Florence’s science museum, reopened in June 2010 after renovation and renamed Museo Galileo, within six months was awarded one of three prestigious “best mu- seum” prizes by ICOM Italia, the national committee for museums. The prize, for best management was awarded due to “the high-quality
scientific staff, experienced management personnel, its historic non-profit status, and the participation of many agencies and institutions which make it an effective model of museum organization and sustainable management”.
I decided to road test the museum, and after scoping out its website, realised it would be a great place to take my kids. They have a program called “Florence for Family” each weekend until the end of June which has a series of 90 minute guided visits specifically catering for “children over the age of six”. However we didn’t take the tour option, but just vis- ited the museum.
Museo Galileo is home to the only surviving instru- ments designed and built by Galileo himself. It is also the repository for the priceless scientific collections of the two dynasties that once ruled Florence: the Medici and the House of Lorraine. On display are more than 1,000 instruments and devices of major scientific importance and exceptional beauty.
While the focus of the entire exhibition is Galileo, the lay- out of the museum on two levels divides the collection by period, with The Medici collections on the first level. These bear witness to the
scientific culture of Galileo (and his contemporaries) and the tools he designed and made, including two of his telescopes. The second level houses the instruments and ex- perimental apparatuses acquired by the Lorraines in the 18th and 19th centuries, demonstrating the powerful stimulus provided by Gali- leo’s discoveries to the develop- ment of the physical and mathemat- ical sciences in the modern age.
The museum has a brilliant interactive website in English and Italian, which is well worth view-
ing before your visit, as it describes the gallery layout and the 18 themed rooms. Also highly recommended at the museum itself is the €5 audio-visual guide which explains every item in the collection as well as its inventor/builder. The guide automatically senses which room of the museum you are in, and when you enter the exhibit number, the information is displayed on the screen. Some of the more complicated models and experimental devices have a short video explanation as well. All of the information on the guide can also be seen on the website. Unless you are a serious science expert, most of the exhibits just look like funny gadgets that probably have some obscure function. This is why the audio-visual guide is indispensible – providing information on the period of the discovery / invention as well as its creator. Even with the guide, my two youngest children (aged 6 and 9), were quickly and soundly bored after just a couple of minutes. There were several exhibits that did interest my nine year old, but there wasn’t a great deal in if for him. However my two older children (aged 12 and 14) were absolutely enthralled and loved the visit. Many of the items, once explained on the guide,
brought relevance to material they had al- ready studied at school. While my visit was shorter that I would have liked ow- ing to the need to remove my disinter- ested and distracting younger children, I thought the museum was exceptional. It successfully demonstrates how astro- nomical, scientific and mathematical concepts evolved, and the power of
man’s imagination. What is notable, apart from the creativity and evolved thinking is the extraordinary craftsmanship of
the instruments, especially given their age. The museum is sleek, stylish, and thoughtfully laid out allowing excellent viewing of
each exhibit. Not to be missed is the room sized Ptolemaic armillary from 1588 (a model of the solar system showing planet Earth as the central orb), Galileo’s original telescopes as
well as one of Galileo’s fingers. The museum is a fitting tribute to the man who was clearly one of the world’s greatest original thinkers, who challenged the ac- cepted thinking of his time, took on the Catholic Church and was excommunicated and lived out his final years under house arrest.
Museo Galileo, Piazza dei Giudici 1, 50122 Florence, tel. +39 055 265 311; web: www.museogalileo.it Opening hours: Daily: 9.30-18.00, except Tuesdays 9.30-13.00. Entrance fees Full fee € 8,00; 7-18 years old, or over 65 years old € 5,00. 0-6 years old free access. Family ticket (2 adults + max 2 children under 18) € 20,00. Also Group Rates.
Tag: Tuscany Charming
What’ s Lucca Theatre?
In the current world of funding cuts, and political squabbles seemingly affecting every theatre in Italy, Lucca’s included, it may be a good time for a moment of reflection. For almost 200 years, the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca has been at the centre of the city’s artistic, musical and cultural life – “a little jewel set in the ring of the city walls”.
