We left Florence with a lot of ground to make up today since skipping the Chianti wineries. I did want to stop by at least one winery though…so we chose one in Montepulciano since that was a local region close to the interstate we would be travelling on.  The drive to the top of the hill was amazing. It even made the walk straight up the side bearable. Ha 

    
    
 
The winery we went to had a real wine cellar that the old lady unlocked for us to see. We were her first customers of the day since it was only 10:30am. 

   
    
 
She even gave me a proper tasting with a great cheese to compliment. I bought one of the bottles I tasted and as my “souvenir” of the trip- I splurged and bought a 14 year old bottle of Nobile de Montepulciano that had a half inch of dust on it. I’m excited.  

After leaving, we stopped for espresso at a cafe in a tiny town. We picked up an admirer.  
A guy in the coffee shop asked where I was from and if I was enjoying Italy. I said, “Of course, but I really need to learn more Italian” having just fought to tell the lady in the winery that I wanted to BUY the old bottle of wine, not just taste it… He said, “It’s ok, we Italians are pretty good with our English” True. And a very good thing! 
We were back on the road. Norah took a nap for the two hour drive as we backtracked to Rome on our way to Tivoli to see Hadrian’s Villa. The Emporer Hadrian had this giant place built around 120AD because he didn’t really like his palace in Rome. When it was finished, he moved out here, a good 20 miles from Rome and ruled from here for the rest of his life. After him, other emporers came here, too: Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus…it was in use until the fall of Rome in the 400s, it was used by armies in the 500s during the Byzantine wars… Even though it was already in ruins, some jerk Cardinal swiped a lot of the statues and marble for his own estate in the 1500s.

    
    

Domed ceiling of the grand baths. They even had the hole in the center of the dome for steam to escape, much like the Pantheon that was also constructed by Hadrian.
You can even see in the bottom of the photo some exposed entry into the underground tunnels. The slaves and workers were to move about beneath the ground as not to obstruct the serenity and view of the emporer. They are still excavating these underground tunnels.   

Remnants of some herringbone pattern floors maybe? Or maybe from the 1950s…I’m not really sure. Haha
  
The Fish pond outside of the Winter Palace.

The Canopus
   
    
    
    
 

After the Villa we are at the restaurant nearby. Probably the best and definitely the fanciest meal I’ve had so far in Italy

Homemade Spaghetti with Pumpkin 
 

Panchetta with Spinach and Apples
  Fettuccine with Mushrooms

  Pear and Gorgonzola Salad

We continued on to our hotel for the night in Santa Maria Capua Vetere- a small little town that just happens to have a little trick up its sleeve- it’s where the old Roman amphitheater is that Sparticus fought in! And this was our view from the front porch.  
There was a front garden with orange trees and the guy had picked some oranges for us already on the table.    
 

More on the Sparticus Amphitheater tomorrow. We also will be on our way to Pompeii and ending on the Amalfi Coast. 

This was our “extra” day in the middle of the vacation. We had initially planned a wine tasting tour through Chianti and ending in the middle of nowhere midway between Florence and Naples, but the lady cancelled our reservation a couple days before our arrival and pretty much every place in Italy is a giant wine tasting so we asked if we could book a third night in the amazing apartment in Florence. She confirmed it was available, so we had a whole day in Florence that we didn’t plan for. Unscripted vacation? What is that?? I was not okay with this. Haha

We started our morning late. I finally got some sleep! I did manage to win the parent of the year award this morning though… Norah got into a “candy”on the table… A booze soaked chocolate covered cherry of Kegan’s… She definitely felt the effects of that one for a couple of hours…. Haha

We didn’t get started until almost 11am so we stopped for espresso and sandwiches 

Funny face time.  Still feeling the effects of her chocolate cherry cocktail 
We basically have Italy to ourselves most places we go. Which is a good thing…because I don’t know if I could deal otherwise. Ha

Our big event of the day was Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens.

Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace) is now a museum owned by the city of Florence but has a pretty rich history. It gets its name because Lucca Pitti, a very wealthy Florentine banker, had it built in the 1500s. It is said he wanted it built bigger and better than the Medici palace of the time.     

