Exhibitions and Explorations

Tuesday October 19, was another bright, sunny day with a high of 22C.

Our first stop of the day was the nearby Pasticceria Liquoreria Marescotti, where we bought a package of their famous almond cookies, Amaretti di Voltaggio.

Wonderful bar with coffee, drinks and the famous amaretti

Another view

We walked up Via Lomellini which has a number of food shops, and caffès.

Busy street close to the apartment

We passed Casa Massini which houses the Museo del Risorgimento. Since 1934, it has been located in the birthplace of Giuseppi Mazzini (1895-1872), founder of the secret revolutionary society Young Italy (1832) and a champion of the movement for Italian unity known as the Risorgimento.

Casa Massini

We walked to Via Garibaldi, the street with the wonderful Palazzos. The Palazzos at one end of the street house a number of museums, while banks occupy the Palazzos at the other end of the street.

Beginning of Via Garibaldi

Sign for exhibit we will visit

View up Garibaldi street

We first were diverted by walking up the side of the first Palazzo to see where the steps went.

Alonso walking up

Walking down Salita San Francesco

Palazzo Grimaldi "della Meridiana" was constructed in the first half of the 16th century before the opening of the Strada Nuova (New Street- now Via Garibaldi) and is, therefore, one of the first buildings that formed part of the process of architectural and urban renewal in late Renaissance Genova. The builder was Gerolamo Grimaldi, who owned another villa, that was featured in Rubens' 1622 book on the Palaces of Genoa.

The beautiful Palazzo Grimaldi whose side we just walked up

We walked down the street to the Palazzo that featured the exhibit of the Costumes of Adelaide Restori, a great Italian actress. Unfortunately, the exhibit was only open from 3:00 p.m., so we had about 45 minutes to kill. We decided to try and look into some of the Palazzos that had been closed our first evening in town.

We stopped at the Palazzo Spinola-Doria. Giovanni Battista Spinola was "super-rich" (as the write up says) and built the Palazzo during the period of town planning that allowed a select few to built Palazzos on Strada Nuova. In the 17th century, the residence passed to the Doria, Counts of Montaldeo and it is still the property of this family. There are some frescos dating back to the 16th century.

The entrance

To the side of the entrance was an office of the Crédit Agricole that one could not enter.
There were beautiful frescos on the ceiling

We walked into the Palazzo Tobia Pallavicino, which is now the Camera di Commercio. There were amazing frescos on the ceiling. We could not go further into the building, so took a photo from the outside as we left.

Entrance to the building

Photo from outside

We went down a side street where a restaurant had a beautiful display of pear cakes.

Good enough to eat

The restaurant was closed but had a menu which showcased food typical of Genova, which is in Liguria province. Minestrone, trofie (a type of pasta) which pesto, potatoes and green beans; another pasta with walnut sauce, etc. Very different regional foods from those we had in Alba and Torino. One can never get tired of the variety of local dishes.

An interesting menu of typical dishes from Liguria-- all sounded so good.

We passed the Palazzo Pantaleo Spinola-Gambaro, which is now a bank. We wandered in, but the guard would not let us walk into the main banking room or take pictures of the beautiful ceiling.

Outside of the Palazzo, now bank

I managed one pic as Alonso chatted to the guard

We stopped at Palazzo Agostino Pallavicino, which is now also a bank. We had read that the Genoese do not like to throw things away and also have taken care to preserve the over 100 Palazzos in the city.

Outside of the Palazzo Agostino Pallavicino

Entrance-- the opulence of these Palazzos is incredible and they are very well preserved

We still had a bit of time to kill, so we stopped for a coffee at Caffè des Musei.

Caffè dei Musei

Inside the lovely coffee shop

We had our coffees outside on the patio which was just across from the City Hall on Via Garibaldi. There was a small demonstration taking place in front of City Hall, and there were a number of media and on- lookers listening to a speaker.

Against a Cable Car

We always seem to run into demonstrations when we are in Europe-- this was a small one

Finally, it was after 3:00 p.m., so we went to see the exhibit: I costume di Adelaide Ristori. Teatro e Alta Moda. It was in the beautiful Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino. There have been a number of renovations of the 16th century core of this Palazzo designed for Lomillino by Giovanni Battista Castello. There is an elliptical atrium adorned with stuccos.

In Palazzi di Genova, Rubens refers to Luigi Centurione, who bought the Palazzo in 1609. He commissioned the rare fresco by Bernado Strozzi (c. 1623) on the first floor (Canadian second), that the current owners opened up to the public in 2004 for exhibitions and other events. There is also an amazing hanging garden inside the courtyard designed at the beginning of the 18th century.

Outside the Palazzo- beautifully decorated

View into the courtyard

The hanging garden in the courtyard that we had also seen the other evening

Poster for the exhibit

The exhibit was in four rooms on the second floor (Canadian third floor) of the Palazzo. As we walked up, we saw the wonderful frescos on the ceilings.

Beautiful frescos

There was a sign near the window pointing out that there had originally been a high wall separating Lomellini's residence from the adjacent Palazzo Tursi, documented as far back as the end of the 16th century. Apparently Lomellini had been engaged in a long- drawn out dispute with Nicolò Grimaldi (the owner of the neighbouring palace at that time) about their respective appurtenances. The dispute continued until the middle of the 19th century when the then owner finally demolished the wall!

