Italy and London: October 2003

I had first gone to London the year before and enjoyed the city so much I returned on my own the next year. I decided that when I went to visit Peggy that year, I would stop off in London on the way home. To fly on the very affordable Ryanair, you have to fly between Pisa and London's Stansted Airport, but international flights from the US always fly into London's Heathrow. And local flights between cities in Europe also fly through London's Gatwick Airport. So I ended up booking my flight from Boston to Heathrow, then Gatwick to Pisa on British Airways, then for the return from Pisa to Stansted On Ryanair and then a few days later from Heathrow to Boston on British Airways. I was amazed at how easy it all was to do on the internet.

This was the first time I flew British Airways and I was very happy with the experience, particularly in comparison to my experience the year before on Air France. I flew British Airways again in 2007 and again it went well. In 2003, I flew on a jumbo jet, the 747. It's a big plane, with four engines, with the upper deck for First Class. Economy is configured 3-4-3, and each seat had it's own TV for entertainment. When I'm not watching a movie, I watch the screen that tells you the status of the plane – how long it's been flying, time to destination, altitude, speed. I was pretty amazed to see that as the 747 is coming in for a landing and is still a few thousand feet up in the air, it is only going something like 150mph. I thought a plane would stall going that slow, or a plane that big would fall out of the sky, but I guess not. I had a movie, dinner, a nap, breakfast, and then you're pretty much there. The flight from Boston to London is only about five and ¾ hours so it doesn't seem that long.

After landing at Heathrow, I went through Passport Control, got my bag, went through the exit, cross one street and there was Bus Stop 13. Next to it was the ticket office for the National Express Bus Service, just like the info on the internet said. I bought a ticket for Gatwick Airport for 17 pounds. The bus arrived in 15 minutes. My plane had landed at Heathrow at 5:00 a.m. and I was boarding the bus at 6:15. The bus ride was actually a little boring because it was still dark out so I couldn't look at the countryside for the ride. But as we approached Gatwick, it started to get light and I could see sheep grazing in the fields.The bus arrived at Gatwick at about 7:05 a.m. There were plenty of shops to check out during the layover, and I also bought a cup of hot chocolate. I checked my bag through to Pisa and then headed for the Gate. We took off about 8:50 a.m. and the flight is only about 1.5 hours; it arrived in Pisa at 11:30 a.m. local time (London is an hour earlier than Italy). I had been sitting in the front in Row 5 and only had my backpack, coat and magazine so I was able to get off the plane pretty much the minute they opened the door.

After I got my luggage, I headed down the hallway to go out into the airport and I could see Peggy and Al waving to me through the door. I knew Gianluca had something going on at church so he wasn't going to be there to meet me but, much to my surprise, when Peggy came around from behind some people, I could see that she was carrying little Sammy! They brought him to the airport to meet me! Sammy was the new puppy they got just the month before. I was surprised they could bring a dog inside the airport. He was so adorable, immediately licking my hands and face. I thought he had the cutest face, a perfect beagle face, with his black and white and brown coloring. He was so little, a little baby still. We walked a little in the airport and outside, then headed to the car for the ride to Peggy's. Sammy rides in the back of the car but he whines a bit at first, because he always likes to be with people and I think he was lonely back there. But then he went to sleep.

I had arrived on Sunday, 10/19/03. This was a quiet visit this year, hanging around the house, shopping, bonding with Sammy, going to see Gianluca in swimming class, having fun with cooking. But on Wednesday, we did let Gianluca, who is very interested in WWII, take a day off from school so we could go and visit the Florence American Cemetery. There are 4,402 American WWII soldiers buried here. The existence of this place was a surprise to me. I thought the only cemetery in Europe with a lot of Americans buried in it was the one in Normandy, France. I was impressed with how well kept it was. The grounds and trees are very well tended and the grass all green. There are all different kinds of trees, and I wondered if there were so many different ones because they were trees from away, from the homes of all the soldiers, because these soldiers were buried on foreign soil rather than being sent home. There are lots of wooden benches for visitors to sit on and reflect. The memorial at the top of the cemetery has a big mosaic map of Europe showing the Allied advance, and a wall with all the names of the men buried here, rows and rows of white crosses, just so many of them. It is sad to see. But it is a very peaceful place. From the memorial, you look down on the cemetery and have a beautiful view of the mountains. I thought that when these poor men died, it must have been noisy and scary and crazy, but now they have a nice quiet and peaceful place to rest forever.


Gianlu, at the Florence American Cemetery

After the cemetery, we went to the top of the mountain at Old Montecatini, again a gorgeous view. Then we visited the Montecatini Spa where they have the supposed healthful mineral waters, which taste awful, but it is a pretty place.

On Friday, Peg and I went into Florence to visit the Laurentian Library, most of which was designed by Michelangelo. The vestibule is strange – the stairs are nice, curving, but it is very dark intentionally. Maybe he wanted darkness before entering the library and becoming enlightened by knowledge. Up on the wall there are false windows and partial columns that don't go all the way to the floor. It's a strange room.


Vestibule at Laurentian Library

The Library

Inside the library is row after row of desks that are large because this is where you would read large manuscripts. What was unusual in the room was the walnut ceiling. If you have been to Italy, then you have seen many beautiful painted or frescoed ceilings, but in Italy, it is strange to see a wooden ceiling. Having said that, I just saw another one this past August when we visited the Museum of Palazzo Davanzati, a medieval home in Florence. Anyway, maybe after the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo might have thought "been there, done that" and wanted to do something different, like make a ceiling of wood. Actually, someone else made it, but the design was Michelangelo's. After lunch, we went over to Palazzo Pitti and visited an exhibit about the Medici jewels. I never tire of gazing at real jewels.

On Saturday, I left for London. Got up at 8:00 a.m., and Sammy had a little nap in my lap. We got some pastry at Papillon, and then went off to the airport at Pisa. Sammy gave me some kisses goodbye. While there had been some notice of a strike, I got lucky and the Ryanair flight left for London at 3:15 p.m. and landed at Stansted about 4:10 p.m. I gained an extra hour from Italy to London. After again going through Passport Control and getting my luggage, a sandwich and water, I headed to a counter to buy a ticket for the Stansted Express train into London and found that it wasn't running because they were working on the tracks or something. But they did have a replacement bus to take us to Liverpool St. Station. It took almost an hour, leaving Stansted at about 5:15 p.m. and arriving at Liverpool St. about 6:10 p.m. As we had seen the year before in London, the city traffic is quite bad and it got very slow at the end, with the shortest distance in the city taking the longest time to travel.

Liverpool St. Station is very big and there were a ton of the black London cabs out front. With my suitcase and it being 6:30 p.m. and starting to get dark, I thought I would take a cab to the hotel but the cabbie told me it would cost 20 pounds! At that time, that was about $35 and I didn't want to spend that much, just didn't seem justified. So I opted to take the train for 1.60 pounds, even though I'd have to schlep my luggage. Just like the year before when I was impressed by how nice the people working for the Tube were, I went to a ticket window in the station and asked the woman there what was the best way for me to get to my hotel. She was very friendly and gave me the best route she thought I should take since I had luggage – what stations are easiest when handling a bag and less crowded. So she sent me on my way and I took the Central Line (yellow) to Oxford Circus, changed to the Bakerloo (brown) and then on to Paddington.

Paddington Station was only a block from my hotel, and I arrived there a little bit after 7:00 p.m. My hotel, the Norfolk Plaza Hotel, wasn't the greatest but it wasn't that bad. It was on a street that was lined up and down on both sides with small hotels and buildings that are all connected to each other like rowhouses. The hallways were narrow and the elevators tiny. This has been my experience with most hotels I have stayed in in Europe. Course, I don't stay in expensive 5-star hotels. But the hotels in Europe are just not like in the US. Everything in the US is bigger and roomier and even a lot of average hotels have pools. Anyway, even on a budget, the most important thing to me in a European hotel is having my own bathroom. While the room was basically only a little bigger than the bed – a double-bed with a little room on each side to fit little nightstands and a small TV and counter at the foot of the bed, it did have it's own bathroom including a tub and shower. What more could you want, right? And it came with the free breakfast.

On Sunday, 10/26/03, I woke up a bit tired because my neighbors had been noisy, running up and down the halls till 1:30 in the morning. They had started Daylight Savings Time in England though, so I got another hour to work with. I decided to visit the Hampton Court Palace on this day and stayed there for five hours, all day. After breakfast, I headed back to Paddington Station. Paddington is one of the stations that connects to other train services including the National Rail, which is like the commuter rail to the suburbs, and also the Heathrow Express train direct to the airport. This is why I opted for a hotel a block away, just a real timesaver no matter where I wanted to go. I bought a ticket for the National Rail Southwest out to Hampton Court Palace, which was about a half hour ride and then a very short walk from the station.