 
After the death of Cosimo the Elder, and a failed coup he staged to try to steal power , he fell on hard financial times. No one wanted to do business with a man like that…and his heirs were forced to sell the palace after his death…in a cruel twist of fate, to the wife of Cosimo I Medici who then added on to the palace to make it much more fit for his presence… Adding a majority of the current palace and some standard Medici flair.  

An Italian grotto with sculpture, frescoes ceiling and fountain
      

 
We toured the Boboli Gardens first 

  The Amphitheater was modeled off of the Roman amphitheaters with an oblong shape and bench stadium seating. It is said that the first opera was performed here. When Fernidando di Medici married Christine of Lorraine, they had the idea to take a classic story and set it to music and sing the whole thing for the wedding guests, thus…opera.
 There is also a very very old Egyptian obelisk of Ramses II that I’m sure no one who owned this place had any business being in possession of. Ha   
     
    
    
As you can tell, these gardens are huge. We missed some pretty big things just because we didn’t cover all the grounds. 

    
 Oh, and remember that dwarf from yesterday’s painting? Some say this is him as well. However, I think it’s another dwarf-the face is different. Yep. It’s a naked dwarf riding a turtle. Art is weird. 

  
Next we toured the Art Gallery which also extended into the Royal Apartments.

Quick history: built by Lucca Pitti, purchased by Elenor of Toledo- the wife of Cosimo I, then passed down through the Medici until they died out, then passed to the new Dukes of Tuscany- the Lorraines, then to the Savoy’s and briefly was the home of Elisa Bonaparte when Napoleon controlled the area. Lastly, it was the home of King Victor Emmanuel II when Florence was briefly the Capitol of a unified Italy. He then gifted it to the city of Florence- with all of its contents- making it the city’s largest museum and collection.

Everything is decorated basically as it was left in the early 1900s, giving it a very heavy French feel.   
    
   

  
The rest of our day was fairly boring, we backtracked through the city again, seeing the same places again as we looked for a cell phone store. We bought an “unlimited” wifi device with our rental car that I thought was an amazing deal… Yeah well… It quit working 3 days in and we had no internet. Turns out, it had a limit. Haha they underestimated my use of internet! 
Kegan found a meat and cheese shop downstairs and made us a dinner in the apartment complete with a nice bottle of wine.

 Tomorrow is a lot of driving while we make up for the distance we lost by not doing wine in Chianti today and making it towards Naples and the Amalfi coast. 

Sorry for the delay of this post but there is just so much to type and I’ve been busy actually doing more today and slept like a log last night which cut into my usual hour or two of blog time. Ha

We started our day super early (for us, anyway) by hoofing it across the city to the Galleria dell’Accademia. The online sites make you believe you need advanced and “skip the lines” tickets to make sure you don’t waste your vacation waiting to get into these museums. Well, maybe you do in Summer…but in November, you’ll be one of 3 people waiting at the entrance at 8am, having paid $30 more for the same tickets and skipped breakfast just to be sure you weren’t late… But I’m not bitter. Haha

Michaelangelo’s David was awesome. I see what all the fuss is about. He’s like 15 feet tall, the elegance and easiness of his body positioning, the detail…. You can see veins running along his arms, tendons visible like they are showing through real skin… It really is worth all the hoopla unlike so many touristy things that people tell you that you have to see.  
  
    

I love the fact that this major work of art basically happened because Michaelangelo asked some church if he could have an old piece of marble that was laying behind their church. Sort of like if we asked some factory today if we could have some of their old pallets…but then we built a house out of them. Lol 

Behind the statue of David was a cool little room. It housed all of the plaster molds of famous works of sculpture that Lorenzo Bartolini used to teach students. He was a great sculptor himself who Napoleon discovered and brought to France…eventually he came to Florence, but he never quite made a name for himself with as many commissions as he would have liked, his style of sculpture just wasn’t “in style” at the time.

