Day Two in Florence

Sorry to keep you in suspence for so long about what happened on day two of Florence. I have been busy working on two papers that are due on May 2nd and take up 100% of my grade. However, Kristen Tony and I had a presentation in that class and got 9% extra credit points. Our teacher said we gave the best presentation of the entire class so basically we did it baller status. Keep in mind that this is also the class that everyone reads directly off a sheet of paper for their presentation. I just got back from London and loved it! I wouldn't mind living there one bit. I will write about London eventually but I need to finish Italy which happened forever ago....

On Tuesday, we thought the buses were still on strike so we walked into town again. We soon reallized that the buses weren't on strike on our walk into town so boo that. We walked over an hour to Accademia which is where the sculpture of David is. The line was super long and another group of Americans said that they were in line for 20 minutes and only moved ten feet. We decided to go back later in the day to see if the line went down any. We walked to Musem of San Marco which is a 15th century monastery which housed the greatest collection of frescoes and paintings by early Renaissance master Fra Angelico. Upstairs in the monastery were cells where all the monks stayed. It was the home to the monk who threw out the Medicis, turned Florence into a theocracy, sponsored bonfires to burn books and paintings and was burned to death in a plaza. I think the monaster was the least impressive thing I saw in Florence. It was hard to fully understand and appreciate it because all the signs were in Italian. The frescoes were very somber and many of them were of Jesus hanging from the cross.



Walk into the city centre



Frescoes

After, Kristen and I met Ali Christenson for lunch. It was great to see someone else from TU and hear what is is like studying abroad in Florence. It sounded like she is having an amazing time and really likes Italy. Who wouldn't right?  It is gorgeous and has so much history. We got pizza across the street from where she lives. It was pretty good but it had no tomato sauce! It only had cheese, brochetta and maybe some type of lettuce. I'm not sure what the green leaves were but it covered my entire pizza. Ali had to go back to class so we met back up with my parents. We went to the famous Gelateria Grom where they make real gelato with organic ingredients. Ali told us that the gelato that looked the best and was piled high was actually the worst and tastes more like ice cream and not gelato. She suggested that we go to Grom and it was pretty good! We walked back to Accademia and waited in line. It only took about 20 minutes before we were able to get in. There were other pieces of art in the museum but we really only went for the real David statute. You weren't allowed to take pictures of David so Kristen and I put my video recorder in my front pocket of my sweater. We turned it on and kept it in my pocket while I walked around the statute. We got a completely sketch video of David but it worked. I had to do it 2 times because the first time didn't record. In the room with David, were also other Michelangelo's works that were unfinished (included Prisoners, St. Matthew and a Pieta). David was magnificant! He is a 17 foot tall statute and is a symbol of the divine victory over evil. David represents a new century and a whole new Renaissance outlook. The statute has so much emotion and his face reflects his battle after defeating the gian. His body was so realistic even to his veins in his neck and arms. It was really amazing to see the statue that everyone around the world knows and visits all the time. And here is our completely sketch video. (attempt two)

After, we walked across the city. back over Ponte Vecchio and to Pitti Palace gardens. On our way, I bought an Italian flag for my collection right off of the Ponte Vecchio. The Bobli and Bardini Gardens were a great way to escape the tourists in Florence. It also gave us some amazing views of the city and country side. We stayed only for about an hour and a half and went back to the apartment. We were extremely exhausted from the 8 hours of walking with only a break for lunch. We did this two days in a row!

Duomo and Baptistry

Ponte Vecchio

Pitti Palace Gardens

View from Pitti Palace Gardens

Gardens

Gardens

Cin Cin

First Day in Florence

On Monday, we planned on getting a bus into the city centre because my aunt and uncle live in the suburbs. However, we were s.o.l. because all the buses went on strike in Florence. Supposedly they often threaten bus this was the first time in a while that it actually happend. So of course we were there when that happened. The bus strike was planned for 3pm and would last 24 hours but there were no buses in site in the morning either. Therefore, we had to walk 45 minutes to get to the city centre which was more than an hour and a half away. We got a little later start than expected but it was well worth it.