Hampton Court Palace is huge and has a mixture of architectural styles which tell the story of who was living there and when. Upon arriving, you enter through the old Tudor part of the palace, from the days of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey (first half of the 1500's). Then there is the newer Christopher Wren designed sections for William and Mary, who began ruling England in 1689. Wren also designed St. Paul's Cathedral in London. There are many Wren buildings in London because much of it burned in the Great Fire of 1666, and this was the same time that he was working as an architect. Hampton Court Palace has several courtyards and my favorites were the Clock Court and the Fountain court. The Clock Court has a great beautiful clock made in 1540 for Henry VIII. This is called an Astonomical Clock and it shows the hour, month, day, and number of days since the beginning of the year, as well as the phases of the moon. On it, the sun revolves around the Earth, since the clock was designed before they knew any better. This courtyard is the Tudor style. The Fountain Court was designed by Christopher Wren for King William. There are so many windows which would have brought a lot of light into the rooms, with very green and well tended grass and a fountain. A walk around here would be very pleasant on a nice day, and I imagined Tudor courtiers strolling in front of me. A vestibule leads out to the East Front and the gardens.


Clock Court

Fountain Court

I opted for the audio tour and started with the Tudor Kitchens. These are set up as if the servants are in the process of preparing food for a big feast. The kitchens had to cater to a household of about 600 people when Cardinal Wolsey lived there, and then about 1,200 when King Henry VIII brought the Court there. This was Wolsey's home first, which he spent a lot of time and money turning into the most lavish palace in the Court at the time. But when he began to fall from favor, Henry VIII took it over for himself. A King can do whatever he wants. The Tudor Kitchens were fascinating to me because I wanted to know how they prepared such large amounts and varieties of foods back in the days before the technology and tools that we have today. It took large fireplaces and a lot of staff, and menus changed depending on the seasons because a lot of the food came from the lands around the palace, which also belonged to the King, and also was bought from local farmers. There was the Boiling House which included a butchery to prepare meats and poultry for boiling into stews. There was a Fish Court where saltwater fish was delivered and stored. Fresh fish was kept alive in the palace ponds until they wanted to eat them. There was a Spicery for storing spices, a Pastry House which made the pastry crusts and cases for the meat pies and things like that. The Great Kitchen was run by the Master Cook who had about 12 other cooks and 12 assistants. The kitchens have great fireplaces where all the foods were cooked. They then went out to the Dressers which are the rooms where the plates would be dressed and garnished. This is where, for example, they would put the skin and feathers of a peacock back over the cooked bird (sounds appetizing, eh?) They also made marzipan desserts in the shape of St. Paul's Cathedral or a fort with turrets and cannons. The Tudor Court drank about 300 barrels of ale and almost that much wine so there were three cellars where it was all stored. What did they eat? Meat – a lot of meat, fruits and vegetables in summer, a lot of fish for religious reasons, but meat made up about 75% of the Tudor diet. They ate oxen, sheep, deer, calves, pigs and wild boar. They also ate poultry and ate many different kinds – larks, swans, peacocks, chickens, sparrows and quails. A lot of the meat and poultry was roasted and some was boiled or turned into pies. Most Tudor food was served with sauces flavored with herbs and spices, and also every meal included bread baked daily. Pottage was a thick broth made with meat, meat stock and thickened with herbs and cereals like oatmeal or barley. Meals on a feast day would include desserts such as fruits or custards. Tudors drank wine and ale rather than water or milk, though these were available. The members of the Court were all the people who worked for the King. Any food they did not eat was passed down to the servants and anything they didn't eat was given to the beggars at the gate. The typical Tudor courtier ate between 4,500 and 5,000 calories a day. It was fascinating to visit here and imagine the hustle and bustle that went on every single day just preparing food, all day every day.

I visited Henry VIII's State Apartments and the Wolsey Rooms and it was neat to think these are the very places that these real historical figures lived out the dramas we only read about in history books. I was really walking in their footsteps. There is the Haunted Gallery, where Katherine Howard supposedly ran through trying to get to Henry in the chapel to beg to be saved, but she was dragged away by guards. Katherine was Henry's fifth wife, the second one he executed. They say her ghost runs the corridor now. There is the Great Hall, which is the biggest room in the palace. This is where the meals would be served and it could fit 600 people for dinner at a time. The Great Hall has a wooden ceiling of beams and trusses, tapestries on the walls, with stained glass windows over the entrance. There are many rooms for courtiers to pass through, which get more and more exclusive as you got nearer to the King. For example, there was a Great Watching Chamber where there was a Yeoman and Guard to control access to the King. There was a Page's Chamber for the pages waiting on the nobles in the Great Watching Chamber, and also this was a sort of waiting room where the pages would help nobles into their ceremonial robes before they were presented to the King. I also visited actual living areas which are less formal and more comfortable and private. There was actually a commode for the King, with a padded red velvet seat for him to sit on. There is still a Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace which still has services on Sunday.

The Wolsey Rooms are thought to have been the Cardinal's private rooms. What I thought was most interesting about them were two of them have wood paneling, very dark.

The King's and Queen's Apartments are from the William and Mary period. The King's Staircase is quite glorious, marble walls and stairs, wrought iron railing, paintings on the walls and ceiling, just overwhelming. The Guard Chamber was the room that the Yeoman of the Guard kept watch over the safety of the King. It has mounted on the walls all kinds of armaments – muskets, guns, bayonets, swords, spears. There is a Great Bedchamber, where the King was dressed each morning, but he didn't really sleep here. He slept in the Little Bedchamber next door. The room called the King's Closet was actually his private study. There is also an Orangery, where the orange trees were kept during the winter months. It is a long hallway with the trees and sculptures, with wooden paneling on one side and the windows with shutters on the other.

The Queen's Apartments are similar and the way they are seen today is as they appeared when used by Queen Caroline between 1716 and 1737.

The Georgian Rooms were used by King George II and Queen Caroline during their last visit with the full court in 1737, and these lead to the Queen's Private Apartments. These included her Private Bedchamber, her Dressing Room and Bathroom. She could actually have a bath in a tub, but hot water had to be brought up in buckets. The tub was lined with linen bath liners and the tub placed on a painted canvas floor cloth. She had a private Dining Room. She also had a private Oratory, a room where she could have services and sermons read to her by a Chaplain.

I watched and listened to a costume presentation about Elizabethan dress, which was actually quite a production. There were many layers to the court outfit at that time. It began with the sort of slip underneath, stockings, a corset, then a hoop skirt that attached to the corset, a bumroll which was the extra padding around the hips to make the skirt spring out more, then skirts which can be one part or more than one part, decorative shirt, then the gown part which goes over the skirt and torso and then you must add the sleeves also. Very complicated. Then there are shoes, headgear, jewelry. This is why you would need a dresser to help you.

Looking out the windows from the various rooms, you can see all the beautiful gardens. There are topiaries and shrubberies and trees that look like upside down ice cream cones, perfectly symmetical, and some that look like umbrellas, flowers and ponds and fountains. I walked through the gardens to a large pond where there were giant geese, white swans and black swans. Also at Hampton Court is its famous hedge maze, originally planted in 1702. The gardens are gorgeous and make for a truly relaxing, enjoyable and beautiful walk on the grounds.

I spent the entire day at Hampton Court and ran out of time, even with the extra hour I gained that day from Daylight Savings. The place closes at 4:00 p.m. and I caught a 4:09 train to Waterloo Station, then to Paddington. It was getting dark by 5:00 and being on my own and pretty tired at this point, I just bought a sandwich at the station and some water and a candy bar and headed back to the hotel to eat in my room and fall asleep early.

On Monday, I heard on the news in the morning that what had actually happened to the Stansted Express train was that there was a derailment on the Northern Line the week before and the Stansted Express runs on the same tracks. It was still under repair but good to know as I decided to avoid the Northern Line in my travels. I got up around 7:30 a.m. and had breakfast, then headed for the trains at 9:30 which is when off-peak hours begin and the fares are lower. I got an all day travel pass for 4.10 pounds. This lets the tourist get on and off the trains all day so if you get confused or lost, you can reverse yourself or try another route without having to pay again and again, or stand in any more lines.

I started Monday with a walk-by of Buckingham Palace so I could take some photos and see the guards outside. At this time of year, I could not have a tour of Buckingham Palace but could visit the Queen's Gallery in the palace, which is a small museum of royal treasures. I saw paintings by Monet and Rembrandt . I especially liked the one by Rembrandt because he had painted a frame around it and the subject had a fan that was coming outside the frame. And the lighting in the painting is nice. This impresses someone like me who knows nothing much about art, because all the light in it is not really light but paint. Here is a picture of it.



The Cabinet Rooms in the Queen's Gallery are for smaller pieces such as books or jewels. Here I saw the Diamond Diadem, a crown that the Queen still wears at public occasions. It is a small crown, but very very beautiful because of the sparkle of all the diamonds.


