Feet of the Renaissance

Feet. They have been on earth for thousands of years and outnumber humans about 2:1. There are many different shapes, sizes and types. Over the centuries people have tried to change them, from strapping toes in China to forcing half the foot far too high to be comfortable, creating blisters, rubs, painful feet and legs in the obsession women have today with high heeled shoes. Some people love them, some people hate them. Though perhaps not the prettiest things to look at they serve an incredibly important role in our day to day lives. But rather than thanking them for carrying around our bodies all day, we usually just forget about them.

I was among the many people who are not so fond of their feet mostly due to a larger than normal gap that I have between by first and second toe which never seems to go unnoticed. Once I was even asked if I had had my second toe amputated! To that I politely answered that no I have never had 6 toes or any feet operations thank you very much. The only time my toe gap has ever been useful is in summer when I am able to wear jandals (flip-flops) with ease and always managed to avoid in-between- the-toe blisters.

I am sure by now anyone reading this is completely confused why I am writing about feet on my travel blog, but patience, please. It is related to travel and all will be revealed shortly. But first I want to quickly discuss an image that made the round on Facebook a few years ago about feet. It showed different foot and toe shapes and stated that each one had either or Roman, Celtic, Greek, Egyptian or Germanic heritage and if you had that shape, well that was likely to be your ancient family. I found though none had the toe gap, mine was probably closet to the Egyptians. I would have preferred to be told it was a Roman shape but I guess you can’t choose your heritage.

 

Feet Heritage Image

 

I had naturally completely forgotten about this image and the fact that I was possibly from an ancient line of Egyptians when this thought was brought back to me in perhaps the strangest of places; the Louvre, Paris. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about my weekend in Paris during which Laura and I spent a few hours at the Louvre. We had been looking at the statues for some time when all of a sudden Laura gasped.

“Belinda!” she said, dragging me over to some statue of an old man I had already seen, “he has your feet!”

.. “What!?”

“He has your feet. Look a skinny big toe and a big gap!”

“Yeah.. Thanks..” I monotoned, but looked anyway. And she was right, he did! There, expertly carved into the marble was my foot. A slightly too high arch which led down to a slim big toe giving the impression of length. Then between the first and second toes was my perfect-for-jandals toe gap before the rest of the slim toes slopped gradually down. Having seen this I decided to check the toes of the other surrounding statues and to my surprise and delight almost every sculpture had my foot. Feeling rather pleased with my feet and their anatomy, I let them carry me past the sculptures to the next room which was filled with paintings from a similar time. And there again, painted on old canvas were men and women alike, whether in scenes of war, extravagance or even in the heavens, all modelling my feet.

 

My Foot in Stone

 

My Foot in Stone

My Actually Foot (for reference!)



My Foot - Painted!

Once home again in Italy I became curious whether the sculptures and paintings here also happened to have my feet. Looking back on my old photos of sculptures and paintings and with a bit of help from Mr. Google I found that they did. In Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam both Adam and God modelled the toe-gap, as did the philosophers in Raphael’s School of Athens. I even found that arguably the most famous sculpture in the world, David himself, also had toe-gapped feet.

 

The Creation of Adam



School of Athens



David's Feet

Then, as luck would have it, whilst trying to find evidence of my feet in Italy, I found something that I was not expecting. A clearer origin of my feet which I felt fitted better than that picture stating they were Egyptian, and which seemed to indicate a more Roman heritage after all. I found that the paintings and the sculptures in which my feet appeared most obviously was in that of the Renaissance art. The Renaissance Era (meaning re-birth in French), it turns out, was a period of time from about the 14^th to the 17^th century. It was an era which principally fulfils its name in being a time of new ideas, philosophies, culture, music, self-awareness, and basically a time when art became unbelievably beautiful and just pretty much amazing. It was the time of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and William Shakespeare. And where did this start? In Italy of course! And where in Italy? Well, just an hour from where my toe-gapped-feet now live, in the beautiful city of Florence. So somehow, in an incredibly unrelated turn of events it would appear that my uncommon feet have returned home to their place of origin!

Just like that all those years of hating my toe gap have disappeared. I have decided here and now that if anyone again ever joked about my toe I would tell them, go to Italy. Go to Florence and look at the Renaissance art, look at Michelangelo’s David, go to Rome and study Raphael’s School of Athens in the Vatican. So while you may laugh, it me and not you that has the feet of the Renaissance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sightseeing in Siena

Sometimes you find some money left in an old coat pocket or a forgotten favourite dress at the back of your wardrobe or sometimes if you write a blog, you find half written forgotten blog posts that you never ended up posting. Today I found one such blog post all about my amazing day in Siena almost 2 months ago! Reading it back brought back so many memories of the small things I had forgotten about the day, and I thought with a bit of tweaking it would be a nice memory to share with you..