Our first stop was at the Santa Croce Chuch (14th century Franciscan church, decorated with centuries of precious art and holds the tombs of great Florentines). We bought a walking tour that gave us the history of the church and described what everything was about. We saw the tomb of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). However, it really isn't his tomb because no one knows where he is buried but they do know it is somewhere in the church. We also saw the tomb of Michelanglo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Michelanglo did not wish to be buried in Florence but rather in Rome where he spent most of his life. Santa Croce was just the start of all the great art that we saw during this trip. It was really cool because I took an art history class in school and I saw a bunch of art that I learned about in class. We spent almost two hours in the church but we could have been there almost all day if we let ourselves. The church was just full of art and history.



Tomb of Michelangelo



Tomb of Galileo



Courtyard of Santa Croce



Santa Croce



Reflection of Santa Croce in a Mirror at a Gold Shop



Once we left Santa Croce, we walked the streets and found a place to get lunch. We got a couple of sandwiches and went to Plazza Signoria to eat lunch on a curb outside of Chanel. In Plazza Signoria is a fake statute of David. The real David used to be there until it was moved to the Academia. This plazza also had many other statutes and fountains. We saw a man dressed as a cupid statute and we wanted to take a picture with him but instead he was on his smoke break.

(The famous women in a seashell that I am talking about in the video is the Birth of Venus for all you smart people out there who don't speak my language.)

Next, we went to a free museum and curch called the Museo Orsanmichele. The bottom was a small church but if you walked up the stairs there was a museum with big statutes of people I didn't know. The third floor had a nice view of Florence and the Duomo which is where we went next! The outside of the Duomo and Baptistery is huge and covered with pink, green and while tuscan marble. The Duomo's claim to fame is the magnificant Dome which was the first Renaissance dome and the model for domes to follow. For many years, the church had a hole in it because they didn't knonw how to build a dome. The inside of the Duomo did not compare to Sante Croce. It rather was much simpler except for the dome. The cieling of the dome is painted with the Last Judgment by Giorgio Vasari and Federice Zuccari. While my parents visited the Bapistry, Kristen and I spent 8 euro and climbed 463 stairs (extremely steep) to the top of the Duomo. You could see all of Florence with the mountains in the background.

Duomo and Baptistry

Famous Doors of the Baptistry

Top of the Duomo

After we came back down from the Duomo, we walked by an open market that had more leather stands, scarves, etc and then got more gelato. We walked to Ponte Veccio which is the most famouf Florence bridge lined with the most expensive jewelry shops. My uncle came and picked us up at 7pm and took us back to the apartment (thank goodness because my feet hurt!). For dinner that night, we heated up nutella and ate it with strawberries it was soo good yumm yumm!

Cin Cin

San Gimignano in the Tuscan Countryside

"Here we are in San Gimignano" ha ha sorry I am making fun on myself. A little about San Gimignano... It seemed kind of like we were going back in time to a place with wishing wells and fortresses with harp music and everything. San Gimignano has 14 medieval tower still standing from the original 72 it used to have. These towers used to be used to protect the city. But now, there are two torture museums and a bunch of tourists.  

