Florence Italy (Pisa, Volterra, Bocelli and Galileo)

 13 June 2024 - Florence Italy (Pisa, Volterra, Bocelli, and Galileo)

We took another day tour out of Florence and visited Pisa and Volterra.  Along the way, we had lunch near where Andrea Bocelli lives (our guide went to school with him). We spent a nice day continuing our wanderings of Florence’s streets and spent a very nice couple of hours being nerds in Galileo’s science museum. There is so much to see and do in Florence, and we have had pretty good weather so far.  It is warming up, next week is supposed to be really hot.  

The leaning tower is conspicuous amongst the other buildings in the Square of Miracles complex.  I felt somewhat unsettled seeing it.  It is so large and it sure looked like it could fall over any minute.

Our guide started our tour of Pisa with a drive along the Arno River, the same one that runs through Florence. Then we visited the old plaza which was the center of trade and government during the medieval times.  Cosimo (pictured) ruled Pisa in the 1400s. As typical for Cosimo, he had his statue placed in the plaza.

The buildings in the plaza had beautiful, if worn, carvings on their walls.

You could barely see the frescoes that once covered some of the buildings.

Santa Maria Della Spina is one of the oldest churches in Pisa.  It is currently under restoration.  Pisa was heavily bombed during WWII, but most of the damaged ancient buildings have been restored.

Our guide lives in Pisa.  She said that the town was preparing for a large festival and decorating their buildings with lights.  There will be a big fireworks show also.

Pisa used to be a seaport, but because it sits on an alluvial plain, silt has filled in the area and cut Pisa off from the ocean by several miles. The alluvial plain is also why the tower is leaning, the soil is very soft and doesn’t hold weight well.

As we walked through the medieval streets of Pisa, we turned a corner and saw this.  Very impressive!

The engineers say that the 11 year long effort they put into stabilizing the tower in the 1990s will allow it to stand for another 200 years. I don’t know, it sure looked like it could fall over.  Our brains are so programmed to expect buildings to be straight.

The buildings are covered in white marble and is in a Romanesque style. This church was started in the 1000s and has been modified/added to over the years.

The bronze door which depicts various bible scenese was designed by Pisano.

Elaborate carved columns and friezes decorate the exterior.

The baptistery is just as elaborately decorated.

The inside of the cathedral is beautifully covered with stripes of black and white marble and has several frescoes.

The coffered wooden ceiling is gilted.

Beautiful detail in each of the coffers in the ceiling.

The pulpit is marble and carved by another Pisano in the 1300s. It is the most famous item inside the cathedral.

Untold numbers of tourists assumed a pose of holding up the tower.  The guide said the funniest one she saw was three guys stacked in a tower, sitting on each other shoulders, with the last posing to push against the tower.

Leaving Pisa, on our way to Volterra, we drove through some beautiful country.  Our guide was born and raised in this area and told us many stories of her growing up years. She knows the Bocelli family well, she went to school with them, including Andrea.

We stopped at a little plaza in the small town our guide grew up in for lunch.  Seems she knew most of the people walking around the plaza that day.

This is the outdoor theater that Andrea Bocelli built, it can host 8,000 attendees..  It is being readied for a concert series this summer celebrating 30 years of his career. He is having guest performers from all over the world. If you watched the movie he released a couple of years ago, around Easter, this was in the last song and scenes.

Volterra has an elevator to get you up onto the city walls! It was a bit scary because it shook and made lots of noise, but it worked.

I don’t think there was a single flat area in the whole of Volterra.  Very medieval.

The town hall had some of the same features as the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, except this one had a clock. We find it interesting that the tower is not symmetrically placed on the building, same as the one in Florence.  They were built about the same time, around 1250 and must have been added onto at some point.

One thing that made Pisa a valuable city was the salt mines.  They are still being mined.

Fabulous views from the city wall.  Very hazy.  The guide said that the winds are coming from Africa and are carrying sand. It was difficult to breathe that day.

