Kevin and Tess arrived at Malpensa, on time! We were happy to see them, safe and sound.
It was raining outside. After finally finding a place to park at the last metro stop at San Donato, we went to the duomo in Milano and got in.
It is really a big place.
Under the high altar are two other altars, where saints are buried, which is visitable, but you aren't supposed to take pix down there. This is one you can only see through bars.
This is the other, which you can't go in, but can see better, including the skeleton under the altar
In the back of the church, behind the altar, is a duplicate of the gilded (real gold) statue of Mary that sits on top of the highest pinnacle of the cathedral. Sort of like a Catholic angel Moroni.
There is an unbelievable amount of stained glass at the front of the church, behind the high altar, which is only visible if you go back there, because it is hidden by the altar. The glass is hard to photograph because it is so high up. These panels of Adam and Eve being booted out of Eden are on the lowest level. It is interesting that the glass has different colors, perhaps because the color of the glass changed over the centuries or the mixture of sand changed.
This is of Adam and Eve being tempted by the snake, next to the last pix.
We saw this poster with the pix of the graduates of the seminary of Milano, who will soon be ordained priests. Last year we walked in on an ordination in Como of about this many new priests. The pope, in white, and bishop, in red, and 5 other leaders are shown at the bottom, so there are only 10, all young Italian men about the ages of our missionaries. This isn't many priests for a diocese as large as Milano. Not many young men these days want to become priests. We learned (from Darco in our ward) that each priest has about seven churches in which to say mass, in the 1960s there were too many priests in Italy.
In the back of the duomo are large stained glass windows, probably newer than those in the front.
On this day we saw something we hadn't see before, large television monitors, with the camera showing the area directly behind the high altar, where they were getting ready to have a noon mass. This is a smaller area reserved for worshipers, because the rest of the duomo is full of tourists, who pay to get in. It is free to get in to go to mass.
There are many old wooden confession booths in the duomo, as there are in all Catholic churches, but we had never noticed a fairly new glass box, where a priest sits on one side of a table and the confessor on the other, facing each other, brightly lit. This woman must have been confessing some interesting sins, by her gestures. I tried not to be too obtrusive in taking a quick pix, and I zoomed up to get it, so they were probably not even aware I took it. My camera does a good job of zooming in.
We needed to go to the bathroom, and we knew there is a nice free one (because we had tickets) in the museum of the duomo, so we went there, and passed by this large wooden replica of the outside of the duomo, probably about ten feet high. There are other wooden replicas in this room.
We were hungry, so we went to a nearby restaurant. Tess had this ravioli with porcini mushrooms, and was impressed with the eatable decorative flowers for garnish. Italians are into "presentation."
Kevin and Myrna had calzone
I had pizza alla diavola, which had spicy (picanti) salami
We had to walk past the pizza cook to get to the bathroom. He joked that it cost €10 to take his pix. You can see Kevin's calzone in the oven.
Then we went to Bergamo so we could see Cità Alta before it got dark. We arrived just after the older basilica closed, but the cathedral (duomo) was still open. I snapped this pix of Pope John XXIII's coronation crown, which I had seen before but didn't know if my pix turned out.
These were the pope's personal items, donated to his hometown duomo. He, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was the 3rd of 13 surviving children born to a family of poor farmers in the tiny village of Sotto il Monte (under the mountain) which I visited 51 years ago, near Bergamo, He left home at age 11 to become a priest. In his last will he wrote "Born poor, but of humble and respected folk, I am particularly happy to die poor." These items are found in a back chapel. After a priest just finished mass in another side chapel, and had gone, I went in and played a snippet of "We thank Thee O God for a prophet" on the old pump organ, just to see if it worked, but was upbraided.
We found our airbnb house, and had a pretty good night's rest, before getting up at 4:30 am. Myrna's arthritic (actually tendonitis) shoulders were pretty sore, so she enjoyed the couch, and it was cold, although the owner turned on the heat. The past few weeks have been sunny and fairly warm, but it turned rainy and colder.
The apartment, much like we rent for missionaries, had two bedrooms, this living/dining room, a tiny kitchen and one bathroom.
