Back on the Culture Train....


Yesterday was a little light on the culture so today we set out on a mission.  After breakfast we head down to San Marco.  We have the morning free as class is in the afternoon.  There will be no pictures of the ladies today because we are suffering from prosciutto face, the unfortunate puffy eyes associated with the salted cured meats.

San Marco is the name of a religious complex here in Florence.  It comprises church and a convent.  The convent, which is now a museum, has three claims to fame.  During the 15th century it was home to two famous Dominicans, the painter Fra. Angelico and the preacher Girolamo Savonarola.  Also housed at the convent is a famous collection of manuscripts in a library built by Michelozzo.  Fra. Angelico was beatified by Pope John Paul II.


There is no sconto per li anziani so we pay our 4 Euro and pass inside.  The church was consecrated in 1443 and we enter into a light filled courtyard.  All the blooming jasmine that is now at its peak in Florence perfumes the air.

Art students line the border, all sketching the various paintings that line the walls.  Like most of hidden Florence there is so much to this property.  We enter various chapels and halls.  Fra. Angelico's frescos form altar pieces in the main chapels and in the numerous individual monk's cells in the dormitory above. This nun is viewing a cell while wearing Birkenstocks.

There are also numerous paintings in some of the larger halls that depict religious life of the 1400's.  

But my favorite area has to be the library.  It is a long and solemn hall with light flooding from the high windows here on the second floor.

In this time period books were scarce.  Only the very weathly could afford them.  Considering that each page was done on lamb skin or lamb stomach, an entire flock could be slaughtered in order to form one book.  Then there was the painstaking lettering and embellishment done with pigments from precious stones.

This particular tome shows the intricacy.  A choral book, the printing and notes are large enough so that the choir could read the music from afar.

This was a beautiful museum and we spent several hours enjoying it.  We laughed about how our husbands might have had a different take on this experience...not sure they would have the desire to spend quite so much time exploring.

Next stop will be the Synagogue of Florence.  One thing we have learned is to never trust street signs unless they are in plaster high on the corners of the buildings.  We can see the green copper dome from our school and head off down the street.  Soon the dome disappears but we keep going onward until we see a sign that directs us ninety degrees away from our target.

Well, we follow it, foolishly.  In the next clearing there is no Synagogue and no dome.  So a kindly chef turns us around and gives us some direction.  We know we are on the right track when we see some Jewish businesses, many of which are guarded by Italian army personnel with automatic weapons.

We get a little help from the army in finding the ticket entrance where we pay and surrender all our belongings to a storage locker.  Next we are x-rayed just like at the airport. After a short wait, a guide gives us English commentary on the structure.  Built in the late 1880's, it is known an an emancipation Temple.  Prior to this time when Italy became a unified nation, Jews lived in ghettos.  In Florence the ghetto was located in the area of the Piazza de la Repubblica where we have spent so much time of late.

After unification a master plan for the downtown, centro storico, demolished the ghetto and its two synagogues.  The new synagogue is done is the Sephardic style as most of the Jews of that era had that heritage.  There are numerous examples of the moorish influence within the building.  All the surfaces are done in a secco fresco in the moorish design.  Because it was done on dry stucco the gold leaf has unfortunately faded so that the overall impression is very dark.

Occupied by the Germans in 1943, the doors of the Ark bear the scars of bullets.  The Germans used the structure for a garage and ringed the complex with mines before they fled.  Fortunately, the mines were neutralized with only one wall of the complex damaged.

At 900 congregants, some drawn from other parts of Tuscany, they are the third largest congregation in Italy after Rome and Milan.  That's not a lot of congregants.

Our timing is great and we arrive right on time after a light split lunch for our Italian class.  Today it is no more Mr. Nice Guy.  Very little English is now being spoken in the class now.

Like most of the crew, we skip dinner, opting to have a drink in the bar and nibble on their cocktail buffet.  As I write this, Ms. Rigmor is working away diligently on her homework.

There is no Italian BS quote of the day.....could it have something to do with the dreaded prosciutto face?