As it turns out Siena is on top of a hill. And the train station is at the bottom. After hopping off the train and making my way out of the station I noticed most people jumping on a bus. I figured it was taking them to the centre of Siena. Thinking they were all just be lazy tourists and I decided to walk. 15 minutes into the constant steep and zigzagging hill I realised that taking the bus would have been a far better idea after all! However, after half an hour I finally got there! Once I was inside the walls I realised that the whole city of Siena is pretty hilly resulting in another 10-15 minutes of walking up and down until I found Piazza del Campowhere I had planned to have my morning coffee. But once I was seated outside at a small round table with a beautiful view of the entire semi-circular square, cappuccino in hand and a soft breeze playing with my hair, all that walking was worth it! And for the next wee while I happily sat there in my own happy world, soaking in the surrounding and the beauty of the place.

And Siena truly is beautiful. Not that I am surprised, Italy seems to have only beauty. In theme with the rest of Italian buildings, the ones here are beautiful shades of brown, terracotta and salmon-pinks, cream and yellows with blue and green colours which stand out, contrasting the earthy colour of the walls. Small arched passages lead to tiny courtyards with an old well or an intricately painted dome roof. The streets are paved with large, blue black stones while the Siena’s symbol of Romulus and Remus appear everywhere, statues, paintings or as part of a building itself. Walking the streets really feels like walking through history and it is not hard to believe the legend that Senius, son of I Remus (whose brother was Romulus, the namesake of Rome), was indeed the founder of the city.

I spent most of the morning exploring the city on foot heading down random streets in no particular direction, as I do most of places I visit. However when I found an all-inclusive ticket of the Siena Cathedral for only 12€ I decided to actually pay for some of my sightseeing. And I have to say, it was money well spent! With the ticket I had access to the Cathedral, Libreria Poccolomini, Basttistero, Crypt, and the very top of the building for a full view of Siena. I thought it would be impossible to decide where to go first, but after being informed that the Cathedral itself would close at 3.30pm due to a service, so I decided to go there first.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the Cathedral was the huge, black and white striped pillars that ran the length of the room, creating three arches. They were not ordinary round pillars but had both round and squared edges, giving it a beautiful and unique look. This black and white stripe theme continued throughout the Cathedral, bordering the amazing stain glass window depicting the Last Supper. In the middle of every four pillars the roof sloped upward from each side creating many small domes. The paintwork on the ceiling was stunning. In fact ceiling paintwork would prove to be my favourite thing throughout the whole tour. It was so detailed in rich colours; gold, royal blues and deep reds made to look like the night sky. The rest of the Cathedral was just as stunning, with large, detailed paintings lining the walls, beautiful tile work on the floors and decadent alters with candles, crucifixes, flowers and statues. It is hard to believe that something so grand was built so many years ago, with not even half the technology we have today. Real hard work resulting in real beauty.

As I continued through the tour I was amazed time and time again by the amazing artwork, the intricate detail in both the canvas paintings and murals. I find it almost impossible to even begin to describe everything I saw. But there is no doubt that this tour showed me a part of Siena bursting with art, history and dare I say without sounded ridiculous, a certain kind of magic. Unfortunately I was unable to take my camera into the crypt, but that too was stunning. Not only the old, chipped murals that showed the age of the building as much as the warped brick steps, but also the actual interior of the building. The shapes, style and placement of the brick work. Each entrance to another section of the crypt was an archway each slightly different to the last. One smaller, one thinner, one with an extra border of bricks facing the opposite direction.

By the time I headed for the last part of my tour, I was getting pretty hungry. It was 2pm and I had not eaten since breakfast. However, I decided I would finish it off and eat afterwards. I had left walking to the top part of the building which gave a view out over Siena and beyond for last. The first 2-3 stories where inside, with paintings and statues along the way. However, the last part was very different. After waiting about 5 minutes we were allowed to head up an extremely narrow passage way, barely wider than a person, and then up spiral staircase that would around a thin central pillar, creating such a tight circle that I was feeling rather dizzy by the time I made it to the top. The stairs were steep and there were a lot of them, I could feel it in my glutes toward the end, but once I got out to the top it was so worth it. Siena was even more stunning from the air than the ground. I could truly see for miles, from the snow topped mountains to the builders fixing a roof a few floors below, and back to Piazza del Campowhere I had drunk my morning coffee. After about 5 minutes of looking out in wonder, the sun came out from behind a cloud, giving a warm glow to everything it touched. I could have stayed up there for hours but far too soon we were told we had to leave. After one last glace I headed back away from the view, and back down the steep, spiral staircase.

 

 PHOTOS TO COME WHEN INTERNET IS FIXED - MY APOLOGIES!

