Tuscany Charming | PlanningaTour.com

A Tight Spot

I came across the Italian word tight some years ago. In fact, it looked so incongruous on the page, it fairly jumped out and smacked me in the eye. I’d no idea what it meant and it didn’t even occu to me to look for it in a dictionary, so un-Italian did it seem.
It was coming across the alternative, phonetic spelling tait, and finding in the dictionary that solved this little mystery for me.
It’s what this sleek gentlman of 1900 or thereabouts is wearing and no doubt his wardrobe also contained a frac and smoking.
A tigh is a morning suit, the kind that the bridegroom wears at a formal wedding nowadays, a frac is similar but the jacket is cut off at the waist at he front and a smoking is a dinner suit.
But why? because tight/tait is a truncated translation of abito stretto, meaning a tigh-fitting garment, frac derives from frock coat, and smoking from smoking jacket which, however, it isn’t.
A feature that all three of these words, tait, frac and smoking, have in common is that they latch on to anly one part of the original two word combination. this mechanism is common in Italian and it works pretty well because the fact that a word is foreign makes it quite different from all the other words in the language, more or less.
So a miss, as in Miss World, is the winner of a beauty contest, gloss is what is lip gloss in English, un reality is a reality show, a sub, short for subacqueo, is a scuba diver, zoom is a zoom lens, spot is a both a TV and a spotlight, lifting is face-lift, spray is either a spray can or its contents, and so on. We do this in English too-opera for opera lirica, alto for contralto and, more recently, a latte for caffè latte – but not nearly as often as Italian does.
Some areas of Italian are particularly prone to adopting foreign words.
In the modern wardrobe there are jeans, slip, various types of woollies such as a golf, pullover and cardigan, perhaps even a montgomery and certainly some T-shirt as well as French items such as collant, gilet and foulard.
Soccer uses a fair number of English words as coner, dribbling, tackle and mister and breeds of dogs are often non Italian such as collie, husky and chihuahua.
English on the other hand, adopted Italian musical terms wholesale and many Italian food words, which means that we all know haow to pronunce – ce in inconcerto – te – at the end of andante, ghe – in the middle of spaghetti, – i and – zz – in pizza – sciu in prosciutto – ucci – in cappuccino and – ne – at the end of minestrone.
Which is all very useful to know. However, Italian pronunciation is very consistent ond often applied to borrowed words.

Salvatore Ferragamo Museum

Ok, we admit it, this is a girly article.
We’re talking shoes gorgeus colourful stunning shoes. A whole museum of them in fact. If you haven’t already visited the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, add it now to your list of things to see in Florence. It’s a blissful way to spend an hour or two.
First, there’s the building. Palazzo Spini Feroni is a handsome 13 th century palazzo, which lies a few steps from Ponte Santa Trinità, the bridge over the Arno where Dante is said to have first set eyes on Beatrice (the building indeed houses the well named in her hnour, the Pozzo di Beatrice).
For over 70 years now the Palazzo has been the headquarter and flagship store of the shoemakers Salvatore Ferragamo.

The museum is on the lower floor, below street level, a tranquil refuge from the noise of modern Florence. You enter from the Piazza Santa Trinità the column of Giustizia in the centre facing down Via Tornabuoni and its designer shops.
Immediatly there is an aura of effortless style – cool music, carefully modulated ligthting. The first section of the museum introduces us to the man himself, Salvatore Ferragamo. Born in 1898 in the small town of Bonito about 100 kilometres east of Naples, Ferragamo emigrated to United States in 1914.
He seems always to have known where is talents lay saying, “I was born to be a shoemaker”. His arrival in California coincided with the early heady days of the film industry, and it wasn’t long before he had opened the Hollywood Boot Shop (great name).
By the time he returned to Italy in 1927 and settled in Florence, his reputation as shoemaker to the stars was already established and was to continue throughout his life. It was a reputation based on shoes which were beautiful, exquisitely made, and comfortable.
They were also famously light, as shown by photograph of a Ferragamo shoe with a 130 gm weight added to the scales to make it balance with an “ordinary” shoe.
We see photographs of Salvatore Ferragamo at shoe fittings with famous film stars of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, and bringing the link with showbiz up to date, another room is also showing a short documentary on the making of the recent film “Australia” the Ferragamo company made all Nicole Kidman’s shoes for the film. Other displays feature extracts from the Hollywood shop’s order book, a mock workshop showing the shoe-making process, with the lasts made for famous wearers, and orginal sketches and artwork used for advertising campaigns.