Outside of the teaching molds stands this plaster model of The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna. Art is subjective, but in my opinion- this is one of the top 3 sculptures in the world. The model is amazing in itself…until you see the real one in marble…  What makes this interesting to me is not the detail alone, but the subject matter. When Giambologna finished the sculpture, it still didn’t have a name, one of his fellow sculptors suggested the title as it was fitting to the scene. Also, in a time of such religious and Christian themed art, this work was only to display mannerisms, human form and to basically create something different. This sculpture has a 360 degree viewing angle and the feel of the sculpture changes as you move around it, whereas almost every other sculpture to this point had been carved with one particular viewing point giving the most complete view of the work.   
After we left the Galleria we began backtracking through the city and found ourselves at the Duomo. This building is so big…. Even my wide angle lens could only get pieces. It took over 140 years to build this! They started in the late 1290s and didn’t finish until 1436    
    

The story of the dome has such a great story to me…it makes me laugh because hating your coworkers hasn’t changed in over 700 years. Ha    

Prior to the dome, in 1401, Florence had held a contest and the winner would be commissioned to complete the great Bronze doors of the Baptistry. Donatello was among the artists who entered, but the two finalists were Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi. The sponsors determined it was a tie and couldn’t decide so they gave the job to both artists to complete together. But….Brunelleschi was an egotistic jerk and would not stand for this…. So he quickly decided he was needed in Rome and left for the city to study architecture and Roman history. This would actually prove to be a great thing later in his life because without the mechanics and building knowledge he learned in Rome, he never would have been able to complete the Dome. Life has a way of working out. 

Ghiberti finished the bronze doors in a short 20 years. He was only 23 years old when he started. Fast forward and the doors were up. Ghiberti began working on a second set of doors. These doors were were so amazing that they replaced his original doors (which were moved to the north side of the building). Michaelangelo said that these new doors were fit to be “the gates of paradise”…and thus they were known. 

So this brings us back to the dome. In 1418, another contest was held in Florence for who would be the lead architect. In the end, having learned their lesson on ties, Brunelleschi “won”-but Ghiberti was appointed co-leader and paid the same wage as Brunelleschi and was promised equal credit in the completion. This didn’t fly with Brunelleschi…so he basically faked illness for months so that Ghiberti would have to focus solely on the dome and make engineering decisions and be forced to admit that he couldn’t do it. Once this happened, Brunelleschi magically was cured and began leading the project again. We call this phenomenon “McKinney-ism” in our house. Haha in fact when I told Kegan this story his response was “that’s awesome…good for that guy!” Haha I rest my case.

The Dome really is an amazing feat of engineering. Over 4 million bricks were used in the construction. Pulley systems were invented and patented for this job. Bricks were laid in a herringbone pattern to minimize the weight on the dome. He used chains to connect the ribs of the dome to minimize the pressure on it from “hoop stress”. Architectural issues that wouldn’t be documented with formulas for another two hundred years . So egotistical jerk or not, no one else could have done this. And when you’re the best and the smartest, are you really being cocky? Or just honest? 🙂

After the Piazza al Duomo, we continued walking through town. Passed this little slice of heaven. A literal wall of chocolate. Flowing like a waterfall. Talk about Gates of Paradise. 🙂
    
   
  

 Everything I read said that the local street food and local blue collar food was a Lampredotto sandwich. Oh. And Lampredotto is sliced up cow stomach. Ha

It was okay… But we also got a Burria sandwich which I think was beef. It was amazing. Best thing I’ve eaten in Italy. 
   

We were making really good time through Florence so we decided we had time to check out the Uffizi Gallery since we were walking by it and Norah was being good.

I could spend hours talking about paintings in this museum but I’ll spare everyone 🙂 Here are a few highlights:

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus

  
Leonardo De Vinci’s  Anunciation, one of his earliest works .

The Medici Tribuna- the center of what started the Uffizi Gallery. Originally, the Medici family created this room as a way to display their most valuable art for the public to see. These days you can’t even walk in because the marble mosaic floors can’t withstand the weight of so many visitors. 

