November and Thanksgiving Break

Dave and I had a fabulous holiday and we hope everyone we know did as well - we love those holidays where we can pretend we are retired and can do whatever we want! 

We took Thursday as Eating-And-Watching-Movies Day.  Friday we avoided leaving the house because there is nothing we need badly enough to co-mingle with frenzied shoppers... so we just stayed in and worked. 

We both got a lot accomplished this weekend.  Dave got the tiles cut and placed in the upstairs bath and just so he would get some fresh air, he went out in the yard and bagged several tons of leaves (if you look at the yard, you would never know it...the joys of a wooded lot...but if you see it, tell him how great it's looking anyway...bless his heart.  He says it's better than mowing in the summer). He also got a lot done on his projects in his office. 

I put together my new computer desk, which improved the "guest room" a great deal and got the Christmas Covers4Kids quilt to the binding stage - should have a finished picture of it later this week.

It's both amazing and annoying how quickly four days can go by!

Earlier this month I went down to San Antonio for the departmental retreat in New Braunfels and, since my friend Dee wanted to go (again), we stopped by the Snake Farm, where I got some great pictures of not-snakes that I wanted to share - I didn't want the month to slip completely by without documenting something other than our last trip!

9/20 Davazati and Vecchio

After breakfast, we set out for the Museo de Palazzo Davazati...on the way, we spied Men-at-Work (for Margaret) -

 
 but when we got to the museum, it was closed...

So we walked on down the street...

Entering the Palazzo Vecchio, one of the first things we noticed was the wonderful Fountain of Neptune:

The Fountain of Neptune, nicknamed Biancone...by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1563-1565)...was commissioned on the occasion of the wedding of Francesco I de' Medici with grand duchess Johanna of Austria in 1565.  The assignment had first been given to Baccio Bandinelli, who designed the model but he died before he could start ...The Neptune figure, whose face resembles that of Cosimo I de' Medici, was meant to be an allusion to the dominion of the Florentines over the sea..... (Museums of Florence.com)

and, as usual...pigeons don't know from great art...

9/19 - Just Wandering....

So, after Annunziata, we headed for the Museum of Archeology and we found ourselves wandering around and around, map in hand...up and down side streets...

...and we finally figure out that we had found the back of it and could see the garden through the fence...

 
 
 

...so we walked all the way around the very long block again, but it wasn't open (we think we found the entrance....)...sigh...so we went back to the Piazza S. Annunziata...

....and down another side street, enjoying the odd little things we found...like painted windows that matched the third real window (couldn't figure out the aesthetic value of this, since the street wasn't very wide...)

 and cool graffiti...

and, of course, the door handles on the entrances to apartment buildings and faces peering at us from under windows and balconies and street corners... 

Finally, we could tell where we were, just by looking toward the end of the street...

As a landmark, the Duomo rocks!  We came out of this street and around the Basilica and back out into the Square facing the Baptistry!

The BEST thing about this is that we now could find the hotel again and, after a rest, go out to dinner!

9/19 Annunziato part 2

...of course it was a statue of Fernando d'Medici....they are everywhere - remember?  I already pointed that out...

even looking up, going into the Basilica of S. Annunziato - guess who??

I thought it a beautiful church and when we go back, I'd like to spend more time there - knowing we only had a few days to see as much as possible put a slight crimp in the ability to just stay in every spot for a couple of hours to really enjoy and absorb all of the art laid out before us!

 
 
 
 
 

 

9/19 Piazza Santissima Annunziata

A block down a side street from San Marco,

 
















brings you into the Piazza Santisima Annunziata - with another church (S. Annunziata - founded in 1250; built in 1481; facade added in 1601; the mother church of the Servite Order) - which, like a lot of Italian churches is actually rather plain on the outside and extremely opulant inside...

- square in front of the church contains a statue of Fernando somebody-or-other

...the first foundling hospital in all of Europe...

BRUNELLESCHI'S SPEDALE DEGLI INNOCENTI (1420s)

a book about can be found at Amazon here

 

and one of my favorite fountains on the planet...

bat-winged monkeys...who outside of Oz would've thunk it?

okay, okay...they are actually some sort of mer-creature...but they still remind me of Oz....