Pisa and Florence

Friday, May 16

Today we woke up and got ready to leave Corniglia. It was definitely a bittersweet moment; we were sad to leave because honestly we fell in love with Corniglia but were also really excited! We definitely had some great stops ahead of us. We still have Florence, Rome, Athens, and Santorini. And a side trip to Pisa that we did today! So we were definitely still stoked about touring different parts. We realized today that we only have a week and a half left on our trip! It is crazy to think that. We have been planning this trip for about a year, and it's almost finished. It had been a fantastic experience and we have learned a lot about different cultures, people, art, history, and ourselves. What a great opportunity we have had to see these places and will have as we finish our journey! So today we woke up and finished packing our bags to leave. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time so we weren't rushing around because that is so stressful and happens without us even causing it. We walked down and got our last breakfast from Pan e Vino and said goodbye to Stefano. Rusty got the apricot one with powdered sugar and I thought I was ready to try a new kind but I immediately regretted my decision. Rusty is the best and got a second apricot one for me for the road. We tried to pay for it but Stefano wouldn't let us. I just love them so much! We walked to the train again-I won't miss all of the endless stairs in Cinque Terre-and walked along the pathway on the sea while we waited for our train. No surprise, but our train was late again so we were slightly nervous about getting it transfer because it was only ten minutes, but that train was late too so we got on fine. It was crazy though because there were a ton of people getting on. Normally we just worry about getting on the train and then move to find our right carriage. Today we were on a weird train with compartments like on Harry Potter so the walkway was really narrow and we just couldn't move. Nobody was on the right carriage and it was just a mess. It must happen fairly often because there are these little foldout seats on the side of the hallway so we just there.

Pretty soon we were in Pisa Centrale! We hopped off and started our walk. It was about thirty minutes there and we were getting hungry so we stopped at this pizza place that looked promising. I asked if she had any to go and she said yes. We ordered an awesome one with veggies and meats and she said "OK, five minutes." We thought she was going to heat an old one up or something, which is what they normally do at those quick stops, but she goes back and starts making this pizza fresh! I've never seen a pizza made that fast. It was made, cooked, cut, and boxed in five minutes. Holy. Also, they had canolis that looked divine and I had been searching for one since we got to Italy, so naturally we got that too and then headed on our way again. We crossed over the river and I just loved walking around and seeing the old buildings. It is crazy to think about all of the history that happened here and how long people have been living and walking these streets.

Eventaully we started to see the top of the baptistery. When we were close we saw the tower through the trees. Oh my word it was so fun to see that thing! It looks just like you think it would, only it actually leans more than I thought it did in real life. I thought it was an angle they used or something, but it really does lean a lot. 15 feet South actually, which is a lot! We sat down on a fountain step and ate our pizza and canoli and then walked around and looked the tower and the baptistry. We had talked about climbing it and it was an option, but we decided not to so that we could go ahead and move on to Florence. 

We walked back to the train station, bought a ticket, got on right away, and were on our way to Florence! We jammed out to our Europe playlist and there are a few songs that will forever make me think of this trip (Come With Me Now by Kongos, Pompeii by Bastille, Sail by Awolnation, Best Day of My Life by American Authors) . As we pulled into the train station we saw the Duomo and that got us both excited, but especially Rusty. He has studied Florence a lot, and especially the Duomo, so this has been a highlight for him while planning the trip. It was so fun to watch him get so excited when he actually saw it! On our walk back from the train station we walked right past it because we are staying about five minutes away. We looked at it for a little but really wanted to put our packs down so we didn't stay very long. Our apartment in Florence is really, really close to the Duomo and downtown which is awesome! We got to the apartment and buzzed the door and were met by an old Italian man who just started speaking Italian. We knew that the guy who we booked with was having his parents meet us, so we just made sure it was the right guy. He took my bag and carried it up the stairs and then we had our funniest check in yet. Everything was explained in Italian and funny old people made it a real treat. :) It is really awesome because it is our first full out apartment all to ourselves. It has a little kitchen and everything. They also left us a little candy bar that we had never seen before, and it instantly became a favorite! It's like a carmel Kit Kat called a Bueno Bar. Delicious. And as I'm writing this tonight, we also have really loud, old Italian neighbors who love to watch TV and listen to music so loud that I got a headache haha. Dang Italians.

Anyways, we did all our check in stuff and then headed out to the piazza to hang around the Duomo. It looks nothing like I expected! That's the honest truth. The dome does, and the little cathedral top, but the actually façades do not at all. They are white, green, and pink marble! It is more ornate and unique looking than any other cathedral or building I have ever seen. It's crazy! And I had no idea, which is kind of embarrassing. I'm hoping it's just really different in person. We walked around and then went inside which was really cool!

