Tuttomondo - 1989 / Keith Haring - Pisa, Italy

Pisa, Italy

People said not to go, that it wasn’t worth it. Because, you know, too many people, nothing to see. But, you know…people.

The chapel is dark and cool and gilded; the air is laced with the smoke of incense. The architecture in the Baptistry is such that the building itself functions as a musical instrument, like the pedals on a piano. Every half hour, one of the guards sings. One note after another until she is harmonizing over and over again with herself, a chorus of one.

The famous tower leans, yes, and climbing, you lean, too, into the Tuscan green hillside and the soft Italian sky, into that bright faraway blue that you thought you already knew so well.

Siena, Italy - Summer 2011: Cathedral/Duomo

Green-and-white-striped like some strange Christmas candy, this Cathedral/Tower/Duomo was surreal sitting dead-center in the town that is so monochromatic that Crayola names a crayon after its signature “Burnt Siena” fortification.

Siena, Italy - Summer 2011

Like some Tuscan exercise in Chiaroscuro, Siena is all glaring light and bricked shadow. The city is surrounded by a wall, and no cars are permitted in the historic center, where each year the Palio di Siena, a famous horse race, is run.  The 14th Century aristocrats of Siena were one of the last rivals of the Medicis, and Siena is also where they keep Saint Catherine’s head - on display in reliquary. (Yes, it’s creepy) All hills and narrow cobblestoned alleys and gelato and rolling Italian countryside…Siena is magical; but, like the best magical things/places/people, it’s hard to pin down exactly why. 

Study on a Volcanic Eruption.  Dream of an Excavation.