First Week in Italia

Tomorrow will mark the end of our first week in Italy--and what an amazing, rich week it has been! After arriving in the Florence airport we drove our rental car--a gray Fiat--the short distance to the town of Prato, now an outer suburb of Florence, where we had reservations at the Albergo Griglio, tucked away in a corner next to an art gallery. Prato, it turns out, had some amazing treasures of its own, including this magnificent Della Robbia virgin on the facade of their cathedral.

Next day, we drove north on the Autostrada through multiple tunnels across the Appenines, past Bologna, to Ferraro, where we stopped for lunch, and toured the magnificent palazzo of the powerful Este dynasty, the lineage that gave rise to Duke Alfonso, who has been immortalized (perhaps unfairly) for English readers by Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess."

The castle had massive fortifications, including a grand watchtower, which Amee and I laboriously climbed up a long metal staircase for a panoramic view of the city from above.

That evening, after a thorough visit at the castle, reviewing the complex and convoluted lineages of dukes and duchesses and peering into grim dungeons far below, we drove on to our next destination, Padova (Padua), where we ended up staying three nights, while we toured, first, the old city of Padova itself, then took the train to Venice where we spend the following evening dodging the hordes of tourists and crass commercialism on the Piazza San Marco and the Rialto, and finally spent the following long day and evening in what Shakespeare aptly called "fair Verona," a truly elegant and fascinating city. That night, we attended a performance of Madama Butterfly at the massive Roman arena, and then drove back to Padua in the wee hours thereafter.

I will let Ann and/or Amee go into detail, if they wish, about the magnificent artwork we viewed in all of these cities...the spectacular Giotto frescoes at the Cappella Degli Scrovegni in Padua, the Mantegna masterpiece at the Castelvecchio in Verona, and the Pisanelli fresco of St. George, the Princess and the Dragon on the high wall above the altar at the Chiesa di Santa Anastasia in Verona.