A Cottage by the Sea
  • Home
  • On My Mind
  • Quotes
  • Secrets of an Old Woman
  • A Solitary Traveler
  • Compassionate Reading
  • Comfort food
  • Books
  • Suggested reading
  • Poems
  • About me
  • About me and my blog

Christmas time in Florence

11/28/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture2017
​11/27/21 I don’t write in this section often. Due to Covid, my posts of 2020 and spring 2021 were longings, reminiscent of prior trips. Also, usually I post about my trips to Italy on ‘On my mind.’ That usually feels okay, but today I want to share a few thoughts with any (the few) of you who venture into this inner room of acottagebythesea. 
       I am returning to Florence a week from today, December 5. I couldn’t resist being there for the lighting of the Christmas tree on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It will be my fourth December in Florence (well, not counting 1959). But what excites me most, is the eleven days I will be wandering about the city my myself. I have a lunch date with a friend, but other than that, I will be alone, a solitary traveler. I will love every day—cappuccino at my favorite bars, delicious food at restaurants all over the city, uncrowded museums and churches, historic streets and piazzas, and a cozy apartment, adjacent to the Uffizi and Ponte Vecchio. 
       This is for those of you, my solitary traveler friends. Except for my family, I haven’t told anyone about this trip. I will, but for now I’m just sharing the secret with you.

0 Comments

Remembering Santo Spirito

3/31/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Whether you are a solitary traveler or love to travel with others, I am sure your heart breaks when you see pictures of the empty streets of your favorite European city. The other day this Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence appeared on my news feed. It haunted me then and the hollow in my heart remains. 
    But memories bring joy, and so I decided to retrieve the pictures that I took during my many visits from 2012-2019.  I don’t know how many cups of cappuccino or pieces of brioche vuoto (without filling) the two bar tenders at Café Ricchi, Piazza di Santo Spirito, 8 served me, but I know they were the only two that waited on me all those years. I wonder what they are doing now!
     Every morning I would leave my rental apartment by 7 grab a quick cappuccino along the way as I wandered across Piazza della Signoria, through the Uffizi courtyard to the Arno, across the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace, pass Casa Guidi, the home of Elizabeth and Robert Browning, to Piazza Santo Spirito and Café Ricchi. 
I soon became a regular: the cashier would ring up my order as one of the men put a saucer and spoon on the counter and started my cappuccino; I would take it and the brioche to the adjoining room, wallpapered with children’s imaginations of Santo Spirito. There I would write and savor my breakfast. Sometimes It was the best part of my day. By 9:30 I would go out into the sunshine, spend a little time in the church, and then wander the streets until I came across just the right church or museum to visit. 

0 Comments

Solitary visit to Fiesole

11/30/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​I am still a solitary traveler and I am still traveling, although only in my imagination. These past few days I found myself talking Bus 7 from Piazza San Marco to Fiesole, overlooking Florence. Visiting Fiesole has always satisfied my longing for solitude because of my final destination, the Monastery of San Francesco, a steep climb from the bus stop in the town square. I’ve probably made the trip at least fifteen times; I can close my eyes and be there, right now. 
    The monastery includes the little church and its adjoining cloisters, and a separate entrance to the monk’s quarters and the stairway to their cells. I imagine I am there, not visiting, but living in my cell, looking out my window, wandering in the cloisters, praying in the church. The time in history has no importance, nor does it matter if I am a nun or a monk.  
   Sorry for just a few pictures. I know they are somewhere in my iPhotos but I can’t find them and I want to post this. 

0 Comments

Florence from home: wandering the streets

10/8/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
 My solitary travel days are most likely over, at least those to Italy. Probably not a good idea to fly across the Atlantic by myself for two weeks. By any reasonable time-line that Covid has in mind, I can’t envision that kind of travel possibile for two or three more years, but what do I know? What does anybody know? All I know is that that would put me close to my 85thbirthday.  
     Of course, we never want a good thing to come to its end, but endings do come and when we’re lucky, as I am, we can be grateful and not feel one bit sorry for ourselves. 
     In my pre-pandemic life I would have just returned from Italy, full of memories of wandering the streets, stopping for a cappuccino, visiting churches and museums, and enjoying an evening meal of home-made pasta. But I can close my eyes and I am there, mind, body, and spirit.
    Silence, solitude, and simplicity is with me today in my own home as I wander the streets of Florence.  

1 Comment

Florence from home: San Marco

3/13/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

​I would be in Florence at this very moment if I had control of the universe, but, need I say, I’m not—not in Florence nor in control! But I can still be a solitary traveler.
     Three weeks ago my decision to cancel my trip was a no-brainer; a smart choice on my part. That travel choice is now gone, and my self-imposed quarantine has taken its place. The reality of being a solitary traveler in Florence doesn’t exist, but I can be there from home, which I will do for the few weeks. After all, I have a library full of guidebooks, hundreds of photos, and a visceral memory of it all.
   Enjoy this solitary photo journey as I visit my favorite museums and churches and walk the streets.

