Pisa: Camposanto Monumentale

= Monumental Cemetery

It's the long building next to the Cathedral at Pisa. Despite the name, it doesn't look like the usual hole-in-the-ground cemetery. It's the posh version full of artworks.

Here's the view from the inside of the cemetery. Notice the ornate decorations of the glassless windows. The tombs are those curvy marble coffins lining the side walls.

A close up of one of those. Very intricate patterns carved on the marble.

I assumed the fancier ones, with statues and frescoes, might belong to richer or more important people.

I particularly love this view.

Pity I didn't get the chance to explore the Museo Dell'Opera (Museum of Opera) and Museo Delle Sinopie (Museum of Sinopia) that are also in the area.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) is what the Cathedral Square at Pisa is known as. It consists of the Duomo (cathedral), the Leaning Tower, the Battistero (Baptistry), and Camposanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery).

The weather was horrible: dark grey sky, raining cats and dogs. That's why the photos came out darker.


Technically the Leaning Tower is a campanile (free-standing bell tower) of the Cattedrale (Cathedral).

I thought it looked much smaller and not as tall as I imagined it to be. I suppose I was too used to the sights of modern skyscrapers. Honestly I was more impressed with the other buildings at the Square.

Here's the Battistero:

Verona, Italy: Romeo and Juliet's Balcony

Back to the subject of my past trip to Italy.

Verona is a city that's famous for being the setting for an ancient Italian tale: Romeo and Juliet's tragic love. So Shakespeare wasn't the first person who tell their story.

I don't like any tragic lovers' story. Still, out of curiosity I went to Casa di Giulietta (Juliet's House) to see the famous balcony. Apparently there is more historical evidence that the house was actually a bordello for many years before being bought by the city and turned into a tourist attraction.




How about Romeo's house? Though there's no proof to support the believe that any Montagues ever owned the place, his "house" is now a restaurant called Osteria Dal Duca. Apparently it's a far more worthy sight to visit. Sadly I didn't have time to do that.

On the photo below you can see traces of frescoes on the buildings' outside walls. The frescoes aren't in the best conditions as they've been exposed to weather for many many years.

Florence and Kendal Mint Cake

Above is Basilica Santa Croce (= Holy Cross Basilica) in Florence.

Apart from the Basilica itself, most of the buildings around the Piazza are shops selling leather goods: coats, bags, shoes, etc. I remember entering one of the shops on the left side of the photo and trying on a gorgeous floor length black leather coat. The cutting was superb and the leather was very soft. I looked fabulous wearing it, even if I may say so. Hehehe... However, I was living in hot and humid Singapore at that time, so I couldn't see the point of buying the coat, no matter how tempting it was. Looking back, I should have bought it. I guess I was too young and naive to know the value of investing in a classic coat then.

The Basilica looks really ornate outwardly, so I was expecting the inside to be at least as nice as that. I was quite shocked when I stepped in, as the inside was very plain, grey and humble looking compared to the outside. I suppose I shouldn't judge the Basilica by it's cover... Inside are the tombs of famous people: Dante, Michelangelo, Voltra, Gallilei, Machiavelli, Lancio, Rossini, etc.

That's my only memories of Florence. Not much, I know. Perhaps it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be...

As promised, this week is all about pepperminty things. So with much pleasure I present to you the recipe for Kendal Mint Cake, a hugely popular mint treat in England.

According to an article I read, the Mint Cake was created by accident in the 19th century. It's fame spread after being first sold at Kendal railway station. It's also popular with mountaineers due to it's energy content.

I'm no mountaineer but I love eating them alongside my chocolate drink. Somehow they always remind me of Lake District and wintry Christmas.

This recipe makes 16 squares.

450gr (1lb) granulated sugar
150ml (1/4 pint) milk
5ml (1tsp) peppermint essence

1. Butter an 18cm (7inch) square shallow cake tin. Place the sugar and milk in a saucepan. Bring very, very slowly to the boil over a very low heat, shaking and swirling the pan occasionally until the sugar is dissolved.

2. Place a thermometer in the pan and boil rapidly until the mixture reaches 140C (275F). Remove from the heat and add the essence, beating well until smooth and cooled slightly.

3. Pour into the prepared tin. As it cools, mark out squares with a knife. Once cold cut into 16 squares.

Clever idea: dip them in chocolate, leave to dry on top of baking paper. Voila: after dinner mint!

Paintings and Sweet Revenge

It's difficult to start again after being distracted by the richness of the truffles. Being handmade objects I think they could be counted as works of art, therefore it was still in line with other things mentioned on the same day. See, I do stick to the subject. Hehehe...

So, back to Cappella Sistina (= Sistine Chapel), the greatest example of Renaissance art.

"Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving."

- Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 1787

I can't express it better. What I saw was beyond beautiful and more mind-blowing than seeing the photos in books alone. The attention to details, the mix of colours, etc. are truly proofs of Michelangelo's stroke of genius...

It took the experts 20 years to complete the recent restoration.

Before:

After:

As you can see, the walls and ceilings are filled with frescoes. From the story of Creation to The Last Judgement.

Amongst the many well-known portions of the frescoes, The Last Judgement fascinated me the most. Firstly, the paintings took up the whole wall behind the altar - it was the biggest single fresco from that century. Secondly, a true story told by my beloved music history lecturer.

