BOLOGNA & VENICE

More from Italy
 
         We leave for Venice tomorrow and spent another pleasant day in Florence today. Although both museums that we went to were closed, we had fun exploring this ancient and beautiful city with Pat and Sylvia—our constant companions on these trips.
         Yesterday, we had the first doll-connected event with a couple of the rooms open with some of our participants selling dolls and doll clothes. Pat did a little damage for her collection, but restrained herself this time.
         Lynn brought in a delightful couple she has known from Italy—Michela and Giuseppe, doll collectors who displayed a splendid array of their dolls for us. Together with their dog, they joined us for dinner and we learned more about their doll-association..
         The Ponte Veconio is a bridge in Florence with mostly jewelry shops on both sides. Pat saw a neat ring that she selected as my Mother’s Day gift and the shop owner gave us a great discount. Her ring is three beautiful flowers set in 18 caret gold—with the flowers white, yellow and red gold.
 
         On our way to Venice we stopped at a fascinating new doll museum in Bologna. This museum is so new that it hasn’t received its certificate to open, but Lynn arranged a special visit for us. 500 dolls were selected for this exhibit in an attic room of a 1497 built building in downtown Bologna. The collector, Marie Paule Vedrine Andolfatto, decided to open her doll museum, following the death of her husband.
         In and amazing book, the story of her collection and museum is told: “Starting out in a chance meeting in an antiques’ market with a black bisque character doll . . . Marie Paule explains that this is exactly how her adventure began, when she first set eyes on that character doll and her kind husband immediately bought it for her. Since then, the desire to carefully select and collect other pieces and gather specific information on the subject has led her to put together a large and particularly beautiful collection.”
         I learned much today and particularly after reading the museum book on the bus to Venice.
         Our first full day in Venice was another beauty (weather-wise) and we had another good day touring this most interesting ancient city. We saw the San Marco cathedral and museum next to it and walked/shopped on our way back to the hotel—the Papadopoli. This hotel is new and very pleasant. We especially like the modern room designs that fit real comfort into a small space.