Monday, August 20, 2007
FINISHING THE EUROPE JOURNAL
ALMOST A YEAR HAS PASSED SINCE THE LAST ENTRY IN OUR BLOG. THERE STILL REMAINS THREE CITIES IN ITALY WHICH WE VISITED. AT MARY’S SUGGESTION, I AM GOING BACK AND USING NOTES AND TRAVEL GUIDES ALONG WITH MY SKETCHY MEMORY I AM GOING TO WRITE A SUMMARY OF OUR VISIT TO FLORENCE, NAPLES AND ROME. THAT WILL CLOSE OUT OUR TRIP TO EUROPE AND I WILL TRY TO CATCH UP SOME OTHER JOURNALS I HAVE DONE.
Friday, September 8, 2006---Florence, Italy
After our great stay in Venice, we boarded a train and went to Florence. Traveling by train into the city we were blessed with some of the most beautiful countryside with vineyards and orchards. The city is almost as beautiful as the area surrounding it.
We went directly to our hotel after we had dinner in the train station. We had a lady cab driver and she was a real airhead. She was American, and she had her taxi decorated like a Disney Shop. She got lost on the way to our hotel and I thought we were going to have to get out and walk to get there. She finally called the number we had and got directions. We spent a pleasant evening and had breakfast the following morning in a breakfast room on the roof. We were looking out over the rooftops of the city, which all in all was a good start to the day.
We only had one day to spend in Florence, which was a bad planning mistake. If we ever have a chance to return we will spend much more time there. Since our time was so short, we knew that we only had time for a city tour and very little follow up to the places we would like to go back to. There were a lot of special places, but I am just going to mention a few
The Duomo was either the second or third largest Basilica which we visited in all of our travels. It is a magnificent structure, but because of the way it was surrounded by other buildings we could not get a picture of the entire building. It was a huge drawing site for tourists and there was no way we could get inside in the limited time which we had.
The Basilica Santa Cruse was not as impressive a building as the Duomo, but the history of it is as impressive. It is a seat of the religious and cultural history of the region. Much of the influence of the Tuscany Regions development in art and science came from here. The building is small but very impressive. It contains tombs of several well knowns, including Macchiavelli, Galileo and Michelangelo.
Palazzo Vecchio is an area which is not destroyed by the bombing during the Second World War and it holds many works of arT and museums. Perhaps the most famous of the works on display here is Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. There is a reproduction of the statue in front of the building which houses the original. Again, we did not have time to stand in the line of people waiting to get in, so we just enjoyed the public displays and got some good pictures.
Ponte Vecchio is the only bridge in Florence which survived the bombing during the war. It is almost directly across the street from Palazzo Vecchio. It still serves as a walking bridge, but its main purpose now is the market for gold and jewelry. We spent some time there, and later when our day was about done, we walked several blocks back to the bridge and bought a bracelet for Mary. This was her splurge gift and she loves it.
We had taken our luggage to the train station and put it into a locker so when we were ready to go we just had to get it and catch a train.
PS
As I was going through the pictures to select some to go with this post I found something really neat that I had missed when I wrote this text. On the bus tour which we took we saw a fairly long section of the original wall of the old city of Florence. I wanted to add this picture. I’m not sure of the dates, but I would imagine that this wall dates to the first century B.C.
Friday, September 8, 2006---Florence, Italy
After our great stay in Venice, we boarded a train and went to Florence. Traveling by train into the city we were blessed with some of the most beautiful countryside with vineyards and orchards. The city is almost as beautiful as the area surrounding it.
We went directly to our hotel after we had dinner in the train station. We had a lady cab driver and she was a real airhead. She was American, and she had her taxi decorated like a Disney Shop. She got lost on the way to our hotel and I thought we were going to have to get out and walk to get there. She finally called the number we had and got directions. We spent a pleasant evening and had breakfast the following morning in a breakfast room on the roof. We were looking out over the rooftops of the city, which all in all was a good start to the day.
We only had one day to spend in Florence, which was a bad planning mistake. If we ever have a chance to return we will spend much more time there. Since our time was so short, we knew that we only had time for a city tour and very little follow up to the places we would like to go back to. There were a lot of special places, but I am just going to mention a few
The Duomo was either the second or third largest Basilica which we visited in all of our travels. It is a magnificent structure, but because of the way it was surrounded by other buildings we could not get a picture of the entire building. It was a huge drawing site for tourists and there was no way we could get inside in the limited time which we had.
The Basilica Santa Cruse was not as impressive a building as the Duomo, but the history of it is as impressive. It is a seat of the religious and cultural history of the region. Much of the influence of the Tuscany Regions development in art and science came from here. The building is small but very impressive. It contains tombs of several well knowns, including Macchiavelli, Galileo and Michelangelo.
Palazzo Vecchio is an area which is not destroyed by the bombing during the Second World War and it holds many works of arT and museums. Perhaps the most famous of the works on display here is Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. There is a reproduction of the statue in front of the building which houses the original. Again, we did not have time to stand in the line of people waiting to get in, so we just enjoyed the public displays and got some good pictures.
Ponte Vecchio is the only bridge in Florence which survived the bombing during the war. It is almost directly across the street from Palazzo Vecchio. It still serves as a walking bridge, but its main purpose now is the market for gold and jewelry. We spent some time there, and later when our day was about done, we walked several blocks back to the bridge and bought a bracelet for Mary. This was her splurge gift and she loves it.
We had taken our luggage to the train station and put it into a locker so when we were ready to go we just had to get it and catch a train.
PS
As I was going through the pictures to select some to go with this post I found something really neat that I had missed when I wrote this text. On the bus tour which we took we saw a fairly long section of the original wall of the old city of Florence. I wanted to add this picture. I’m not sure of the dates, but I would imagine that this wall dates to the first century B.C.
