Sicily - late March

Emilia-Romagna - early April

Ferrara Intro

Apartment

Museums

Rossetti

Eating!

Ravenna Hills 1

Ravenna Hills 2

Faenza

Tuscany, Florence - April 8

Umbria - late April

Influence of Rossetti (and Miró and Brindisi)

The defensive wall in Ferrara is, in itself, an antique work of art. In some places it's wide enough for lawns and gardens and for most of its length there are paths for bicycling and strolling. I don't think I've mentioned that Ferrara is a very bike-oriented city. It's in a friendly competition with Ravenna as the most bike-friendly town in Italy. Lots of people ride bikes in both towns and in Ferrara, you can rent one of hundreds of bikes at the train station. Some of them are really long past their prime. I understand in Ravenna, though, if you are a tourist (yes, even an Italian tourist), they let you have a bike for the day for free.

Anyway, the walls of Ferrara. As in most Italian cities, a defensive wall surrounding the central area was built as a safety project in medieval times. This one, like most, started out as a simple brick "curtain." However, when gun powder was invented (and eventually brought back by merchants who had learned about it from the Chinese) and its use became more widespread, more powerful weapons required thicker walls and deflecting angles. This is the era when bastions and parapets were added and moats and ditches with sharpened sticks at the bottom. Most Italian walls were embellished with these in the 13th and 14th centuries, but not usually widened. In Ferrara, the wall widening encircled the entire central community and docks of the River Po (which has moved quite a lot since then). And although its genesis was military, the modern result is marvelous views of the city and the farms and green copses of the Po Valley. Dawn went cycling once, but I wasn't very interested, and the bikes we had access to were a little shaky in the brakes department. So we walked everywhere and didn't get around to biking along the top of the walls.

More formally and intentionally planned as an esthetic experience is Il Palazzo dei Diamante--the Palace of Diamonds, so named because the external facade is made up of (or covered with, I don't know which) thousands of pyramid-shaped pink and white marble stones, about a foot square at the base. The Palace is set at an important crossroads of an entire neighborhood of beautiful old palaces, lesser residences and government buildings. This section of town was designed by the famous Renaissance (15th century) architect, Biagio Rossetti, who also designed the Diamante, and is generally acknowledged as the first "urban" architect. He was instrumental in expanding the walls, to make them more effective defensively and also more attractive for the citizens. In the city expansion, he is said to have deliberately made streets that ended in little squares and parks, just to humanize the area--a daring concept at the time. Dawn and I can also attest to the fact that you can get very lost if you try a new street to get home.

The Palace of Diamonds contains several galleries, the (Ferrara edition of the) National Picture Gallery among them. They often have special exhibits. And when we were there it was a Joan Miró show--approximately 50 Mirós, mostly paintings, but a few other pieces as well, sculptures and ceramics. This is another one of those experiences that I can't convey very well. My previous impressions of Miró are, of course, formed by the major pieces, probably the most popular and, undoubtedly, the most accessible. (Here's a good site for reminding yourself what Miró's major work is like.)

This show, arranged chronologically, is an almost painful exposure of the artist--the development of technique and style, the periods of depression and anger, the very strange sexuality of some pieces, experimentation into various media. Seeing all this as original pieces is as powerful as any artistic experience I have ever had. Actually there was one print--apparently whoever curated this show couldn't bear to leave it out and whoever owns the original wouldn't give it up. But there were pieces from all over the world. And you could get right up close to them, look at the brush strokes and furious daubs of paint, see split corners on the canvas, sense the grinding of the pigment. There was, of course, a guard in every room, but it was so much less controlled than any exhibit I've been to in the U.S., we were both quite startled by the level of access. No photos, though, not even without flash.

Another grand building way on the other side of town is the Palazzo Schifanoia, This palace, one of several ducal retreats from the hard work of governing, was built as, and always intended to be, a place of pleasure and entertainment, a "Delizia." And Rossetti has his mark on the palace too; not in original design, but in a later expansion. At the Schifanoia large, lovely spreads of its original frescoes remain (or have been restored) and Ferrara has continued to add important paintings since the Schifanoia was designated a museum in 1898. The most famous set of frescos is in the Hall of the Months, a collective work of several artists depicting the phases of the year in three aspects, three bands of illustration--on the top, the gods, on the bottom, men, and in between the two, a band of Western and Egyptian Zodiac signs. Astrology was an important "science" in the Estense court. And we saw the influence of the Zodiac many more times in Medieval and Renaissance illustrations throughout Italy. Such observations can spark lots of research and reflection. Who knows where this trip will take me? One of the most delightful aspects of the Schifanoia was the courtyard garden, where wine and leisure are now served up. as I assume they were in the past. It boasts the most attractive cherub sculpture I have ever seen. This very old sweetheart was reading a book. I wanted one desperately, a replica would be fine, but all I got was a nice photo.

There are at least 30 other churches or buildings of historical interest or containing significant art exhibits. We barely scratched the surface, and we had picked an place not on the main tourist routes on purpose. This photo is of a monastery where we did a "walk by" on our way to somewhere else. I was most disappointed at missing their National Archeological Museum (Palace of Ludovico it Moro), because of its extensive collection of 6th to 3rd century B.C. Etruscan objects. We could have done museums all day, every day, but wanted a little more balance to our visit. We learned early on that you just have to balance in Italy, and let go of what doesn't happen.

One more local art experience is worth reporting, but it really belongs in the Ferrara food issue, which will be next.

p.s. Philistines we may be, because we probably admired the oldest enoteca (wine bar) in Italy, and therefore in the world, as our favorite of the monuments and antiquities in Ferrara. Osteria al Brindisi was established in 1435. It probably has 10,000 bottles of wine, all in individual compartments, the bottles in the top rows furred with centuries of dust--you can't read the label, the year, not anything. (The lighting is appropriately old and fuzzy, too, so no pictures). Is this collection worth millions? Or nothing? Who knows? It's great atmosphere at least and they serve some mighty nice current local wines and play good mellow Italian jazz.

Apparently there are quite a few jazz clubs and jazz musicians in town and the street buskars are great; unlike Syracuse, where it was one old guy playing the accordion and one dread-locked young guy playing the guitar (not together). Oh, Brindisi also has a terrific collection of single malt scotches. If you get to Ferrara, be sure to stop by, it's close to the Duomo.