Lucca, Pisa and Viareggio

After Florence I took the train west to Lucca for four days. I took two day trips while staying there, one to Pisa and one to Viareggio.

Lucca is most known for the ramparts or renaissance wall that surrounds the center of city. The walls are 2.5 miles in diameter, and a popular place for walking and running. The city has had protective walls for more than 2000 years.


On the ramparts (does a certain song go through your head?):


There was an exhibition while I was there that allowed you to see the rooms and tunnels inside the walls. It was pretty cool.


Had to have a picture of this church. The bell tower was built and then the church. They obviously miscalculated the space needed for the church because you can see the arch on the right side is smaller than the others in order to fit, throwing off the symmetry customary to churches.


Roman amphitheater: after the fall of Rome the amphitheater, which seated 10,000, was cannibalized for its stones. Today's street level is 9 feet above the original arena floor.


Pisa, known for its famous tower is known for not much else. The tower is 200 feet tall, 55 feet wide, and leans at a 5-degree angle to the south (15 feet off the vertical axis). The leaning tower is one of four buildings that makes up the Field of Miracles (Campo dei Miracoli). The other buildings are the baptistery, the Duomo and the Camposanto Cemetery.

The baptistery, Duomo, Tower:



From the back of the Duomo:



This is the baptistery, which leans six feet to the north. Obviously, the whole field was not a good place for any building. It is 180-feet tall and topped with a statue of John the Baptist. Began in 1153, the round architecture of the building is based on the circular domed Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem as seen by Pisan Crusaders who occupied Jerusalem in 1099.

The acoustics of the baptistery are notable. This is due to the 250 foot-wide dome. A sound made inside will echo for a good 10 seconds. A person singing within the dome can make three tones within the 10 second period.


The Duomo, begun in 1063, was designed by Buschetto:


This octagonal pulpit was designed by Giovanni Pisano is 15 feet tall and is the last, biggest and most complex of the four pulpits. Each side unfolds the life of Christ and no stone is left uncarved.


The Duomo's nave, 320 feet long, was the longest in Christendom when it was built. The coffered ceiling has shields of Florence's Medici family. This family took over Pisa once it had fallen in prominence.


Don't know what it is about doors, but there is a lot of them. These bronze doors are at the back of the Duomo and were designed by Bonnano Pisano. There are 24 different panels depicting Christ's stories. These doors were the inspiration for Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze doors in Florence that were included in my Florence part 1 post.


These adorable triplets entertained me during lunch. They wanted to make friends with the dogs sitting next to me on the steps.


Viareggio is a coastal town whose beach front property didn't look much different from the coastal towns of the United States I have seen.


Most of the beach is private except for about 20 feet just to the side of this pier. The water here did not look inviting so I chose instead to walk down the pier to the end. Along the way I was wowed by old wrinkly Italian men in speedos laying out to get some sun while waiting for a fish to bite. Not something I really wanted or needed to see. I found a quiet spot with out any old men in my periphery and sat down to read in the warm sun. It was lovely.


A faithful fishing companion:

Florence part 2

Here are more pictures from Florence, taken at various places around the city.

Santa Croce Church: A 14th-century Franciscan church. It houses the tombs of many famous Florentines.


The most famous is Galileo Galilei who was Pisan but spent the last years of his life under house arrest near Florence. It was not until long after his death that his remains were allowed to be placed in the church.


These statues are in the Piazza della Signoria just to the side of the Uffizi Gallery and Palazzo Vecchio, two famous museums in Florence. I really liked this square because you got to see so many statutes without having to go into the museums. The museums courtyards had many more things to see all without having to pay.


Another statute in the square, Perseus decapitating Medusa:


Piazzale Michelangel: overlooks the city on the south side of the Arno river. This huge statute of David sits in the middle of it all:


A view of Florence looking west towards the mountains:


A view looking down on the Doumo:


A couple of interesting graves that I found in a graveyard of church not far from the Piazzale. My interest in gravestones and graveyards comes from my friend Mary Beth.


