Some of you know ...

That I was off to another trip to Italy mostly and flew away on 9/17.  I planned a very different trip this time and, now, only 3 days later, I realize that it was an INSANE plan for a weak, old woman.   I flew into Milan because of the cheap air fare and that brought to mind the fact that there are places in more northern Italy that people visit and maybe I should too.  So, since I made the reservation in April(!), I had a lot of time to figure out what and where and how long, etc.  I even ended up finally having a doable bucket list item that I hopefully will get crossed off.  I ended up with a schedule of Milan to Padua (stay 2 nights), Padua to Verona (stay 1 night) Verona to Vicenza (stay 2 nights) and how could any one not want to visit such fun-to-say-in-a-row towns.  But there's more, from Vicenza to Turin (stay 1 night) and from there, wait for it, Turin to Lyon, France!  That is where I will hopefully have a dinner at a Michelin star restaurant.  Only 1 star mind you, but that's as high as my money sense will allow me.  So, for all those trips, I have to lug my 500# (to me) suitcase around over cobblestones up and down from sidewalks to streets, over potholed sidewalks, etc.  I realized before the trip that I have lost some strength since my last strip and neglected to start doing something about that.  These short jaunts can be the start of a muscle-building program if I don't just drop dead on some sidewalk with the bicyclists whizzing by me.  And of course, I hold on to the fact as I am sweating, trying not to cry in public and constantly blowing my nose, that I will end up in my beloved Florence and may just spend several hours a day (and I'll be there 8) at a cafe gazing at the Duomo.  And I'll know what restaurants I want to eat at, and have already booked and wine-tasting tour from Florence which will take us through 3 Tuscan cities and a good amount of wine.

So now that I've spent so much time snivelling, I will move on to the fact that while in Padua, I did visit 2 museums which I enjoyed (one very much, one a really good one but I tired quickly once there) and also went to the Capella de Scrovengi which is quite famous for the fact that the entire inside of the church (it's a smallish church but still...) was painted by Giotto and was a pretty much complete break from the sterile, no perspective, people that don't act like people religious art.

And before I forget, there's a windy canal across the street from my hotel with a pretty bridge and this is a veiw looking down the canal.  At the end of the rest of the pictures, I'll post a larger picture of that strange whitish object on the left bank. :)  Don't forget, I post these pictures usually at "extra large" but I think you can still click and they go bigger, if not, shame on Blogger.

These next two which I forgot I had are the remains of a Roman arena that is still standing today.

So I'm going to post the two museum sets of pictures with this blog and post the last night (Capella and a few others) tomorrow.  That's the plan - we'll see how it works.

Zuckerman first - And the only thing I know for sure about any of them is the century they were made and I got tired of keeping track of that so it will stop at some point.  These dear little minis didn't have even a date-not a word about them.

 A lovely painted wood Madonna and Bambino painted wood and, again, no date

 Next was a grouping of three crucifixion-related pieces but the other one was too far removed to include here and was dark and very hard to see.  The disc is listed as 14th C. and the ivory(?) is listed as 15th C.

 These were so pretty and colorful!  but apparently there was no info on them at all..

 A statue of mother & child and looking more closely at this one because of the buns on top of their heads, I think her eyes were slightly slanted which would tie in with the buns - they look very Chinese or Japanese to me.

 Cereal, anyone?

 I'm calling this a Majolica platter though I'm not sure but since all the labels were in Italian, it was hard to figure some out.

One cabinet had a small wooden casket with ivory panels and then they had various "remains" of small caskets also.  This sure is lovely.

 This was so gorgeous it took me a bit to realize it was a reliquary but then I noticed what looked like a fresh veggie or something in the little glass part and thought "oh, yes - somebody's something" but it still is a stunning piece of workmanship.  And the workman was a Padua silversmith. The top enlarged below. (15th C.)

 These were identifed as Padua ceramics - 15thC

 Beautiful carving.

 I love the bowl of fruit.  The other one?  not so much...

 I have no idea what this instrument is.  It wasn't all that big and there were no strings that I saw but in the picture below, you can see that there is an elaborately cut opening so I'd assume that was to let the music out.  Sure seems like the strings closest to the opening would be much louder than the far away ones.  But isn't it pretty much fabulous?  Everything the rich had way back then had to be the best woods, the best artist, the most decorated, etc.

And closing the Zuckermann with another reliquary - this one silver and maybe some gold?  I cut off the bottom of the stem which was a totally plain silver tube so the rest would be a big larger.

Okay that's what I got from the Zuckerman, who, by the way was apparently not a hugely rich man who collected all this stuff.  He was the man who was somehow involved in building the huge long building that runs along a major thoroughfare.  So it's nice he helped build it so that whoever else could fill it with treasures,

I said I would do the Bottocin too (and that is a rich man's collection) here too but it's after 10 and I just finally had a relatively good meal that was actually cooked when I ordered it and some nice red wine and a dark chocolate gelato without the Jack Daniels whiskey.  Why would you do that to dark chocolate and gelato??  And that was at a place called Special Mr. Martini.  Have no idea why.  But it is a motorcycle shop and a very jumpin' restaurant.  It tickled me because of course Huntington has Charlies motorcycles (actually it's a different name now but everyone calls it Charlies) and it had a little cafe type restaurant in with the shop.  That's how this place was but way beyond anything Charlie put on the table. :)  They had this sign outside by the door and the last one is the restaurant side of the business.  It was filled with people by the time I left.

And for once I'm pretty full and somewhat anesthetized by the wine and will probably drift off

to slumberland soon.  After my first night's sleep of I think about 12 hours, I just really slept lousy last night.  So maybe tonight will be another good one. 

Buona sera!