Fashion Legacy of the Medici

Odd stuff pops up when you read about Italian fashion. I’m not talking about the Venetian drape on a semi-nude.

Let’s consider the lasting impact of the Medici collar.

Catherine de’ Medici is the namesake here – and the woman rose to fashion iconic levels against all odds. Her parents – a duke and a countess - died within weeks after her birth in 1519. She grew up to be small in stature, thin, ruddy and with the protruding eyes apparently common in Florence’s First Family.

Catherine was married at 14 to Henry, duke of Orleans, a son of Francis I of France. Young Henry went on to hook up at age 19 with a 39-year-old woman, whom he gave a sweet estate, the crown jewels and all his attention. Except, of course, for the times he knocked up Catherine, producing 10 kids.

Awkward family situation, I’m thinking.

So the Medici collar that still resonates today in international fashion is a flared, fan-shaped deal, with a V opening. It was highly popular in the mid-1500s, which Catherine dominated in France, helping a succession of sickly sons rule, following Henry’s untimely death following a joust. (He deserved it, in my opinion, since he was wearing his mistress’s black-and-white colors at the joust. What a pig, albeit one with a mistress who also had fashion sense).

I assigned my own 14-year-old son the task of writing a report on the Medicis (yes, I’m THAT kind of mom…). His report begins “The Medici were possibly the richest family in Italy.”

Wealth doesn’t always begat fashion sense, but the Medici collar and legendary impact on Florence remain. (By the way, it’s pronounced “MED a chee.”)

In Florence, you can reserve a private walking tour of the Medici family’s architectural and cultural impact through Avventure Bellissime tours, starting at 34 euros.

Or try classes at the Lorenzo de’ Medici School of Art and Culture. July classes include International Fashion Marketing and Intro to Italian Philosophy.

Feel like you need a bed at a Medici palazzo after reading all about Heady Henry? Some Florence hotels named Medici include:

• Hotel Orto De Medici, billed as an “early 19th Century palace along a tranquil street in downtown Florence, near the Academy Gallery”
• Hotel Medici (mixed ratings on tripadvisor.com)
• And Grand Hotel Villa Medici, which was once an 18th-century noble palace.

Learn more about the Medicis on this PBS special: http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/

Too Much of a Good Thing?

So here's the question: If you are living in Florence, Italy, for most of the summer but are NEVER THERE for the weekend, have you had an authentic Firenze experience?

Like many of my students, I am planning to travel as much as my $$ allow during Miami University's summer session.
Or should I say "we" are traveling as much as "our" $$ allow?
"We" is me, my 16-year-old Beck and my 14-year-old Blair, who'll be with me all summer, and for a week or two, mio marito, too.

But, um, last time I looked we have reservations away for EVERY weekend.
Well, I'm still working on a Swiss Alps thing, but otherwise we'll skip town as soon as Friday rolls around - Rome, Riviera, Germany and, of course, countryside Tuscany.

Firenze is usually a DESTINATION for Americans, and here I am planning to LEAVE it as soon as I can...

OK, maybe this is just a flash of sensibility. Fear of exhaustion. Feeling guilty of greed.

Or maybe I'm just Americano. Wanting it all. Now.

Ciao

All I want to do is plot a train route from Florence, Italy, to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Should be easy. Open Google, type "Italy Switzerland train route." Click.
It's been that easy for finding and booking even the smallest of agriturismas and hostels across Italy.

Kind signoras and slightly testier Italian dudes respond pronto to my emails requesting reservations. I write in English with lots of "pleases", they respond in very readable, if not grammatical, English. (Hey, I'm only on lesson 49 in my verbal Italian lessons, so I am easy to please!)

But the train thing's been a drag.

And that's where travel journalism comes in.
Journalists writing in this genre not only inform, but seduce. They describe, but with dispassionate warning when necessary. The best is literary nonfiction, the worst an "If you go" box.
And if they leave out critical details like "happy hour is, sadly, not available," they win my curses.

I LOVE reading travel articles almost as much as I love traveling.
Prague, please. Tokyo tomorrow. Hong Kong by dawn.

Someone, please, find me a New York Times article explaining trains across the Alps.
This train to Interlaken -- extreme sports capital of the Alps, a place that has been on my I Must Go list for decades -- is a thorn in my side.

RailEurope.com is a tourist trap.
Sbb.cn tells me it's too early to book, and "screw you" when I troll for a map.
But -- a HA! -- then I find ferroviedellostato.it
And it becomes a Travelocity exercise in mystery train station codes.

I will figure this out.
You may help me.
We will all go canyoning together.
We will do travel journalism in Europe together.
I know I'm going to love it, since the last travel article I wrote was about old-timey country music venues in southern Kentucky.

And I'm thinking of my friend Ann Koblenzer, who is in Interlaken RIGHT NOW, according to her Facebook page.
Rock on, Ann.
I'm on my way. Point me to track 59.