The theatre owes its present form to the outbreak of creative energy which burst upon Lucca in the early 1800s, driven not least by two formidable women, first Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon’s sister who ruled Lucca from 1805 till 1814, and later Maria Luisa di Borbone (that’s her statue in the middle of Piazza Napoleone.)
It was the latter who in1817 commissioned the architect Giovanni Lazzarini to restore and expand the existing Teatro Nazionale, and provide for it an elegant urban setting in keeping with Bourbon taste. The result is the theatre as we now know it, shown to advantage in its own handsome square, and with perspectives across the tree-lined Piazza Napoleone itself.
The origins of theatre in Lucca of course go back much further, to the 17th Century in fact, when performances were held in the Teatro dei Borghi, and the Sala del Podestà, which later became the Palazzo Pretorio, the building with the loggia on the corner of Piazza San Michele and via Vittorio Veneto. Later, of course, the grand palazzi of the lucchese nobility lent themselves to staging theatrical performances, and in the heyday of the silk trade as Lucca became a mecca for merchants from all over the known world, with the means to enjoy the finer things of life, it was not long before the city commissioned its first public theatre.
This was the Teatro San Girolamo, (attached to the present theatre and now once again happily in use) converted from a Jesuit convent in the 17th century. It was later joined by several privately-run theatres – the Pantera, the Castiglioncelli, and the Goldoni.
Lazzaroni’s task was to take the Teatro Nazionale, as the Teatro San Girolamo had become, and adapt it and its setting to suit the prevailing French taste in Lucca in the early 1800s for splendid open spaces showing buildings to their best advantage. In effect he extended the building to face into what is now Piazza del Giglio, leading into Piazza Napoleone. It is a tribute to his achievement that the theatre and its surroundings remain largely unchanged today.
A new theatre demanded a new name, and Maria Luisa, true to her Bourbon roots chose the giglio – the lily or fleur de lys, from the family coat of arms. And fittingly, it was a work by the composer of the moment Gioachino Rossini which opened the new theatre in 1819, when his “Aureliano in Palmira” was performed.
While the work is not often heard nowadays, Rossini, typically, later re-used much of it in “The Barber of Seville”. (And in fact if you want to track it down, there is a recording of it from 1995, featuring the orchestra of none other than the Teatro del Giglio.) Since that night in 1819, the theatre has, besides its drama and dance programmes, hosted all the great names of Italian opera, and some of its most famous conductors.
In the early days, Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti came in person to present new works, and the soprano Maria Malibran had a huge success, sending her audience delirious according to contemporary reports. In 1836 the star soprano at the Giglio in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” was Giuseppina Strepponi, later to become the wife of Giuseppe Verdi. In the latter half of the 19th century, Verdi’s works became increasingly popular as patriotic fervour in Italy grew.
From the 1870s onwards in fact, the theatre – by now lit by gas rather than oil lamps – began its truly golden period when there was rarely a seat to be had at performances, particularly of lucchesi composers – Puccini of course, although none of his works had their premiere there, and Catalani, whose “La Wally” was conducted by the great Arturo Toscanini.
The tradition persisted into the 20th century, when despite long periods of closure during two World Wars, the theatre continued to host great conductors and singers, among them Carlo Tagliavini, Maria Caniglia, Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, and – as Rodolfo in Puccini’s “La Bohème” in the early1960s – a certain young tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
Sadly, these golden days of ten or twelve operas each year are now gone, but the lucchesi can still dream of their theatre as La Scala in miniature, as Lucio D’Ambra described it, “…il Giglio, una piccola Scala…..”
What to visit in Certaldo
Originally an Etruscan-Roman city, Certaldo was a fief of the Alberti counts until conquered by the Florentines in 1184. Certaldo’s importance slowly grew under Firenze. The town, is divided in an upper part called “Rione Castello”, surrounded by fortification walls that enclose medieval surroundings, and a lower, modern and industrialized part.
Certaldo, was the home of the family of Giovanni Boccaccio, who died and was buried here in 1375. His house was restored in 1823 and transformed into a specialized library with sections devoted to his life including translations of his works.