 Piero Della Francesca’s Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino. He was painted from the left because he lost his right eye in a tournament where he also broke his nose . Apparently in a very bad way judging from the painting. 

We saw lots of graffiti art done around the city based off of these famous works.   

A faun (or satyr) boy. Norah liked his ears.
   

 I wanted to include this little face because it’s a good reminder that history is only history as we know it and we trust others to tell us. Up until the 1940s, if you would have toured this gallery you would have been told that this was the earliest known work of Michaelangelo. Now, we know that his “The Head of the Faun” has never been found and this is not it…but it’s a good reminder that what we know now to be truth can change tomorrow with another discovery of history. 

I wouldn’t have included this sculpture but when we walked in Norah said, “Look daddy, it’s Mamma” I mean, I do normally lay around the house like this …so I guess I can see where she’s coming from 🙂   

   Raphael’s Portrait of Pope Leo X

 I find this painting amazing to look at. Photos can’t begin to do it justice. He painted this to play with textures and that is exactly what is so amazing- oil painting on wood and it looks like you could run your hands over the red velvet, feel the soft silk, the thick red tablecloth… Unbelievable talent.
  ….and lastly, my personal favorite from the entire collection. 

Bronzino’s Portrait of the Dwarf Morgante    

  Morgante was a common performer in the Medici court in the mid 1500s and he was one of the favorites of the court. He had a privileged life as far as dwarfs of the time went…but he was still effectively there for entertainment. He was forced to parade naked to demonstrate his “deformed body” and there is even record of being forced to fight naked with a monkey for the court’s amusement. 

However, the painting shows him in a very noble manner. Bronzino created this painting to settle an argument over which form of art was more noble- painting or sculpture. He obviously defended painting and set out to prove that painting could be beautiful no matter the subject matter, that painting could show multiple viewpoints just like sculpture (hence the front and back perspectives) and that painting could show the lapse of time (one side is before the hunt and the other shows the kill- Margante was a trained night hunter for birds)

The painting was just restored in 2010 because it was found to be indecent and painted over for hundreds of years. Only recently have we been able to see this in all of its glory 🙂

We promised Norah ice cream for being so good for 3 hours while I slowly perused every painting and sculpture in the gallery. 

  
She picked vanilla. Who’s child is this? Ha

That brought us to the Piazza Della Signoria. So so so much history in this square ….  

The Palazzo Vecchio. They used to hang people over the roof of this and let them dangle above the streets. I’m not so opposed to bringing this kind of Justice back. 

One time some people got the bright idea to overthrow the Medici…they plotted the murders of the two top brothers at the time. They attacked them while they were on their way to church but they only successfully stabbed one to death, the other managed to escape to their house across the square to safety. Needless to say, this didn’t end well for the would-be coup-ers and by the end of the day they found themselves slung over the top of this building as a warning to any who dare plot against the most powerful family in Florence. 

The first Medici- Cosimo the Elder, was even imprisoned here with plans for death basically because he was too popular and threatened the arostocracy. 
The Loggia dei Lanzi 

 The Medici lions guarding the statues of the Loggia dei Lanzi. These are the original lions, of which all other lion statues like this are based. One of the pair is of ancient origins and a sculpter cut it away from the rest of its background, then another sculpter copied it and created a second for the Medici gardens. They’ve been here since the late 1500s
   
    
    
 In 1498, they even burned a preacher here! Although, I’m kind of in agreement. A marble plaque on the ground marks the exact spot. Girolamo Savonarola was a preacher who preached heavily against the vanities of life- anything that might encourage one to sin. Mirrors, cosmetics, books that were amoral, excesses and riches. He had such a following that he became sort of the ruler of the city. He was so popular that he convinced artists to give up their own works for his Bonfires of the Vanities because if they didnt, his followers would make their lives miserable. I would hate to think how many great paintings, sculptures, etc were lost forever due to those crazies. In fact, give me the match I’ll do it myself 🙂 

  
Our last major stop for the day was the Church of Santa Croce with Donatello’s crucifix and Michaelangelo’s tomb.  
    

