Morning and Evening Colour

Spectacular Skies over Chianti

 morning

Autumn Great and Small

Zoom out and zoom in on those once-in-a-year colours

 

The Uffizi in Technicolour

Colour and the Evolution of the Uffizi*

Chardin's Boy Building a House of Cards, 1735, now displayed in the Foreign Artists' Gallery at the Uffizi

It is impossible to write a post on the art in the Uffizi Gallery. That is a job a) for more learned people and b) for people with more time on their hands. So I shall offer some thoughts on one aspect of the gallery which is prompted by recent changes: the colour of its walls.

A Bucketful of Roses

September's Largesse

September is a generous month. It gives us grapes and figs, the last fruits of the vegetable garden, milder weather with sun, and wonderful roses. 

The Gardens of Villa Marlia near Lucca

The Ups and Downs 
of an 
Historic Garden

It is true that we arrived at Villa Marlia, Capannori, not far from Lucca, on an extremely hot summer's day during an extremely hot and dry summer. Yet our overriding first impression of the gardens was of neglect and decay.This impression was soon softened by splendid perspectives and some truly special gardens and features (the massive topiary hedges and bushes are most striking), but despite these, it is clear that the property has seen better days. It needs some saving.

 a portion of the lawn at Villa Marlia, with its spectacular topiary columns and spheres; one has to imagine the grass as green as per Capability Brown landscaping which it clearly imitates

 

magnificent, tall hedges leading to Clock House

A Rose is a rose is a rose

Roses in May


In a 2013 post Roses are pink , Le Ripe's roses were introduced; here is the next chapter.

  My inherited cultural references being at least partly British, I usually associate the optimum blooming of the rose with the month of June, but here at the 43rd parallel north things start getting exciting in mid May; this year some summery weather has accelerated the excitement.

Spring Report

abundant clematis armandii: and the perfume!

It may seem trite, but the joys of spring, the return of vitality to our world never cease to delight. A small record of it seemed in order. 

Reflected Glory

One of our best sunsets yet

Le Ripe faces east and north, principally, so we usually miss the best of the sunset, but yesterday we were rewarded with a spectacular display. 

And this was only the reflected glory!

Winter walks

Here and There 
at 
5 degrees Celsius and below

the view from halfway up our hill, looking east-south-east towards the Monti del Chianti

northeast towards Panzano from our hill

zooming in on Panzano, soft morning light

due north from the top of our hill towards Monte Bernardi, Piazza and Sicelle

river in the valley below Badiaccia Montemurro, near Radda

Autumn morning

looking towards Radda around 7am

 the garden a few minutes later

The Moroccan Wall

At last, a drystone wall!

after: the completed wall and earthworks

before: the crumbling old wall, seen behind the line of the broom plant with new stones piled in front

In his The Stone Book Quartet, Alan Garner evokes the art of making a drystone wall in language as essential as dressed stone.

Grandfather was rough-dressing the stone for the wall, and laying it out along the hedge. Joseph unwound the line and pegged one end in the joints where Grandfather had finished the day before, and pulled the line tight against the bank. His job was to cut the bank back to receive the stone and to run a straight bed for the bottom course.
He chopped at the bank.
...
'Get your knee aback of your shovel,' said Grandfather. 'There's no sense in mauling yourself half to death. Come on, youth. Shape!'
...
Grandfather took the spade from him and looked along the bank. He walked along the raw cut edge and shaved the earth with light swings of the blade.'You've got it like a fiddler's elbow,' he said.
...

Grandfather grunted, and swung the blocks to lie as he wanted. They seemed to move without more than his hand on them.

...
Grandfather and Damper Latham worked together, as they had always done. The stone moved lightly for them.

