France & Italy May/June 2007-Page 7

Mon, May 28: Pisa, Italy
Slow but early start as D wakes up at 5:30. I finally give him a bottle around 6 and he goes back to sleep. I have a good but tough run - too hilly, too tired, too remote. Still, it's beautiful scenery at least and I'm glad to get my workout in. We go to Pisa. Very cool to see the Tower for real. Beautiful baptistery, yummy gelato, pizza in a restaurant, lovely church/duomo. More rain but we escape most of it with our newly purchased rain ponchos from the big modern mall outside of Pisa. We get enough sun too fortunately. 

Things start out a bit cold!

The tower! It really is quite a sight. People in front of us were snapping the standard picture that looks like you are holding up the Tower. W refused to allow us to do that ;-).

The Camposanto has been called the most beautiful cemetery in the world. It's a large rectangular open air structure with stunning frescos on the walls and fascinating tombs.

 

The Duomo. All the churches/duomos in the various cities are truly amazing. Gothic walls, amazing sculptures and artwork.

I 'lights' an electric candle in the Duomo.

Finally it is revealed what we used the foot/booty wash for in the bathroom of the Little House! I guess it's actually BOTH a butt and foot wash afterall.

Tue, May 29: Florence, Italy
As promised in the guidebooks, driving and parking in Florence is a nightmare. The city itself is crowded and a bit dirty but the historic sites and art is so amazing that it doesn't matter so much. Once you finally get to the city, it's very walkable. Intermittent rain as well but overall we have a nice day. Next door to the Piazza is the Uffizi, an art gallery not to be missed. Of course we ended up missing it. The line to get in was two hours long! The line to pick up reserved tickets actually looked almost as long. I hated to miss this but it wasn't to be. There's a lot to see here and whatever you get to see is incredible. We still saw plenty including the Duomo, Baptistery, Piazza della Signoria,  and the Cappelle Medicee. The last place is a chapel for the very influential Medici family which includes tombs done by Michelangelo. 
 

Leaving the Little House to head to Florence.

Piazza del Duomo. So many amazing places to see that we had to be choosy because of the kids. The Duomo really takes over the area with its impressive stature and incredible architecture.

  

The incredible east doors of the Baptistery. The artist, Ghiberti, took 27 years to work on the doors and they have been called the 'Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo.

 

 

Inside (I think) the Baptistery.

Piazza della Signoria. A square with fantastic (albeit often copies) sculptures.

 

Michelangelo's David in the Piazza della Signoria. The original is now inside the Accademia in Florence.

D enjoys a breadstick while W enjoys a break from lugging D around and has some of the 'world's best gelato'.

Vivoli has been named to have the world's best ice cream. It was good but I wouldn't say it's the best. Of course I had to sample plenty other gelatos in Italy to try and make sure :-). So far the best ice cream is probably from a place that we found in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

I sitting outside the Little House.

Our delicious home made minestrone soup.