Looking down at a Roman amphitheater and thermal baths.  The locals did not know this was here, it had been covered by dirt over the millennium.  The area was used as a soccer field.  One day, a player complained to the groundskeeper that he had tripped over something.  When they investigated, they found the exposed top of a Roman column. The archeologists soon took over the soccer field.  I don’t know where the kids play nowadays.

In its day, the amphitheater was quite large.  It could hold 3,500 people.

I love these clay roofs and townscapes.

Many of the instruments in the Galileo Museum were recognizable as related to instruments we use today.  But these were much larger and very ornate with engraved metal and carved wood.  Many of the museum’s artifacts came from the Medicis, who besides being patrons of the arts and music, also supported scientists.

Amerigo Vespucci, a famous cartographer, who explored the South American coast.  The Americas are named after him.

Galileo.

So many rooms just chock full of instruments!

A copy machine.  As you write a letter, another is being produced.

Everyone should recognize this as they, at one point in their life, probably owned the modern version (with steel balls.)  It is a demonstration of the conservation of energy.  You pull one of the balls on the end back and let it go so it hits the ball next to it, which hits the ball next to it, until the last ball is hit and swings out and then back in to repeat the sequence. This was a quite large parlor toy, probably over five feet tall!

The very ornate astrolabe, dating from the 16th century, is said to have been used by Galileo.

At the center is a 10th century Arabian astrolabe.  It is surrounded by other ancient astrolabes.

An elaborately decorated German astronomical clock.  It belonged to the wife of Ferdinand De’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Built in the late 1500s, this armillary sphere places the earth at the center of the solar system with the surrounding rings depicting the orbits of the, then known, seven planets.  I don’t know where the Sun was placed. This is all based on Ptolemy’s model of the solar system from around 200 AD. Galileo was put on house arrest and not allowed to teach or publish his works because he said the Sun was the center of the solar system, not Earth. At least, he wasn’t killed, like so many others.

This is a calculator from the 1600s! It still functions.

A lens grinder.  In the 16th century, the lenses were full of imperfections and impurities because they lacked the technology to create cleaner glass. Rock crystals were often used.

The only surviving telescopes built by Galileo.  He used these to find the moons of Jupiter. Such simple instruments, yet they changed our view of the heavens.

Florence Italy (David and Chianti)

 11 June 2024 - Florence Italy (David and Chianti)

The second week in Florence, we continued to explore the streets and alleys, visiting churches, museums, and sampling local foods and wines. We also took a day trip out into Tuscany.  Spent two days trekking back and forth to the train station to finalize the tickets for our trip from Milan to London.  Not speaking the language is a real detriment, even with apps like Papago and Google translate available. One huge highlight of the week was the Academia and its main attraction, David.  There is a replica of David positioned outside the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall) which we have passed by several times since the plaza is just behind the hotel.  The original stood there for hundreds of years until it was moved to the Academia. Almost all the sculptures on view in the city (and there are a lot) are replicas.  The originals are in museums to protect them from the environment.

Russ caught a beautiful view of Ponte Vecchio on a cloudy day.

While not the oldest pharmacy in Florence (that one is in another area of town), this one started in 1561.

Local business owners use interesting means of transportation to bring products to their businesses.

We have really enjoyed Florentine food.  Steak is especially good and the salads are interesting.

We took a food and wine tour of Florence.  The guide started us off at this restaurant with appetizers of cured meats, cheeses, chicken liver pate and a delicious wine.  Russ reported that his Coke Zero was excellent.

Then she led us through the tiny roads to our second restaurant, which is actually on top of what used to be a Roman amphitheater.  In the basement, where the wines are kept, you can see remains of the original structure.

We sampled pasta with boar sauce, pasta with rabbit and spinach ravioli with Parmesan sauce. Pretty adventurous for us.  Boar is common in Tuscany. There are a lot of wild boar and the populations need to be controlled.

