We moved. We are now in the Palazzo Antellesi, http://www.palazzoantellesi.com/index.html in Piazza Santa Croce. It is just 10 minutes east and south of our old neighborhood, but worlds away. I first read about the Palazzo in The City of Florence by R.W.B. Lewis. He first stayed here in 1992. The Palazzo takes up most of the south side of the Piazza with the church to the east. According to Lewis, sometime in the middle 1600’s a wealthy family built a mansion here incorporating several medieval houses. The mansion became the daughter’s dowry and her new husband bought the house next door and created one big place. Then hubby, well connected with the Medici clan, got the finest painters in Florence at the time to fresco the entire front of the building. The frescoes faded but the Cinelli family bought the place and restored the frescoes in 1920 and again in 1990. Young Federica Cinelli inherited the Palazzo in 1945 then married Count Piccolomini, becoming La Contessa Piccolomini. The Piccolomini family goes back to Pope Pius II. La Contessa still lives here.
There is a grand door in the middle of the Palazzo that leads to La Contessa’s private apartments. Our entry door is more modest to the far west of the building. When we walk out of the door in the mornings I have this almost uncontrollable urge to burst into the Piazza with my hands in the air and strut forward, think a young Audrey Hepburn wearing opera length gloves (or an old chubby me). It wouldn’t matter if I did; the throngs of tourists, some having coffee right outside of our front door, barely take notice of our passing by—Philistines!
We are staying in the Belvedere apartment, http://www.palazzoantellesi.com/florence_apartments/belvedere.html on the 4th of 5 floors, facing south, toward the river and not the Piazza. I thought it would be noisy on the Piazza side of the building and didn’t (at the time) care that we would not have a view of the church. Clearly a tactical mistake because we can still hear some Piazza noise without benefit of the view. We do have a terrace and look out at jumble of red tiled roofs and air conditioner units. The weather hasn’t improved enough for us to enjoy the terrace. It does give lovely light into the living room.
When you enter the building there is a stone staircase and a tiny elevator. I have to turn sideways when my purse is on my hip otherwise I can’t fit through the doors-NO not because my hips are too wide, the doors are too narrow! The opening is only 17 inches: why carry a tape measure if you don’t intend to use it! The elevator has a steel outer door. Most residents are very challenged to close this quietly. The inner French doors tend to want to slam on their own. Since this is a small open space the slamming reverberates up to the roof. There are 2 to 3 apartments per floor. Next to us are 2 women of a certain age who live here permanently and have heated discussions about something every morning at their front door. I love listening to them.
You enter our apartment through a small hallway. Straight ahead is the kitchen; tiny but well equipped. From the kitchen window we can see the top of Fort Belvedere. To the left of the entry door is our living room, dinning room and terrace. The walls are a lovely peach and the floors are terra cotta. We have 12 inch (I didn’t measure that) intricate crown molding in white and the ceiling is about 50% less of the color of the walls. Our couch and 2 chairs are very comfy covered in green and white slip covers. We even have a flat screen TV. There is a giant antique gold framed mirror on the wall opposite the terrace doors. The doors leading to the terrace are French with the upper ¾ being a window with a shutter that opens in. The doors are painted white with an inlay trim of the wall color. The dinning room table is a beautiful antique and the chairs have straw seats with cushions matching the sofa. There is an antique china closet and 2 bookcases filled with English language novels.
Going down the hallway from the living room we again have 2 bedrooms, both small, and 2 bathrooms. The plumbing is far superior to our old apartment. Showers are a joy not a dreaded experience. We also have a small laundry room with a stack washer and dryer and a second refrigerator. The kitchen just has a below sink refrigerator which would be fine, except for open white wine bottles. Although this is a beautiful apartment I do have apartment envy after seeing the 2 apartments on the upper floor. They are the same price as ours, with bigger bedrooms and terraces that have fabulous views of the church and surrounding hillside. The current residents say that they are not bothered by the Piazza noise because their bedrooms are in the back. Oh well.
There has been a period of adjustment. First we had to pack-up the old apartment and unpack here. Then we had to remember where we put everything. I’m still pulling open all the drawers to find things. Arnie had just mastered the other washer and we are still experimenting with this one. We also had to adjust to some particular quirks in the apartment. There is a 1 inch step down from the hallway into the living room/dinning room. There is a 1 inch step down into the master bedroom and a 3 inch step up into the master bath. Needless to say there has been a whole lot of tripping going on, especially late at night.
And, we have new noises. The old apartment was like a tomb. I think we were the only people in the building for most of the month, with brief exceptions. There is a bevy of activity here. It isn’t terribly noisy, just more noise of a different nature: the elevator, people on steps, and our neighbors. There is one annoying noise: pigeons. There are lots of nocks and crannies for pigeons and one seems to particularly like the ledge above our bedroom window. His cooing was charming for about 3 minutes, like the guy playing the violin in the Piazza. There seems to be pigeon disputes in the early morning as well. Our pigeon fiercely guards his perch.
LIFE IN THE PIAZZA
Life in the Piazza starts slowly. The vendors don’t set up their carts till around 10AM. Before that the restaurant next door has its tables and umbrellas set up outside for coffee/breakfast but there are few people about. We have vendor carts (Leather jackets; post cards; baseball caps) on either side of our door and at least 3 street artists at a time in front of the Palazzo. The artists seem to rotate and they each are very good. Large groups of tourists go by on their way to/from the church and rarely stop to admire our beautiful building.
The afternoon is livelier. Several groups of children play soccer in the Piazza while the more mature citizens sit on the surrounding stone benches. The Gypsy Musicians (that’s their name) station themselves in front of the church most days. They are pretty good and they have 2 CD’s for sale to prove it. The vendors pack up around 6PM and the Piazza is quiet for a bit. Later in the evening the Piazza is taken over by intoxicated older adolescents, mostly American, putting their respective countries to shame.
Well, that’s enough for now. We continue to eat and drink in excess and have lots of pictures to prove the point. We have traveled to Fiesole and Arezzo but those reports will have to wait for another day.
I hope you can link to the pictures in Flickr. You should see the pictures with the detail description and there is a tab to view the pictures in slide show format. There should also be a tab that says “map” so you can see exactly where we are.