The Palazzo Pretorio, the residence of the Florentine governors, recently restored to its original condition, has a picturesque facade and court adorned with coats of arms, and in the interior are various frescoes dating from the I3th to the 16th century. Palazzo Pretorio is the highest building in town and offers a nice view over Certaldo. Outside is a facade decorated with heraldic shields while the inside includes a prison, the quarters of the Vicar and his family, and rooms formerly used as the seat of government.
Why rent a villa in Tuscany like Villa al Boschiglia? Otis’ Reason 3
Otis’ Reason 3
3 – Value, Value, Value!
The Villa, the amenities, the service, and the location provide the guest with a peace of mind. The price is more than competitive, and there are no unexpected or hidden costs for the services provided. If you decide to arrange additional services you will be charged for the actual cost only. Often preferential rates can be passed on to you for tours, transports, and discounted hotel passes. If we purchase groceries on your behalf prior to your arrival or during your stay you will receive an itemized bill.
What to discover in Lucca
An entire wall of my dining room is rather pretentiously covered with paintings of religious subjects.
They belong to the XIX century and represent the poor popular art of that time. The figures were first printed and then painted with watercolours and represent male and female devotional saints with symbols referring to their iconography.
These pictures at the time were mainly hung in bedrooms on the wall behind the bed, and I am sure that those readers who may have bought an old house in the hills around Lucca may have found some of them still hanging there.
The subjects were meant to transmit a feeling of wellbeing and peace. Look for example at that of baby St. John Baptist embracing a sheep with a red ribbon. He is folding his arms around it so sweetly as if it were his cuddly toy. “Guardate in alto, quando andate in giro per Lucca” that is “Look up when you are going around Lucca” my teacher kept saying. It’s a fact that if you go around Lucca with your nose in the air, you can spot here and there many of the most authentic popular and religious art-works of the town.
What you have to look for are the “edicole”. If you search for the word in your dictionary you will read that the word “edicola” in modern language means a newsagent.
But in the language of art, edicola, in English aedicule, means a framed space or niche housing a sacred image and positioned relatively high up on a building. Here in Lucca the subject is mainly the Madonna, the religious figure most loved by Christians.
Often however the Madonna is represented even in the aedicules in an unconventional manner. For example have you seen the one in Via S. Nicolao ? The “Madonna del Soccorso” i.e. Madonna to the Rescue, is angrily represented with a cane in her hand threatening the devil, who finally runs away, so she can rescue the little baby who was just about to be kidnapped. In this case she does not transmit a sense of peace and wellbeing, but of fear and dread. This same picture can also be seen behind the altar in the Church at Montecarlo.
On the contrary in Via dell’Anfiteatro, in Piazza della Grotta we can see an aedicule with a beautiful and elegant Madonna. Hold your breath, she has a Gucci handbag! Of course I’m joking – what seems a bag is in fact a number of devotional necklaces of the time. Many of the aedicoles that you will see in streets in Lucca were done in the XVI century and happily some of them have been recently restored.
This is one of them. In Via del Portico, also close to Via dell’Anfiteatro, there is another one that was meant to thank the Madonna for having saved a little girl, who lived nearby and fell from the fourth floor remaining unhurt. As it says on the plaque hanging at the side, 40 days of indulgence are assured (believe it or not) if you say a prayer next to it.
In Via dell’Angelo Custode, named after the Oratorio dell’ Angelo, there is another aedicule at No.6. The Guardian Angel cannot be clearly seen from the street because of the patina left on the painting by years of weather, but still meets the original religious intentions, if you ask the people living there.
The relationship between religion and popular art has always existed, and since ancestral times men have felt the necessity to use art as a bridge for the two entities to communicate, conveying ideas with the minimum of words and the maximum of impact.
Another characteristic of religious popular art was also to amaze people. But times are different now. Today’s permanent party mood in Lucca, attempting to make people crave just good food and material goods, can act like a mantra on our brain, leaving this hidden aspect of Lucca perhaps neglected. But hopefully to be discovered at least at the end of our visit.