Diadem

Here I also saw the miniature portrait of Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, the portrait that you always see of her in history books. I learned that now experts are not so sure it is her at all. That wouldn't surprise me. Katherine Howard was young, flirtatious, supposedly very attractive, chasing and being chased by men. It eventually led to her having her head lopped off for cheating on the King. Is this the portrait of such a woman? I hardly think so.


Katherine Howard, maybe

There were many impressive jewels here from India, when it was part of the empire, including a necklace of very large rubies and a belt made of emeralds. Here I saw two more pieces of the Cullinan Diamond. I have seen two others in the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London (in the Imperial State Crown and the Sovreign's sceptre), and these two are together as a brooch which used to be worn often by Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth's grandmother.


Cullinan Brooch

You can see many of the jewels at the Queen's Gallery website at http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery.

When I visited, there was a special exhibition of drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci. Many looked like they were done as studies towards figures in paintings, or as practice, or just whatever he was focusing on at the time, often the human form.

After the Queen's Gallery, I decided to walk down the street and visit the Royal Mews, where all the royal horses and coaches are kept. The horses are really nice looking animals and obviously very well cared for, rather majestic looking. There were displays of all the various harnesses they wear and other equipment, and also the uniforms of the livery. I saw the famous gold State Coach used for the coronations of the new monarch and other very special events. It is covered in gold leaf and weighs four tons. The back wheels were taller than me. I also saw the Glass Coach which Princess Diana and also the Queen Mother rode in on both of their wedding days. There was also the Queen's Rolls Royce, really gorgeous. The Queen loves horses and knows all of the horses by name. When I visited in 2003, there were 34 horses. Horses called the Windsor Greys pull all the royal carriages. Eight of their predecessors pulled the Gold Coach at the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth. The horses begin training and work at the Mews at age four and stay for about 15 years.


Royal Mews

By the time I had finished at the Mews, it was 1:00 p.m. so I decided to eat on the run. I had a bagel with peanut butter at a kiosk called "Bagel Factory" with the slogan "American Way" run by two Indian guys. I decided then to go and visit Westminster Abbey. It's right across the street from Parliament and Big Ben, so a perfect photo op. From here you can also see the London Eye, the very large ferris wheel owned by British Airways. This area, naturally, is chock full of tourists and that day I heard mostly German and French and also saw a lot of Japanese tourists.

Westminster is really big overall, seeming to have all kinds of little separate areas to visit. What impressed me most was being in the place where so many English monarchs are interred, particularly so many of those I have spent much time reading about. Elizabeth I and Mary I are both here, sisters and the daughters of Henry VIII. Henry VII is here and his chapel has a beautiful ceiling that they call fan vaulting. It makes me think of a wedding cake. It's hard to describe it so here is a picture:


Henry VII Chapel Ceiling

There is a plaque marking the former burial place of Oliver Cromwell, who led the English Republic after the execution of Charles I. However, as these things often go, he wasn't on top for long and eventually the monarchy returned. Cromwell died from illness in 1658. So why is Westminster the former burial place of Cromwell? Because after having been buried there for two years, he was exhumed in 1661, posthumously executed and his body hung in chains from Tyburn Gallows. So even if you're dead already, if you're bad enough, it'll not save you from being dug up and executed anyway!

Mary Queen of Scots has a tomb here. There is an area called the Poet's Corner where Chaucer is buried, as is Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare has a monument also. I also went into the area where the royal coronations, weddings, funerals and masses are held. It is called the Quire and Sanctuary. It is smaller than it appears on TV or in pictures. There is the wide aisle down the middle and the pews are on each side, facing the aisle rather than facing the altar, and there are little lamps to provide light for reading your hymnal, I assume. I thought it was small and so if you are invited to sit in the pews, you must be a pretty privileged individual. Anne of Cleeves, the 4th of Henry VIII's wives, is buried in the Sanctuary. There is a beautiful stained glass window, and the Nave in Westminster has the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, who is from WWI. I also saw the Coronation Chair, which was made by Edward I who was crowned in 1272, so it's pretty old. Every monarch since 1308 has been crowned in this chair, except for two Edwards, coincidentally (Edward V, who is thought to have been murdered in the Tower of London, and Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936). Another interesting tidbit about Westminster – there is a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. there. Why? On the west front of the abbey above the door are ten statues of ten Martyrs of the 20th Century and he is one of the martyrs.

I visited the Abbey's museum downstairs and it has displays of the various funeral effigies of different kings and queens and consorts. These are the effigies created to be put on top of the coffin for the procession. The old ones were wood and the newer ones wax. Henry VII's was from his actual death mask. They had many of them in their coronation costumes, as the effigy would have been dressed for the procession. The museum also has a display of the crown jewels used for practice. These look like exact replicas of the real crown jewels. So I have seen both the real crown jewels and the official fake ones as well!

I wrote in my journal that I picked up a USA Today newspaper to check on the World Series and that was the year that the Florida Marlins beat the Yankees. But I was still stung and not quite over the fact that the Red Sox had not made it into the Series that year. 2003 had been a tough defeat to swallow. Of course, I didn't know then that the very next year, they would end the 86 year wait for a championship.

On Tuesday, 10/28/03, I arrived at the Victoria and Albert Museum at 9:30 a.m. I didn't leave until 3:30 p.m. As soon as I walked into the lobby, I was dazzled by the glass chandelier overhead. It is awe-inspiring. It is very large and looks like it is made of flowers and ribbons, but it is all glass.



The V&A is huge and, even spending the entire day there, I could not see everything. I just got too tired and crippled. I started with an exhibition on Gothic Art for England 1400-1547. This was exactly the period of time I was reading about then because I was reading books about Henry VIII and his children. Henry's reign ended in 1547. This exhibit was about life in gothic times. There were sections on royalty, art, war, patronage, city and town, home life, church, and death. The period began with the battles between the Lancasters, Yorks and Tudors to rule England. This was the medieval period and kings could be overthrown. Henry IV was the first Lancaster king and he had usurped the throne in 1399. Henry V came after him but died young, leaving infant king Henry VI. Edward IV of York finally came to the throne, but his son Edward V was killed in the Tower of London (the "murdered Princes") and his uncle, Richard III, became king. After his defeat in battle, Henry VII became the first Tudor king, followed by Henry VIII. The exhibition said that the power of the kings of this time was based not just on the inherited right to rule but also the ability to rule well, which is why bad kings could be replaced. The role of the English king at that time was to keep peace at home and wage war to protect the realm. English kings actually led armies. The kings provided patronage for art, plate, jewels, tapestries, and buildings, as did nobles.

The V&A is just huge and I ran out of stamina after 5-1/2 hours. But I did manage to see the Raphael Gallery with his giant "cartoons". I learned that in Renaissance art, a "cartoon" is a full size design for an artwork to be done in another medium, such as for frescoes, paintings or tapestries. The Raphael Cartoons were for tapestries. I also visited the galleries on Japan, China, Medieval times, Islamic, India, Europe and Italy including the Renaissance, Photography, Silver, Jewelry, Church Plate, Textiles, Lord Leighton's Frescoes, Japanese Prints, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Gallery. What did I miss – Stained and Engraved Glass, Ironwork, Musical Instruments.

What did I enjoy most? The Dress Gallery, or course. I always like to see clothes from the past; guess I'm just fascinated with historical clothing. There was a special exhibition on Ossie Clark, a British fashion designer from the 60s-70s, with lots of his dresses for viewing. These were sort of the "swinging 60's" type designs. Also, I always enjoy the Asian things so the Japanese and Chinese galleries, as well as the Indian and Islamic all sort of seem to flow. You can appreciate the similarities and the differences. I also liked the Frank Lloyd Wright office. I would like to work in an office like that. I like Frank Lloyd Wright. I just visited an exhibition on him in Portland a few months ago.

After the V&A, I rode to King's Cross-St. Pancras Station (which Laura calls "St. Pancreas") to check out the station where the Harry Potter films were shot. This is the Hogwart's Express train station. King's Cross Station is very busy, and I think they filmed in the area where the National Rail trains come and go, not the Tube trains. As it was around 4:00 p.m., I think it was rush hour and it was very busy. It's also not as nice as it looks in the films. It's quite dirty, and it looked like they were doing some renovations. A couple of the bombs that hit London on 7/7/05 were on trains that had just left King's Cross.

I headed back to the hotel, completely exhausted. Next day, I checked out of the hotel at 7:00 a.m. and took the Heathrow Express from Paddington at 7:09. It really was just a 15 minute ride to the airport so super quick and convenient. The ticket cost 13 pounds. My return flight was on a Boeing 777 which is also a nice plane. The return is a daytime flight so harder to sleep, and it takes longer going back usually, due to head winds. Due to the time difference, it was 1:15 p.m. when I landed in Boston, and I was home in Portland by 5:15 on the bus.

Little did I know, I would return to London yet again, for a third time in 2007. I do love London. The downside is only that it is an expensive city, made even more so by the bad exchange rate for the dollar. But the good points outweigh that. It is full of history, very easy to get around in, and the people are great. I do hope I return again some day.