 

 

                                                                     

 

Our Own Piece of Paris



Once the plans had been made to go to Paris for the weekend to finally reunite with my best friend after 3 months, I knew it would be a blog worthy event to write about. You could almost say that I had semi-pre-written it in my head. I knew we would see the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triumph, the Lock Bridge, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre. The things that are Paris. We went to all of the above mentioned places, in fact we went to the Eiffel Tower four times in two days! It was and is a magnificent structure that I absolutely love (if you could see my entire collection of photos this is clearly evident as there are more of that than anything else!) However, as I sit down to write it out I find that I don’t want to write about those things. They were all amazing in their own right, but when I think about what I would say, I feel like it’s already been said a thousand times in a thousand ways. What I find myself wanting to write about is all the things I didn’t plan on seeing, expect to happen, or semi-pre-write in my head. What I want to share is the Paris we saw and experienced.

Just a few of my Eiffel Tower shots



France is famous for many foods; cheeses, macaroons, crepes, baguettes, snails (which by the way happen to be delicious!) and of course… croissants! Now croissants have been my favourite food for as long as I can remember, partly because they are just so damn amazing, and partly because whenever I eat I get the clear and happy childhood memory of having them as a treat on Easter Sunday. Beautifully warmed in the oven giving that flaky, crispy topping and a middle that steams when you pull it apart, topped with jam or Nutella (which always melted in deliciously!) So when I finally went to France, I could hardly wait to have one from their country of origin. But Laura and I had decided to wait until Saturday to have a proper, typical French breakfast. Having waited 40 hours from my arrival in France to Saturday morning, I could not have been more excited! Once we had chosen our café, we sat down and placed our order only to be told by the rather attractive French waiter, “Oh, I’m sorry! We only have one croissant left! But we can give you the one and replace the other with tartine" It was easily 10am already, we had taken quite a walk to find a cute looking café and now I was being told that I couldn’t have a whole croissant to myself! Looking over at Laura I could see she was thinking the same, but both being too hungry to have to walk and find another café we decided to stay and get another croissant later that day. The breakfast finally arrived and we both instinctively reached for the bread first (leaving the best for last!) S it turned out the tartine was amazingly delicious too, crunchy hard crust with a soft centre. Light and chewy. Once we had polished that off, I grabbed my knife and carefully cut the croissant in half. The golden yellow pastry flaked and flattened under the pressure, bouncing back as I pulled back the knife. Spreading on some strawberry jam, I picked up the delicate pastry and took my first bite. Words cannot describe! It was amazing! The top, most flaky pastry came loose, sticking to the roof of my mouth while I pulled of a mouthful of the soft, buttery middle. The flavour of the croissant was subtle but defined, not sweet, not savoury but the perfect tasty pastry treat. As you may well imagine, half a croissant disappeared pretty fast and I could not wait to buy another. Luckily it was not long before we stumbled across a fresh food market and close by an amazing bakery where we purchased another of my French favourite.

 



Fish at the French Food Market
 

Colourful Veg at the French Food Market

Colourful Fruit at the French Food Market




Cheese at the French Food Market

 

Our Second Croissant
 (it was even more amazing than it looks!)

 On our second day in Paris we made it to the Louvre. I never took art as a subject in school, and so probably didn't appreciate art work for the way in which it is painted, the specific paint used or the choice of brush stroke. However, when we were in the Louvre this was rather freeing as I found myself being drawn to paintings not necessarily done by the most well-known artists, or perhaps not most skilfully done, but ones that seemed to hold a story behind them. Before too long I began making up these stories. I would find a particular painting that had captured my attention before calling Laura over and saying, “This minstrel is having a secret affair with a Princess that is really forbidden. Right now they are at a big event and he is secretly flirting with her while some handsome Prince is trying to steal her heart. You can’t see her but she is blushing which only encourages her lover more, and makes the poor Prince think that it is in fact him she is falling in love with!” We carried on like this for quite a while, looking at the emotions in the eyes of the subjects, the body language that the artists had so skilfully captured or the colours that told more about emotion than I thought colour ever could, that told the story as much as the scene itself.

However, my favourite painting of the day was undoubtedly Peter Paul Ruben’s The Virgin and Child in a Garland of Flowers. I was initially drawn to the painting by the vibrant colours of the flowers, but as I got closer it was the detail of Mary’s face, the way she looked so pure and peaceful. The cherub faces in the clouds that could only be seen if you looked closely. To me it was a perfect painting. I could find no fault and stood there staring, taking in its beauty and detail so that when I finally moved on it was imprinted in my memory, a memory far better than any photo I could take. Unfortunately, we had arrived at the Louvre in the afternoon and before we knew it, it was closing time. As we had not yet got to the Mona Lisa wing, we ran through the oncoming crowds all heading in the opposite direction until we finally found her on her solitary wall in the Denon Wing. There is no doubt it is an amazing painting, and I am so glad we got to see her before we had to leave. There was so much we got to see, but so much we also missed and I know we both can't wait to go back and continue exploring.

For Laura and I Paris was not just the Eiffel Tower, it was so much more. We discovered hidden places, saw sights we didn’t expect and when we left we truly felt that we had discovered and experienced our own piece of Paris.

More photos to come when internet is faster!