The next morning we left Kevin and Tess off at the "Kiss and Fly" at the Bergamo airport, as they were to go to Romania, and we drove home, which took about an hour--easy driving during early morning with no traffic.
For lunch we had promised to make the missionaries Tess's Cafè Rio sweet pork, which is their favorite. Myrna also made banana cream pie.
They were, of course, delighted, with the food, which they devoured (3 helpings each until it was gone). The Salatini came by in time for lunch, and they did all the dishes afterward, which was appreciated.
On Saturday we went back to the airport at Bergamo and waited for the plane from Bucharest to arrive, which it did, on time.
While waiting I found the toilette, and was interested in seeing that they had the floor plan, in Braille, outside. Always nice to know where you can go.
We went in our car to Florence, about a 3 hour drive, on freeway, stopping along the way to have panini with ham and cheese, we had brought. The day was sunny and bright. We found our AirBnB in Florence and got on the bus to go downtown to see if we could buy stuff at the open market before it closed.
The market was still open and going strong on a Saturday evening.
Tess bargaining about a purse. Myrna actually bought a black one. But our biggest purchase was 70, yes 70, silk ties. Mark wanted 50 for Father's day in his ward, and we wanted the rest for gifts, etc. They are really nice ties, as you may know if you get or have one. You can't have too many ties, or purses!
The market is next to this church of San Lorenzo, where Michaelangelo designed the tombs for the Medici, rulers of Italy for many hundreds of years. It is interesting that this very large church didn't ever get its marble facade, as did the duomo. (This must be what the duomo looked like before it was clothed in marble.)
Then to the duomo, with its multi colored marble facade, which is always amazing.
And somewhat hard to take pix of because it is so large and the piazza is relatively small, and with so many people. Kevin said his Italian friend told him that these tourist places in Italy are like going to Disneyland.
These are the brass doors to the baptistry, which have recently been replaced with these copies, so they originals can go to a museum, where they can charge entrance fees.
Another shot of piazza duomo on Saturday evening.
They need to water clean this side of the duomo, which they actually do from time to time.
We walked a couple of blocks over to the piazza della Signoria, the city hall, where the large statue of Neptune is undergoing remodeling. If you enlarge this pix you can see the copy of Michaelangelo's David, which is standing where the real one stood for many centuries, until he was moved to the Academia, where they could charge tourists to see him. We walked through the Uffizzi Gallery, where the Medici had their offices, and which is now a wonderful, but very large, art gallery.
To the adjacent River Arno, with Ponte Vecchio, just as a tourist boat passes under.
Tess sat on the edge of the wall so Kevin could take her pix. This is the only bridge that wasn't bombed by the Germans during WWII. Kevin said that Hitler liked it, maybe because it had jewelers and gold stores on it.
There are still are jewelry stores, along with a lot of people. In all of our travels to Florence, this was the first time we have crossed it.
We walked up, and it is a long way up, to the Piazza Michaelangelo which overlooks Florence, so we could see the city just as the sun was setting. The city is beautiful from up there.
The duomo complex
The Arno River and the bridges that cross it.
There are certainly many big and famous churches in Florence.
We were above a smaller landing, where these people were standing. From this view you can see the duomo and the city hall, as well as the river.
Turn the other direction and you can see the metal copy of David overlooking the city.
The sun was hiding behind clouds
And the light played games with my camera's light sensor. I hope Kevin's much better camera got some good pictures. He is an excellent photographer.
It was hard to find a good place to take pix, because of all the people, although Kevin is taller than most, so he could do it.
Then we headed back down, through the maze of streets.
And found a little pizza place, that would take us in. We heard the proprietor tell many people she was "complete," because they had a party reserved.
Tess had a calzone, which was a little toasty on the outside, but was good inside.
Then we went back to the Signoria Piazza, which is very pleasant in the evening, with fewer tourists.
This shows the lit up tower of the Signoria.
The Duomo Piazza is also lit up, and has fewer people in the evening. We went back to our AirBnB, which was a pleasant apartment only about 20 minutes, also the end of bus line 22, from downtown, where we had left our car parked.
