Gates and Doors

We have always loved gates and doors. People seem to put time and effort into the opening to their worlds. Some are welcoming and some are forbidding. Some say come in, we are glad to see you. Some say if you attempt to enter you will be killed. Italy had some of the greatest gates. The one on the right is to the wine storage area in Monterosso. It was at the bottom of the vineyards at the end of the monorail track. It says old. What in Italy doesn't say old.

Now this is a gate!!! It appears to be a bunker from WWII, it doesn't say welcome to Monterosso but it's the gate to the city if you are coming by sea. It was very cool.

When we were hiking on the hills above town there were many of these little caves and stone sheds where tools, I imagine, were kept. The doors were about 4 1/2 feet tall and just wide enough for one small person. Often they would have lemon trees growing on the roof or vines as in this case.

Boboli gardens, the Medici's private gardens in Firenze, are now a tourist attraction. About 200 acres or so of statues, manicured lawns and a museo. It is on the altoArno, the south bank of the river. We walked across Ponte Vecchio, a bridge with hundreds of small jewelers with an estimated $100,000,000.00 in diamonds on display. Up the hill from Vecchio were the gardens. This door was on a building which looked like a light house. It was our fav door and building.

This is the door to our apartment in Firenze. There were 6-8 apartments with a small courtyard in the middle. The man rented this one out to students at the school we attended. The building was 5-6 stories and we were on the first floor. Built in the 1800's sometime.

These are church doors in Fiesole, a Florence suburb which had been an Etruscan city at one time. Pre Roman empire. Everything here was as old as dirt and in most cases it was dirt. The Etruscans and Romans built many of their buildings underground for protection.

These are some beautiful doors in Roma. They were simple and magnificent at the same time. They are about 15 feet tall. One night we had dinner and as we were having wine and talking, I noticed a pair of doors across from the restaurant start to open. The doors were bronze arched and two stories high. They were on tracks with an electric opener. A black Mercedes had pulled up and now the doors opened. They led into a passage way which looked to be about 100 feet deep. A security guard on the inside checked the car in and then the doors swung closed. Whoa. Now that place I would have liked to have seen.

These are the coliseum's gates and doors. I just had to get this picture in. This was built in 79a.d. and ransacked in the 500's or so. The coliseum held between 50,000 and 80,000 people, I heard many #'s. It had a roof of cloth for shade.

Another great door. This also is Roma. It led to offices and god knows what else.

This is the door to a small church next to the Pantheon. It contained 14 side altars or chapels. Each one was built by and for a wealthy Roman. There were several Michelangelo's statues. A maintenance man was washing the floors, marble of course, with a miniature street sweeper. Oh for 1 euro you could turn on a set of lights and see each chapel better. They know how to get that euro. Yes, they got one of mine. The chapel was black marble with Mikes' works in blue and some tile work from Donatello.