We crossed back over the river to the south side of the city where our rented apartment is. The bridge we crossed gave us a beautiful view of the river Arno through the city as well as the Ponte Vecchio bridge .

  
  Norah didn’t make it, so we stopped for lunch.  
A variety of bruschetta

 
Salami

   
Ravioli with sage butter

   
Tortellini with creme and ham 

We had a very relaxing night enjoying the apartment and discussing how this was an amazing place to vacation but that there was no way we could live someplace like this. So far, Ravenna was our favorite but it has been nice to see so much of the history I’ve read about Florence in person. We have one more day in Florence. Will post about that soon. 

 Today was a “light day” for my typical vacations. We only did one city! 🙂

We left Bologna and headed East to the wonderful and surprising city of Ravenna. 

Ravenna has been around forever. Was an Etruscan city and then part of the Roman Empire- being accepted in 89BC.

It’s greatest contribution to our modern culture is probably two different things.

The first is Julius Caesar’s “crossing of the Rubicon”. We still use this term to this day to signify that someone is making a risky move where there is no turning back… But there is (was) a real Rubicon River and someone did indeed cross it. 

Hold on to your nerd glasses, we’re going in the way back machine. 

Back in the days of the Roman republic, after Julius Caesar had defeated the Gauls around 51BC, he spend the better part of 2 years touring all the conquered lands they had seized and gathering and sending all of the spoils of war back to Rome. To understand all of the dynamics would be very similar to trying to explain all of the dynamics of our current congress as the situations draw a LOT of parallels.

The senate and ruling class was not very happy with Julius Caesar. They had spent the better part of two years trying to vote against him for his war with the Gauls stating that the Senate never authorized war in the first place so he was committing treason. (Afghanistan, anyone?)

Also, they were none to happy that all of the spoils of war flooding the city had driven down the prices of their gold to half of the previous prices. (Stock market? Bailouts?)

Also, prior to his conquest Caesar had run for office on a platform for the people, against the richest, promising change that would help the average Roman citizen. (ObamaCare? Tea Party? The 1%?)

The ruling elite were not too happy about his power, his success and his likability (ahem…Obama?) and were looking for any opportunity they could to exile or kill him. 

Only problem was that Caesar had the golden ticket. “Imperium” they called it- basically above the law and unable to be prosecuted. But his period of imperium was running out and he knew everyone in Rome in power was looking to chop off his head. His only chance was basically being elected to the council during the upcoming election by absentee that would grant him imperium in his new role, thus allowing him to return to Rome and still enjoy his diplomatic immunity.

He had one last ally- Pompey or Augustus. Or so he thought. Over the years since he left Rome, his friend and leader of  the republic had grown jealous at his successes and passed a law that started that no one could run for office by absentee, he must be present to declare- therefore throwing Caesar into a Catch 22.

This pushed Caesar into a corner. Laws, proposals, deceit, illegal votes and illegal processes all occurred that ended with the Senate declaring Julius Caesar an enemy of the state! 

So, that brings us back to Julius Caesar with his 13th Legion supporting him, standing at the northeastern border of the Roman Empire on the banks of the Rubicon River in 49BC in his conquered kingdom of the Gauls, a hero to the people of Rome and a great conqueror but a declared enemy that was to be killed if he entered Rome.

So, he rallied his troops, gave a great speech and said “Let the die be cast” and he crossed the Rubicon, declaring war on Rome.

We know how that ended. Pompey ran away like a scared little girl and Caesar easily took Rome. 

So, ummm….Ravenna. Yeah. 

The second contribution to pop culture was a song by Cole Porter called “Night and Day” was inspired but the breathtakingly gorgeous and intricate Roman, Byzantine and early Christian mosaics, specifically a ceiling in a Mausoleum at the Basilica de San Vitale. Which just happened to be our first stop in town.