Biagio da Cesena, the Pope's Master of ceremony, criticised Michelangelo's paintings, saying, "It was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns."

Michelangelo responded by painting Biagio as one of the demons in hell, with the ears of a donkey, his body draped in a serpent. Upset by this insult, Biagio complained to the Pope. With a sense of humour, the Pope reportedly said, "Ah, you are in hell. That is too bad. If you were in purgatory, I could help you. But even I can't get you of hell."

So the picture stays. Michelangelo had his sweet revenge. The story is still told hundreds of years later, and the painting is still there for everyone to see.

Another interesting thing that stood out for me: the picture of St. Bartholomew holding his own skin. Gory, I know. If you look closely, the face on the skin is supposed to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself. Interesting.

City of Gold

St Peter's Basilica (taken from St. Peter's Square) at Vatican City. I arrived early enough to take the above photo without fighting with other tourists for the best spot. There weren't that many people yet in the vicinity. It did get busier by the minute. Apparently the Square gets super crowded on Sundays when the Pope himself appears on one of the windows to bless the crows. I'm not a Catholic and I wasn't keen to see the Pope from a mile away. No offence, the prospect of getting squashed in the crowd wasn't my idea of being blessed. Two ladies from my tour group went. They said the crowd was huge indeed.

Anyway. Vatican City is a walled city-state within Rome. Don't let the "humble" plain-ish looking facades deceive you. Considering it's the smallest city-state in the world, the richness within might surpass many countries in the world. Before my visit I didn't even know that there are that many museums inside Vatican... should have done my homework properly...

As I stepped inside the building one word came to mind: opulence. The intricate art works covered in or made of gold were plastered all over the place as if gold was cheaper than paint. I could smell, see, touch, and feel opulence. Pity I couldn't taste it, as there wasn't any Opera cake (a bit like tiramisu cake with real gold leaves on top) in there. Hehehehe...

I was surrounded by probably one of the most comprehensive art collections in the world. Being surrounded by amazing things created by gifted people should have delighted me. Nevertheless, that moment was one of those rare moments when I thought "too much of a good thing" was too much and too overwhelming for me. Everything was an assault to my senses. Beautiful statues, carvings and colourful frescoes (paintings) on the ceilings, magnificent sculptures, illuminated Bibles (hand-written, illuminated: the words are decorated intricately, some inlaid with real gold), tapestries, more arts, and more gold. The collections weren't something that could be digested in a few hours time, more like something to be savoured over the course of a week or more, depending on your level of interest. I wonder whether people who live there ever get "immune" to the sights...

One useful trick I read in a guide book: bring a compact mirror. I used it to view artworks on the ceilings without straining my neck. Handy!

My favourite amongst them all: the Sistine Chapel. The newest restoration of the paintings had just been completed not long before I went, so I was amongst the firsts to see the result. I didn't care about experts who said that the restoration wasn't historically accurate or something in that line. To my untrained eyes they looked amazing. Mar-vel-lous. I ran out of superlatives to describe it. Looking at it made me feel as if I was the most un-creative person in the whole world. More about Sistine Chapel later.

Roma, la Città Eterna

My Italian adventure started in Rome, the Eternal City. It's one of the most important places in Western civilisation, providing a rich background to the development of church music, which is the "ancestor" of Classical music genre as we know it.

Old buildings and historical places at every twists and turns, it was a feast for the eyes. I love old buildings and the intricate arts that come with them.

When I was little I told my mother that I wanted to be an archaeologist . She said, "No! It's a job that's too dangerous for a woman." So that was the end of it. If I were more determined, right now I could have been living in a remote part of the world, dusting artifacts covered with spiders' webs... shudders... glamorous it is not. Finding riches, solving ancient mysteries? Nah, I'd rather be an Indiana Jones in the comfort of my chair.


The Colosseum above is the largest amphitheatre ever built in the Roman Empire, originally used for gladiatorial combat.

The size of the place is truly colossal. I could imagine the hustle and bustle of the Colosseum when it was full of people. Spectators chatting in anticipation, gladiators psyching themselves, slaves doing whatever they were supposed to do, lions being prepped (=starved?), vendors selling food and drinks - or did they bring their own picnic? What do you think?

* The top images: from a postcard I bought in Rome.

* Colosseum photo: taken by Yours Truly's own Olympus manual camera. Sad to say that said camera has had it's glory days. May it rest in peace.

Belleza Eterna

= "Eternal Beauty" (Italian).

Leaning Tower of Pisa, pizza for lunch,
Brown murky water of Venice, yummy tiramisu for dessert,
Calming blue-green Bay of Naples, bottled water for drinking,
Dusty streets in Rome, dusky evenings in Como,
Leather goods in Florence, intricate glass blowing in Murano,
Posh boutiques and pigeon poos (yup!) in Milan...

Travelling in Italy was like travelling through the passage of time, re-living the pages of the history books and remembering important events from music history lectures. Each city or town has it's own identity to the extent that moving from place to place felt like moving through different countries.

My eyes were opened wide to the wonders of arts, the delicious simplicity of local Italian food, the beauty of the sceneries and historical buildings. Coupled with having an American girl as a roommate and meeting a strange Italian man (tall, blue-eyed, fair-skinned), it was an experience to remember.

Over the next few days (or weeks!) I'm going to share snippets of that trip. Even the act of remembering the places alone brought a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart. One word to describe it: Bellissimo (= very beautiful)!