Invictus Fourth Concert

We are bloodied but unbowed. A couple of our group have taken falls, several (including this author) have colds but we carry on as best we can. Today is Wednesday. We are staying in the stately old Tamerici Hotel in Montecatini Terme, a spa town outside Florence. After our buffet breakfast about three quarters of our group went via coach into Florence for a guided walking tour.

The drive into Florence was 45 minutes - just enough time for a top deck collaborative project to fix the broken air conditioner. Ed covered the security camera with a hat while Mike whipped out his tools and unscrewed the panel for the a.c. Kerrin and Laurie supported the panel while Mike looked for something obvious like a fuse that needed replacing or a loose wire. Nothing was found but it was a nice diversion from stop and go traffic.

                    We had a very informative and entertaining guide for our tour. He spoke eloquently of the importance that is placed on the three highest virtues, which is evident all around us. The colours of the virtues are white for faith, green for hope and red for charity or love. The marble from which the prominent churches such as the Duomo where Michaelangelo, Galileo and Rossini are buried has been fashioned in green, white, and pink (think red). The colours on the Italian flag are red, green and white. Paintings often have a woman who symbolizes each virtues, even the colours of pizza  originally was a reflection of this world view.


















The number of languages that you hear in the piazzas is amazing. Everyone is staggering around trying to stay in the shade and out of one another's shots of the stunning architecture. As we walked across the piazza, the guide pointed out the sand between the cobblestones and a tile marker high on the centre building (with elaborate mosaics) marking the centre line for a particularly rough and historical local football game that is played in this square once a year.





Florence has a central medieval core, surrounded by "newer" buildings. We walked by a large oval building - the shape had been determined by the fact that it was built on top of an old Roman amphitheatre.






This has always been a merchant city.  Many of the property owners had wineries also. If you look carefully a lot of the buildings have tiny "fairy" doors in the wall where people used to be able to buy wine from the owner.



Ponte Vecchia

The Ponte Vecchia is the last remaining ancient bridge in Florence because the retreating Nazis blew up all the other bridges so the advancing Allies couldn't use them. Fortunately, that was the worst damage that Florence suffered during WWII.




We returned to the hotel to prepare for our late concert in the Terme Tettuccio.  This is a historic spa with salty tasting water located in a local park. We walked over in our long skirts and wavy tops. The setting was spectacular but the lighting that frequently changed from one colour to another in the first half of the program was disconcerting to the singers and pianist. The audience was plentiful and appreciative.