Perhaps one of my favorite headstones ever. When I first saw this I thought for sure some local Italian punks had come along and pushed this statute over, but after looking at it for a minute realized it was carved like that.


To my Scottish and British friends, who I am pretty sure don't read this blog.


A cool looking pirate ship in a restaurant that I ate in one evening:


Pretty sure this is where the Dread Pirate Roberts is buried:


Ponte Vecchio: Florence's famous bridge lined with gold and silver shops.


A look down the Arno River and one of the many bridges that span it:


Florence is a definite must when visiting Italy. I really enjoyed the small feel of the city while still being a major city in Italy.

Florence Part 1

Yikes, it has been nearly 2 weeks since my last post. Feels like I did it just last week.

Florence was the next stop on my trip. I spent four days and enjoyed myself. I often think of Florence as a major city, but is really quite small compared to Rome and others. I took the slow bus from Siena to Florence which meant I got to stop in various towns along the way. I was not far from the town of Volterra, which vampire lovers everywhere will recognize as the city where Edward goes to die, but couldn't get there without taking another bus, me that is, not Edward. It would be interesting to see if the town's tourism industry has grown since the publishing of Meyer's novels.

I stayed in another convent in Florence, and this time I can say that there were old nuns everywhere. None of them spoke English, but they did speak Italian and French, so I was saved. It was fun to use my French. It was a big convent with a lovely garden area. It appears as if they have a specific area dedicated to travelers, while the rest of convent is set apart for the nuns that live there. Soeur Theresa was very nice and filled the image of a nun to a T.

I am proud to say that I had gelato at every one of Rick Steves' recommended gelateria. The best gelato I had it Italy was across the Arno river. It was peach (yes, even though I had some really good cioccolato), and had little peach chunks in it. I still think about it and know that when I visit Florence again I'll find it and hope it is still open. I tried a famous Sicilian granite, a lovely Italian drink made with ice and fresh fruit.

Picture of my room:


Luckily it was a room with a view out over the lovely garden. To bad the windows didn't have screens otherwise I could have kept them open all of the time, but had to keep them closed to keep out the bugs.


The street outside the front door:


Florence was the birth place of the Renaissance. You begin to understand why as you visit various places around the city. One such place was the Museum of Precious Stone (Museo dell'Opificio delle Petre Dure). The lower floors had collection of mosaics of inlaid marble and stones. The upper floor contains the remnants of a Medici workshop from 1588. In the workshop you could see the tools used by the workers who created the mosaics. There were so many beautiful pieces with intricate designs.

A vase:


One of the few paintings in the museum, but the one I liked the most:


A cabinet front. The cabinet is made of wood, with each drawer covered with a different stone mosaic.


A small wall hanging:


A large table top:


Nex stop, Florence's Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore): This duomo has the third-longest nave in Christendom. You will notice again the white and green striping (like the duomo in Siena). Included along with the white and green Tuscan marble is pink marble.


I took this picture because the duomo looked so dirty But when you compare it with the picture above, the "dirtiness" might just be the lack of light.


The nave's ceiling:


The dome's ceiling:


The baptistery, sits apart from the duomo:


The ceiling, it was impossible to get a good picture of the entire thing. So I had to do it pieces:



Notice Christ's hands, you either get a thumb up or a thumbs down:



Lorenzo Ghiberti's famous bronze doors are on the north side of the baptistery, facing the duomo. Ghiberti won the opportunity to design the doors after beating out Brunelleshci in a competition. Taking a picture of the full doors was impossible without some stranger in the picture, which is fine because I am the stranger in many other photographs. Reportedly, Michelangelo said these doors were fit to be the gates of paradise.


Ghiberti used mathematical laws to create the illusion of distance on a flat plane, something that had never been done before.


As with most things I have seen in Italy, the detail on each panel was incredible:


I am stopping here because I can. Not even the end of the first day.