So this morning, or latish morning as is the way of our people at present, we caught a #7 bus from Piazza San Marco to Fiesole – see I can do public transport. Just not in Wellington. Fiesole is a town of about 14,500 people up in the hills 8 km or so out of Florence. It is yet another place with a long histroy. It has remains from the Estrucan era which suggest it was founded around the 9th – 8th century BC.

 

Our first stop was the Achaeological Museum which has items which have been excavated in the town fron Estrucan through Roman to post Roman times. It lost status when sacked by the Byzantines in the 6th century AD and then again in the 11th and 12 century by the Florentines (ie the armies of Florences as opposed the the biscuit thing).

After the museum it was down to the archaeological area with the theatre and realms in of the bath and temples complexes. These date from the period of Roman dominance 1st century BC to 3rd century AD. The theatre is still in amazing condition. Not huge – seated about 1500 people. Well I think I read that figure. I’ll say it with confidence so you believe me.

From the theatre we went to the Bandini Museum which look small and unprepossessing. It only has four rooms. The woman on duty suggested we start upstairs which we dutifully did. And, oh wow. If you want to be able to look at and study some of the most beautiful 13 – 14 – 15th century religious art up close and undisturbed this is the place to do it. Two of the rooms have the most stunning work. The Museum was so quiet that the woman on duty came up and explained parts of it to us. A video scanning around the room is below. Camera may be shaky…..

Well this should be a video but it wont load…will do a separate post…or two…

The museum collection was put together by Angelo Maria Bandini (1726 – 1803) who was a religious and a librarian who also collected art works. Not. sure where he got his money from – maybe this stuff didn’t cost much at the time. If you are coming to Florence put this place at the top of your list. If you like religious art. If you dont, don’t!

Then we went and checked out Fiesole Cathedral. Again completely different to others we’ve seen here. Each church we (I) go into has is ow special features. You can’t say that there is a type. This one was FINISHED in 1028, remodelled and enlarged in the 13 – 16th centuries and restorations in the 19th century. Noticed all the capitals of the columns in the nave were different. Across from the Cathedral is the Bishops Palace and next to that a large Seminary. Several other churches and the massive monastery down the hill went unvisited.

By then it was time for lunch. Had some beautiful, buttery ravioli. Memo to self, must get back into making pasta and branch out into ravioli. A really nice restaurant. Have to say the pictures in the toilets were a surprise- more what you would have expected in a mechanics work shop etc in days gone by. Women’s toilets also caused some surprise. Shan’t share the photographic evidence here – my mother reads these blogs.

The it was back down into Florence – did I mention the speccie  views of Florence from up the hills, although shame about the murkiness. Even allowing for the uphill/downhill factor the trip back with male (I will drive really fast even over very potholed streets in town)  was a lot quicker than drive up with female driver.

Then we headed over to Oltrarno to go to a little shop I’d spotted last night. Had interesting paper and pictures but was closed at the time. It was a tiny little shop run by a tiny little old lady (I  thought she was sitting down when she served me, but no she was standing up! A little shopping done. Then headed back to the hotel. Dropped off stuff and went on the great wallet hunt. Long story but a successful outcome. Then again back to the hotel.

A glass of Rose then down to a restaurant two minutes from the hotel which we had tried to go to last night but by 8:15 it was chocka. Even tonight by the time we arrived at 7:35 it was half full (it opens at 7:30) and to get a table we had to agree to be out by 9:15. Fine by us. My veal was scrumptious (apologies to hose of you who have a problem with the concept of veal) as was my lemon and ricotta tart for dessert.

Tomorrow we’ve set the alarm so that we can hit La Bascilica Di San Marco soon after its opening time so we can have a good look at he complex before hitting the Accademia at out booking time of 10:45. On my third trip to Florence with Ju we’ll get to see the original David. The one in the Piazza is a copy and has been since 1873. So is the one in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London of course. It has a removable fig leaf – added to preserve the sensitivities of Queen Victoria apparently. How many children did she and Albert have?