On Sunday we drove to San Gimignan which is located in the Tuscan countryside. We walked around in and went into a bunch of shops with multi-colored pasta, Italian leather handbags, etc. I ended up coming back to one shop later on in the day to buy tie dye pasta. I recently ate it and it was so good! I am sure that I just thought it was 10x better than it actually was because it was tie dye and there was even yellow pasta!  As you can see in the video, Tuscan scenery is beautiful. It actually kind of reminded me of the highlands in Scotland but with wine vinyards instead. We listened to a man playing a flute in the courtyard of a church and to another man playing the harp with the country in the background. Here, we climbed another tower but it was only a few steps compared to the rest of our trips. From the tower, we could see a 360 degree view of Tuscany. That is also where the video is taken from. Kristen and I frollicked around in fields of grass and even climbed a tree! We then ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking the country. I sat directly in the sun and was burning up but it was worth it! By this point of the trip I wasn't going to complain about nice weather since I was used to Aberdeen weather. It would have also been nice to have some sunglasses but we didn't buy those until later in Florence. After lunch we got some gelato of course and walked around some more. We later left San Gimignano and got lost in our car trying to find another small medieval town called Monteriggeroni. It was an open air fortress with a small town inside and a castle wall surrounding the village. We only stayed there for thirty minutes and decided to make our treck back to Florence before it got dark. For dinner, my aunt made pork, rice, and artichokes that we dipped in butter. I surprised my mom with a Happy Mum's Day card and backery sweets. Kristen and I ventured out on our own to find Marcello's Bakery. We found it pretty easy but had a hard time communicating with them once we got there. We got six different treats for everyone to try. My mom just thought we just went on a walk but instead we surpised her with bakery sweets! I picked her flowers, gave her the treats and the card and surpised her with a early Mother's Day. In the UK, they celebrate Mother's Day in April instead of in May like we do in the U.S. So it was a nice little surprise for her and I think she really enjoyed it!

All the pasta in the world!

Tuscany

A wishing well

frolicking in the grass

More countryside

San Gimignano from afar

Some of the towers still standing

Cin Cin from San Gimignano!

Beautiful Cinque Terre

Saturday morning, we woke up early and drove from Pisa to La Spezia. We took about an hour detour in the car because we wanted to park in the first of the five towns that constituted Cinque Terre (aka "Five Lands"). There were no parking spots so we had to drive back to La Spezia, park our car, hop on a train and travel to Vernazza. Italy is notorious for not having parking spaces. You can look for over an hour and never find anywhere to park. After driving around, we luckily came across a parking spot right next to the train station in La Spezia. Vernazza was my favorite of the three cities we visited that day. Vernazza is a true "fishing town" with a street filled with shops and Italian flags that leads to a small beach that leads into then into the Ligurian Sea or maybe its the Mediterranean Sea. I don't know I never quiet figured it out. But what I do know is that the water was so clear! Unlike the North Sea, which you wouldn't want to touch with a ten foot pole, this water was so blue. Kristen and I sat on a rock and and put our feet into the water. It was a wee bit cold (did you like my new Scottish accent) but definitely worth it because we don't get that here in Aberdeen. However, Kristen almost sat on a crab in its shell. Luckily she didn't but we did find a star fish! It took us a little while to get the star fish out of the war but finally we did. We took it to my parents and asked if star fish could live out of the water. They looked at us like we were dumb and said of course not. So we hurried back to put him in the water before he shriveled up and died. We got pizza and Italian beer and ate it on the rocks of the beach. The beer was gross but the pizza was good. Scotland has taught me though to drink the beer even if you don't like it so I took it like a man and finished it. Here are some pictures from beautiful Vernazza. I hope you enjoy them!


<><><><> <><><><>

<>

The Streets of Vernazza







Next we got on the train and went to Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore was less beach and but had more colorful houses stacked on top of each other on the cliffs. Here we were mesmerized by the beautiful scenery for some time then got gelato. Of course, we would stop anything to go get gelato! Then we started our journey uphill to the top of the city. One of the main themes of this trip was walking uphill or climbing a towerful of steps. If only you could see me right now, you would probably say "killer legs Hannah". And I would say, "yea I walked 500 miles in Italy". Once we got to the top of the city, we overlooked the water and the houses. They even had yellow houses! Super cool right! I would want to live in a yellow house there except I would not want to walk uphill everyday or have to drive downhill in ice. Maybe they don't get ice but who knows. Again, enjoy the pictures... (most of you probably read this just for the pictures anyways). Don't worry I understand.