The next morning, Sunday, we quickly found the freestanding LDS church in Firenze, very close to where we stayed the night.
A member was happy to take our pix at the front door of the church.
The chapel is on the second floor, which is typical. The sister playing the piano, left front, is the same sister who took us on the tour of the Carrara mine, from which they obtained the marble for the Christus and 12 Apostles for the Rome temple--and Michaelangelo's David. This family has lived in Florence for 8 years, and this was her daughter's mission farewell, prior to her departure to Argentina. The Florence ward uses headsets, where missionaries translate from Italian to English, which Myrna appreciated. Our ward does not do that, but we are going to ask Giuseppe Virgillo, who is over buildings, to get some headsets for our ward--they really worked well.
Then we changed clothes and went back to the Duomo, parking our car in a garage.
And got our reserved tickets to see David, but had over an hour to wait until our time to go in.
We found another church in which to see beautiful art
And hear the organ play the prelude to the mass
The organ console is behind, and on the altar, to the right, the priest had already set out the wine, water and oil and the host on the chalice and opened the book in preparation for the noon mass, which was attended by less than ten people.
Under this side altar was reposed
Saint Antonio Pierozzi from Florence, the Saint of Advices--do you need any advice?
My advice to him is that he should probably keep his mouth closed.
This is the church we had just visited
Nearby the Gallery of the Academy, where David lives, at No. 60.
I always like to visit the music museum.
I took this closeup of the music above the early piano, to see if I could figure out how it goes, maybe it's a famous score, maybe it is just random notes on a page.
the music must have put this guy to sleep, or killed him.
His buddy looks a little more rested, but I don't know about the soldier, with his sword
This guy looks like he is being crushed.
And this detail looks like one of those masks you see in Venice, to ward off the black death, maybe the top is a headpiece of some sort. This is the sort of thing art historians worry about.
This is an unfinished Pietà by Michaelangelo, I think I read that he made it for his own tomb.
But your eyes are drawn to the adjacent masterpiece
With which everyone wants their picture taken.
One does not know whether he is getting geared up to slay Goliath, or he has just done it, and wondering how he did it.
One last look, and/or pix
Every time I go I like to find more details, like these dropped coins at the edge of the picture
Or this painting of going to the Academia in the 1800s to see the same art we are seeing.
This is a model for a statue of the young Baccus, god of wine, stamping grapes. Hope he washed his feet.
And every time I go to the Academia I take a pix of this detail of this small pipe organ near a bowl that contains two eye balls. I have researched this, but cannot find what it is about, other than it was painted for the chapel in the Women's Hospital at Santa Maria Nuova in Florence.
In this room of paintings of Giotto, and his school,
Is this large, famous, crucifix
Including the flagellation (whipping) of Jesus
His mother apparently contemplating something other than his upcoming dinner
There was another depiction, in the corner of a large painting, of what looks like a small pipe organ, that I had never seen. This one, with pipes coming from a case that looks like a little church, may or may not be playable, but I took several pix of it just to make sure. Interesting!
This was the explanation of of the entire pix, which says nothing about the small organ.
This depiction of St. Romuald's temptation by devils is interesting.
This is an interesting Nativity; Jesus is already in swaddling, and the two shepherds brought their dog, with a pink collar, and Joseph looks like he is napping.
This is a presentation at the temple, are they going to give Jesus a bath or what?
We went from the Academy to the line to wait to get into the Duomo.
During which time we watched this seller of red roses freshen up his flowers in the fountain, with the symbol of Florence in red above. This symbol was beloved by the Medici, taken to France by Catherine, and used by lots of organizations ever since, including the Boy Scouts.
I tried to read this sign on the outside of the duomo, but decided to take a pix so I could figure it out later, but still haven't--maybe when I retire and have lots of time.
We finally got inside, which isn't as impressive as on the outside.
Although the ceiling on the inside of the dome, with its last judgement, is interesting, but they had barricades around so I couldn't get under it to take a very clear pix.
I could have taken a great pix of the old clock in the back, but we were hurrying and I couldn't hold my camera still enough to get good focus.
From Florence we drove to Siena. I am going to start a new blog to include Siena, so
Ciao for now.
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