Lucca/Pisa/Firenze/Siena

Friends!! Yeah, we had friends come and visit us for a week. We initially stayed in Lucca, which is a quaint town within an old walled off, moat and all, city. There are small but pretty plazas and they awesomely used the old wall to create a walking/biking path. Definitely could’ve spent another day or two.

Stopped off at Pisa on our way down to Florence. Glad we only swung through as a stopover since I don’t think much time is needed. The plaza hosting the famous Bell Tower is gorgeous and is adjacent to a couple of other spectacularly beautiful churches (so many churches, think I am getting churched out:). There was a swarm of tourists all identically putting out their hand as if they are holding up the leaning tower. Despite this, the plaza really is beautiful.

The Florence Cathedral of St Mary of the Flower is the main draw. Construction started back in 1296 and was not completed until 1436. Always amazes me that these types of structures get built even though they consistently take over a century. I think of all the changes and tumult that must have happened during the course of 140 years, yet they persisted. Really impressive.

The plaza itself is quite gorgeous and the style of church has a different facade than others making it notable. It is also the largest dome in the world, apparently there is some dispute between Florence and Rome over this undoubtedly with each side claiming its right to the record.

We visited the Accademia museum where “The David” is held. To be honest I was underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, the sculpture is beautiful and impressive but don’t think the museum did a good job of telling its origin story, history, anything about Michelangelo… It was really just about going in and seeing the sculpture. Maybe museums need to start a Find Penguin account and get a little more into storytelling:)

We also spent a day in Siena. Siena stretches across the Tuscan Hills and one can easily stay in shape simply by living and walking these hills each day. There is a beautiful central plaza that is used like a city park. Everyone seemingly gathers here and sprawls out to eat, drink, chat, people watch and watch the world go by.

Came across a statue of a dire wolf suckling two newborn human babies. This relates to the mythological founding of Rome. Romulus and Remus were born and castigated to the river to be killed because the king feared that they would one day rise up and overthrow him, they did.

The river god Tiberinus saves the children and carries them down the river to be saved by their mother Rhea. So much overlap with the Greek and Roman mythology, Rhea is in Greek mythology is also the mother of the Olympians, including Zeus.

To long of a story to tell but their mother who was killed but made a deal with the gods to come back as a dire wolf saves her two children and initially suckles them in a hidden cave (Zeus also had to be whisked away to a cave by his mother Rhea to hide him from Cronos who feared he would overthrow him, he did). For the record the Greek mythology was written first:). Anywho, these dire wolf statues are everywhere.

Unfortunately our friends are on their way home and we are heading to the UK to get out of Schengen for a couple of weeks. We will see and stay with our friend Nina and then hike the southwest coast path for 5 days!!Leggi altro