The Desco
Obviously winter is the season of serious eating, and in November and December, Lucca has the perfect showcase for everything local that is good to eat and drink. The sixth edition of Il Desco opens on 20 November at the Real Collegio (see article opposite) and runs through successive weekends until 12 December.
This food fair, to which entry is free, has established itself as a wonderful way to sample the very best that lucchesia has to offer-indeed, there are those who have been known to give up making lunch at home enterely for severl weekends, and settle instead for a gentle graze around these fabulous food stalls.
This year, although the entire range of products will be available over the full run of the fair, one product will be available over the full run of the fair, one product in particular will be highlighted each weekend; on 20-21 November it will be fagioli followed on 27-28 November by farro.
Chestnuts have pride of place on 4-5 December, and connoisseurs of oil and bread should head for the Desco on 11-12 December.
In addition on 8 December, which is of course a national holiday in Italy, and the day on which pre-Christmas preparations officially get under way, there will be a special session devoted to chocolate and cigars – just how wicked can you get?
Each weekend, there will be a forum of experts debating the merits and ssalient features of each highlighted product, and discussing how best to cook them.
And look out for local alimentari and restaurants joining in the fun. There will be no escape!
The Romanesque parish church of San piero in Campo
The parish church is an important example of Romanesque architecture as it one of the best preserved and it has not been modified either inside or out.
Information about the baptismal church starts from 846, but its current layout is the result of complete reconstruction between the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Of the original structure there remains only fragments (for example, the two white limestone caaapitals in the blind loggia of the facade).
The building has a nave and two aisles divided by nine monolithic columns in stone, a pilaster faced with wood and brick with five trusses over the nave (restored in 1907); the aisles have a pitched ceiling and there is one apse. References to the compositions and decorations that charcterise its aarchitecture are found in the church of Sant’Alessandro and in San Michele in Foro in Lucca.
The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church inFlorence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres south east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such asMichelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile and Rossini, thus it is known also as theTemple of the Italian Glories (Tempio dell’Itale Glorie).
The Basilica is the largest Franciscan church in the world. Its most notable features are its sixteenchapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its tombs and cenotaphs. Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by St Francis himself. The construction of the current church, to replace an older building, was begun on 12 May 1294[1], possibly by Arnolfo di Cambio, and paid for by some of the city’s wealthiest families.
It was consecrated in 1442 by Pope Eugene IV. The building’s design reflects the austere approach of the Franciscans. The floorplan is an Egyptian or Tau cross (a symbol of St Francis), 115 metres in length with a nave and two aisles separated by lines of octagonal columns. To the south of the church was a convent, some of whose buildings remain.
In the Primo Chiostro, the main cloister, there is the Cappella dei Pazzi, built as the chapter house, completed in the 1470s. Filippo Brunelleschi (who had designed and executed the dome of the Duomo) was involved in its design which has remained rigorously simple and unadorned.
In 1560, the choir screen was removed as part of changes arising from the Counter-Reformation and the interior rebuilt by Giorgio Vasari. As a result, there was damage to the church’s decoration and most of the altars previously located on the screen were lost.
The campanile was built in 1842, replacing an earlier one damaged by lightning. The neo-Gothic marble façade, by Nicolò Matas, dates from 1857-1863.
A Jewish architect Niccolo Matas from Ancona, designed the church’s 19th century neo-Gothic facade, working a prominent Star of David into the composition. Matas had wanted to be buried with his peers but because he was Jewish, he was buried under the porch and not within the walls.
In 1866, the complex became public property, as a part of government suppression of most religious houses, following the wars that gained Italian independence and unit.
The Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce is housed mainly in the refectory, also off the cloister. A monument to Florence Nightingalestands in the cloister, in the city in which she was born and after which she was named. Brunelleschi also built the inner cloister, completed in 1453.
In 1966, the Arno River flooded much of Florence, including Santa Croce. The water entered the church bringing mud, pollution and heating oil. The damage to buildings and art treasures was severe, taking several decades to repair.
Today the former dormitory of the Franciscan Friars houses the Scuola del Cuoio (Leather School)[1]. Visitors can watch as artisans craft purses, wallets, and other leather goods which are sold in the adjacent shop.
The Brancacci Chapel (in Italian, “Cappella dei Brancacci”) is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, central Italy. It is sometimes called the “Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance” for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Pietro Brancacci and begun in 1386.
Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel.
The patron of the pictorial decoration was Felice Brancacci, descendant of Pietro, who had served as the Florentine ambassador to Cairo until 1423. Upon his return to Florence, he hired Masolino da Panicale to paint his chapel.
Masolino’s associate, 21 year old Masaccio, 18 years younger than Masolino, assisted, but during painting Masolino left to Hungary, where he was painter to the king, and the commission was given to Masaccio. By the time Masolino returned he was learning from his talented former student. However, Masaccio was called to Rome before he could finish the chapel, and died in Rome at the age of 27.
Portions of the chapel were completed later byFilippino Lippi. Unfortunately during the Baroque period some of the paintings were seen as unfashionable and a tomb was placed in front of them.
The agricultural landascape of Montecarlo hills gives interesting panoramic views of the normal route that leadsto the old centre, and of buildings and the roads in the town itself, from the terrace (almost in front of the collegiate church of Sant’Andrea) which opens onto the Lucca side, from the nearby Montechiari hill, and from the top of the Fortress.
The landscape on the Lucca side mainly consists of neat rows of vineyards on the gentle slopes of the hills, olive groves, woodlands and the green areas of the “bird traps”. Various buildings, farmhouses, a few villas and scattering of residential nuclei with their terrcotta roofs, dot the landscape and provide perspective.
Various important farming concerns are situated at different points in this agricultural landascape. For example, Fattoria del Buonamico, Azienda Agricola Enzo Carmignani, Fattoria di Cercatoia, Azienda Agricola Belvedere….
the views from the hills of Montecarlo extend towards the former lake of Sesto and the mountains of Monti Pisani. Recognisable are: the village of Castelvecchio di Compito, Pieve di Compito e San Ginese, to the east; to the west, Lucca, and in the distance, the Panie mountains of the Apuan Alps.
The landscape on the Val di Nievole side of the plain is primarly characterised by hothouses for the cultivation of flowers, and activity that developed mainly after the Second World War and especially in the 1960s. Against the backdrop of the hills are recognisable: the cathedral and bell tower of Pescia, the Colleviti convent, the unmistakable modern buildings of the Flower Market a pescia, the village of Collodi and the slopes behind Castello dei Garzoni, the historical centres of Uzzano and Buggiani, Montecatini Alto and other centres and towns, and the vast reclaimed area of the Padule di Fucecchio.
