We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the time with Hector.
Hector was brilliant, so patient and welcoming into his home and studio and even gave great tips of food and other must do sights in Italy. So good!
Docent, Hector, was the perfect choice to teach our young daughters (17 & 11 years) the art of making frescos. We began our Tour with a short visit to the terrace of his well located residence cum workshop, where Hector very kindly pointed out all the main visible monuments of Florence, virtually in a 360° angle, gave us a brief explanation of each of them and allowed us to take many photographs. Then the workshop began with him explaining what a fresco was and how the Renaissance masters and those after them created frescos. The students were shown the authentic powdered paints used by fresco artists and told what each one contained and how they were procured. Later Hector gave his students examples of the world's most prominant frescos. After from Hector's vast collection, students were allowed to select a picture that they would like to turn into a fresco. One child chose a Botticelli angel, the other chose the Bay of Naples. Then Hector gave them a prepared base for their frescos which had a similar texture to a wall, so my daughters could actually feel what it would have been like to paint on a wall or a ceiling as the masters did centuries ago. Right from teaching them to copy their chosen pictures on to a paper and transfer them on to the surface where they would be painted, Hector guided them through it all. The girls were allowed to select their own colours and paint brushes, plus they were taught how to dilute the powdered paints as much as possible with water so that the colours would get seamlessly absorbed by the plaster. The entire activity took over 3 hours. All the while Hector was very involved, patiently guiding the children and offering them tips and his expert suggestions. My older daughter was doing a painstaking job of making the fresco and hence took a long time at every stage of the tasks she was given, but not once did Hector show any displeasure, but in fact was very encouraging of her efforts. All through the workshop my husband and I watched everything and were mesmerized. We too gained so much knowledge, took many photographs of our children during the different processes of the workshop and even had time to chat with Hector about our history and his. He even gave us many good suggestions on what we could do whilst in Florence. Spending time with Hector and watching our kids gain invaluable knowledge from being a part of this workshop, made us very happy. We hope Hector does visit us soon in India because we became friends over the 3 hours spent together. To date we beam with pride everytime our daughters speak to their friends and people we meet on how they had the opportunity to walk in the great Michaelangelo's and Renaissance masters' footsteps and make frescos, which incidentally have taken centre stage in our living room on their insistence!