Then we went to the Uffizi Gallery. It's right by the Arno River and is the coolest building set up I've seen. It's shaped like a U on the outside with statues lining the walls and a little courtyard in between where painters and street performers are. The top floor were offices (uffizi in Italian) of the Medici, but now they house the best Florentine paintings in the world.The courtyard outside has great pieces to look at as well, which are famous figures of the Renaissance. We had reservations so we got to skip three huge line but still it was a mess to get in! There were so many people and they took forever to let you in after all the checks you had to do. We saw a lot of really wonderful paintings and sculptures. Some of my favorites were The Birth of Venus and Allegory of Spring by Botticelli, Lacöön, Venus de Medici statue, the Adoration of the Child by Titian, and Madonna with the Long Neck by Parmigianino. Some of Rusty's favorites were Venus of Urbino by Titian, Judith and the Head of Holofernes by Caravaggio, Annunciation by da Vinci, and Michelangelo's The Holy Family. He learned about these a lot in his history classes, so it was really cool for him to see so many of them. We listened to an audio guide while we walked through for most of the paintings which was very interesting and provided a lot of information! After the museum we walked through the city center and grabbed some dinner from a quick place and then headed back home for the night. 

  

Uffizi Gallery

 Ponte Vecchio

Saturday, May 17

Today was another wonderful day here in Florence! I have to say that I am really loving it here. There are a lot of pedestrian only streets that really make it feel like it's a lot smaller than it really is, which I love. We started the day off strong by getting two delicious pastries from a little bakery close to our house, much like the ones in Corniglia. They even had fresh squeezed orange juice from blood oranges! Is it an Italian thing?? I don't know but I love it. The bakery was cute and little, and it is such a funny thing where they have you pay extra money if you want to sit down and eat. Then we walked to the Academia Gallery, trying to get there before the massive amounts of people. It is just so nice to get to walk around these fabulous cities and see what it is like. Florence is full of art and music, and people seem to really love life and the beauty that there is in it. I love walking around this city.

We got to the gallery and waited in line for just a little while before making it in. We walked through the hall of prisoners, Michelangelo's works that were not completed. He believed that there were figures trapped inside the marble and he simply set them free, so these partially completed works are called prisoners. I was really excited to see these and it did not disappoint at all. But seriously, can I just say how great it was to see David? Oh. My. Gosh. Seriously, it is breath taking and awe inspiring. I just stared at it forever and could not get enough of it. It is amazing how it can look so life-like. The veins in his hands, his furrowed brows, his gaze... everything. I really felt like there was a larger than life David standing in front of me. One of my favorite things was that from one side his face seemed to say, "I got this. No problem." which is inspiring because it shows so much faith in God. If you move to the other side, his face shows a lot more fear and vulnerability, which is interesting because it shows it was difficult for him and scary. I just love this statue. Okay, enough gushing about that statue. But really, it was fabulous. We also saw some really cool, old musical instruments, a few beautiful Botticelli paintings, and the Rape of Sabines statue. There was also a room full of plaster moldings that were final projects of some local art students. That was cool to see!

Pictures weren't allowed here so I took some from the internet!

The hall of prisoners

After we saw the Academia we went over to the Bargello Museum. I know that it sounds like a lot of museums, but really the Academia is small and doesn't have many pieces. The Bargello is a really cool old building, which was an old fortified tower and castle. It's the oldest public building in Florence, which is really saying something! Later it became a prison which made walking around to see the art pieces a little more interesting :) There are so many really cool pieces there! We saw Donatello's David, St. George, and the busts of Michelangelo and Brutus. One of my favorite pieces was Mercury's Flight. It was amazing to me how it could be balanced like that, and it looked so unique. We also saw the bronze entries for the contest for the doors of the Duomo made by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum, but I kept seeing other people take some and the guards weren't doing anything so I snuck a few in. :)

The outside of the fortress/museum

The inner courtyard

Ghiberti's door contest submission

Brunelleschi's contest submission

Donatello's David

Mercury's Flight

Then we walked across the city and made our way to the Mercato Central, which is just a big indoor marketplace. There were all kinds of crazy things in there, including a million parts of a cow that I never wanted to see or eat, meat and cheeses that stunk really bad, and basically the whole bottom floor smelled like animal blood and it was hot and I just got nauseous. Gross. It reminded me of the Burough Market in London, only it was really bloody and stinky. The top floor had lots of different restaurants and some booths that sold a lot of different types of pasta, but there was no way that I was going to eat there. The pasta was cool though! All different shapes and colors, and there was even a rainbow swirl one!

Lots of pasta!