View of the Riomaggiore



View from the top of the city



Our last visit was to Manarola which I considered to be the smallest of the three towns we visited. Kristen and I climbed up a big rock in the sea and threw a penny into the water. I made a wish so hopefully it comes true! Here, we popped open a bottle of wine and sipped it while looking at the scenery. It was pretty interesting watching everyone in Manarola. People were just laying out in the most random places enjoying the sun. Look at the picture below and you will understand what I mean. They looked like seals basking in the sun literally. We didn't spend much time here because we had to drive back to Florence later in the afternoon.



Are they people or seals?



When we were waiting for the train back to La Spezia, the craziest thing happened. The train going the opposite way was at the station and all of a sudden I heard my name being yelled. I looked back to the train and saw Ali Christensen, a girl I go to school with and was on the dance team with, and Maddie. I had no idea that they were going to be in Cinque Terre for the weekend. Out of all the people and all the places and all the times, we ran into each other. They didn't really have time to talk but I told her I would facebook and we could meet up later in the week in Florence. It's crazy how small a world it really is. That night we drove to Florence and went to my Aunt's apartment. This is where we stayed while in Florence. She made us a home cooked delicious dinner. We didn't eat until 10pm but had squid juice pasta?? It was black pasta!

Cin Cin



Leaning from the Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower at Sunset

Kristen and I met my parents Thursday night at the London airport and then flew to Pisa on Friday morning. On our flight, we flew over Mont Blanc which is the highest montain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. The snow covered mountains were beautiful and were a perfect start to my amazing trip.



Mont Blanc

We arrived in Pisa around 12:45 and took a bus to the city centre. While walking to our hotel we passed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a bunch of tourists were taking the "typical" Leaning Tower of Pisa picture. The streets were lined with street vendors coming up to you asking you to buy one thing or the other. The street filled with people and shops  really reminded me of Mexico but with a leaning tower in the background. When we got to our Pensione Hotel, I had to carry my 17 kg suitcase up four flights of starts. Let me tell you that was not a very pleasant experience. After we were all situated in our hotel, we became like everyone else and took the typical leaning tower pictures. You could just imagine what it looked like when another person was trying to hold up the tower, it was amusing. Everyone just had their arms up for no apparent reason. I of course have to put every picture up because it is super cool! It is the pictures you see of other people doing it but finally you get to! It's like watching someone else eat a piece of delicious chocolate cake and you can't have one until a lot later ha.

Kristen and I then paid 15 Euro (which now I realize is an awful lot) to climb up the tower. We walked up loads of steps where we were leaning every which way. If you look at the above pictures we climbed all the way up to where the flag is. From the top you could see the entire city of Pisa with the mountains in the background. It was a beautiful site like most other things we saw this trip. On the videa, you can just ignore my voice. Hopefully, I don't sound like this in real life. After I put up more videas, please note that I start almost each one with a nasally "Here we are". It's obnoxious and I am sorry in advance

When we came back down from the tower, my balances was so off and my leg was spazing out from climbing down a leaning stairwell. Next, we went to the Bapistry and the Duomo. You can see those in my video. The Baptistry was amazing and the accoustics in the building were incredible. A woman sang in there and she could harmonize with herself because the echo stayed for 10 seconds. Next we went to the Duomo which is a cathedral. It reminded me a lot of St. Patrick's Cathedral.




Duomo

Inside the Duomo



We then walked into town looking for somewhere to eat gelato. We came across La Botlega del Gelato and it was delicious. I had strawberry and banana. I think this was my favorite place out of everywhere else that we ate gelato. We met my aunt and uncle at the hotel later that evening and opened a bottle of wine in celebration of everyone's arrival. We then went to an Italian restaurant called Bruno's and of course we heard a song from Bruno Mars playing. I tried pate which is calve liver (yea  I know pretty sad right) but it was alright from what I can remember. For dessert, they serve you biscotti which are kind of like crackers/ hard cookies and you dip them in a sweet wine. We ate the Italian way and stayed at the restaurant for over three hours.



Bakery we found but didn't eat at :(

Artist painting a flower outside the gelateria



Beautiful sunset

Cin Cin