I am hoping that Blogger allows me to post some photos here soon. The upload feature has not worked the last couple of days.
Years ago when I moved to my current home ...a resort community in southern NM, my real estate agent suggested that one of the ways to keep taxes low on property was to make the outside look humble for the assessor and spend my money on the inside. According to the BBC film: The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance this kind of approach to prosperity was advocated by the Medici fathers in 15th century Florence. Keep the outside simple...travel on a donkey etc....or so the story goes.
The opulence of Medici properties in Florence puts this paradigm in question. The Capella di Medicee and the Palazzo Medici --wealth incarnate....is beyond the imagining of my middle class (New Mexico) mind and experience. This is affirmed even more in Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens--the "vacation" home across the Arno River from Florence.
In a brief discussion with some fellow students we likened the life of the Medici with the straining need for privacy and exclusion of modern day high profile individuals such as move stars and political figures. Their position necessitates finding places apart from the crowds.
Our time immersed in the lives of the Medici was followed by dinner, vino, and a touch of lemoncello.
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