  
First, before the photos. The photos don’t do it justice. You have to experience these buildings. If you ever plan a trip to Italy and you are even remotely interested in art, Ravenna 100% must be on the list. The craziest thing is that we almost had the entire city to ourselves. We probably encountered 50 tourists the entire day. Ravenna. See it. Don’t let me down.

In 540AD, Justinian I- the Emporer of the orthodox Christian Byzantine empire- conquered Ravenna from the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric the Great. They were from  Byzantium, later known as Constantinople, now present day Istanbul.

The Byzantine Bishops went a little overboard and built all of these amazing buildings in the next 150 years. 

    
    
    
    
    
Outside of this basilica is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, easily my favorite place all day. This is the Starry sky mosaic that inspired Cole Porter, who visited Ravenna on his honeymoon, to write Night and Day”.

   
    
    
 After this we happened upon a piazza with a carousel. Needless to say, we rode it. Ha
  
  
Next, we went to the Church de Sant’Apollinare Nuovo. This was the first original cathedral built by Theodoric the Great and is the oldest.    
    
    
  

The darn Catholics completely changed and probably ruined the original mosaics. This entire wall was a Catholic change with 33 virgins and 3 magi leading them.   
    
If you look closely you can see remnants of the originals. Look at the 3rd column on the right. It’s a hand. Call it a 5th century photoshop mistake. The Catholics didn’t like the Arian Ostrogoth rulers being shown in a cathedral…or possibly nudity being depicted…so curtains seemed like a natural replacement? Who knows.

    
   
Lastly we stopped by the Baptistry of Neon. Built on top of an ancient Roman bath.

  
     
  
After Ravenna we drove 3 hours across Italy to Florence. It was a beautiful drive.

 Watch out for those parachuting cattle though…they’re a doozy.

  Google Maps almost gave me a stroke when I realized I was on a pedestrian only side street and it was trying to route me across the Ponte Vecchio  bridge. (Pedestrian only, very famous…more on that tomorrow). It took us 1.5 hours to get around less than a mile to our apartment for the next 3 nights…but it was worth it.

It’s an AirBnb find. Penthouse, 4th floor, 2 rooftop terraces with views of both Pitti Palace and the Duomo. I may never leave 🙂

   
    
    
 
We ate dinner overlooking the river and Ponte Vecchio bridge and had the restaurant to ourselves. Great food.

   
    
   
We have “skip the line” tickets to see the Galleria Academia at 8:15am to see the Status of David amongst other great works of art. So…I should probably not be typing this anymore since it’s 2:30am.Goodnight 🙂

Today was small stops and walks through some small walled cities and a drive through some mountainous terrain.

We started with “breakfast” that came with our B&B. Apparently 4 shortbread cookies and 2 croissants is breakfast in Pisa. 🙂 We sat there for a while thinking surely this is like some sort of bread plate before the meal…nope. It was the meal. Lol

Also, I learned that when you ask for milk for a child, they will bring you steamed latte milk at lava temperature. Italians don’t believe in giving kids cold beverages, they think that it gives them stomach cramps. 

So after some googling, I figured out you have to ask for “latte freddo”. In this case, the waitress acted like she had an “a-ha” moment and quickly went back inside. Only to emerge with a tiny little coffee creamer crock of milk. Haha

So we laughed and improvised- pouring the 2 oz of cold milk into a water glass and then adding about 3 oz of the steamed milk and letting Norah stir it which she thought was awesome fun. She also got cookies for breakfast…so she thought the day was off to a great start.

We started out with a drive to the north side of Pisa towards Asciano to see the Medici acqueduct ordered to be constructed by Cosimo I Medici in the late 1500s. 

The Medici family name and crest is all over everything in the area as they were the wealthiest and most powerful family of their day. Even though Florence and the area was a replublic of the truest kind- elected officials and no ruler or King…at the  Medici family’s prime- no one in the area made a decision without the approval of a Medici. They were like the unspoken kings of the region through the 1400s but this status was initially achieved through kind acts, deep pockets, quiet demeanor and extensive education and business knowledge, not through military force or a takeover of any sort. They were also smart- the first famous Cosimo (Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici-it’s tricky- they named themselves all the same ha) knew the importance of humility and strategic alignment with powerful people and he often made loans without interest to the Vatican popes and sent exotic gifts to rulers of foreign lands. The history and life of the Medici family and its succession could span volumes but it’s enough to know that Cosimo “the Elder” was a self made man, who created an empire in banking by using his smart sense and with his 30 million dollar empire, financed a good portion of the arts of the Renaissance including many of the works of Donatello, Michaelangelo and many others. 