The Art of Fresco part one: Masaccio, the Brancacci Chapel

ancient technique, new approach

Masaccio probably had several hours (at most a day's work, in any case), to paint this head of Saint Peter in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. Note the fine crack running around his neck, the top of his tunic and the edge of his yellow mantle: this crack is the edge of the giornata, the area of wet plaster that apprentices would have prepared for the master painter to cover in one day. Is it not extraordinary that, presumably without major alterations, this beautiful, expressive face was painted rapidly, and under pressure?

Winter Daybreak

Red sky in the morning

  

January 2014

These were the pre-dawn views southeast towards Radda at around 8 o'clock, taken a few days apart. 

No special effects in the camera-work, but plenty in the sky.

Chianti Spectacular

Circuit routes through Chianti: 

the pick of the bunch - so far

Le Ripe is just opposite the river from Lucarelli which is 10 o'clock from Radda

Greve-Lamole-Panzano roundtrip

Vignamaggio, the villa and vineyard where the Monna Lisa was supposed to have lived and where Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado about Nothing was filmed

On the Way Home

The Flaming Cypress

A crimson glory vine (vitis coignetiae) sets fire to a solitary cypress.

Admired each year in October on the SP 76 between La Piazza and Molin Nuovo, Comune of Castellina in Chianti.

Nymphaeaceae - Water Lily

The Missing Myth

Since our little pond was established in the restored washing trough we have enjoyed the annual gift of a single waterlily. With wonder and joy we observe its opening and closing each day for three days and its gentle sinking back underwater once its flowering cycle is complete.

Perigee Moon

Moon over Radda

It is the very error of the moon,
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont
And makes men mad.

Othello, Act V Scene II

Mad with excitement in this case. 

The perigee moon: the closest the moon has been to the earth this year. It looks 14% bigger than usual and its proximity affects tides and who knows what else. As it rose above Radda we were astounded by the size. Unfortunately the photo does not render its deep golden hue...

The La Petraia Experience

A Special Meal in the Hills

My only concern in writing about La Petraia is not to do it justice. La Petraia is not simply an agriturismo or country inn with fine dining, it is a lifestyle project, a way of life, a very particular choice to create a sustainable environment where the leitmotif is quality.

approaching La Petraia

This is obviously a big ask but the two owners and creators of this reality are passionate about their project and in twelve years have achieved remarkable things.

the entrance

Like Le Ripe, where we live, La Petraia had been abandoned for 40 years. It was fallow ground just waiting to be resown, restored, nurtured and to bear fruit. Which it has, in a big way. The abandoned farm now produces its own fruit and vegetables, honey, poultry, cinta senese pork, eggs, the first wines and olive oil, cheeses and milk and essential lavender oil and soap. And it offers hospitality and cuisine with extreme graciousness and charm.

the terraced gardens with a glimpse of the dining terrace above

The Carla Fineschi Botanical Rose Garden, Cavriglia

Eight Thousand Different Roses

 "Come into my garden. 
I would like my roses to see you.” 

These words, by Richard Sheridan, the Irish-born eighteenth-century dramatist and politician,
are engraved in a marble plaque set in the stone wall surrounding the house at the  
Roseto Botanico Carla Fineschi.  
A delightful invitation to all who visit.

Roseto di Cavriglia, now called Roseto Botanico Carla Fineschi in memory of the founder's wife

The Rose Garden at Cavriglia in the province of Arezzo, just outside the boundary of Chianti, is a remarkable testimony to one man's lifelong passion and dedication. The garden was founded in 1967 by Professor Gianfranco Fineschi who taught medicine at the Catholic University in Rome.  

He was something of a local legend. In the words of someone who met him:
"Fineschi was a little like Galileo in that he was a scholar, humble, empirical, unaffected, practical and well connected at every level of Italian culture and society. His interests numbered four: orthopedics, roses, sport (meaning soccer) and classical music. 

More irises

fields of iris

campi di giaggioli

A friend has sent these glorious shots from nearby Lamole where the iris industry used to thrive. See the post Beauty and the Beast for background on the Tuscan iris, now flowering in Chianti. 

(All the Gs in giaggioli are soft as iris petals).