10/26/12

On our last day in Tuscany we went to the mountain top town of San Giamignano. This was one of the best finds yet! It is a lovely, peaceful little city – again walled and dating back to the 12^th century.   Tom and I spent the day strolling the streets, admiring the beautiful architecture and exploring the tiny shops and galleries. One of the first little shops that we went in was a ceramic shop with this replica of the original city It was a day spent really getting the feel of the blending of the old and new –seeing children playing in the streets and the laundry hanging out of the windows to dry, listening to an artist playing beautifully moving music on a harp he’d crafted, sitting on the steps to the well in the city square and watching the people go about their daily lives. This seemed to me to be the soul of the region. We also had a glass of wine in a tiny litte ristaruante down one of the narrow allies. A beautiful little town.

Arrivederci, Tuscany

10/24/12

Boungiorno,

Yesterday was a day of doing laundry, investigating the best way to see Florence (or Firenze’ as it is really spelled and pronounced if you are Italian), and searching for internet access. It was a lot of work but we were finally successful at all three.

Today we took the bus to Florence. That was an adventure in itself. The buses are big and the streets are very narrow. There were several white knuckle moments. Anyway, the guide book said that you need at least 2 days to do Florence and that the lines for the main exhibits are pretty long, so we bought a two day pass that was good for all of the main museums and let us bypass the long lines. That was money well spent.

Florence is the museum mecca of the world I think. There is a museum on just about every street corner and many of them show much of the same thing and if you are into renaissance art you would be in heaven. We decided that it wasn’t in our top ten of “have to see more of” list, but it was interesting non-the-less. I did enjoy the sculptures and the architecture and found the walled cities fascinating see .  Spending time wandering the streets gives you some perspective on a very different way of life.

We did see some of Michelangelo’s work and the statue of David is beautiful!  Tom got a picture of it before we saw the signs that said “No cameras allowed” in about 5 different languages…ooops. Even the ceilings were beautiful . These are the grardens outside the National Museum I have to tell you, they were really into painting and sculpting naked people in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.

It was pretty cool eating lunch alfresco (outside) of a centuries old building and using WI FI to email. I also got to have my picture taken with Da Vinci or at least with a guy dressed as a statue of Da Vinci. He was really pretty remarkable and fun to watch as was the street artist doing a chalk drawing of the Mona Lisa in one of the piazzas.

We also found little unique shops like this little clock store  very cool. We only hit the very tip of the 50+ museums, but it was enough to get the flavor of Florence.

And so we leave Florence for the last time.

Arrivederci, Firenze

10/22/12

Buongiorno,

Today we spent the day in Pisa as in The Leaning Tower of. We liked it better than Siena – the people were a bit friendlier and more willing to help.

Our first stop was the Baptistery which is beautiful outside but not much inside . We had to stand in line to buy tickets for the tower, so after that we toured the cathedral which is also gorgeous outside and in It is hard to see the detail in the pictures but it’s pretty amazing.

Then it was our turn to see the tower which is very cool ). It’s pretty funny to watch all of the people taking pictures of someone pretending to hold up the tower (see 5). You have to stand way in front of it to get the whole thing in, so people are standing on the street with their hand/hands in the air or lying on the ground with their feet in the air while someone takes the picture.   Anyway, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is the bell tower for the cathedral.  We had to climb 294 steps (which are very narrow and very worn) to get to the top. The view is unbelievable  even though we were both gasping for air by the time we got to the top (see 7). The tower has seven different sized bells – one for each note of the scaleUnfortunately we did not get to hear them ring.

The last picture is just for fun.

Arrivederci until the next exciting adventure,

Tom & Charli

Today, 10/21/12, we drove to the medieval, walled city of Siena.After spending an hour figuring out where to park and how to get in (not knowing the language is tough), we toured the Casa di Santa Caterina dating back to the 1300’s, then wandered the narrow brick streets absorbing the blend of long, long past and present . At the center/the heart of the ancient city is the Piazza del Campo. We stopped for lunch at one of the small alfresco cafés eating paninis and sipping Chianti while studying the amazing architecture of the piazza. The piazza is crafted like a huge scallop shell with white marble stripes separating nine large wedges of herringbone patterned brick. This giant shell is surrounded by small shops and restaurants with the beautiful ancient government buildings at the bottom. They now house the Museo Civica – Civic Museum . A lot crammed into a very small space

Arrivederci,

Charli & Tom