If you take the vaporetto to Burano, you will pass the abandoned island of Madonna del Monte (mountain? really?). It has been the site of a monasteries since the middle ages; Napoleon destroyed the last one. The building in the photo below was built in the 19th century, as a powder magazine. The island is eroding rapidly because the retaining wall has crumbled.
I’m not sure where I photographed these houses, but they were on the #12 vaporetto route from Torcello. Maybe Isola dei Laghi, but I haven’t been able to track them down on Google earth view.
San Michele in Isola, on the cemetery island (Cimitero di San Michele). I’ve never stopped there, but I hope to some day.
Southern wall of San Michele:
This strange-looking beast is the bridge for the Venice People Mover. The monorail train connects the historical center of Venice with the Marittima cruise terminal and Piazzale Roma, the point of entry for buses, trains, cars, and the Tronchetto parking island. Personally, I’ll stick with the vaporetti and my own two feet….
The Castel Sant’Angelo, also known as the Mausoleum of Hadrian, is a fascinating site. It started as a Roman tomb, was converted into a fortress, and was used as a papal refuge and a prison. An above-ground fortified passageway connects the fortress with the Vatican.
I took these photos on the same day (May 7, 2015), standing on the bridge that leads from the main part of the historic area of Rome to the Vatican.
I didn’t have the time to take a photographic panorama of the view from the top of the tower, so you’ll have to make do with a video instead.
So that’s it! This is the last posting for our Italian vacation. It only took eight months to get them on-line. 🙂
I’ve created a Photography page and will gradually move my photography-related blog postings there. In the meantime, the Italy section is up to date. Eventually I plan to add the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv postings.
The Torre Grossa is the tallest surviving tower of San Gimignano. There is no elevator, so you have to climb all 54 meters on foot. The inside of the tower has been reinforced with a steel staircase winding around the interior.
The view at the top makes it all worth while….
I noticed a sculpture of a naked man on top of a nearby tower.
The Piazza della Cisterna has a beautiful old well. The first photo (above) was taken through the arch of the well.
The Palazzo Comunale (“Municipal Palace”) is the town hall of San Gimignano and has been so since 1300. Photography is not permitted, so these photos were taken very quickly.
The photo above, in the “Dante Room” (Dante visited San Gimignano in 1300 as ambassador from the republic of Florence) is decorated with a painting by Lippo Memmi, the “Maesta” (“majesty,” a depiction of the Mary and Jesus enthroned, surrounded by the heavenly court and angels).
The Podestà apartments (Camera del Podestà) are decorated with frescoes by Memmo di Filippuccio, depicting married life.
I photographed the masonry under the stairs leading up to the Torre Grossa.
The entrance of the palazzo:
Looking down into the courtyard.
The courtyard frescoes depict the coats of arms of families who have held public office. The Palazzo is still a seat of government, but the current offices are on the same level as this courtyard. I wish I could have spent more time photographing this beautiful courtyard but we were in a rush.
One of the joys of travel is serendipitous experiences, like San Gimignano 1300. Our visit to San Gimignano was unplanned. I had heard that it was worth a visit, so we hopped on a bus from Poggibonsi. Baruch discovered this museum while wandering down some alleys. He disappeared for a while, then came back at a run and said, “You have to see this!” We were the only ones in the museum, so the woman showed us around and let me take all the photos I wanted. It is off the regular tourist path.
San Gimignano 1300 is a project to recreate San Gimignano as it was in its glory, with over 70 towers along the skyline, using models and dioramas. The artists, Michelangelo and Raphael Rubino (brothers from an artistic family, began the project in 2006. The recreation was painstakingly researched. A team of artists took nearly three years to complete the project. The project is currently closed for renovations (from November 2012 to “spring” in 2013, whenever that may be; the site didn’t give a date).
The entrance hall contains dioramas and ceramic models of life in 1300:
The detail of the models is breath-taking. I was lucky to be able to get these shots through the glass.
Have you ever wondered how people could live in those towers? Well, these reconstructions show how it was done. The rooms were probably quite dark and you would have done a lot of climbing by ladder to get from one floor to another.
The jewel of the museum is this model of San Gimignano as it was in 1300, with a sound and light show:
The lights dim to represent night:
Or storms:
If you happen to be passing through the town, this museum is worth a visit, especially if you have children (they have some kind of treasure hunt). Just make sure that it’s not closed for renovations.
More bits of San Gimignano that caught my eye during our brief visit.
If the window fastener of your medieval stone tower breaks, you can’t replace it with a stainless steel latch from the local hardware store:
Zoomorphic shutter fastener. The head flips up to keep the shutters from blowing in the wind. You flip it down to close the shutters. (I only know how to work them from staying in hotels with far more prosaic shutter latches.)
I love the combination of old stone and colourful flowers. The road slopes quite steeply.
Wolf carving and inscription near St. Matthew’s Gate:
Drinking fountain outside the wall.
Stuffed boars are very popular window displays in San Gimignano, usually in stores selling pasta and wine:
Sometimes it’s hard to find a really good sword shop. Personally I think a Swiss Army knife is more practical.
Can you handle more Tuscan cuteness? San Gimignano is called the “Manhattan of Tuscany” after its remarkably well-preserved towers. Fifteen towers are still standing, but in the 13th century there were over 70 towers. I had never heard of San Gimignano until dinner on the previous Shabbat, when I overheard the Italian man next to me tell a tourist that she must see San Gimignano.
San Gimignano is too small to have a train station. We went there by bus (boarded the Siena bus at the SITA station by Maria Novella train station and switched to the San Gimignano bus in Poggibonsi) and spent a couple hours wandering around. (The blog postings are a out of order; we went to San Gimignano before Siena).
I took these photos outside the city walls.
The bus stopped near St. Matthew’s Gate. This gate was once part of the independent town of St. Matthew, which later became part of San Gimignano.
Close-up of the gate.
This is the other side of the St Matthew gate. There are lots of tourists but they tend to be mainly on the main thoroughfares. The side streets are much less crowded.
Bored shopkeeper in souvenir store. Some of the store owners don’t like people photographing their shops, so I tend to photograph stores with the camera on my hip.
Pasta. The ubiquitous phallic pasta is second on the left.
The colorful Pinturicchio frescoes of the Piccolomini Library are stunning. The wall panels depict the life of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-64), later Pope Pius II, and were commissioned by his nephew Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, in 1492. The ceiling panels depict mythological subjects.
The statue visible below is the Three Graces, a Roman copy of the Greek original:
