John: Food and drink break

I've just realised I have overlooked something very important when writing a holiday blog. Telling you all about new foods and drinks we have tasted. Limoncello was a new drink to me which I wrote about earlier, in the Italian blog.

Thanks to Linda for recommending that it tastes good over ice. It must be a very popular drink in Europe because I saw this sign on a blackboard in Amsterdam a couple of weeks later.

Below is a photo of a page from my little blue book that I always carry with me. It's always useful to have to ask waiters, tour guides etc. to write things down for me.

The first entry is the name of an Italian wine, called "Primitivo Di Manduria." I had the sweet variety.

This is a red wine from the Puglia region of Southern Italy. This sweet version has a very high sugar content, and is 13.5% alcohol by volume. I have never tasted a red wine so sweet before, yet it wasn't syrupy like a desert wine. It was just the right drop for the end of a busy day. The entry below it says "Sfogliatella" The Neapolitan version called "Sfogliatella Santa Rosa" is a shell shaped pastry made from shortcrust dough filled with dried fruits and lemon, garnished with cream and raspberries. They taste as gorgeous as they look, and are twice as fattening as you could ever imagine!

When in Naples you eat pizza. The dish that the city calls its own. Our guide and some other residents we spoke to recommend a pizza place called "Sorbello's" as the place to go. Reservations were not taken, and there was always a queue whenever we walked by. The menu is only in Italian, but depending on the waiter you can get an English description. The pizzas are huge (the edges spill over the edge of a very large dinner plate), and delicious. I'm sure that this will be the only place where I order a pizza that had a registered trade mark against its name! It had a very unusual topping made with nuts! Surely not. But now I'm sure it was. A couple of days ago back in Oz, I saw a packet of something called Dukkah, which is an Egyptian creation made of crushed nuts, and spices. I'm sure I saw this ingredient on the menu, because it didn't look like any Italian word I had ever seen before. The rest of the topping was standard pizza stuff, but as a pizza this creation was quite something.

As pizza is to Naples, so cakes and pastries are to Paris. It looked like a ho hum sort of a morning taking the washing to the laundromat and killing time whilst the washing was done. But what a find! Just next door to the laundromat was one of the most mind blowing, taste buds spoiling bakeries I've ever seen (and enjoyed) and I've experienced a few. The coffees and the cakes were so good, I got Julie a loyalty card.

And folks this will be all for this blog because the technology is driving me nuts. Thanks for reading. (PS Julie doesn't think Blogo works very well with photos so Tripcast and /or Wordpress will be Jule's/ (therefore by default, my) preferred options in future)

John: The Pompidou Centre Part Two. Permanent Collection and View.

After seeing the mind challenging (thought provoking/weird/choose your own label) Magritte exhibition, Julie and I took a look at the permanent collection. Here Julie and I were on safer ground. As Jule said, we both felt more at ease and "at home."

Despite its extensive collection of art works and sculpture, perhaps the Centre's best "exhibition" is the view. For an extra €3 (which we didn't pay) you get access to a viewing platform that gives spectacular views of Paris.

With such a background you just can't help taking way too many photos of your favourite person.

John The Pompidou Centre Part 1 Magritte and American Angst.

As I mentioned in the last blog, the design of the centre (in the 1960s) was regarded as quite radical for an art gallery, in that it looks more like a factory than a conventional gallery. Yet the more I walked around it, seeing people walk along its glass tubular corridors, the more I was reminded of the the city in the German Expressionist movie, Metropolis, which was made many years ago.

 At the time we visited, in addition to the permanent collection, there was a special exhibition which celebrated the work of Belgian painter Rene Magritte. Magritte was/is (I can't remember which) a surrealist painter (Painting his dreams, or dream like images) with a belief in the Existentialist School philosophy. A school which one critic called The "I'm only here because you think I am," school of thought. In addition, Magritte at the age of fourteen, also had the horrific experience of seeing his mother's body being dragged from the river after she had killed herself. So you would expect with this background his work would not be very conventional. Having seen it, I must admit I didn't like it. On an earlier trip a young American fellow traveler once described this school of painting as "French Weird!" below are some examples for you to consider.

 This is not a pipe

This is not an apple.

 Trying to do The Impossible

 The next two I have seen before, on L.P covers of psychedelic music (drugs LSD etc) of the 1960s

 Time transfixed

 Decalomania.

THE AMERICAN ANGST EXHIBITION.

 Although we saw this exhibition on a different day at a different gallery to the Magritte one, I am including it here because the two exhibitions seem to go well together. This exhibition concerned itself with paintings by American artists who believed that America and its people were suffering a great deal of angst and anxiety in their lives all through the 1900s. Two of the paintings below I am sure you will know. The last two probably not. Again I will put in photos of them, and you can make of them what you will.

 American Gothic

Nighthawks

 

"American Justice" by Joe Jones. After some thought I have decided not to put in a photo. The painting deals with the values and activities of The Ku Klux Klan. It is quite violent and graphic. It is an emotive painting. You can look at it if you want, but before you do, be warned. 

After being challenged by the Magritte exhibition, it was time to go and see the centre's permanent collection. Much more accessible, much more familiar, and perhaps most importantly, more enjoyable to look at, and read about.

Wrigley's 

John: Writing From Home. A New Style.

There are four benefits to writing the blog from home after the trip. Firstly, I am not subject to the whims of technology and the frustrations of erratic internet connections, whilst at the time following a busy time schedule. Secondly, because internet access is easier, I can show you an image of what something that I see reminds me of, rather than try to explain it in words. For example, in The Pompidou Centre blog. Thirdly I can use pictures to describe feelings and impressions which are sometimes better than words. for example what was "bugging" me about Berlin. Finally, and most importantly, if I have more control over what I write, I hope it will be more interesting for you to read.  