Upstairs

We left the gross market of death to eat at a sidewalk cafe that was clean and delicious. :) I got delicious ravioli that had a black truffle sauce, and it was definitely the best ravioli in Italy so far. Rusty ordered spaghetti with bacon that was spicy. Bacon in Europe is different and means something different than to Americans, and this was really like little pieces of minced ham. I didn't love his and he didn't love mine, but we both loved our own! We also got bruschetta as an appetizer! I had really been wanting to try that while we were in Italy and it was delicious. Definitely a good choice.

After lunch we got some gelato and walked along the city, crossing the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) into the Oltrarno neighborhood, the oldest part of Florence. The Ponte Vecchio is really interesting because it is lined with little shops that used to be houses/shops for the merchants- mainly butchers and tanners because they could just conveniently drop the leftovers into the river. Yum. Then the Medici family (an extremely wealthy family) decided that they wanted a safe route from their palace to their work so they kicked everyone out of their homes and put a secret passage way across the bridge. It was originally built in 996, and has been rebuilt a few times. The last time that it was rebuilt was 1345. In WWII the Germans came into Italy for their retreat and destroyed every single bridge in Florence, except for this one. Anyways, we walked across the bridge and saw some cool views of the Arno River and then made our way over to the Pitti Palace (which now is a lot of museums inside but it's just a cool building). It is really weird because there is a really big asphalt area that people were laying on like it was a grass park. Odd. We enjoyed seeing that and walking around the old neighborhood, but I started feeling sick so we went back to the apartment for a nap.

The gelato here is insane! They stack it up so high

and make it so beautiful with adornments... and 

it's DELICIOUS! Best gelato in Italy!

Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

The neighborhood had a lot of little side streets

The Pitti Palace

After the nap we went out and walked through the city listening to an audio guide about the Renaissance and Florence that described a lot of different places while we walked. We started out in the Piazza della Signoria, a political center of Florence. One of the places was a really cool alcove area that used to be used as a platform for people to debate politics but later it became an art gallery for the Medici family. This family, I swear, just got whatever they wanted. It is still used to hold the art and it is really cool.

Rape of the Sabines

Perseus decapitating Medusa

Right next to this outdoors art gallery is the Vecchio Palace (later Medici Palace), which is city hall. Florence was all about democracy and humanism, so this palace, debate area, and square have a lot of history. It has a replicated statue of the David out front where the original once stood until it was moved after it was damaged in a riot and his arm fell off. They put a copy out front and moved the original inside for protection. You can walk inside the building and see the courtyard which is just beautiful.

Vecchio Palace

David

Courtyard- First free and public art showcase in Florence

There is a cool fountain with Neptune in the square too, and a marker in the square that shows the site of a monk's death. He preached about the horrible nature of the man centered Renaissance and held a giant bonfire where he and his followers burned a bunch of "vanities" like instruments, wigs, books, and art. The Pope was not very happy about this and had him and two other monks burned them  in this Square. This marker was placed there to commemorate the year that this happened.

We left the square and wandered over to a really old church with cool statues on the outside. It's the  Orsanmichele Church. It was originally a porch/grainery where people could come to shop for their grain and worship. Then the arches were all filled in and it became only a church. Over time, the niches on the outside were filled with statues to adorn the church.

                                                   

Orsanmichele Church

St. George by Donatello

The four Saints

Underneath is a symbol of the guild that paid for the statues

We decided to walk back over the Ponte Vecchio and sat on the edge while we watch the sun set on the river and listened to street musicians. Holding hands with my hubby was romantic and wonderful. :) We walked back through the city and sat at the Piazza della Republica and ate some gelato while we watched the carousel and the people everywhere. People are out really late in Europe because they don't even eat dinner until a lot later. The restaurants were getting busy and people were walking everywhere. Then we walked back to our apartment for the night.

View of another bridge from the Ponte Vecchio

  

Piazza della Republica earlier in the day

Sunday, May 18

The apartment in Florence had a weird shower in the bathroom. It wasn't separated off, it was just the whole bathroom with a faucet on a wall. Anyways, it really freaked me out so I didn't shower in it yesterday when Rusty did. But, I had no choice and I had to today haha. It really wasn't bad, and I guess it is actually a pretty common thing because the apartments are so small there. Anyways, we went to the Medici Chapel this morning which was really interesting. This was actually one of my favorite stops in Florence, and actually on our whole trip, even though it is incredibly underrated and nobody ever goes there.

The side of the Medici Chapel/San Lorenzo church

It has a mini duomo

In the end, the Medici were human and died. They were buried in their own church, with the room in the top level being designed entirely by Michelangelo, even the architecture. There is a dome in the middle of the ceiling that is designed to look like it gets lighter and thinner as it moves to the top, making you feel like you could float up to heaven. The bottom of the room is dark and continually gets lighter as it moves to the top, symbolizing leaving the dark world behind to go to a brighter heaven.
                                 

