And so it was that on a July day in Florence, 1737, one which I imagine would have been oppressive and hot as summer days can be in Tuscany, the last ruling member of the Medici family, Grand Duke Gian Gastone, died. He had been a poor representation of the once-great Medici family and with his … Continue reading
Category Archives: Art, History & Culture
Snapshots from Florence: The Ponte Vecchio
Il Ponte Vecchio “Water under the bridge” is a common English saying. In Italian one would say acqua passata non macina più, literally translated as water gone no longer roils. Regardless the language, the water under this famous bridge is the river Arno, which it has spanned for centuries. The Ponte Vecchio is one of my … Continue reading
12 Things You May Not Know About The Last Supper
There were exactly two things I knew for sure about the Last Supper: 1. It was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. 2. It was somewhere in Milan. (Clearly, I’m not an art historian.) This capolavoro (masterpiece) had long been on my wish list of Things to See in Italy, but mostly just to check it off the … Continue reading
Of Masterpieces and Mysticism
In the Presence of The Last Supper Traffic was still light on this Friday summer morning in Milan, and after just a few quick turns our taxi came to a stop on lively Corso Magenta. “Questa è la chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie? Con Il Cenacolo?” (Is this the Santa Maria delle Grazie church? With … Continue reading
7 Reasons to Love Italian
We study Italian because we want to, not because we need to. Because the music of the language moves us to learn it, to engage in this “impracticality”, to throw some of our precious time to the wind and do something simple for the pleasure of being able to pronounce words like piacere. –From “Why … Continue reading
