A Collection of Secret Doors

One of our small daily pleasures was discovering the secret doors in the facades of the Florentine villas. In order to preserve the integrity of the design of the building, while simultaneously creating an additional entrance for servants, the Florentines have gone to great lengths to simulate carved stone so that these doorways blend into the rest of the building.



If you are not on the lookout for them, you could easier walk right by.




At times, several materials must be mimicked: stone, stucco, concrete. Usually the doors are made of wood with careful carving and painting to imitate the original materials.





The above set of double doors are made of wood and are carefully carved and painted to appear as similar to the stones that surround them.



This door is not disguised at all, but it is gorgeous nonetheless.




Gulliver did enjoy trying to open them all.




Another common style is to place a smaller door within the immense doors. The large ones are opened for cars (or originally horses) and the small one is used for people.


This is a detail of the door from above. Can you spot the key hole and handle?





Have you found it?



Not hidden exactly, but an unexpected placement below the window ledge.




This door is not secret, but it is actually very small. Just compare it to the doors to the right, which are cut off at their midpoint by the photo frame.



Even buildings which are not particularly important or grand have these secret doors.




It is unusual to see doors like this: most certainly not the main entrance and yet not disguised either.




A lovely one located underneath a window ledge.



Frank Jan is attempting a break-in.




A detail of how the wood is carved (on the right) to imitate the concrete (on the left).




A very small door, cut into a larger door, with lots of graffiti.



Easy to walk right by.




But check out the mail slot!




Gulliver regularly tries to open this door (and also rings the bell - upper left side)




An unusually large set of double doors.




My finger is on the crack of the top of a very small inner door.




This door is complete with doorbells and house number.




Now you must be an expert as well. Can you find the hidden door (or doors?)

Field Trip: Printmaker's studio

The class that I have been teaching for Syracuse University-Florence, is a combination of experimental printmaking, artist books and field trips to the studios of area artisans. We have had some really fascinating field trips including this one to the home/studio of Sweitlan (Nick) Kraczyna in Bottai, outside of Florence.

After boarding the wrong bus, we somehow managed to get off at a stop only one town away from Bottai. Thanks to the technology of cell phones, Nick picked us up minutes after we got off the bus, and we crammed into his car and drove off to his home.


Here we are entering a small opening in the ivy, not sure of just what exactly lies on the otherside.


A small studio delightfully packed floor to ceiling with materials, artworks, books, memorabilia and inspirations. Here Nick is showing us his multiple-plate color etchings from the Icarus series.


Into the press room where a hundred year-old etching press and an even older tree-beam share the space.




This is the front of his house and he invites us into the chapel.


This sign, which is posted on the outside of the building, states that it was the home of the great fresco painter, Domenico Ghirlandiao. Ghirlandaio painted some of the most important frescoes in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.


And, in fact, we can see that he painted some in his own home chapel. (Yes, this is where Nick lives!)


Outside once again we are greeted by Bruce, who is Nick's daughter's dog. Both Nick's grown daughter and grandson, as well as his grown son, live on "the compound".

The students delight in the ripe plums growing in the garden.


This is the courtyard that joins the studio, chapel, and homes of Nick and his children.



Upstairs to the rooftop terrace with a view of the Duomo in the distance.


Ghirlandaio's original hearth (the kitten in the basket is more recent). It is still used for cooking and heating.


And, of course, the typical italian style of dish storage and drying. Place wet plates in the racks over the sink and they drip dry into the sink below. Every apartment, including ours, uses this system and it beats the unsightly drying racks that we use at home!

Partiamo Domani

(fresco on the ceiling of the Duomo - head is approx. 10 feet across)


Well, after 2 months in Florence we head for home tomorrow.

Everyone is having mixed feelings about this. With the notion of home so close we are all looking forward to some aspect of our former home life that awaits us. Meanwhile, we are also aware that once we land in Syracuse we will miss our life here.

Things we are looking forward to at home include: less mosquitoes, cooler temperatures, fresh air, our very own piece of grass to lie down on, friends, family, toys that stayed behind, projects that are waiting to be finished (or started), swimming in Green Lakes, blueberry picking.

However, I'm afraid the list of things that we will miss about Italy is significantly longer (and tastier). I think Gulliver has summed it up nicely: tonight when I was putting him to bed, he said,

"Mama, I really really want to go home now."

To which I replied, "I know sweetie, but instead of thinking about home, let's try to think of all the things we liked doing here this summer."

And after a long pause, he said, "But Mama, if I think of the things I liked doing here, I won't want to go home."




Stay tuned for some great posts to come, as I've still got loads of stories and photos from our many adventures here.