                                              

Michelangelo personally knew three of the four Medici who were buried in this chapel and whose tombs he was creating. Many people think that Michelangelo contemplated the fact that his friends were dying and he was already middle aged, thinking about his life and what he had made of it. His mother also passed away during this time which caused a lot more contemplation of death and life on his part as well. Lorenzo II's sarcophogus sits below a statue of himself (leaning on a money box) and two statues that symbolize birth and death, called Dawn and Dusk. I love all of these statues, but I truly love Dawn and Dusk. Dusk looks worn and tired, trying to stay awake and alert but slowly giving in and slouching down into a slumber. Dawn looks peaceful and well rested as she twists her body as if stretching for the day. It is remarkable how much these metaphors come to life as you look at these sculptures. Absolutely incredible. I am amazed at Michelangelo's abilities to transform this marble into something so magical that it speaks to you!

                                      

Another man, Juliano, has his sarcophogus underneath a statue of him and metaphorical statues of Night and Day, which shows the passing of time. Day looks almost unfinished, which some believe shows the wasted and uncomplete life of the Medici and their lust after money. Madonna is the fourth statue in the room, and all three of the Medici men are looking towards her to symbolize asking for forgiveness. The main themes of this room are that times kills mortality, mocking worldly glory, and looking toward Christ to give you forgiveness and rising toward heaven.

                                       

On one of the sides in the room they have found and preserved some of the scribbled plans and drawings of Michelangelo and the people working on his crew. There are even some games and goofing around drawing things in silly ways. It was so cool to see that part of it, not so serious.

We needed some more cash so we decided to walk back to the train station to use an ATM. We remembered seeing one there and thought it was a sure bet. On our way we stopped at a little store and got a sandwich, a weird pastry, some fruit, and a lobster tail-those cream filled pastries! I had been wanting to try one of those too, and it was really tasty. We saw a little market and looked at the seeds they were selling and found the big beans that Cristiana showed us in Cornigilia in her garden. It's fun to see what they grow! Well, we got to the train station and the ATM wouldn't work so we decided to walk back to the city and look for an ATM along the way. We did find one and pulled the cash out there even though the charge was really high. We went to the Duomo Museum but it was closed, which was something that we forgot to account for when we decided to change our schedule around. That was a bummer because I wanted to see La Pieta, but it wasn't a super big heartbreak for me. There was a really major soccer game that night, so there were giant crowds of people wearing jerseys and singing and chanting.

The crazies

In part to escape the crowds, we took the afternoon to visit the baptistery and go inside the Duomo Cathedral. We didn't go inside the Baptistery but we looked at the outside and saw the Gates of Paradise. Being inside the Duomo was awesome. It was finally being able to do something that we had dreamed of for a really long time, especially Rusty because of all of the things he studied about it.

So excited to finally be inside the Duomo!

That night we took a super long walk across the Arno River and up a big hill to Michelangelo Square. The views were incredible of Florence and the Duomo. I LOVED being up there! On the other side of the square there were great views of the countryside, and I decided that if I got to live in Europe it would definitely be in the country right outside of Florence. Or a million other places, but who cares? :)

Vecchio Palace and the Ponte Vecchio

The Duomo

Up at the square there is a really old church that does Gregorian chants every night. We went to the church and got to listen to the chanting and see all of the artwork inside. It's crazy that there are all of these incredibly old, beautiful buildings here. It was really cool to hear them chanting like that in a building where that has been going on for hundreds of years. It took me to a different time and place.

We walked back to our apartment and passed the Duomo again, knowing that this was our last night in Florence. Both Rusty and I felt really good about our time in Florence and like we accomplished everything we wanted to and were relaxed and not really stressed about fitting everything in. We really loved Florence!

Monday, May 19

Wahoo! Today is our Anniversary! I woke up in Florence, Italy to Rusty saying nice, sweet things to me about our marriage and the past three years. I know it's really mushy, but seriously the years I have spent with Rusty by my side are infinitely better than all of the years without him. I am so excited for what is to come with him and when we get to start a family. Anyways, we had a train to catch mid-morning so we packed up and headed out. On our way we decided to stop by Santa Croce Square, which was literally just down the block from our apartment but we never saw it. It was beautiful! There are so many beautiful churches here.

Rusty really wanted a wallet made from the Florentine leather, so we found one on the way and got it thanks to Rusty's great bartering skills! I started to feel really sick and like I was getting a cold so we grabbed an orange for me too before getting on the train, which was obviously late because we are in Italy. :) A great start to our anniversary! We were excited to make our way over to Rome to explore.