We are almost at the end of our holiday in New York.
We dedicate the day to walking first of all through Little Italy and SoHo, the area around our hotel.
Here there are many cast iron facades of the old buildings and a wagon of fire stairs.
SoHo is short for “South of Houston Street” and since 1900 has been home to many art galleries.
Cast iron lovers
Almost the entire neighborhood is included in the Cast Iron Historic District, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
The peculiarity, as the name implies, lies in the cast iron decorations that embellish some buildings.
Most of these were built between 1840 and 1880 and later the tradition was also maintained for new buildings.
Why cast iron?
Simple, it was much cheaper than stone or brick; the molds for the ornaments were interchangeable, and a broken piece could be remelted and reused.
Cast iron was later painted in beige hues to simulate stone, usually used for façade ornaments.
Since the iron was malleable they managed to create very flexible lines and its robustness allowed for higher fixtures.
During the heyday of cast iron, many architects thought it was structurally stronger than steel.
Unfortunately this is not the case, if a building ignites the heat deforms the cast iron which then breaks by thermal shock when you throw water.
For this reason, the current buildings in New York have a masonry rear façade to support the cast iron one.
After the morning spent wandering aimlessly we eat from Panda Express some sweet and sour chicken and noodles (not bad considering the price) and then off we go, towards the MET.
MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
We were very lucky, there is very little queue!
After a while we are ready to get lost in the Egyptian wing (because Friends teaches us that the MET starts to visit by going to the right, once you enter!).
Among mummies and many engraved walls we saw the statues of the ancient pharaohs and the Temple of Dendur.
This is an entire temple given by the Egyptian government to the American one for helping them save numerous historic buildings from flooding, as a result of the construction of the Aswan Dam, in 1965.
The temple is gorgeous, dedicated to Isis and Osiris, dates back to the 15th.C. and was commissioned by Emperor Augustus.
Let’s move on to Greco-Roman art admiring: helmets; armor and many statues; even if we are used to those.
There are however some interesting mosaics.
Towards unexplored continents (from us)
The most interesting part for me is undoubtedly the one dedicated to African art and oceania.
I discovered that even there the local tribes use fantastic masks, huge and made of raffia or leather that strike for the greatness.
They also create fascinating totems for the deceased rich in sculptures and with very specific meanings.
In the picture you can see the Kavat masks, made of bark fabric by the people of central Baining.
These are used exclusively during night dances around the fire.
The dancers are accompanied by a male orchestra (in daytime dances they are women) while dancing for spirits, animals and everything related to the forest.
We have seen up close many ancient African masks and even whole costumes in rope or raffia; as well as many Dogon masks, an ethnic group now almost totally extinct due to wars.
The masks in the picture are called Kanaga, they are worn by members of the Awa society during the ceremonies of the cult of the dead.
Between Japan and India
The Japanese wing is rich in armor of whole samurai, swords and pergamente, writings and paintings, and also a complete reproduction of an ancient Japanese house.
The best expression of the technical-artistic skills of the Japanese armorers is constituted by the “great armor” Yoroi, produced relatively late, starting from the twelfth century.
Not far away there is the Indian wing also full of statues that I liked very much for the graceful shapes of the women.
Here is the ceiling of the Vadi Parshvanatha Jain temple in Patan, entirely made of wood all decorated, an orgy for the eyes.
Unfortunately, nothing of the original structure of the temple has survived in Patan and the color of this ceiling has also been lost.
Guggenheim
With this and the MET end the entrances of our New York pass, which proved to be very useful, we exploited it well.
Quite drunk on art from all over the world, but happy, we go to the last museum.
Our last pictorial stop, the Guggenheim, which turned out to be a real disappointment!
But now we can appreciate even the most absurd situations, and in fact we begin to draw up our own ranking of the paintings on display, commenting as critics what we are facing.
I must say that some I appreciated, they are not really all to be thrown away, but most do not tell me anything, they just do not make sense to me!
The building, however, is interesting, its snail that slowly takes you to the top (although I would have to say about the handrail that for how it is built seems more to lead you to fall below than to protect you from doing so).
Also in this museum the experience of peeing is not to be underestimated, you have to be minimal or contortionist to get to the tablet.
History tips: this museum was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1943.
Since it was initially to be called the “Museum of Non-Objective Painting,” I could expect not to appreciate it in fact.
The upside-down spiral of the building looks a lot like an inverted Ziggurat (Wright called it Tarruggiz, what a joker!) and carries with it symbologies of continuity.
The Blind Barber
After the Guggenheim experience and the lavazza coffee for $ 4.5 we planned an evening meeting with an Irish friend who happens to be in New York.
What better time to go and nibble something in a Speakeasy!
We decide to go to the Blind Barber, the one where to enter you have to pass inside a barber’s shop.
The barber is unfortunately closed when we arrive so we do not pass behind customers intent on shaving themselves.
It was however curious to discover that behind the heavy local back door of the barber hides a nice pub, perhaps a little too dark and with music a little high to make conversation, but still nice.
Even fairy tales come to the page of “The End”
Unfortunately, even beautiful things have to end, this is what makes them interesting.
Even if it’s the last day we don’t miss anything.
The plane is in the afternoon so we dedicate the morning to New Jersey, in particular to Hoboken and Buddy Valastro, the cake boss!
Let’s take the Path, the train that leaves the state of New York to enter that of New Jersey and I take the opportunity to take some photos on the other side of Manhattan, perhaps less popular than the Brooklyn side.
Found the pastry and we treat ourselves to a nice slice of Red Velvet, is divine!
Honestly watching the series I thought they were not too tasty, they looked like fake plastics, instead I could not go wrong more, it is really tasty … and fat!
As I like it.
Then we set off in search of Frank Sinatra’s birthplace, but unfortunately it was torn down… how sad.
I would have liked to go back to Buddy for another slice of consolatory cake.
The best BBQ of my life
Well, to end our holiday there is only one thing missing, healthy chubby food!
Let’s take advantage of Shant’s advice we go to the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que to eat the ribs, mamma mia that enjoys!
They squash in the mouth and above there is a sauce with a unique flavor, of course the Americans have a lot of junk food, but they know how to make Barbeque!
On the return flight I do not have much to add, it is packed compared to the outward one, so we have to stay in our seats without being able to enlarge.
Space is not a problem as much as the stupid Milanese Italians (Brambilla, it seemed to you!) that we have in front of us, they do not stand still even a second and this makes me dance the screen that I use to see the movies, how nervous.
But it doesn’t matter too much, I’m coming back from my life’s journey to this moment.
I’ve been to America.
I’ve been to New York!
If you don’t know where we started from, click below!