Tim blogs about Venice

So a few weekends ago Holly and I packed up the kids and jumped on a train with the 10 students from Laura Heyman’s photography class for a trip to Venice and the Biennale. Holly worked it so she was acting as the “responsible adult” on the trip so she got her trip payed for and I once again was the trailing spouse. I do have to say that Holly was great at being responsible: speaking Italian like a native and navigating Venice like Guido Brunetti.

We met Laura and her students at the Florence train station at 8 am. Which meant being up and out of the house by 7:30 which to some seems like no big deal but we have a 5 year old teenager who likes to sleep in - however we made it with time to spare. After a 3 hr train ride we arrived in Venice and I quickly slipped away to see the new Calatrava bridge.



Top and bottom.

I have to say the bridge looked great but it was kind of hard to walk over with the irregular setup spacing. This is kind of a problem for a walking bridge I think but maybe I am too picky.

We hopped on a vaparetto and on to our hotel. Gulliver was very impressed that the buses were boats. After getting turned around a couple of times we dropped our bags at the hotel and set off for the Biennale. For those of you that have not been to the Venice Biennale, it is a contemporary art show that happens every other year. There are two main exhibition spaces the Giardini and the Arsenale but there is stuff going on all over the city. The Giardini for my money is the most humane place to see a massive exhibition like the the Biennale because each country has a pavilion in which to exhibit the artist from that country. The pavilions are set in a beautiful garden so when you are walking around looking at art you are forced outside which serves as a breather or palate cleanser before the next course. This really helps to prevent “art stupid” which is brought on by seeing too much art at one time. I think it is the brain trying to protect itself from all the deep thoughts floating around by turning itself off.



This is a Dale Chihuly installation outside of the Croatian pavilion. Think what you will about Chihuly, but Eisen loved it. If you took your eye off him for a second he would be climbing through the fence trying to get in to the installation.


This was Gulliver’s favorite installation in the Italian pavilion I do not remember the artist but Gulliver delighted in running through the maze of strings and then instructing us on how to do it. Of course I had to do it pushing a sleeping Eisen in the stroller - yikes!


It’s closing time at the Biennale: you do not have to go home but you cannot stay here.
On the way back to the hotel we had the worst meal we have had in Italy - maybe my life.


But Gulliver got to stop in the Piazza San Marco and feed the pigeons. And yes, Addison, he touched one and I gave him 5 euros - are you jealous? It just goes to show that you catch more flies with sugar than .


We also got to pass Holly’s favorite store in Venice.

Day two at the Biennale and we are at the Arsenale: a very large curated show in the old arsenal of Venice.



Where we saw Holly’s favorite piece in the show or one of them at least.


And Gulliver really liked the cut paper “city”



1/2 way through and we were ready for...

I quite liked this installation.


We finally made it through the Arsenale and headed back to the Giardini to catch the pavilions we missed. On the way we were on the lookout for a place for lunch but we ended up on the street that the restaurant from last night was on so we took a pass on any of the other ones - guilt by association, you know.

But Holly with a zig here and a zag there, a couple of up and downs lead us right to the restaurant we had had a wonderful meal in 8 years ago: Da Franz. Here we had one of the best meals if not the best of my life. It started with the waiter coming out and asking what we were in the mood for - no menus or anything, we give him a vague idea “primi and pasta” then he proceeded to describe what they have that would fit our desires. I had a primi of fried sardines fresh of the boat with raisins, pine nuts and onions all served at room temperature, which I was surprised at but quickly got over it. and a secondi of anchovies, tomatoes on a whole wheat pasta - a simple but classic Venetian dish, then a chocolate mousse thing for dessert. Holly had a primi of shrimp sauteed in white wine on a wonderful chocolate pasta with mixed green salad for secondi then a panna cotta for dessert. On top of the food we were treated to a floor show of eavesdropping on Andrea Rosen and her party of collectors sitting at the next table , most entertaining. After coffee we set off for the Giardini.


I am glad we made the effort to go back and see what we missed because there was some quite good stuff.


This piece from the German pavilion was not that great but it made for a nice photo.



Then there was the Czech pavilion that was one of my favorites. What the artist did was to recreate the Gardini inside the pavilion so that the only difference between the inside and outside was that there were walls around one bit of the outside. It is funny that two of my favorite pieces of the show were kind of negating the whole show or maybe more accurately about the site sans art. Steve McQueen had a piece in a similar vain that I missed but maybe I would have liked it. After finishing the show we hopped a Vaparetto to our hotel picked up the bags and headed off to the train station and back to Florence, still basking in the glow of a fabulous meal and some stimulating art.