Being tourists 3: Faenza

On Wednesday, the third day of our outing, we took the train to Faenza. Six centuries ago the town was a leading producer of decorated ceramics; indeed, the term "faience" for glazed ceramicware comes from the town's name. This history is celebrated in Faenza's Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, a gigantic collection of everything from pre-Columbian pottery to modern craft. The best part, though, is the vast display of Italian ceramics from the Middle Ages onward.

The museum was our prime reason for heading to Faenza, but on this sultry day we decided to reverse our previous day's itinerary: see the cathedral and a palace before lunch and save the museum (and its air-conditioning) for the afternoon.

The cathedral was impressive, but shortly after we arrived we began hearing the jingling of keys. The caretaker was letting us know it was lunchtime, and that he was closing up, and that we had to leave. We figured we'd do a little ceramics shopping, because surely there must be stores all over selling the stuff. We went all around the vast piazza in front of the cathedral and the surrounding streets and saw only one store selling ceramics. It too was closed for lunch.

The Piazza del Popolo in Faenza, during lunch.

There didn't seem to be many restaurants, either, or much evidence that many tourists ever come to town. Which is strange, because it's a lovely place.

We turned our steps to the Palazza Milzetti, a stately home that's now a museum, one that is open all day. It's an old palace that was rehabbed at the turn of the 18th-to-19th century, a monument to the rather stilted and frantically lavish neoclassicism of the enlightened Italian rich of that era. Mi dispiace, but I don't have many photos of the interior. Google it if you want to see some, but trust me, it's over the top. We weren't surprised to learn that as soon as the renovations were finished, the owner went bust and had to sell to some other plutocrat. 

One thing I did take a photo of was the stove and oven down in the kitchen. Not much was spent to make this part of the house look like a fantasy Greek or Roman temple, but its scale was impressive nonetheless. 

Clearly architectural photos aren't my forte.

There were also some sculptures scattered here and there from the city's collection. I liked this one of Venus doing her monthly self-exam.

After an excellent lunch at Clandestino, a restaurant near the ceramics museum, we headed there for the day's main event. Danny and I had visited it years and years ago and loved it. Since then it has grown even larger, so large that although we tried, we just couldn't see all of it. I spent most of my time looking at the medieval and Renaissance Italian ceramics, which are just great. 

Not surprisingly, food was a frequent theme.

That was true of the modern ceramics as well. This detail of a large wall piece by Giuseppe Ducrot looked very much like the dinner I'd had the night before.

There were also many references to music. Perhaps because I have several good friends who play the viola, I was very taken with this fellow and his viola da braccio.

I also liked this contemporary work by Sergio Gurioli, titled "Violini."

I would have welcomed more context for many of the pieces. Why, for instance, was there evidently so much demand for massive inkwells in the shape of the Judgment of Paris or (as here) a Pieta? 

And whatever was this jar for?

Back in Bologna, we had time to stop into the Basilica di San Petronio and admire both the saint's remains and the Chapel of the Three Kings, where one wall boasts a truly horrific Last Judgment, painted in 1410. Here's a detail.

Note how many of the folks in the lowest part of hell are wearing crowns. 

Inspired by this impassioned condemnation of gluttony and covetousness, Valerie and I went to a shop she'd spotted earlier down the street and we each bought a dress. Then we joined Danny for an ice cream before going out for a pizza dinner. 

Between the food and all the walking, that night I could barely climb the steps back to our Bologna apartment. We'd had a great time, but I was happy we'd be going home the next morning. Fidenza is short on world-historic sights and internationally recognized museums, but our apartment there has an elevator.