​Visit One: The Convent of San Marco
     Usually one of my first stops in Florence is the Convent/Museum of San Marco, and so that is where I will go today.
​     I am early enough to be the first person to walk up the staircase to gaze at  Fra Angelico’s Annunciation.
There are never big crowds here so I can stand in the doorway of each cell and contemplate each fresco depicted the life and death of Jesus.
  Then there is the first public library in Florence, designed my Michelozzo commissioned by Cosimo the Elder (1437-1444).
0 Comments

A Solitary trip to the Museum of Russian Icons

2/28/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​There will be a time when my solitary travel to Italy is over. I’ve said that out loud often, but I’ve always thought it would be due to my health, or Jim’s. I never imagined that a pandemic such as the coronavirus would keep me home. But it is doing just that. However, although I’ve cancelled my 3/6-20 trip to Rome and Florence, it doesn’t mean my solitary travel is over. I’m hoping there will be an all-clear travel alert by September.
    The decision to cancel was a no-brainer. I have no regrets nor do I feel sorry for myself. But I do feel the void. Yes, it has to do with Italy, but also with that feeling of deep satisfaction that comes with traveling alone.
     Yesterday, however, I proved that solitary travel can be immediate, and only be for day, or even part of one. I hopped in the car and made the 35 minute drive to the Museum of Russian Icons. I thought of calling a friend, but chose to go on my own—so glad I did. During my hour and a half visit, I had the place  almost entirely to myself. I was reminded of those early mornings alone in the Duomo in Florence before the first mass began.  
      I’m considering going to Maine for a few night. Or, perhaps I will be stay home and be a solitary traveler without traveling. Maybe it is only the solitude that is essential.

0 Comments

Praying for peace in the churches of Rome

9/23/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
​  It would take a very special companion to join me for a week praying for peace in Rome, or anywhere for that matter. It could happen, but being alone makes it all the more possible.
      Praying for peace is what I did in Rome before going to Florence for the second week of my September solitary vacation. My original plan was to pray for peace and light a candle in as many of the Rome’s 900 churches as I could enter. Then I thought 100 would be a sensible number until I realized that 100 would catapult me into a frenzy, checking them off at the expense of being prayerful or even forgetting to pray before moving on to the next. It also became apparent that lighting a candle wasn’t always what I wanted to do with my budgeted coins. I don’t like paying to light an electronic ‘candle’, and sometimes I’d rather give to a homeless person who was virtually living on the church steps. 
      But before I go on, let me offer a few comments about this praying for peace idea. I am a Christian, a liberal one, who believes that God loves everyone and wants peace for everyone, and that Jesus’ teaches us to feed the hungry and welcome the stranger. I believe in prayer and it’s power, not only because I helps me but because it instills love and positive energy into the world. (Don’t ask me for proof or intellectual analysis, and I won’t ask you if the world needs peace.)
      My action plan was simple: enter a church that I came upon during my walks, sit in the pew, and lift up love. No judgments, no conditions. Just pray for peace. Sometimes I would say the Lord’s Prayer, or light a candle. What were the results? Personally, I was more peaceful. I felt more loving and less annoyed or judgmental about situations that I encountered on my travels. On universal level, each time I left a church I felt more hopeful about the possibility of peace than when I had entered. If I don’t feel and act peaceful, if I don’t do my part, how can I have hope that anyone else will? Hmm, what if everyone in the world prayed for peace? We reap what we sow, individually and collectively.
      Because of this prayer plan, I entered churches I might never have chosen to step foot in. But I am also a tourist, who enjoys art, architecture, and history. Every church I entered had an early church history and over the years each had been restored. In the late 16th century (after the Council of Trent, 1545-1563) and into the 17th century, when the Roman Papacy became powerful, the Baroque style captured most of the churches in Rome (Santa Maria sopra Minerva and the Pantheon being exceptions), with its curves, circles, sculpture. Interesting to note that this extremely embellished art form was in response to the Protestant Reformation, which among other things, protested the church’s sale of indulgences and other forms of materialism.
    It could be said that if you’ve seen one baroque church in Rome, you’ve seen them all. Not true. Look and see. 