London: April 2002

London: April 15 - 18, 2002

This was my first trip to London. I went with Laura, Peggy and Gianluca. We had gone for a visit during Laura's school vacation and had decided we would take a little trip up to London at the same time. We flew up on Ryanair, the Irish low cost airline. It flies out of Pisa and so Alessio drove us to Pisa, which is about a 45 minute ride from Calenzano. London is also one hour earlier than Italy, so you get an extra hour on the day you go there. My journal notes that on this flight, Peggy was aggravated by a "nose-picking guy" sitting next to her. Hehe. My journal also notes that some guys sitting next to us paid 24 euros for BLTs and four tiny cokes. And the pilot had an Irish accent (well, it's an Irish airline!)

Ryanair flies into London's Stanstead Airport, which is actually outside the city. We were met there by a friend of Peggy's named Suzan. Peggy knew her through her work with Bugetti, the yarn company. Suzan graciously allowed us to stay at her home with her family while we visited London. She lives in a little town called Berkhamstead just outside of London. Right after we got through passport control, Suzan bought us all sandwiches and coffees and pastries so we could eat and relax a little. Then we all got into her van and she drove us to her house, though she missed an exit because she and Peggy were chatting so much she got distracted.

Suzan's house was really cute, a little English row house. Inside when you enter you go down a hall where the stairs are on the left and on the right is the living room and dining room. At the end of the hall is the kitchen. Suzan has a very nice kitchen with a lot of room to work and her windows look out into her garden out back. Upstairs is a TV room, bathroom and three bedrooms. Suzan's family is her husband, step-son who was around 18 then and twin girls who were 17. On this trip, Laura was just a couple of months short of 16.


Suzan's house

On Tuesday, April 16th, we took the commuter train from Suzan's into London, arriving at Victoria Station. The station is big, full of shops and food places. There we caught the double-decker tour bus for the sightseeing tour. Doing one of these in a new city is nice because it helps you to orient where some of the sites are and sometimes helps you decide whether you will return. For example, some sites are fine to ride by – like Big Ben or 10 Downing Street or Trafalgar Square. Others you definitely want to go in and explore, like the Tower of London. Big Ben is such a landmark that it is just exciting to see it in person. It is right by Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and from there you can also see the huge British Airways ferris wheel, the London Eye. We also rode by St. Paul's Cathedral where Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married.

The traffic is quite congested in London and it was actually slow going on the bus, having to sit through the same red lights several times. The subway – the "Tube" in London – is really the fastest way to get around in the city. We hopped off the bus at Tower Bridge and walked to the Tower of London. This was my first time here. I visited it again in 2007. The Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror. It has been a fortress and a prison and now a tourist attraction as well. (website: http://hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/) We visited the Bloody Tower where the famous Two Princes were smothered. I believe that the legend is that they were killed by Richard III in 1483. In the 1600s, the skeletons of two children were found under the stairs there and were reburied in Westminster, but no one is really sure that they were murdered at all, though they did disappear while in the Tower. When I visited with Peggy in 2007, the Tower has set up an exhibit in the Bloody Tower sort of like a medieval CSI that lays out the evidence and suspects. We visited the Beauchamp Tower that day, where special prisoners were held. This is where a lot of the prisoners' graffiti is preserved. The White Tower is the original structure, with four towers on the corners. When we visited this day, it was full of armaments and suits of armor for men and horses, cannons, and even some Shogun armor given to King James. We visited Sir Walter Raleigh's prison rooms. Even though he was a prisoner, there was still a class system even when it came to keeping prisoners and so he had some rather nice rooms at the Tower of London that he was kept in, along with his family. He was there for many years, long enough to write a book, a history of England I believe.

We also visited the Crown Jewels (which I wrote about in my London 2007 blog entry). But on this visit, we also saw an exhibit on how the crowns were made. I believe now this exhibit is kept in the Martin Tower at the Tower of London, and it has a lot of crowns empty of jewels. Often, jewels were rented or recycled and cannibalized from other pieces or crowns and put into new ones. I believe that George IV's coronation crown had something like 12,000 diamonds in it but they were all rented, so it is empty now.

At the Tower, Gianluca liked the guard with the red uniform and big furry hat. He stands very still until he marches a bit back and forth, following a very precise routine. He stands in front of a little guardhouse, and Lu wanted a picture of himself in one. Then he did a little marching himself.

After the Tower, we went over to Kensington Palace. We could not get inside because it was too late in the day, but we walked around the gardens. There is a very large park, lush green lawns and a pond with families and tourists and students all walking about. The front gates of Kensington are black with gold. There is a beautiful garden inside, the sunken garden. This was April and so the garden was in full bloom. That year, it was full of tulips and the trees were green, and there were vines and ivy all around. It was just gorgeous.

We headed back to the Tube, with Laura as our navigator. We put her in charge of planning our train rides and she did very well with it. When we got back to Suzan's, she had a very nice meal waiting for us and also showed us various things that she had made, some with Bugetti's yarn that she bought from Peggy. She made some beautiful scarves.

I wrote in my journal that London was expensive and the dollar wasn't going very far there. At the time, I recorded the exchange rate as $1.44 (it cost $1.44 to buy 1 pound). I also recorded the exchange rate for the euro as $0.88 (it cost 88 cents to buy 1 euro). Well, much worse today. It now costs $2.03 to buy 1 pound and $1.41 to buy 1 euro (when I originally wrote this in October 2007).

On Wednesday, April 17th, we took the 10:18 a.m. commuter train into Euston Station. We learned there were going to be issues with the trains all day, with the Circle Line and the Piccadilly running slow. The Circle Line is the yellow, the tourist line. It just goes in a circle around central London. This one will get you to most of the tourist sites. But it was running very slow this day so Laura mapped us another route on the Hammersmith (pink) a couple of stops to Baker Street which is where Madame Tussaud's is located. This is the original Tussaud's wax museum. Tussaud's is a fun museum because you can touch the figures and take all the photos you want and pose with them. The London Tussaud's, of course, is full of royal figures and all of the royal celebrities were there – the Queen and Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, their ex-wives Diana and Sarah Ferguson (who I thought looked perfectly lifelike and real) and even the Queen Mother, who had just died a couple of weeks before. There are many historical figures in elaborate costumes as well, like Henry VIII and his six wives, Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell, Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, who I think may hold the record for longest serving monarch.


Three wives of Henry VIII, was figures at Madame Tussaud's in London

There are also American presidents, international figures like Lenin, Castro, Ghandi, Sadat, Dali Lama. We watched an idiotic Korean guy pose next to the Hitler figure and give a Nazi salute while his friend took his picture. Yeah, that's nice. We took a picture of Gianluca at a podium with George W. Bush and Tony Blair standing behind him. Also at London Tussaud's, they also have the Chamber of Horrors which is great and gory fun. It has tortures of the Middle Ages, London streets with urchins and a Whitechapel whore laying in the gutter, a victim of Jack the Ripper. There are hangings, stench filled prison, Madam Tussaud stepping through a pile of headless bodies looking for the heads of King Louis and Marie Antoinette. There is the hall of famous English murderers. Gianlu said the Chamber of Horrors was his favorite part of the museum. I have read online that they have now added a live element to the Chamber, I suppose similar to the one I visited in New York, where the workers are costumed and blend into the scenes around you but then suddenly start moving. I think this must be quite scary at the Chamber of Horrors in London, because it was frightful enough when it was just wax figures. After the Chamber, there is a little ride that takes you through the "Spirit of London", a history up to the present day with wax and animatronic figures in scenes from the Plague through world wars and up to the guy in his car with a cell phone.

We then took the Tube back towards Kensington and ate at a Pizza Hut for lunch (we had two kids with us, so no little Tea Palace like we did in 2007). I wrote in the journal that Peggy disputed with the cashier that the bottled water was not really bottled because it was given to her with the seals broken. She asked for an unopened bottle. The cashier told her that they open it for the customer so the customer doesn't hurt their hands. Peg didn't believe her, convinced they are just refilling empty bottles with tap water and selling it for bottled prices. So she got us some unopened bottled waters.

We went back to Kensington Palace. This time, we were early enough to be let inside. We opted for individual recorded audio tours and went through an exhibit all about Court Dress. These were actual outfits worn at the historical Court, and not reproductions. There were lots of rules about what could be worn by ladies and gentlemen of the aristocratic class when they were appearing at Court, with a red book that explained it all. There was also a reproduction of a tailor shop and a seamstress shop where the women's dresses were made. The audio tour said that sometimes the girls sewing were literally worked to death. There was a presentation all about being presented at Court, all the formalities and ritual, with various mannequins dressed in beautiful gowns with trains and ostrich feathers in the hair. These rituals apparently were in effect all the way to the 1950's. For example, one had to back up away from the monarch when the presentation was done (you could not turn your back on the monarch and walk away). Imagine trying to walk backwards in a big gown with a train.