We had such a great time sharing a meal with our guide.  We talked about all sorts of topics and she educated us on the history of Florence and the food experience.

One of the three wines I got to taste.

And, of course, there is always room for gelato! My favorite combo is dark chocolate and pistachio.  This is one of the more popular gelato stores in Florence with a lot of flavor choices and very fresh gelato.

One day, we wandered into a paper store.  A very personable young man, Lorenzo, demonstrated how Florentine printed paper is made using acrylic paints and a gel-like liquid.  He told us that the paper needed to dry awhile, but if we came back the next day, he would have it ready to gift us.  So thoughtful! Hopefully I can get it home without crushing it.

Finally, the Neptune fountain on the corner of Palazzo Vecchio is working.  All the sculptures Cosimo placed in front of the Town Hall have commanding, assertive poses. He wanted to sent the message to Rome that he was powerful and meant business.

The Accademia is one of the most popular tourist spots in Florence (because of David) and it isn’t that large.  Hence, there are timed entrances with LONG lines outside.  Fortunately, that means the crowds inside aren’t as ridiculous as they are at the Vatican Museums.

The artwork in the Accademia is excellent!

Botticelli’s Virgin and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist and Two Angels.

Two of the small rooms held ancient instruments.  This is a Saltorio (which we would call a hammered dulcimer) and it is made of stone. It is playable, but I am not sure of the sound it would make.

An original Stradivarius violin with all original parts from 1716. It is the only one in the world. 

Lovely hurdy-gurdies from the 1700s.

I have no idea what this is!

Rape of a Sabine Woman. The replica is outside the Palazzo Vecchio.

Pieta generally attributed to Michelangelo, through there is debate between experts.  The marble is reused from a previous project and appears, to me, to be incomplete.

And, of course, David.

I never realized that his outsized hand was holding the stone that he would use in his sling.

On one of our treks back and forth to the train station, we stopped at the Basilica Santa Maria Novella.  It is the first basilica established in Florence (1400s) and is run by the Dominicans. It is one of the most important Gothic style buildings in Tuscany. It was here that the Church condemned Galileo for his teachings about the Sun being the center of the solar system.

The church has several important artworks from the Gothic and early Renaissance period.

Our day trip into Tuscany took us through the Chianti area.  We have seen this rooster at several shops and restaurants in Florence.  It is a branding of the products coming from the Chianti region.

Saw several small towns like this one, some with a tower or two.  Wealthy families built these towers as protection against aggressors.  They could climb up into the tower (door was usually very high up and access was via ladder), and stay for a few days to allow the marauders to pass.

We stopped in Radda, one of the small hilltop towns, for a little walk around.

Beautiful views from the hilltop.  Everything was so green.  

It felt like we were in Napa or Sonoma county, what with all the vineyards. 

Lovely country roads with very little traffic.

Some of the large homes have been turned into hotels and spa resorts.

We saw this rooster everywhere!

Ate a lovely lunch at a small restaurant in Castellina in Chianti.  I had roast beef and Russ had roast veal.  Both were delicious.

We took a little walk around the town.  Central road with local people shopping and visiting with each other.

Local church open for business.

This is an underground passage between the city walls and inside buildings.  

One of the small businesses in this underground corridor was a weaver using a wooden loom.

Monteriggioni is a heavily walled medieval hilltop town.  It played a significant role during the many, many battles between Florence and Siena during the Middle Ages.

San Gimignano, another medieval hilltop town in Tuscany, is known for its many towers.  

The crowds were huge and I was enjoying our foray out into areas with fewer people, so we decided not to stop (no parking spaces anyway).

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at Michelangelo’s Plaza, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of Florence. The Duomo, its bell tower, and Palazzo Vecchio stand out for their height.

Our guide told us it is difficult to get roofs replaced or repaired because you are required to reuse used tiles from elsewhere or buy ones with the same color and shape.  The roof color and building colors are emblematic of Florence. You really get a sense of the size of the Duomo from this picture.