Vacation Time in Sicily

I have limited internet access (and blogging time) during our three week vacation in Sicily. But, here is a quick posting with a few pictures of Enna where we are staying with Vincenzo's family.
This is the view of the valley below the mountain top town of Enna.

This is the view I had out of my bedroom window when I woke up yesterday.

Enna is a crowded collection of buildings dating back many centuries. Today before lunch we were caught in a web of narrow streets. We had to fold in the side mirrors to pass in some sections.
The Fiat 500 is one of the best vehicles for getting around Enna.

Last night I watch some ragazzi playing foosball in one of Enna's piazzas.


This is Vincenzo in front of his middle school. Below, he is standing in front of one of his classroom doors.

Enna: fountains and steps

Enna is an ITALIAN town, so there are many fountains! It is also on a mountain, so there are many steps! Here are just a few of them.

Frank Sinatra and the Beatles in Rome

From "My Way" to "Yesterday"
On Wednesday evening we went to a concert of the International Chamber Ensemble in the Courtyard of Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza. Under the direction of Francesco Carotenuto they performed "Frank Sinatra Orchestra Suite" and "The Beatles Orchestra Suite." It was fun to hear string arrangements of songs originally sung by Frank Sinatra and the Beatles.

The setting was magnificent. The two dozen instrumentalists performed in front of the facade of the Church of Sant' Ivo, designed by Borromini and built between 1642-1669. It is considered to be one of the great materpieces of Baroque architecture. The travertine of the facade created a great acoustic shell for the orchestra. The occasional gentle wind was a reminder that you were outside in a courtyard and not in a concert hall.


The church was built into the courtyard of the Palazzo della Sapienza, originally home to the University of Rome. The university was founded in 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII and is the oldest of Rome's universities.  This Renaissance courtyard, desiged by Giacomo della Porta, saw lectures by famous scientists such as Galileo and Copernicus. Today the Palazzo is just a small part of what is now the largest University in Europe.

Vaporella

We have a new clothes iron in our home. Well, it is actually a small steam generating station!

The compact "American type" irons are available in stores, but ...... many Italians prefer the bulky, cork handled irons with a steam-generating base. The steam is delivered into the hand held iron by means of a cloth-wrapped cable.

I must say, it does deliver a lot of steam!

Feet in Rome: Piazza di Spagna

People do a lot of walking in Rome. On a hot summer day the Barcaccia (Old Boat) Fountain in Piazza di Spagna is a welcome place to rest your feet. It is said that this fountain was designed in the 17th Century by Pietro Bernini, father of the famous sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini.




Summer is not the only time to see feet in Piazza di Spagna. You can always look at the statues around the base of the Column of the Immaculate Conception erected in 1865 and admire the feet of King David, Ezekiel, Moses and Isaiah.

Surprise in Spoleto

One of the excursions during our time in Umbria was a trip to Spoleto. We enjoyed the beautiful cathedral and other sights in the town, but we were caught by surprise with the wonderful Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna that the city started in 1953, collecting works by Italy's top 20th Century artists as well as other significant modern artists from around the world.

We had fun "playing" in a room installation by Sol LeWitt.

From the archives: 

Here is a picture on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the Summer of 2005 with a work by Sol LeWitt.

Il Gesù on a Sunday afternoon

On Sunday afternoon I made my way to the Jesuit church of Il Gesù for an experience of baroque ecclesiastical theater that I had read about in the New York Times. Here are some quotes from that article.

Every afternoon at 5:30 sharp, the “ta-da” moment arrives at the Chiesa del Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit order.As choral music (composed in the 18th century by the Jesuit Domenico Zipoli) fills the church, a meticulously choreographed light show begins in the left transept of the Chapel of St. Ignatius of Loyola. During the startling crescendo, a painted altarpiece descends slowly, exposing a deep niche in which a majestic silver statue depicts St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, jetting into heaven.

It is a quintessential Baroque spectacle, one that fell out of favor about a century ago. At the time, the church’s caretakers retired the canvas altarpiece, which depicts Christ presenting a royal standard to St. Ignatius, and the mechanical apparatus that lowers and raises it, so that the silver statue could remain on display.“The statue’s a little over the top, but it does make a big impression,” (said Rev. Daniele Libanori, the church's deputy rector.) Father Libanori much prefers the altarpiece, which he discovered five years ago, after he first arrived at the church and started exploring its nooks and crannies. He found the enormous canvas, painted around 1695 by Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit lay brother, under the altar, still wedged into a frame that had been constructed so it could be raised by pulleys.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took.















Father Libanori said the statue was a little over the top. I might add that the entire Sunday afternoon experience in Il Gesù was a a little over the top!