Court Dress

We visited exhibits of Queen Elizabeth II's dresses and Princess Diana's. We learned that many of the dresses are designed and created for specific occasions and there is often some homage in the design to the event they were created for. On display was a dress of Elizabeth's with lotus flowers, worn in India. Another had a design of special flowers grown only in California which she wore to a dinner with Ronald Reagan, who had been Governor of California. A dress of Diana's, designed by Catherine Walker and worn by Diana in India, had a magnificently embroidered bodice and bolero jacket and pink ballroom skirt. Seeing these dresses up close, you can really get an appreciation for truly beautiful clothing, fabrics and expert craftsmanship.


Diana, in the Walker Dress


Close-up of the embroidery

We also went through the King's and Queen's Apartments which included Queen Victoria's bedroom where she was sleeping when, at the age of 18, she was awakened to be told she was now Queen. I really enjoyed Kensington with all the dresses and Court clothing and gardens. I imagined what it would have been like to live here as a royal.

After Kensington, we made our way to the giant department store, Harrod's. We rode the escalators which are surrounded by an Egyptian motif with Pharoh heads in the image of Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrod's. Harrod's sells all sorts of things. At the front there was a Jaguar car that you could buy. We went to the Food Hall and had super delicious cheesecake and cappuccino. When you spend some money at Harrod's, you get a free pass to the Luxury Washrooms – the public restrooms. Oh how nice. I don't have to pay to use the toilet. But they're pretty nice for restrooms. We also saw the Al Fayed memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed. It is creepy, weird and tacky and a testament to Al Fayed's ongoing grieving for his son and his fantasies about him and Diana. Al Fayed has been clear that he believes Prince Philip had Diana and Dodi killed because they were engaged and the royal family could not accept the mother of the future king married to a Muslim. I totally do not believe this, but Diana's death has become like JFK's, rife with conspiracies. Anyway, the memorial has a photo of each of them in gold frames, a wine glass purported to be from the last meal at the Ritz, and the supposed engagement ring that Dodi bought for Diana. It seems too large for a woman. It reminded me more of a man's pinky ring than a lady's engagement ring. This is the only place in the store where you are allowed to take photos. We bought some chocolate mousse dessert to bring back with us to Suzan's for dessert after dinner.

Heading back to the Tube, we went to the Piccadilly line, which is deep enough underground that you see mice on the tracks, often with amputated tails. There continued to be problems with the trains all day and it was so crowded and it was rush hour so we were not able to fit onto the train! We ended up backtracking on an eastbound train. Peggy was carrying the mousse dessert and we managed to get on a train but we were crammed in so tight we literally could not move. I have never been so close to other human beings that I didn't know! Peggy managed somehow not to squash the mousse. Laura said that she would tell us when to get off because she could see out the window and to just jump off when she told us to. That we did, and we then caught the Northern Line back to Euston. The Northern Line was crowded enough that we had to stand but not so crowded like the Piccadilly – we could stand without touching other people, nice. Someone asked where we were getting off the train and we said Euston, and that was when little Lu said "Euston, we have a problem." Hehe, like Apollo 13. He's so cute. Then we switched to the train to Berkhamstead and that was when Peggy told Lu to go to sleep, and he did!

We got back to Suzan's at about 8:15 p.m. and had dinner and our dessert and we also had a little violin concert from Suzan's daughter, Lulu, who had been studying violin for seven years.

On the last day of our visit to London, Thursday 4/18, we went to the town of Windsor. Suzan managed to parallel park her van in an impossibly tiny space – impressive. We walked along the Thames – lots of ducks, ducklings, swans, and even a black swan. The village around Windsor Castle is very quaint, just like a tourist imagines an English village to be, with tons of shops and pubs. Windsor Castle is huge. Approaching it, we saw a line of people stretching all the way down the street and we thought we would not be able to get in. But it turned out the line was just for the chapel – all the people wanted to go by the Queen Mother's crypt. So we went to the front entrance of the castle where there was no line. There was a brief parade of castle guards, the ones Lu liked with their red coats and big black fur hats. They marched past and then we went in. We were nabbed by some people with TV cameras wanting us to play ourselves – tourists – following our tour guide, John. on a tour of Windsor Castle. Not a stretch for us. They were making either a documentary or a commercial, I didn't hear which, so we might have ended up on BBC-TV.

We first visited Queen Mary's Dollhouse. Queen Mary was the mother of George VI, who was the father of Elizabeth II. Queen Mary had originally been engaged to George V's brother, who was the heir to the throne. But then he died, and she was re-engaged to his brother. She was an adult so why was a dollhouse built for her? She was a collector of miniature things – Faberge tiny animals and other small things. The Dollhouse was completed in 1924. Everything is 1/12th scale to life size. It is really elaborate and exact down to the smallest detail – the rooms with marble floors, furniture, paintings, garden, garage with cars, wine cellar – with real wine in the tiny bottles. It has running water and electricity. Basically, everything in it is real, just very small. This page has additional info about the dollhouse: http://www.thedukeofyork.org/output/page4488.asp. Sir Edwin Lutyens was the architect of the dollhouse. He was a famous British architect of the time. The pictures below are from the dollhouse. You wouldn't even know they were not real lifesize rooms. They do represent a historical record of an English gentleman's home of the 1920's.


Dollhouse foyer

Dollhouse Library

Dollhouse Queen's Bedroom

After the dollhouse we visited a room with more toys and some dolls that had been given to the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret by the children of France in 1938. They are large dolls, but what is incredible is they have entire wardrobes – dresses, lingerie, gloves, shoes, jewelry, purses, hats – all made from real materials including silk and ermine by French designers of haute couture of the time. Can you believe it?? These dolls were clothed better than most people! Again, the mini-motif here was real couture by real Paris designers but small for the dolls. Some outfits were also reproductions of what was being worn that year in Paris.

After our fun with the royal toys, we visited the various State Apartments and rooms, some still used today for diplomatic functions. My favorite was St. George's Hall, a very very long room, narrow, with a ceiling of wooden beams meeting at the peak. The ceiling has all these various Knight insignias. Down one side of the room are windows and down the other are portraits and, high up on the walls spaced evenly on ledges, are Knights (suits of armor) positioned like they are guarding the entire room. What's interesting is the perspective when you first enter the room. It seems to go on and on into the distance narrowing as the other end of the room seems so far away. At the end, also high up, is the King's Champion, a knight on a horse with what is similar to a stained glass window behind him, but it's not a window but a carving. This room, as well as some around it, were damaged in the fire at Windsor in 1992, so a lot has been restored, recreated, or redesigned.

In another room, maybe called the Queen's Ballroom, I saw paintings that were very familiar as I have seen them in books before – Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary I. Exciting – these are the real ones. The castle is beautiful, and we saw many more ornate and elaborate rooms. The grounds around the castle are also very nice. The Quadrangle is a large lawn enclosed by an iron fence. The royal apartments surround it and look out on the Quad. You cannot visit there. The Queen and her family actually live there when they are at the castle. Windsor is one of the Queen's favorite castles to stay in.

After leaving Windsor, we went to a pub for lunch and then it was back to Suzan's house to pick up our bags and head for the airport. As we approached Stanstead there was a lot of construction and it was really confusing and Suzan missed the exit. Unfortunately, it was 16 miles to the next exit. Then it started raining. Hard. And lightening. Our plane was at 6:10 p.m. and we managed to get back to the airport at 5:30. Boarding was at 5:40 p.m. We went through security and went to catch the airport train to our gate, and the train was broken down! So about 100 people all tried to cram onto the escalator at once down into a lobby that was wall to wall with people and wait for busses to take you to the gate. Waiting and waiting, finally we got on a bus and again we were crammed in so tight you couldn't fit another person. The bus took us to Gates 1-19 and we went to the gate on our ticket – 16A. But it wasn't the right gate. We asked a ticket agent in a panic "Where's Pisa?" and he said "Italy." Dink. But then we heard the final boarding call for Ryanair Flight 586 to Pisa – Gate 14. Run run run! We got there at 6:20 p.m. and they let us through, but the door at the bottom of the stairs was locked. We got some airport guy to punch in a code and it opened and we ran out to the plane. Talk about barely making it and one obstacle after another thrown in our paths. As usual in London, rainy and stormy so a lot of turbulence taking off.

Al was right there at the airport in Pisa to meet us and we were back in Calenzano by 11:00 p.m., all tired out.

