw foot here, a bust there, wood everywhere. Would you like a drawer with that?

We finally decided on the acanthus leaf below. It is now in the process of being gilded in my studio. (I know- we were trying to pace ourselves. As I look at the pictures, I would have loved that frame surrounding the acanthus, along with 10 other items!)  

I really like his stacks of boxes and containers.

 (How many can I fit in my suitcase?....)

There were little goodies everywhere.

 Need a cute set of mini steps?

 

Great club chair and angel and scrolls and table and pewter...

OK- back to the sights. 

I thought this building's decorations rivaled those in Florence.

A more modest building, but still beautiful.

A casual peek into a door and this is what we saw!

A closer look at the fresco:

We enjoyed Assisi's beauty, but I honestly thought it was a bit "touristy".  I did not gain any weight (even though we liberally consumed wine and had lots of chocolate), partly because we walked and walked. In Assisi, we walked to the top of the hillside town. What a view! Precisely as we reached the summit, a ferocious wind arrived and did not let up the rest of the visit.

It turned out that a storm was heading our way. Here is Assisi from the highway.

A quick stop in Orvieto:

And we were on our way south. Next week will be the last installment of my Italian series- our visit to Roma.
If you'd like to see more, visit PlumSiena blog here and here and for my favorite, here. 

On the road... beginnings

Having recently returned from a road trip to Italy via Zurich, I thought I'd share some of our photos with you. For the next several Sundays, I'll present our impressions of the various areas that we visited.

After our visit to the chocolate factory near Brunner (first things first!), we found a hotel and ... with great excitement, went out to see the Alps. Guess what? Yep- fog. Until we came down out of the mountains, we were enveloped in it. Switzerland was still beautiful, though. 

The homes were truly different than Italy (or France or the Netherlands, etc.), as you can see.  

We did observe that most homes have a huge stash of firewood waiting to be used.

 

You can just see the outline of the mountains in the fog.

Early morning on the lake...

The water is so clear!

Seen in a little niche....

A stroll through the town revealed these charming frescoes.

Aahhh! Now we can see the Alps! On our way to Italia!

We've arrived in Lake Como, just over the border from Switzerland.

There was still a haze in the air. (Is this George's villa?) 

 

Here's the turista!

Funny, throughout the trip we noticed that the government buldings were usually the most impressive.

 

My favorites- the cypress trees.

Here's my honey...

We had lunch in Brescia the next day. I thought it was a charming town. Here we are in the piazza.

 Off to find lunch and check out the architecture.

See you in Venice next week!  

 You're in for a real treat.

Doors of Italy

We just returned from a driving trip through the northern half of Italy. We flew to Zurich, rented a car and started driving. No reservations or specific plans were made. It was a fun way to go for us; for those who require security and plans in order, hotel reservations or a tour would definitely be advised.  It can be a bit harried at times.

Before I go any further, I need to get this off my chest. Why do we in the US call the cities in the rest of the world by different names than what their actual names are? Some examples: Roma (aka Rome), Firenze (aka Florence), Venezia (aka Venice), Munchen (aka Munich), Wien (aka Vienna), etc., etc. I've never been able to figure that out!

I was particularly struck by the fabulous doors we saw (among other things) everywhere and thought I'd share them with you. Big and small, old and older. (Please excuse the photo quality of some of the pictures; I had to use my Ipod for a day.)

Here they are:

  

Last, but not least, here is a set of doors in Venezia. The doors in Venice deserve their own book!