Happy New Year!  Here in Montisi, now the 4th of January, it is cool, with dramatic skies, some rain and as always, beautiful panoramas and delicious food.  I have had a lovely group of friends nestled into the house since before Christmas.  Even a decorated live Christmas tree, about 10' tall, in the dining room!!  I arrived the 28th and we enjoyed a few day trips and waited, with great expectation, a lovely New Year's eve dinner.  We had arranged with Patrizia, who has been helping with Vitis Vinifera, to prepare a many-course, traditional Tuscan New Year dinner.  It far exceeded our hopes.  I will have photos shortly.  We built a large fire in the fireplace and 'settled in' for a succession of delicious and beautiful dishes - leek tart, traditional lentil dish (for luck and prosperity) and an extraordinary dessert of yeast-leavened cake as the base for a tiramisu garnished with glistening shards of pistachio brittle.

Yesterday we all parted company in Florence and I had the chance to wander the neighborhood where Madelyn and I lived 2 years ago.  I had a remarkable experience.  This is our street, via Osteria del Guanto. 

 

 

Our apartment doorway is just out of the frame to the right.  This photo is taken, as if you were walking to the Arno, west.  Notice the little niche in the wall, set into the wall.  That is typical of the cities, towns and villages throughout Italy. They hold religious images and figures, sometimes behind glass and metal grills, or just open.  Sometimes people living in the area tend them with flowers and candles.  They are a special element in almost every neighborhood.  I loved this one, visiting it, Madonna and Child almost every day, as I walked by.  Set high in the wall, it was not possible to study the sculpture but I had photographed and enlarged it on my computer to see more detail.

 

But this day, here is what I saw....

 

 

!!!!!!!!

 

I stopped into the little used furniture shop across from our apartment door and asked.  The story is this - a few weeks ago two men tried to steal it in the middle of the night.  They discovered that it was not made of wood or plaster, but was 80 kg of pietra serena!!!  Solid, heavy basalt stone!!!  Needless to say they could not carry it off and made so much noise neighbors called the police.  The statue was recovered and Giuseppe, who runs the furniture shop, took it in, to wait for the officials to come and reinstall it. 

 

So imagine my delight!!!  Please allow me to introduce this little statue, created about the time of Michelangelo....

 

 

Now you can see the amazing detail, the delicate features, the layers of pigment and the tender hands holding the baby.  The three little buttons...

 

Florence and Italy always amaze!!  What a wonderful occasion for me!!

 

 

I wanted to share this today.  I will write more and post some food photos when I get them in a few days.

 

To the Christmas/New Year's group - thank you for coming and sharing Villa Maddalena and her magic!  Travel safe!

M

 

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Just so you can know that the gentle moments in winter, here, can bring new dimensions to one's love of Italy....a wander around Siena for example ~

 

A soft, luminous January day..... San Domenico frames the Duomo...

Nearby, my only shop for Siena painted ceramics...after visiting ALL shops, twice each, some years ago...this is my favorite.  Who would know, to look at it?  One of the surprises...

Complexity....

Each street, both in Siena and Florence, strung with a different theme of lights.  A fairyland at night...

A lovely Madonna and Child watches over....

Another, intriguing and lovely even when closed....

A study in patience, yes....?

A view from via dei Termini to via Banchi di Sopra...dressed for the festivities...the loveliest of skybridges, no?

Complexity, again....

Complexity continued....

Simplicity ~ arches, delicate lacework of the iron, the patina of the soft green mosses, the faded shutters with their painted surrounds...but how did they get the perfect pigeon to be the final detail?

Streets like this, long-since covered from the sky, now tunnels connecting...add a mystery and magic...

Complexity again - almost a confusion....

A lost lamb....

A glimpse of Il Campo, below....

 

 

 A last gesture, from the side chapel inside the duomo....

 

Siena, a tapestry, in any season.  Perhaps all the sweeter to consider when it becomes, again, a proud city of Italians going about savoring the holidays.....

 

Buon Anno!!  MGH