Gianluca went back to school the next day. What was funny was I asked him what did he tell his friends about the trip? (What stood out for an 8 year old boy?) He said he told them how he rode a lot of trains (he really likes trains), and he liked the building that was modeled after Titanic and the Belfast ship. What? I hadn't even written about these things in my journal. The Titanic building we saw when we were on the double-decker tour bus, and the Belfast was a ship in port that we could see when we were sitting on some benches outside the Tower of London eating lunch. It's funny to find out the most interesting thing to a little kid on the trip because they experience the trip entirely differently than the adults. Lu also liked Suzan's two cats, Callie and Micky, and the frogs in her tiny pond in her garden. Laura liked the trains too, and we called her Queen of the Underground. We bought some T-shirts to commemorate it which said "Mind the Gap", because there is a gap between the platform and the train and you're liable to fall in it if you don't "mind the gap."

This was my first time to London and I absolutely loved it and always knew I would have to return. I did go back in 2003. The terrorist attacks in London happened in July 2005, but you can't keep the Brits down. I was happy to return there again in 2007.

Italy: April 2002

This was the year we flew Air France, the worst we have ever been treated by an airline, and that's saying something. The airline industry is the only one where the customer pays a boatload of money to be flown somewhere, yet expects to be treated like crap and considers it lucky and unusual if she is actually flown to the destination on schedule. The expectation is that one will be delivered there late and really there is no guarantee of getting there at all. And the airline will make it up to you by offering you a voucher to fly them again. So when we arrived in Boston for our Air France flight, we were told there was no plane. No apologies for not having called us in Maine to perhaps save us the trip down. Then the agent, after two hours, booked us for a flight the next day. But when we showed up the next day, we had no reservation at all. In the end, Delta rebooked us from Boston to LaGuardia, car to JFK, then to Paris to Florence. Air France did not actually get us there. This was the first time I flew the 777 to Europe. We were a day late getting there, but did get there thanks to Delta. This was also the year that we were flying on 4/11/02, just six months after 9/11. When Delta rebooked us the next day, we were flying on one way tickets that were handwritten by the Delta agent on the same day. It was only in Paris that we were not selected for some extra security screening. Security was lax in Paris considering those facts, and it was also shortly after the so-called "shoe bomber" had flown out from there.

4/14/02: Today we visited the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence with the church above it, Basilica of San Miniato, and a lovely garden of tulips below. What is the attraction here? The view – from the Piazzale you get the most beautiful panoramic view of Florence (above). When I stood there gazing at the Duomo, I thought it's hard to believe I am here, looking down at the city of Florence, where the great minds of the Renaissance, and legendary artists, and powerful Medicis all walked. A place like this is so intriguing because so much of it appears unchanged, and you can picture it all in the historical context.

4/19/02: On this day, Peg and I went to the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, designed by Brunelleschi. This is the church that is next to the Medici Chapel of the Princes and has the tombs underneath, which we visited in 2001. On this trip, I finally had time to visit the church. It looks like nothing impressive from the outside, the façade having not been finished. Unlike all the glorious churches in Florence, this one is just brown brick on the outside, easy to pass by. But inside, it is quite beautiful. The ceiling has white squares with gold, and the Medici crest of course. The floor is marble tiles, black and white, and there are many little altars. There is also a great altar which has the two Donatello pulpits in front on each side. I couldn't figure out why they are called pulpits because there aren't any steps or a way to get up there, and no opening into them. There is also a big dome here over the main altar. In one of the alcoves was a silver coffin, with bands of silver criss-crossing so that you can see inside it, and inside was a skeleton. It was covered by velvet or some sort of material and I could see its head, with a little crown on it, and its little feet. The room next to this contained a big vault that one would assume was for a body. In this room was another small dome overhead that had a scene of how the constellations appeared in the sky on July 4, 1482. But there was no explanation of the significance of this date. A mystery. Must have meant something important to end up on the ceiling of San Lorenzo. The church is still in use as a parish church.


Unfinished facade of the Church of San Lorenzo

We took a walk over to the Florence Duomo and into the Baptistery. The ceiling is actually a very high steep dome. I guess that all baptisteries are eight sided octagons because God created the world in seven days and the eighth is considered a day of rebirth, hence also the significance of baptism, being reborn to Christ. I could tell the artwork here is older. The ceiling is all gold with really old style portraits, the two dimensional type that Peggy had taught us about the year before at the Academia. I enjoyed one in particular, a painting of Hell with who I assume to be Satan eating an unfortunate sinner. He reminded me of Godzilla, because he had only eaten half of the sinner and the legs and bum were still sticking out from Satan's mouth. I suppose in its day, this was supposed to terrify people to keep them on the straight and narrow, but I thought it was just funny. The Baptistery has the reproduction Ghiberti doors, The Gates of Paradise.

We then went next door to the Duomo to check out the crypt underneath. There is an entire complex down there that pre-dates Santa Maria del Fiore, around the year 500 or so. It is old Roman items that have been excavated. It was also a church area that later the Duomo was built on top of it, so the area has always been a place of worship. There are several tombs down there, including Brunelleschi, architect of the Duomo. This is an example of how there are so many things in Florence to see, even in a very limited area. On my first trip, of course I saw the Duomo and the Baptistery next to it. But it was on this subsequent trip that I visited the crypt underneath, and on yet another trip when we discovered the little museum next to the Duomo that had the actual authentic Ghiberti Gates of Paradise door panels inside.

After lunch, we visited the Ferragamo Shoe Museum. Peg and I are shoe-aholics. We both have too many shoes, way more than necessary for one person to wear. My theory, for myself at least, is that it's because I went to eight years of Catholic school wearing the same uniform every day and the only thing I got to choose for myself that was different from everyone else was my shoes. The museum is one of those hidden treasures. You would need to know about it. It is not apparent from the outside. It is over a Ferragamo shop in Florence, and I only knew of it by reading about it in a tourist book. Salvatore Ferragamo was a famous Italian shoe designer who made shoes from the 1920's to about 1960. He made shoes for films, celebrities and rich people. All the shoes were custom made for each person. The museum had a lot of the wooden lasts, which were the wooden model of each particular customer's feet. The museum had shoes from the Cecile B. Demille films made in the 1920's, "The Ten Commandments" and "King of Kings" (later remade in the 1950's). There were shoes made for, and some worn by, the actress Pola Negri, who had an aversion to dirty shoes. She would not clean the shoes or wear them more than once or twice and then would get rid of them.


Pola Negri - more than a little OCD about her shoes

There were shoes for Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Carmen Miranda, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Gene Tierney, Loretta Young, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe's shoes from "Some Like It Hot" and other films, along with her personal shoes. She wore very high spike heel pumps, probably three or four inches. They looked very painful to walk in, but Ferragamo studied anatomy and insisted he could create shoes that were comfortable. Looking at them, it seems they are both a feat of engineering and art. Some of the shoes surprised me due to the size of the feet – Mary Pickford had very tiny feet. Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey Hepburn all had very big feet, surprisingly big for Audrey Hepburn because she looks like she was a tiny woman on film and in pictures, very thin and small boned. But the champion for the biggest feet of all – Lauren Bacall. There were also shoes created both for Eva Peron and for Madonna when she played Evita in the film. Info in the museum described Evita as, shall we say, a very particular client. She would order shoes and specify the materials or animal skin. Some animals apparently are close to impossible to make shoes from, i.e. some skins won't dye, etc. I guess Evita never accepted that anything was impossible and would insist that they just make them. There was a pair of shoes made from antelope. I suppose that it was just the ability to have enough power to get whatever you want because, looking at the antelope shoes, who could tell they were antelope? Could be llama or cowhide for all I'd know. And I don't think when she was standing on the balcony waving to the crowds that some peasant in the front noticed her shoes and marveled at the quality of the antelope.



Ferragamo Shoe - if memory serves, I think this shoe wascreated for Judy Garland

My favorite, and it turns out it was Peggy's too, was a shoe that looked like a slip-on medium heel sandal with small bands criss-crossing, and it was worn with a sock that slipped over the foot somewhat like a slipper. The sock was gold, black and red. It looked great together. Now on the internet, you can take a 3D tour of the Ferragamo Museum. It's fun! Check it out at: http://www.salvatoreferragamo.it/web/ingdonnamuseo.html

My journal notes that the return trip on Air France was problematic as well. Not only did we have to run to meet the plane, but after sitting on the plane for 35 minutes, the pilot came on and told us there was a hydraulic leak in the landing gear and we would have to get off the plane so they could fix it. Our scheduled time to depart had been 3:55 p.m. but we did not leave until 6:00 p.m. They did give us sandwiches and drinks while waiting at the gate, and after we left it was a turbulent flight. When we landed, the plane erupted in clapping. I guess the passengers were relieved that the repair to the landing gear held and the wheels didn't collapse? Of course, I have never flown Air France since then. This was also the trip where I visited London for the first time, with Laura, Gianluca and Peggy. But that's a blog for another day . . .

Italy: April 2001

My first trip to Italy was in 1989 and I still can't fathom how we managed to visit Florence, Pisa, Venice and Rome in two weeks. Since then, I have made many trips to Italy to visit Peggy and so rather than the whirlwind tourist tour, I have seen various things on each visit. I have said before that it took me seven trips to see everything I wanted to see in Florence alone.