But the real stars are the shoes. On display at any time are hundreds of shoes from the museum’s permanent collection of over 10,000, documenting Ferragamo’s career up to his death in 1960, and beyond.
Almost a century of history told by foot wear. And what shoes! Sandals, court, shoes, wedges, ballerina shoes, ankle boots, lacing shoes, shoes with high heels, shoes with low heels, all of exquisite workman ship. And shoes in every material imaginable – not only in calf, suede, snakeskin and kid, but also in cork, satin, straw, glass, and even a pair of high-heeled sandals in 18 ct gold made for a wife of an ( unnamed) Australian tycoon.

Museo Salvatore Ferragamo is open every day except Tuesday.
Disabled access. Entrance euro 5,00.
Proceeds from admission and gift sales support young shoe designers. Book if visiting in group of 10 or more.
www.museoferragamo.it – Telephone: +39 055 3360455/456

Italian gardens

teatro-verzura — Teatro di Verzura - Villa Reale - Lucca

The Teatro di Verzura at Villa Reale
What better month than Mayfor a visit to the sumptuous grounds of the Villa Reale at Marlia?
Here will find one of the best preserved historic gardens in Italy. The Villa itself was known to have been in the hands of the Buonvisi family as far back as the early 1500s, but it was only in 1652 when it was acquired by the Orsetti family that the gardens were first laid out and planted with various species designed to create a baroque style landscape.
The so called “Teatro di Verzura” dates from this period, going back to around 1680, from which time it has remained unchanged.
But what is a Teatro di Verzura? It is an open hair theatre, in which natural forms such as artfully placed and trimmed trees, hedges and shrubs make up the backdrop, the wings and the stage, creating the architectural structure with the decorative elements then supplied by statues, seats and columns.
The origins of these natural theatres are not clear; they are thought to have been used for simple or povere performances, poetry readings, songa and open air concerts. By the early 17th century, the art of topiary was already well developed, especially by Roman gardeners, seeking to “sculpt” trees by pruning them in reconisable forms. The box tree, they yew and the laurel lent themselves especially well to being shaped in the form of human figures, hunting scenes and animals. From these origins arose the strange architectural phenomenon of the late 1600s that we know know as the Teatro di Verzura.
The theatre at Marlia, while not unique, is certainly a rare and brilliant example of topiary, preserving the original 17th century greenery. It is more elaborate and better preserved, for example, than the one at Villa Garzoni at Collodi, or those at the Villa Gori and Villa Sergardi at Siena.
It cnsists of a stage, wings and backdrop of evergreen cypress trees, a prompt box in appropriately enough, box wood, a rostrum for the conductor, stalls for the audience with box hedges setting out the rows of seats, and series of bow-fronted opera boxes, entirely constructed from greenery.
A row of little semicircles of boxwood runs along the proscenuim arch to hide the lights used for evening performances.

Tuscany events

Lucca Elegance Exhibition

Lucca Elegance
May the pagan month. But also the month when spring sunshine flooding into rooms can get you thinking about replacing tired fabrics or furniture. If you’re feeling the nestbuilding urge, you could do worse than spend the weekend of 14-16 may at Lucca Elegance, the art, antiques and interior design fair at the Real Collegio in the centre of Lucca.
This is the second year of Lucca Elegance which attracted over 4000,00 visitors in 2009 drawn by the chance to see and buy paintings, furniture, fabrics and jewellery from top suppliers from all over Italy.
Clearly, living in houses that are often 300 or 400 years old has its responsibilities, and modern furniture will not always seem quite right.
Lucca Elegance strives to recreate the look of the typical 17th century salotto lucchese, displayed to perfection in the spacious rooms of the Real Collegio.
Whether you’re in acquisitive mood or not, the fair is an artistic experience in itself, where you can learn much about good art and design.
For example, there will be an exhibition feauturing many of the major Italian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially those local to Tuscany.
In short, a great way to experience gracious living at its best.
Lucca Elegance will be at the Real Collegio (behind the Church of San Frediano, in the centre of Lucca) on:

Friday 14 May (3 pm – 11 pm)
Saturday 15 May (10 am – 11 pm)
Sunday 16 May (10 am – 7.30 pm)

Web-site: www.luccaelegance.it

Events in Tuscany

Clothes Show

The Clothes Show
Hundred years of fashion is on show in Lucca until the middle of May.
The State Archive in Piazza Guidiccioni (where the open air summer cinema is held) has been rummaging through the family wardrobe and various private collection to display clothes and fashions from the past.
Also using documentary material tailor’s bills and clothes shop accounts, as well as the recently acquired archive from thread makers Cucirini Cantoni Coats, the exhibition “Dal Filo al Vestito” offers a social commentary on how Italians dressed from the md 19th century up to the time of economic boom a century later.

Exhibition runs until 15 May.
To visit you must book by telephone on 0583 491465 or by e-mail at: as-lu@beniculturali.it

Web-site: www.beniculturali.it