 Also please be aware of the following. Events in some of the blogs may not be in chronological order. This is because although I have only been home for a couple of weeks, I have genuinely forgotten when or in which order we did things. Or I have chosen to put together two activities we did on different days together, because they go well together and make a more interesting blog. Also please be aware that Julie will no longer be editing my ramblings before they are published, so you will be subject to clumsy sentences, bad grammar, typos, and all the other characteristics of someone who hasn't or doesn't write much, except for hundreds of shopping lists over the years. If you are still game to stay with me, then the next blog is about our visit to The Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Blog postponed until oz

Paris city

I am about a week and two cities behind in my blog. I have a blog thing that seems to be corrupt, some dodgy connections, and I am having a really good time! However to Paris.

On our arrival in the Marais district, seeing the old scarred and bashed in walls and worn out steps leading to our apartment brought on a surge of all my Parisian fantasies and images in one intense immediate surge: climbing the stairs to be a conspirator in the French Revolution by storming The Bastille, (in reality just down the road), being the starving artistic genius whose works have become classics (I am neither starving or a genius) or an actual location of all the films I have seen where the S.S. round up members of the French resistance in the Second World War.

Open the door and you are outside into a typical Marais street scene. The streets are narrow with a typical Parisian skyline.

At night the dark, narrow, dimly lit streets look like a paperback book cover of an Amy Leduc detective story. Amy being one of my favourite fictional French detectives.

The streets during the day are lined with the little shops and cafes that Paris is famous for.

Photos.

At the end of the street in the Pompidou Centre. 

When it was built in the 1960s, it was a daring piece of architecture. Now, for me, it's just an eyesore, sticking out like a sore thumb. Maybe my intense dislike of the building is the result of my loathing of the way the man after whom the building was named treated immigrants into France when he was Immigration Minister, but that's another story.

So once we were unpacked, settled, and got our bearings, it was time to go out and about. First trip a look at this not very nice from the outside art gallery.

Medicis Part 4

So by now you will realise how important the Medicis were/are. I would recommend you look at Julie's Tripcast for Florence again. Basically anything you see will have a Medici connection.

But this family didn't just amass and possess things,they were patrons to scientists and artists who changed the world forever.

So that's it for beautiful Florence. Next stop, Paris

John: Gucci Museum. Little blog for a big name.

I thought we might do a short little blog, before looking at the Medicis, because you can't really understand Florence without knowing about this family. But to our Gucci outing.

We got off the bus at our usual stop and walked up the street to the main square. It's the street that has lots of designer label boutiques, and hand crafted leather goods. Julie bought another couple of bags from her favourite shop. The shop owners' status went from "shop owner" to her "little man" in Florence

A little further up the road we found some nice matching luggage to go with the yellow ensemble

But we didn't buy it.

Then a little FURTHER up the road we found the ultimate accessory.

We didn't buy that either.

Once into the Gucci museum it was time for lunch. I had a tasty bowl of pasta. It was very pleasant to look out over the main square whilst dining.

The museum was quite interesting even for me who is not particularly in designer stuff. I'll let the photos tell the story. As you look at them bear in mind that one Gucci bag was about the same price as the set of luggage shown above.

Of course there were the designer dresses made for the stars. Mortgage the house just to buy the label. I was surprised to see how slim Selma Hayak was/is

Of course it was exit through the gift shop. It wasn't very big, but it had a few baubles and trinkets to put a down payment on. 

It was a lovely little trip, and made a very pleasant change from all the classical stuff.

Medicis Part 3

So it's all done. All that's left to do is keep the company making profits over time. It seems the Medicis have been very successful at this. By diverting into merchandising they have kept the revenue stream coming in. 

There's books

Cooking schools

C.D.'s

The Florence soccer team are seen world wide via cable T.V. Note the team badge

And DVD's and Television.

The Medici family story started on Italian T.V. This week.

So perhaps now you can see why I said at the beginning those other families, compared to The Medicis, are mere begginers!

Medicis part2

So the company is thriving, and making super profits. The local market is sown up and the opposition disposed of. The only way to expand is to go national, then international. In the time of the Renaissance, in the fourteen hundreds, economic and political power was good, but just as important was religious power. So it was just as important for aspiring entrepreneurs to have someone inside the religion power structure. 

In renaissance times it was the Catholic religion. So it was good to have someone in Rome, better someone in the Papal palace. If that someone was the Pope it was the ultimate, for in those days, the Pope virtually ruled the world.

The Medicis had many Cardinals. One of them being Giovanni, shown below

The Medicis had TWO Popes. One of them, Leo X shown below was a real party boy. 

He was so busy spending the Vatican's money that he had to work out a way of getting some money back. So as any good innovative business man would do, he introduced a low quality high turn over line that would appeal to the mass market. Leo introduced the product of mass produced Papal dispensation. For a small fee (probably a large one) Leo would write you a document that would forgive you all your sins. No need for all that effort of prayer, confession, all that stuff. With one of Leo's products, you would get an instant, to quote Led Zeppelin, "Stairway To Heaven"

While all this was going on, marriages were arranged that would be advantageous to the family's fortunes. As that other pop singer used to sing "What's Love Got To Do With It? One of them was Princess Anna from Austria. The last photo is of Catherine Medici, who married a French prince. Catherine later became queen. 

Photos Anna and Catherine. 

So that's it. All the markets have been conquered. The power plays had played off, all that was left to do now, was to keep the company going to keep the cash rolling in. The last part of the story will tell you how the Medicis have done just that, for hundreds of years.