Thursday, April 19, 2001: This was my third trip to Venice, having previously gone with Dad in 1989 and with Peggy in 1992. This time I was visiting with Laura, on her first trip to Italy, Peggy and Gianluca. Alessio doesn't like Venice so he dropped us off at the Florence train station and, after having a couple of coffees, we caught the 8:42 a.m. bullet train to Venice. Gianluca loves trains so he was all excited to ride the Eurostar. He had watched it for years speed through the station at Sesto so now he got to ride it. On my previous train rides to Venice, we had the little compartment with bench seats on each side. The bullet train is more like riding on an airplane, with individual seats in the car, tray tables, overhead compartments. My journal says it was a nice smooth ride and arrived in Venice at 11:30 a.m.

After arriving, checking in yet again at the Kitty Hotel (Hotel Edelweiss Stella Apina), we had a small lunch and took a waterbus out to the island of Murano. This is where they famously create blown glass items – jewelry, vases, lamps and chandeliers, little animals and glass knick-knack types of things. Window shopping is fun here as there are so many beautiful things to look at. I bought earrings for myself and a wine bottle stopper for Paul, and Peggy bought some rings and some beads for her friend. We wanted to see some glass blowing but in the only place open for viewing, a man was just fixing the feet on some glass horses. He would put the fire on the feet of the horses to soften the glass and then fix the feet so the horses would stand upright.

After taking the boat back to Venice, we had more coffee and did more window shopping. We saw an amazing costume shop with Renaissance costumes, really elaborate, probably for Carnivale, and Lu really liked a shop with handmade little wooden gondolas. There was also a hand decorated lampshade shop with a kid inside practicing his piano. He was playing Scott Joplin-type ragtime music, which was a little unusual to think of as your background music in Venice. This is what is interesting about shopping in Italy. There are so many shops and they basically specialize in and sell one thing.

Then we had supper and Peggy told the story of Fatima to the kids, the story about the Virgin Mary appearing to three poor children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. She explained about the three secrets, which were the supposed three prophecies that Mary gave, which one of the children, Lucia, later wrote down. The first secret described Hell, and the second secret said WWI would end and predicted WWII because people continued to offend God. This is supposedly related to Russia turning from God (rise of Godless Communism) and could only be prevented by Russia's conversion, which we know didn't happen then. (But this secret was revealed in 1941, after WWII had started. So if you're a cynic like me. . .) Anyway, the third secret was the one that had been hidden all those years and at the time we were visiting Italy in 2001, for some reason it was in the news. I think there was debate about it in Italy and the public was convinced it was a prediction of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. Supposedly, Lucia wrote the third secret down in 1944 and it was kept in a sealed envelope in the Vatican and the secret was revealed in 2000. I guess it was a big letdown, which is why the Italian public continued to debate about it. This is the supposed text of the third secret of Fatima:

"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."

Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, said then that it wasn't a prediction of the future but a warning and explanation that prayer, penance and conversion is the way to salvation. So I guess people would prefer to think of it as some kind of prediction of the future but if they want to believe it was predicting the 1981 assassination attempt on JPII, then what is the destroyed city he is walking through? Why do the soldiers use arrows to kill him? Whatever, he's on the fast track to sainthood now, having been credited with a miracle of curing some French nun of Parkinson's disease I think. In which case I ask firstly, why couldn't he cure his own Parkinson's? Perhaps he thought God gave it to him for a reason? Then why cure the French nun of her's because maybe God gave it to her for a reason. This is what my brain does to me whenever I think about religion. . .

Anyway, after supper, we sat by the train station watching the boats, touching the water in the canal ("It burns!"), then heading back to the hotel. We had a little room, with me, Peg and Lu sleeping in one bed and Laura in a cot bed at the foot of our bed. She hated the hotel, and my journal notes that Laura says that Venice "is not beautiful; its just filthy." I will say that Venice is both, but how you experience it says something about how your eyes view the world I suppose.

The next day, my journal notes about our bullet train ride home that there was a guy in our car "coughing up lung" (why is there always a cougher on your train or plane) and three guys sitting next to us that we dubbed the "Three Wankers" (I guess after the Three Tenors). They were talking about us, but trying to hide it by talking dialect because they realized Peggy could understand Italian. Car was full of smokers and cell phones. This was also the ride where we bought a pre-packaged hot chocolate and when you push the bottom of the cup, it heats up, causing us to speculate about what kind of heat source this could be – little radioactive pellets maybe?

I wrote about our last day in Venice, starting with our breakfast and that Peg and I thought it was the same nice Senora from nine years before. We had our jelly filled croissants, capuccino, hot chocolate. Back in our room, we opened the window so we could check on the cats out in the courtyard, a lot of them. The kids gave them names. A black one who appeared to be the leader was dubbed King Kitty, and they named some others Coco Crispy and Sawdust. There was a little one that Peggy thought was the one from nine years ago all grown up now (wishful thinking?) and so the kids called him Survivor Kitty. Then we went to San Marco and this was the first time I had seen the church without the scaffolding in front of it. For the third time, I checked out the golden and jeweled plaque behind the altar, and the treasures like golden chalices, candlesticks, bowls, insense holders, and of course, the relics. Again. Can't help it. We then had lunch and my journal records that both of the kids went on about the "glaucoma waiter", one in English and one in Italian, because his eyes were kind of cloudy and they wanted to know why. Then we did a quick tour of the Doges Palace. The rooms are full of fireplaces, paintings, elaborate ceilings. There were also the weapons – spears, axes, machetes, bows and arrows, crossbows, guns, and even a little boy sized suit of armor. The kids really wanted to go through the prison and so we crossed over the Bridge of Sighs and then through the dark dungeons. Always creepy to think about people living their lives out in such places.

Tuesday, April 24, 2001: This was the night we went to the German bar and there was a Police cover band. The singer sounded a lot like Sting, not an easy voice to resemble as I think Sting's voice is unique and distinctive.

Wednesday, April 25, 2001: We visited the Stibbert Museum. Frederick Stibbert was a strange guy who lived in the 1800's but was fascinated with medieval times. He was very rich and built a castle-like house to live in, furnished it as it would have been in the days of knights, and also used it to house his extensive collections. He was just a rabid collector of things including inlay furniture, marble tables, porcelains, but his all time favorite thing was armor – suits of armor, horse armor, gauntlets and helmets, mini-suits of armor, tons of weapons including swords, guns, crossbows, etc. He also had his own special custom made suit of armor that he wore at festivals. There was also a mummy, a mummy head in a basket, Chinese kimonos and some Chinese pornography that had nice domestic scenes on the reverse so you could turn it around quick if you had some visitors with more delicate sensibilities. A fun and strange place to visit, and checking online today, still quite affordable at only 5 euro.

Thursday, April 26, 2001: On this day, Peg, Laura and I visited the Costume Gallery at the Pitti Palace in Florence, but it is actually real historical clothing and also theatrical costumes. The museum has about 6,000 items so they cannot all be out on display at once and so the exhibitions change every two years. This day, there was an exhibition about changes in women's fasion from the 1700's to the 1940's. There was a tiny brown velvet Salvatore Ferragamo shoe with a very high heel and the toe turned up like an elf shoe. Only a man would design such a thing for a woman to wear, and only a woman would want to subject herself to wearing it for its "beauty". In the Stibbert Museum, we had seen a tiny pair of Chinese shoes for the bound up foot. On the Chinese kimonos we saw a swastika, which apparently was the Chinese symbol for eternity before the Nazis corrupted it, though that might explain why they chose it if they intended the Third Reich to last forever.

After the Costume Gallery, we went to the Academia to visit the David and Peggy, given her handy dandy art degree, gave Laura a lot of information about Michelangelo and the Renaissance. I had seen the David before, but it is perfect and always exciting to look at. The Academia has some very old works there, paintings back to the 1200's, and it is interesting to see the change in styles over the centuries. The really old paintings are very flat and two-dimensional and the people do not look like real human likenesses. Peg said this is because it was thought to be heresy to recreate actual likenesses of humans because God created them.

After lunch, we visited the Medici Chapel of the Princes and tomb underneath the Church of San Lorenzo. Interestingly enough, while the tombs are underneath and the chapel next door, I did not get into the church itself until I returned another year. The Medicis were the most powerful family in Florence. The tomb, called the New Sacristy, under the church is beautiful, all marble floors and walls and a painted ceiling. Michelangelo created the sculptures on each of the tombs. These are the famous Night and Day, Twilight and Dawn sculptures. There is also a Madonna here whose face is absolutely beautiful, and once again I am always astounded at what Michelangelo was able to do with stone. To the left of the Madonna is a statue of an old man – St. Damien, who the Medicis thought was their own special saint - and his hand is old and veiny, so lifelike, yet stone. My journal notes say that Michelangelo actually didn't finish this job, and that is why the statues on top of the tombs look like they are going to slide off – there were supposed to be river gods below.


