We began our day with room service breakfast in our cabin at 6:00 sharp. We met up with our group and then found our driver for the day, Michaela, from Livorno. Our group consisted of 7 persons -a another happy Aussie family, Andrew and Melissa with their 10 year old son, Aaron, along with Willian and Kathy from Columbia, SC!
As we left for Pisa, Michaela warned us the people from Livorno and Pisa have been enemies (rivals) many years. this is mainly borne out in their sports teams today, but stems from the rivalry between the 2 towns that were historically competitors as port cities. Pisa used to predominate, but over the years the ocean shifted away from Pisa and it became landlocked, allowing Livorno to become the primary port in that area of Italy. The drive to Pisa took 30 minutes and we arrived at a small town. All the pictures we had seen of Pisa led us to believe that the tower was out in the middle of nowhere, but is actually in the center of the small town. Pisa is a small, quaint village, but of course, the main attraction in Pisa is the tower with its famous “lean”. The tower is in the Piazza dei Miracle which holds the cathedral, the tower (or campanile), the baptistry and the camposanto. It was unusual in those times for the tower to be so far separated from the church structure. Construction was begun in 1173, but not completed until 1399. Soon after construction it began to lean due to its height of 60 meters and the extremely sandy, marshy soil underlying the foundation. Over the years there has been much engineering poured into maintaining the integrity of the structure and it apparently is now stable at 4 degrees of lean. Interestingly, the baptistry is the largest in Italy and it was the place where Galileo (from Tuscany) was baptized.
Baptistry
Then we drove through the countryside of the Tuscany region on our way to Florence. We passed the village of Vinci where Leoonardo was born. We also saw in the distance a small hill with a tower where the village of Santa Miniato is located. It is one of the older villages in the region and is well known for its truffles, especially the highly sought after, and very expensive, white truffles. We learned that they used to use pigs to find the truffles (buried shallowly in the soil) in the woods, but the pigs love them too much that they would eat many of them before they could be harvested. They now have trained dogs to sniff out the white truffles; this apparently works out better since the dogs don’t like to eat truffles. The Chinese trying to to cultivate the white truffles commercially in the area but so far have been unable to reproduce them. Tuscany is know for its wine and olive oil and we passed fields of vineyards and olive trees, as well as cypress and umbrella pines. We also saw many fields of wheat and sunflowers. We even saw then combining wheat despite the fact that the land looked parched due to recent draught conditions! it is very dry and very hot here!
Our first stop in Florence was Michelangelo Square, a point high above the city where we could see ta panoramic view of the city. It reminded us of Venice without the canals.
Duomo
Basilica Santa Croce
Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River
Tower of Ancient City Wall
We then traveled into the city center and had lunch -a caprese salad and tortellini – at a restaurant called Nuti. After lunch we walked around the leather district – Florence is world renowned for their leather products. Next, after having gelato for dessert, we began a walking tour of the city in the hot, humid afternoon. First stop was the Galleria Accademia where we viewed several unfinished pieces by Michelangelo and finally the famous masterpiece “David”. Standing 17 feet tall and weighing 5-6 tons, it was one of the first works that depicted ta very lifelike human form, impressive in its fine details and intricacies. It was created from a slab of Carara marble, mined in the Italian hills, that had been rejected by 2 previous sculptors. Along with Leonardo di Vinci he studied human cadavers from a local church mortuary to better understand the human body. He began the sculpture at the age of 25 and took 4 years to complete. When asked how he produced such a masterpiece, he stated that David was in the marble, he just chipped away anything that wasn’t David. Giorgio Vasari said “…nor has there ever been seen a pose so fluent, or gracefulness equal to this, or feet, hands, and head so well related to each other with quality, skill, and design.” We also learned some interesting facts about this man: he was a poet, sculptor, painter, and architect. He lived well into his 80’s! He lived like a pauper but had millions. And he was known to be a small grumpy man.
We next visited the centerpiece of the city -the Santa Maria Del Fiore (St. Mary of the Flower) Duomo. It is the fourth largest church in the world. Construction began in 1296 but the entire structure was not completed until 1436 – no one could find a way to engineer the dome covering until then. The dome is thought to be the most impressive structures of the Renaissance. The complex consists of the cathedral, the tower, and the baptistry. Externally, the church is very ornate, covered with red, white, and green marble. The interior is somewhat plain compared to other churches of more recent eras. I never cease to be impressed with the size and detail of these churches!
The Cathedral and Baptistry of the Duomo
Scenes from the Piazza dela Repubblica
We most definitely did not have the time we needed to adequately explore this city. We did not get to see the Basilica Santa Croce where Michelangelo is buried or Santa Lorenzo where the Medici Family is buried. Our guide was very knowledgeable in the arts, history, and culture, But, sad to say, not in the Bible or the way to God. Listening to her reminded me that so many believe that they must be “good enough” to make it to “somewhere good”. Makes my heart sad. She is correct… we must be good enough, but by God’s standard no one is, or can be, good enough. But there is good news – God has done it all, because He loves us and sent us Jesus. THE WAY is clear. Jesus paid the debt and we don’t have to worry or even try, but just believe in the finished work of Jesus.
We left the city and drove the 1 1/2 hours back to the ship, had dinner, and went to the show – Four Tenors from the UK, singing classic rock. Different.
Worked on this blog but unable to post due to lack of internet connection at sea. It’s a tough life.
Buona notte