Last week, Russel and I spent a few days in Sarasota visiting with our friends Misty and Bob who are in FL for a month from St. Louis. They picked almost perfect weather for their stay. While Russel worked and Bob nursed his foot and kept Doxie Greta company, Misty and I drove into town to the John and Mable Ringling Museum to tour the grounds, art museum, circus museum, miniature museum and the Ca’D’Zan, Venetian for House of John. There was a lot of ground to cover on a cool, cloudy day (one of few cloudy days they’ve had in weeks), but the museum complex has volunteers that drive trams all over all the time. Saved my life and miles of walking.
The Venetian Gothic Ca’D’Zan was designed and built by the Ringlings in the mid-1920’s as their winter home right next to Sarasota Bay. Mable wanted a place that reminded her of Venice, so there are lots of gardens and tiles and fanciful architectural features, including a belvedere on top of the house. I’ll try to group the pics in albums that make some sense, starting with these pics of the exterior.
The interior was just as elaborate, if not more so. Here’s the formal dining room set for an “intimate” dinner for eight, breakfast room and guest room.
Here’s the main parlor view up to balcony and chandelier, Mable’s dressing room, skylight and view down to main parlor from balcony.
These are all of John’s bedroom, including his gold clock, marble tub, dual beds (they were a set, so he kept them both, even though Mable had her own bedroom) and Misty.
Here’s the two stoves in the kitchen.
Here are pics of the grounds, including banyan trees gifted to the Ringlings by Thomas Edison from his estate in Ft. Myers, together with statues of a bull with a lady chained on it and Julius Caesar.
Here’s the royal palm alee, the secret garden behind which the Ringlings are buried, Misty, the sculpture garden between wings of the art museum and a stone lady.
Here’s a bronze cast of the original marble David in Florence, Italy.
I think that’s enough for this post. I have more pics from Sarasota, but this will take forever to upload as it is.
Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.
(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)
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1 comment:
Gosh was that a fun day. No men, just 2 friends with very little time to actually be together in person. So much to see at the Ringling Museum, and just not enough time. What we did see, will always be captured in our memories and with your great pics. Thanks for taking the time to share with everyone, all your special pictures.
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