Nine o'clock and Gigi is leading us
through the streets of Florence-must learn to call it Firence as the Italians
do-to meet our tour leader Violette, in Piazza Della Signaria. As we wait for
her, the street merchants gather around and a few can't resist a pretty scarf
and a bargain?!
 |
| Works of art in Florence |
 |
| Looking around in Florence |
 |
| The Basilica of Florence by Day |
 |
| In the shadows near the Basilica of Florence |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Violette is a good tour guide-with
much information to share-and best of all, she's wearing a microphone. This
makes such a difference. I wish that they would all do it. We saw a copy of
Michelangelo's David, which stands where the original once stood. Now it is in
a museum out of the pollution, etc. The bell towers are beautiful and the
marble cathedral in the Piazza is marvelous. The three shades of marble (white
green and pink) are so distinctive. The line is too long to wait to go inside
to see the interior so we head off to see the Chiesa di Santa Croce which is
the burial spot of Michelangelo and Galileo.
Before we know it, it's 11:00 and
Gigi is leading us off to the Leonardo leather factory. We have a good
orientation as to how to tell real leather, how they make the jewelry boxes,
etc. and then we are turned loose in the sales room. Brien and Ali have still
not met up with us, so we head to one of Gigi's favorite pizza places for a
slice of pizza for our lunch.
We go to our bus and get on at 1:30
for our journey to Sienna. On the way out of town, we stop at Piazza
Michelangelo to have a group picture taken. This is a lovely spot high on a
hill overlooking the entire city of Florence. Our ride to Sienna in the
beautiful country was complete with rolling hills, vineyards, sunflowers, and
an occasional settlement including a church tower. Again we have quite a view
from our bus to the center of Sienna where we meet our guide. After she figures
out how much time she has with us, we decided to meet back in the Piazza del
Campo at 5:00. The kids are being really good about all the walking.
We see the wonderful duomo which
looks like the one we saw this morning in Florence. The influence of the north
with the painted gothic windows and the marble stripes going around are
borrowed from the southern moorish influences. We go into a building which is
being restored. It was formerly an orphanage, youth hostel, and hospital. Here
we learn a great deal of history. Sienna was an the path of the pilgrims going
to Jerusalem and than back north again. Sienna was started earlier than
Florence. It is a city of a great deal of wealth (a large banking center) but
much of it is kept under cover so that we cannot see it.
 |
| The view near Sienna |
 |
| Seeing the sites in Sienna (Mike Cahoon and Adam Tarrant) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Piazza del Campo is very
interesting as it is a large circle which slopes downward, as in an
amphitheater. This is where they have a famous horse race. The streets of
Sienna are narrow and slope upwards or down. We get off the bus along the river
and walk along the bridge towards the Ponte de Vacchio as we head to supper.
Another Italian meal as we begin with pasta.
I asked Joy Smith to write this for
me (thanks Joy!), as she participated in a lot of the group activities I
missed. I had taken Ali to find Western Union to get money and found out that
they had left us. The guide who was taken us around town had forgotten about
us!
We looked around for the group, but
did not find them. We ate lunch at the "Republic Square" and decided
to go back to the hotel. Gigi left a message and we called his cell phone. We
arranged a rendez-vous point for supper.
The four students who decided not to
go to Sienna came back to the hotel also decided not to go around town. We
spent time resting and reading. We left for the rendez-vous point early enough
to do some shopping. We met our group and proceeded to have a turkey dinner at
our restaurant.
After going back to the hotel, we
decided to go out at 10:00 to see Florence at night. We walked the streets and
saw some excitement. The highlights were a concert by a duo that sung Simon and
Garfunkel songs as well as John Lennon. I had hoped to see street performers as
I had seen earlier. A funny one was Mona Lisa. We went back to the hotel
without incident and went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment