Pictures from Italy-- Florence

 We were in Florence Sunday March 10th to Tuesday March 12th. 

On March 11th, we drove to a place high above the city, Piazzale Michelangelo, so we could look out over it. Breathtaking. We walked around Florence, ate gelato, and went to the Galileo Museum. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) had worked in Florence and they had some of the scientific instruments he had actually used.

For dinner that night, Hannah took us to the Florencetown-Towns of Italy cooking school. We, along with a small group of other attendees, had a 3 hour lesson on making pizza and Sicilian-style gelato (eggless). Super fun! I've made pizza using their recipe once since we've been home, plus I've made both the chocolate and the vanilla gelato.

We spent a little more time in Florence on the 12th before heading to Lucca, Pisa, and Silvano d'Orba. We did not get to see the statue of David by Michelangelo since the museum is closed on Monday and the tickets were sold out on Tuesday. We went to a paleontological museum instead. They had fossils that had been found in Italy as well as elsewhere.

FLORENCE- DAY 1

The view from the Piazzale Michelangelo:

looking down on the Arno river

looking to the east (I think)

looking north (I think) to the Palazzo Vecchio on the left and Santa Maria Del Fiore church on the right

the Palazzo Vecchio

looking to the west (I think)

In the town itself:

a random street

crossing the bridge over the Arno river into Florence

this is to show the size of the spaces for parallel parking--I couldn't do it, I'm sure, but Hannah did

part of a wall around Florence

we shared a cannoli at Mercato Centrale

they had an audio tour and Glen is tuning it

some of Galileo's scientific instruments

an interactive display--getting your cannon angle correct to bring down a target

trying out our pizzas

now it's time for our chocolate gelato

with our teacher, Federico

FLORENCE- DAY 2

the line outside the Accademia Gallery of people waiting their turn to see David

meet the Italian mammoth Peitro

we got a kick out of the fact that several of their skeletons were named

we allowed ourselves to "get lost" in Florence but followed a bus knowing it wouldn't take us where we shouldn't go

Pictures from Italy--Latina, Rome, Lucca, and Pisa

Technically speaking, on March 7th-9th, we were staying in Borgo Sabotino-foce Verde, which is on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Province of Latina, with the town of Latina was 6 miles inland. Sabotino-foce is about 50 miles south of Rome and 130 miles northwest of Pompeii. Latina is easier to write and remember.

And we went to Lucca and Pisa after visiting Florence, but Florence will have it's own post as we have many photos from Florence.


LATINA
The beach across from our Airbnb in Latina (March 7th and 9th):

7 March 2024

9 March 2024

Hannah touching the Tyrrhenian Sea

Glen picking up some sea shells

ROME

On Saturday, March 9th, we attended the Rome Temple:

There is a Christus statue surrounded by statues of His disciples in the Visitors Center

This was the pavement in the parking lot, but many places had this exact pattern

LUCCA

On our way from Florence to Silvano d'Orba on March 12th, we passed through Tuscany and we stopped in Lucca and Pisa. 

Lucca, a small, walled town, started off as a Roman town back to 180 B.C. (I just love the internet where it's so easy to find info like that). "Though it hasn't been involved in a war since 1430, it is Italy's most impressive fortress city."

notice how thick the walls are

after passing through the entrance, we went up these stairs to get to the top of the wall

my turn on the bike we rented

Hannah's turn

Glen's turn

this was outside the wall as we were leaving

PISA

An interesting thing about Pisa, besides its famous tower, is that "Pisa lay by the sea until the 15th century, by which time accumulated silt deposited by the Arno River had completely cut the city off from the receding shoreline." It is now 6 miles from the Ligurian Sea (that's a lot of silt).

the tower was already tilting when it was completed in 1372

il Duomo di Pisa, next to the tower

a better view of the architecture of the tower