View out of the window of adjoining Palazzo where there had once been a high wall

Walking up to the second floor- more frescos

View of a tower and hanging garden from the second floor

Entrance

Adelaide Ristori was born on January 29, 1822 in Civdale del Friuli. She was the daughter of modest actors who learned her craft by acting. She immediately showed exceptional talent. Her breakthrough came in 1837, when she was contracted by the prestigious Campagnia Reale Sarda, subsidised by the Savoys. She soon became one of the most prominent actresses in Italy. In 1845, Marquis Giuliano Capranica del Grillo (1824-1892) saw one of her performances and fell in love with her. The got married in 1848. Having become a noblewoman, she temporarily gave up acting. However, uncertain family finances brought her back to the stage. He husband became her manager.

She then had a great success in Paris and her fame spread. Ristori had an international career that had no equal among Italian actors. She performed all over Europe, North and South America. In 1874, she embarked on a round-the-world tour lasting 21 months with 312 performances. She retired at age 63 and wrote her autobiography. On her 80th birthday, in 1902, she received a personal visit from King Victor Emmanuel III, an unprecedented tribute. She died in Rome on October 9, 1906.

The Adelaide Ristori Fund is an exceptional collection as it is a rare private archive of a 19th century actress, not just a collection of mementoes. By joining a noble family, Adelaide learned the importance of preserving artifacts relating to her life and art. Her archive consisted of 15 complete costumes, over 30,000 letters, 189 hand written scripts; contracts; recipes and invoices; photographs and many more items.

Adelaide Ristori

Sketch of the costume for Cassandra

The costume

In the costume

Mary Stuart

Costume from Mary Stuart

Playbill

Adelaide had asked for a costume for Medea with self-evident classical references.

Medea- costume from Act I, Paris, April 8 1856

Rare stage directions for a performance

The costume from Macbeth was Lady Macbeth's mantle from Act III, London, Royal Drury Lane Theatre, July 3, 1857. The interpretation of Lady Macbeth was Adelaide's masterpiece. Guiseppe Verdi, whose operas were staged in the same theatre where Adelaide used to perform, wrote about the Sleepwalking scene: "Those who have seen Ristori know that one must make very few gestures, in fact everything is almost limited to one gesture, that is to erase a stain that she thinks she has on her hand. The movements must be slow and one must not see the steps being taken...."

The mantle

One of the playbills for Macbeth

The sleepwalking scene from Macbeth

Jewellery from Macbeth

The next costume was from Lucrezia Borgia, Act II, London, Opera Comique, October 30, 1873.

Costume from Lucrezia Borgia- 19th century interpretation of the sumptuousness of the Italian Renaissance courts.

Picture of her in costume from Lucrezia Borgia

Costume for Marie Antoinette, Act II, New York, Théâtre Français, October 7, 1867.
Made by Maison Charles Frederick Worth

The shoes from Marie Antoinette

Prologue costume from Marie Antoinette, New York, October 7, 1867. Also made by Maison Charles Worth. Worth chose to play with colours: white was the colour dear to the Queen and blue, with heraldic reference, represents France.

There was a small room with a number of shoes worn on stage by Ristori

Ristori had Elizabeth, Queen of England, in her repertoire since 1863. It was a huge success in America, and became particularly popular with New York women, who flocked to the matinee performances, as they could attend without being accompanied by men. This was one of the few texts Adelaide chose to recite in English.

Photo of Ristori in Elizabeth, Queen of England

From Elizabeth, Queen of England, costume from Act III, London, St. Jame's Theatre, July 9 1858

Act I, London, July 9 1858.

One of the rooms with the costumes had an amazing ceiling

It was an excellent exhibit from an amazing archive. Ristori had an incredible life and was a huge success as an actress. In the mid 19th century she played characters whose stories were easily reinterpreted as supporting the Risorgimento cause. Later she became an symbol for a united Italy. In South America, Italian emigrant communities hailed her as a true incarnation of their idealized, distant, homeland.

Apparently, she even performed in Canada on one of her tours in the 1860s.

After the exhibit, we stopped at Santa Maria Novella, the fabulous store from Florence. I bought a bar of my favourite Melegrano soap.

Santa Maria Novella

Checking things out inside

We then went down one of the side streets off Via Garibaldi. It seemed OK at first but then turned into a small red-light district, with a woman at every door-way. Genoa is definitely a city of contrasts.

Heading down from Via Garibaldi

We changed streets quickly and ended up at Piazza San Matteo, home of the Chiesa San Matteo. The church was founded in 1125 by Martino Doria, as the private chapel to his family. In 1278, it was totally renewed in Gothic style. It was again renovated in the mid-16th century.

The church

Piazza San Matteo

It was then time for an aperitivo. We went to Mugugno and were able to get an outdoor table in front of an interesting wine display.

Mugugno

Campari Spritz- a very good one

We wandered for a bit more and then headed back to Via Garibaldi.

A very nice street with lots of small shops

There was a small jewellery store on Via Garibaldi, just across from the museums, with a workshop at the back. Alonso like a chain in the window so we went in. The jeweller has been in business for 20 years and as the chain was too long for Alonso, he said he could cut it right then and make a bracelet from the cut piece. We chatted to him as he worked. Alonso now has two new pieces of jewellery.