Reflections on My 39 Years in Umbria

Florence is my town! It has always had an extremely central importance to my life. I feel more connected to Florence than to any other city. Its role in my life goes way back to 1965 when I first visited, when I caught my first glimpse of the Duomo from afar, when I first viewed the city from Piazzale Michelangelo, when I finally saw in person much of what I had studied as an Art History major at the University of California.

My second trip was two years later on an Education Abroad Program in Padua, where I divided much of the year between Venice and Florence doing research in the latter city on Pontormo, whose works were the subject of my thesis.

After getting married, Maurizio and I went to Florence once a month for three days, staying at our favorite Hotel Lungarno and continuing our exploration of what seems endless, of Florentine treasures. We continued these monthly trips for several years, interrupting this routine for several years after our second child was born. As soon as Michael was old enough we began again, all four of us, attending every major art exhibition, showing the children, "kindling their fires", the wonders and delights of Renaissance art and architecture.

Mar's Ph.D. dissertation reseach was on the Renaissance choir books of the Duomo which brought her to Florence for two full years of primary source research. She took an apartment near Santa Croce, just around the corner from Vivoli: those of you who are ice cream lovers surely know where that is!.

During those two years, I went to stay with Marica, three days a month. We sectioned a map of the small historic center into 12 quadrants, exploring every detail of each quadrant at leisure over the years. We revisited places we knew well, combing them for more depth of understanding, discovered hidden treasures, attended concerts in unknown churches, gleaned historic context, found marvellous new shops and delightful cafès, small unforgettable trattorie, delighted in unique "scorci", explored artisan's workshops... truly gaining a depth of knowledge and insight which made Florence my, I should say, our, city.

Mar has an even deeper connection to Florence than I do: during the years of reseach for her Yale disseration, she was the organizer and catalog writer for a major international exhibition at the magnificent Laurentian Library. The exhibition was a part of the 700th celebration of the founding of Santa Maria del Fiore.

Just before Mar received promotion and tenure at the Pennsylvania State University where she is a musicologist on the faculty, she was appointed a Fellow at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Research Center for Post-Doctoral Renaissance Studies. She spent another 16 months in residence there, at Bernard Berenson's villa and in the midst of his superb, world famous art collection, using its outstanding library to complete her first major book which was published soon after by Cambridge University press.

Again, I made frequent trips to stay with her at the Villa near Settignano and Fiesole.

We continue, for one reason or another, to go often to spend some time in Florence.

This Christmas, just two days after Mar's return, we accepted a kind invitation to lunch at the Villa and then spent the day in the downtown center. We just happened onto an exciting event: the inauguration of the new lighting of the Piazza della Signoria and of La Loggia dei Lanzi!. For this occasion, there was magnificent pagaentry

with Renaissance period intruments and costumes in the Piazza. First we watched from inside Rivoire, indulging ourselves with its famous dense and velvety hot chocolate, later from the piazza itself, admiring the new and dramatic light effects, especially on Cellini's recently restored masterpiece, Perseo .

the masterful new lighting on the Loggia dei Lanzi and Perseo

Enjoying the wonderful Rivoire hot chocolate

We were moved and emotional as we strolled about OUR Florence, always seeing the wonder of its art and history with NEW EYES - that same overwhelming amazement at its wonders.

an all-chocolate Nativity Scene masterpiece at Rivoire

We admired shoes at Quercioli and Raspini, we awed at the many artful window displays, we were mesmerized by our favorite architecture and statues...and by another more mundane favorite: La Cantinetta di Verrazzano where we stopped for an afternoon Tuscan platter snack:

at Cantinetta di Verrazzano

the Tuscan platter snack: four local cold cuts on four different in-house-baked breads