No-Title

Haven't been to anywhere significant this past week or so, of course, the second visit to Palazzo Strozzi doesn't count, its not an agenda but a love affair. I'm way too in love with the place to estrange it as just another site to see. Right now the exhibition showing there is called "A look into the invisible". Paintings by De Chirico, Max Ernest, Rene Magritte, Balthus and many more. Being a fanatic follower of surrealism and cubism, it was like heaven, where all beings were created. I remember standing in the halls feeling my feet go numb, my shoulders sore under the weight of my bag, and my spine not knowing how to feel comfortable no matter whichever way I turned, but all those pains were compensated through sight.
Some of the paintings I had already seen in books and albums, but seeing them in person... it was just extraodinary. For example the "Sleep Girl" by Balthus, the various paintings of men in bowler hats by Magritte, they almost seemed to reach out to you. And while in front of a few paintings by De Chirico, I found myself not remember to move, and I couldn't pull myself away from it, eyes glued to the masterpieces.
Since its the weekend again (thank God!), I finally have 2 days to myself and free time to go to galleries again. Florentine people are simple way to blessed to have this land of treasure all to themselves. So the plan is to visit the Kings Room in Palazzo Pitti, which I missed the last couple of times due to my slow motions in places like that, and perhaps Palazzo Vecchio as well, I've waiting to see some of its jewelry pieces from centuries before. Also, there is another new interesting find, the Aria Art Gallery. Apparently it exhibits many works by a wide range of arts, mostly up-and-coming I'd imagine, and its free entry!! Now that is a treat. I have this fever of buying all-year-round tickets at any museum or gallery I could come across and some free entries will be more than beneficial to me economically. Last but not least, the Strozzina within Palazzo Strozzi --- told you it was a love affair...
More out of curiosity then anything else, I was wondering if I could volunteer to work there in spare time, if they give compensations then I could commit anything.... Let's not get ahead of ourselves.... Anyway, galleries are also a market or area of business and pleasure that I have been interested in, it would extremely interesting and rewarding to learn the mechanisms within a small art gallery won't it? I intend to ask this weekend. Wish me luck, though I know well enough that there's barely a thread of chance.
Let me think, where else have I been... The Four Seasons? It was only a talk with the head of HR, and since it's the busy season, we couldn't really go visit the room of the old convents, pity. The cars parked outside were nice...

Where else... Oh yes, IPlace and... oh darn I can't remember the name of the place. Anyway, IPlace was a wonderful consortium full of small Italian producers of leather, beverage, food, clothing... and they are all 100% Italian craft. Them being small and mainly no-name brands, the consortium works more like an intermediary between them and the buyers, or brands looking for manufacturers. I bought this amazing orange travel leather bag by the company Sapaf for a bit over 200 euros, and its of absolute quality.

The leather was so thick and it had no linings whatsoever, complete suede inside!! I love it so much I want to use it as a day bag, its size being a problem however, and if you remember me mentioning the thickness of the leather, well you'd guess right that its extremely heavy too. No matter, I will just have to conquer that and carry it at least once or twice!

 Horse hair is definitely on the roll, especially in orange, I mentioned this in the entry about MICAM right?

 Interesting decorations, this metal tray is a beauty. Wonder what it's used for.

I recalled the name of the second place now, Gianfranco Lotti. Yes, he produces and sells under his own name, but he also produces for lots of big international brands such as Chanel.
Talking about Chanel, once you've been to Lotti, you'd probably almost never want to buy s Chanel again....It's sad, because you'd find out that the production time of a bag takes merely 3 hours, entirely by machine other than the shoulder straps... Even though it is fair to say that much effort is put into the bag such as the ultra complicated printing process, but I'm just over the machine made phase... If you ever come to Florence, visit IPlace, I can't promise that all the products are fashion-forward, but you will most likely find something you like. I want to go back and get that honey colored leather suitcase a friend of my got, its so pretty!!