Firenze

A properly made Negroni

Sonnet and I return from California with Eitan and Madeleine following a week in Berkeley with Katie and Daniel and Daniel's three sons William, Harry and George who are in college (Will, Sophomore at Vermont) or applying/ going this year. Gracie and Katie secure a 10 foot Christmas tree which we decorate for the season.

Sonnet and I quickly turn around for Florence and the Palazzo Strozzi to see the Beato Angelico exhibition. Beato (also called Fra) was a Dominican friar and painter during the early Florentine Renaissance of the 15th Century and the brightness and colours of his work stand out from anything else.

Florence reminds me of a Freshman class I took at Brown on the Renaissance taught by a wonderful Italian professor who made the period come alive with violence and land battles, beheadings, art (of course) and the sex - the nunneries, mio Dio. The course sandwiched between pre-med STEM biology, chemistry and psychology and Calculus. No wonder it was a favourite (only wish I knew how to write a college-level paper at then).

Annunciation