Thursday 26 July 2012

1812 Weekend in Italy - Part 3

After visiting the first Palazzo of the day, we then returned to the Palazzo Ducale, (where the dance class was held the night before). At the last minute Margarita had managed to arrange for us to view rooms in the palace that aren't usually open to the public. 


Walking up the stairs again. :)

The central landing

I must apologise in advance for my serious lack of ability to remember interesting historical details about buildings and places - I don't understand why I forget them as I love history. Anyway instead of the facts I have lots and lots of photos. :)


Another gorgeous ceiling - sorry as with my previous post, this post is rather pretty ceiling-photo heavy. :)

I loved the doors



:) This one was exquisite 



Napoleon's bed - I love sleigh beds.

I seemed to have taken this ceiling the wrong way round (sorry I completely forgot to rotate it before I uploaded it)

More of Napoleon's bedroom

A beautiful drawing room that was decorated and used by either Napoleon's second wife, or one of his sisters, I can't remember which.

:)

The decor of this room was just goregous. I want a drawing room just like it (with maybe a little less gold. :) )

The dining room was covered, both walls and ceiling in an amazing landscape mural

Aurora and idea pretending to chat during a stroll in the woods (ignore the rather ugly modern chairs :) )


After the tour of Palazzo Ducale, we all went and had lunch at a resturant in a nearby piazza.



Next on the agenda, after lunch, was an historic walking tour of the city.  It was conducted by a lovely Italian  historian who simultaneously talked about areas and buildings etc in English then Italian, whilst walking backwards most of the time!!! A rather multi-talented guy! The talk was very interesting.

The outside of the old amphitheatre which is now houses and a lovely square or should I say circle!!

Inside the old amphitheatre

Our guide in the blue shirt

One of the stops on the tour was a palazzo with a gorgeous garden - Palazzo Pfanner. Sadly we didn't have enough time to go inside, but we were able to wonder round the garden. 



The house from the garden




After taking rather a lot of photos in the garden - it was the perfect place for a photoshoot, we then carried on with the tour.

The next stop was a small alleyway which had a building where part of one wall was covered in 16th or 17th (I think) century graffiti!!


The final stop was the city main theatre -  Theatre del Giglio

Here is the impressive facade. The building actually turned out to be in the piazza where we had lunch, so we did quite a bit backtracking and going round in circles that day!!

The interior was pretty, but not quite as impressive as I had expected - as it is quite well known and talked about as being a beautiful theatre.


It was a wonderful day if rather tiring, but the day was not over yet. That evening we had the Grand Ball...


Tuesday 17 July 2012

1812 Weekend in Italy - Part 2

The next morning we all went round two palaces - Palazzo Mansi and Palazzo Ducale (where we had the dance practice the night before, but this time we went to see rooms not usually opened to the public), and went on a walking tour of 'The Hidden Treasures of Lucca'.

Walking to the Palazzo Mansi


A carriage was displayed in the entrance of the Palazzo Mansi

Waiting in the courtyard of the palace before the tour



I just adore this pelisse!!

And Corina's gorgeous spencer (I already had a photo of the front :) !)



Now onto the amazing rooms in the palace.







John and Aylwen - so sweet. :)


I loved this painting - all the costumes and hairstyle details.

Eliane

Jeanette was always sneakily taking photos of everyone and managing to get out of everyone else's!! But I did manage to snap one picture of her 



Relaxing on a comfy sofa - we did a lot of walking that day.

A fabulous ceiling

Aylwen stroking a dog :)



Aurora and Jeanette - the light was a bit iffy in this particular room, which meant all the photos I took in it seemed to come out with a cloudy haze over them. :(

One always has to have a photo of "When Regency collides with the modern world". Oh and I love their outfits!!! :) Actually every outfit that they wore was gorgeous. 



I think this was a table top - anyway whatever it was, I just love the beautiful detail.




There were quite a few bedroom in this particular palace...

As amazing as this bed is, I don't think I would feel comfortable sleeping in it

This one is a bit better.
Aurora and I being silly. :)

Aylwen and John. :)

another couple of gorgeous ceilings



And my bed (well the bed I want :) )

And just to prove how much I wanted it I was a bit naughty and perched on the end of it. Soon after a room steward came in and started telling us off in Italian! :(

A bizarre photo of me, but I quite like it.

I'm sorry this post is very ceiling-photos heavy.  There were just so many beautiful ceilings! :)

And finally a sedan chair. I really wanted one of these by the middle of the afternoon as going round 2 palaces and on a walking tour of the town meant that my feet were aching.

I was going to talk about the other palace and the walk in this post, but I think this one is long enough, so I will have to leave them for the next post. :)