Night and Day


Madonna and Child

Friday, April 27, 2001: On this day, we visited the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, home of the Medicis. We went on a special tour in English of the secret rooms of Cosimo and Francesco, where they hid their collections. Cosimo's was up a secret hidden staircase and was very small, with little cabinets built into the walls and paintings on the ceiling. He liked to collect things from "exotic" places outside Italy but had the paintings for the room done by Florentine artists and marble from Florence, work done by locals out of local materials. The cabinet doors were all carved wood. The guide said he did this to represent Florence as the best of the best, yet he collected all things from away. Perhaps it was his own little power trip to place all these things in his special little hidden Florence room. The guide said only he would go up there and admire his things alone by candlelight. The room of Francesco was twice the size, long and narrow. It had a painted ceiling and a row of square paintings along the upper wall and a row along the lower wall that were ovals. The ones on the lower wall front the hidden cabinets and secret doors to Cosimo's room. Francesco favored collecting things related to science. Like many Medicis, he had himself inserted into many of the paintings. His theme was nature and discovery and mastery of it so the paintings grow out of air, fire and water.

PANDAmonium!

Washington, D.C., June 9-10, 2007

I am such a fan of pandas. The advent of the internet web cam has been just about the greatest technological achievement as far as I'm concerned because now I can watch pandas whenever I want. And I have probably viewed Tai Shan, the baby panda at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., at some point nearly every day of his life since he was born. So it was inevitable that I would have to visit him in person. A few months ago, I had to travel for work and, in the course of being re-routed due to airline issues, discovered that there is a direct flight between Portland and D.C. National Airport. Knowing that Tai Shan's second birthday is July 9th and that often China wants to take custody of their baby pandas around that time, I decided that I simply had to go and see Tai in person, as well as his mom and dad, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, who I also view daily on the panda cam. Now lucky for me, China decided that Tai can stay in the USA for another two years. So that means more daily panda cam viewing for me!

I had been to D.C. just a few years ago after Laura's graduation so decided only to go this time for the weekend. Laura and Jeff decided they wanted to go along again too. We flew down on a 6:10 a.m. flight out of Portland, took a cab to the Omni Shoreham, and by about 10:00 a.m. we were finishing our breakfast and heading off to the Zoo.When we arrived at the Giant Panda Habitat, we were able to view the environment for ourselves. The first enclosure was Tian Tian's, the daddy panda. He was up in the back of the exhibit area and it was hard to see him right then, so we then went next door to Mei Xiang's. She was already sleeping in a little cave-grotto area, probably because it provides a little shade cover and the day was already pretty hot. All three of the enclosures for each panda have lots of trees for shade or climbing, plants, bamboo growing, big tree branches and rocks to climb on, and pools to cool off in. Both Tian's and Mei's areas have guard-rails and sort of trench areas that then go uphill. However, in Tai's area, part of it is open with trench and guardrail but the other half of it does not have a trench, and he can come all the way up to the edge of the enclosure to a glass wall. So panda fans can literally get next to Tai, if he chooses to come to the window wall.

Since Mei was napping, we went next door to Tai's area and he too was napping in his favorite spot. This is a corner that I have seen him go to all the time on the panda cam, but I didn't realize how truly close he was to his fans in this spot. Right in the corner where the glass windows and the side wall meet is a grate and water runs down the rocks into this grate, and right in the corner is out of the sun. So it is probably a cooler and comfortable place for him. I have seen him napping and sitting back eating bamboo in this little area, and when we first arrived he was nested with his butt in the corner taking a nap.

Tai Shan, taking
a nap in his corner on the grate

We then continued walking in a big circle around the enclosure and up on the left side is Tai's little cave-grotto. On the other side of the path is the enclosure area for the red pandas. They are actually in the raccoon family. They really are a bright red color and have raccoon-like tails.

Red Panda

Continuing to walk around the enclosure brings you to the doors to the inside den areas. Inside is air conditioned so when the pandas feel too hot, they can come inside to do the same activities they do outside – eat bamboo, sleep, play a little bit. When we went inside, Tian Tian had come in for a bit and was sitting up on the rocks, which have little waterfalls flowing over them. Shortly after, it was time for a bamboo snack for Tian and when the door to his den opened, out he went to enjoy. It was fun to watch him. He really seems to revel in his bamboo feast. He sat there chomping and chewing and peeling bamboo, then fell back on his back and continued eating while lying down. I think Tian has a cute face and little round ears; I just like to watch him sit and eat, enjoying probably the best moments of panda life, when he can have yummy yummy bamboo.

After the pandas, we walked by the elephants where the baby elephant was playing in his swimming pool. He had all kinds of toys floating in the water and was pushing them around. Then he decided he wanted to take the ball out of the pool and he pushed it with his trunk out of the water and up onto the dirt around the pool. We went through the Hippo House and saw them lying in their pools, and went through the Small Mammal House (meerkats, prairie dogs, shrews, among other things), viewed the gorillas and a komodo dragon outside, through the Invertebrate House (crabs, octopus, squids, other sea creatures, insects), tigers and lions before stopping for lunch. After lunch, we visited the seals and sea lions, Mexican wolves, otters and beavers, and golden lion tamarins (these monkey like animals with golden fur that are loose in the forested area where you just walk along and look up, and can hear them making noise). I also stopped in Amazonia, a building where they have recreated a rainforest. It is super-humid inside and the vegetation is growing and the animals are loose inside, monkeys and birds overhead and fish below, plants and flowers all around.

Rainforest Flower

At the end of the day, we went back by the Giant Panda exhibit again to see if Mei and Tai had woken up from their naps. Tian was outside and up in the back of his enclosure. But Tai Shan had woken up and was the star of the show. What has always attracted me from the beginning watching this little panda on the web cam is that he always seemed to have such personality. When he was very little and would end up on his back, he would struggle with his legs waving like a turtle on its back trying to turn over. He would squirm and squiggle when his mother was trying to clean him with a tongue bath, like every little kid who doesn't want a bath. When he first started trying to move around, he had more strength in his front legs than back and would keep trying and trying to get somewhere and get his legs going. When he first started to get mobile, his mother would keep dragging him back to his den, yet he'd keep trying to come out and explore. When he was big enough to go outside, he just went over every inch of his outdoor area, learning where everything was, climbing on branches and trees, swinging and playing. I loved watching him when he would climb up on Mei as if she was a jungle gym, and start biting her ears. Sometimes he'd just roll himself down the hill over and over, such a playful panda.

Upon meeting him in person, I thought he's just like Paris Hilton! It's like he knows the cameras are on him and everybody is here to see him. He's the star of the show. So when we saw him in the afternoon, he was up on his rock. The water flows over the rocks and so is probably cool for him. And there are all the crazy humans, me included, with our cameras, crushed up against the guardrail leaning in trying to take pictures of him. It was like he was posing. He stood still for a few seconds so we could get him from the front, then he turned and laid down on the rock, with his legs splayed out. He stayed like that that for a minute or two, then decided to get up and move. I went around to the side with the window glass wall and he was turning around on the rock and then looked down at the window wall. It seemed like he homed in on the little girl sitting on the rock right next to me and he just bounded down off the rocks and marched right over and up to the window. Look –


Tai Shan - Superstar!

He put his nose right up to the glass and the little girl put her hand to his nose. After maybe 15-20 seconds, he decided to go to the left and lay down in front of the window. Now it was the paparazzi hordes who all crowded up to the glass, taking his picture and hovering around to worship this little panda god. He stayed there for maybe ten minutes, reveling I suppose in these silly humans and how they never tire of watching whatever he is doing – eating, pooping, sleeping. Finally, it was as if he decided he had performed enough for his public and he jumped up and bounded on up to his little cave-grotto where he plunked down and went to sleep. So, we went inside to check on Mei. She was in her den playing with a ball that had little food treats in it. She was lying back and shaking it to make the treats come out of the holes. All her fans were taking photos and she'd periodically look over at the window at everyone standing there with their cameras looking at her, as if to say "You people are crazy."

After that, we headed back to the hotel. Laura and Jeff took a swim while I took a nap after having gotten pretty overheated outside. Then they went to the Chipotle Mexican Grill, their favorite place to eat the last time we were here.

On Sunday, I spent the last day at the Natural History Museum watching IMAX 3D films about lions and sharks, and again viewing the Hope Diamond and other gems. They now have this Tiffany Diamond, gorgeous!


Laura and Jeff chose to go attend a protest they saw advertised, which turned out to be a "Free Palestine" demonstration. There were the pro-Israel counter-demonstrators as well, a very large number of people in front of the Capitol. They hung around and listened to the speeches, saw some little clashes that police had to break up. After we met up at 4:00, we had some gelato and headed back on the subway. We saw some pro-Israel kids wearing their flags and carrying their sign, and some Free Palestine people with their signs. And all rode the train in peace. Cause that's what we do in America.