Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, November 17. 2005

The Basilica of San Miniato al Monte

One of the oldest buildings in Florence, construction of San Miniato was begun in 1013. It is now the chapel of an Olivetan Benedictine monastery.

I was fortunate to hear the monks do Vespers in the crypt, in Gregorian chant, last Friday night.

Michelangelo integrated the chapel in his rapidly-designed battlements in the 1500s, as he did with that entire part of Florence. Like DaVinci, a multi-talented fellow. Unlike the Duomo, the marble facade is old. Many consider San Miniato to be the finest Romanesque building it Italy.

Did not know that Carlo Collodi was buried there. The hike from downtown Florence to the top of the hill is a good, scenic way to burn off lunch, and to get some looks at Michelangelo's defenses against the great siege on the Republic of Firenze by the Pope and the King of France, neither of whom liked the idea of an independent republic. Here's a nice timeline of those crazy 1500s. Has anything changed in Italian politics?

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 08:46 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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