Facades

Interiors

Paintings and Sculpture

Picture
​     And then there is St. Peter’s. I knew there would be hours of waiting in line and going through security to get into the basilica , so I left my visit to this church of all churches to my last morning in Rome. My week-long bus pass was still active and my train to Florence wasn’t until 9:35, so at 6:30 I hopped on Bus 64 to the square, only to greeted by crowds of people waiting to get into the square which was blocked off. The were waiting for Pope Francis’ Wednesday’s weekly outdoor audience.
   I recalled a time ten or so years ago when I arrived at 10 and followed the crowd, found a seat and was one of the ‘thousands gathered at St. Peter’s Square’ when Pope Benedict said Mass, and was then driven around in this pope-mobile to bless us. This time I said a prayer and went on my way to Rome Termini.

0 Comments

Inspiration at the Writers Museum in Edinburgh

6/17/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
​     Good thing I chose to carry my computer in my backpack the other afternoon. I almost told myself no, but every time I leave it behind, I am sorry. This time, for sure. Here I sit in a corner in the Writers Museum, especially designated for people like me. At least that how I feel. The sign on the table in front of the couch invites me to relax and browse, but I figure writing is implied and accepted. 

Picture
The museum features exhibits about Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

     It is run by the Edinburg City Council and is located in the Lady Stairs House along the Royal Mile. It gives inspiration to all kinds of writers, including me, a woman, who at my stage of life, is happy blogging. 

0 Comments

Inspiration from Seth Kugel

5/23/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
    ​I just posted this on “On My Mind” but decided to post it here also in case some of you only check in to “A Solitary Traveler’.  Seth Kugel has inspired me to try new adventures and to keep traveling.
 
    The other evening at the library I heard a delightful talk by Seth Kugel, the New York Times’s “Frugal Traveler” from 2010 to 2016 , and author of the recently published Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious.
    Seth writes as he talks, telling engaging stories, offering useful tips, and blurting out the array of valuable insights that whirl around in his hyperactive mind. Whatever our age, and however and wherever we travel, he suggests that we go off the well-beaten track and try something new.
      Like me, Seth usually travels solo. Although I am a somewhat adventuress traveler, which of course one has to be when traveling alone, I’m inspired anew to wander off the tourist’s physical and psychological trampled-down path and rediscover the new and curious of Edinburgh (June 12-20). I’m ready and very grateful to be going. 

0 Comments

Il Porcellino in Florence

4/27/2019

0 Comments

 
      I usually travel alone. I love it. My husband is a homebody, and besides, someone has to keep the home fires burning and the grass mowed!
    This spring I spent a week alone in my beloved Florence before my daughter and granddaughter joined me for five nights and then three in Rome. 
Picture
​     One of my companions when I am alone in Florence is Il Porcellino. He listens to whatever I tell him and never talks back. The perfect companion.  
   Nickname Il Porcellino by the Florentines, he guards the Mercato Vecchio, the old market right in the center of Florence. Visitors drop a coin in a slot at his feet and pat his snout for good luck and assurance that they will return to Florence. It’s not a habit that I’ve participated in; I seem to have returned to this city without his help. This doesn’t mean I don’t love Il Porcellino; it’s just not a superstition in which I chosen to participate. 




     This trip I visited him at different times throughout the day: in the early morning when the vendors are setting up their carts, during the busy tourist times, in the evening when the carts are being hauled away for the night, and later when the portico is vacant. 
     ​I’ve seen people taking turns having their picture taken with him. 
​    I’ve seen a guard push coins down the slot after calling out a gypsy to stop stealing them.
Picture
     ​Hans Christian Andersen writes about him in “The Brown Hog.”

     “In the city of Florence, there is a beautifully crafted bronze pig. Fresh, clear water flows from the mouth of the animal, which has become dark green due to its age. Only the snout shines, as it had been polished.”
      I’ve enjoyed a solitude moment with him. 
Picture
Best of all, I shared him with my granddaughter. 
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

         I love to travel alone, and so I do. My husband of 54 years loves to stay home and garden, and so he does. But he knows I love to go off by myself for extended periods of time. For five years (2009-2014) I rented a cottage by the sea, an hour and a half from our home, and spent the weekdays there alone. For the past twenty years I’ve been traveling by myself, primarily to Scotland (Iona, the Highlands, and Edinburgh) and Italy. When I say Italy I really mean Florence, with occasional short stops and excursions around Tuscany and Umbria and to Rome.
        A Cottage by the Sea is about my longing for silence, solitude and simplicity. When I travel I post my thoughts and experiences “On My Mind”. This section, “A Solitary Traveler” is where I post articles about my travels.
         You may be thinking, “If she’s been married 54 years, how old is she?” I’m 77. Maybe my next article will be about how to keep traveling alone as one gets older.

    Archives

    November 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    Categories

    All
    Churches
    Day Trips
    Edinburgh
    Florence
    Museums
    Rome
    Solitude
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.