He once said, “All those things have given me the greatest satisfaction and contentment because they are not only for the honor of God but are likewise for my own remembrance. For fifty years, I have done nothing else but earn money and spend money; and it became clear that spending money gives me greater pleasure than earning it.”

…and spend it he did. He started the first library in Florence, he commissioned the Duomo (I’ll show you that in a couple days), he commissioned Latin translations of ancient books including the complete works of Plato. 

*Random fact- Italics font as we know it today, with its script form and slanted letters is almost entirely based off of the style of handwriting that the “transcriptionist” of the Medici family, who travelled all over the world copying texts and scrolls for their great library and the further education of Florence, used in writing these first books. One guy, spending months at a time in underground cellars and towers of monestaries copying and translating any book he encountered but couldn’t immediately just purchase and take with him, is responsible for the look of our modern day letters. I find that absolutely mindblowingly fascinating…

I picture a guy in a robe, riding in his wagon with his horses, with his chest full of Medici money for buying off anything of value that he could and another full of antiquities and books he’s collected for his return to Florence. Just the mechanics is amazing. How did they keep the books dry during weather? How many months did it take to travel these mountains and hills of the areas? Can you imagine sending someone out on a quest for books and that it would take you 5 years to see what kind of return you would see? Was theft a concern? In a time where no one could hardly read I wouldn’t think many seedy individuals would see much value in paper and leather… Was it an entire commissioned force, I wonder? With gaurds to protect the money and navigators to keep their bearings? 

But I digress, So much the learn, not enough time.

Anyway- acqueduct. The acqueduct was ordered by Cosimo I (not the first Cosimo, but the first Duke of Tuscany) 200 years later after lots and lots of politics and struggles and murders played out.

By this time, the Medici still had money and definitely had fame and were actually part of the ruling class of the area. 

   
 The acqueduct carried water from the mountains in the distance all the way to Pisa. I loved the public fountain along the way, although I have no idea how old it is compared to the acqueduct. 

We continued on to Lucca- “the walled city”. Also birthplace to Puccini, famous for his Operas. It existed since a Roman times- founded somewhere around 200BC and thrived because it was a perfect resting point from those traveling to Rome. 

The walls existed but were really reinforced into their current form during the Middle Ages- 1200 or so.

   
The giant metal doors and retractable metal gates are just amazing.    
    
    
 

Lucca is famous for its “tower houses”. Call it a …ahem… Show of power. The bigger your tower, the mightier your family’s power. Men…
   
 

This was so true, that if you lost your fortunes, they would tear down your tower. As a demonstration of your fall from greatness. But- those still standing today are a very cool architectural style to look at. A very distinctive style for the city.

We stopped in a little side street cafe for espresso and we hoped some proper breakfast, but anything hot or containing protein is just not to me found before lunch. Pastries, tarts, coffee. But that’s it. 

The owner was awesome and he loved Norah. (In fact everyone here loves he little curly blonde wonder…we have at LEAST 30 conversations a day about her)

   
He sold a lot of random lights and techno type things….she thought it was awesome she got to have a “dance party” in the back room. Pay no mind to the wall of creepy mannequins on the back wall. 😳

  
Norah needed to go potty, so I asked if he had a bathroom and just like it was a totally normal bathroom pointed me around the corner. To this.

What the heck are you supposed to do with this??? Haha I mean… I KNOW…. But srsly? How do you explain this to a three year old who is barely using the real type?!
 
I told her we were gonna act like dog and pee on the ground. Haha then proceeded to try to hold her at a very weird angle and complete the deed. Needless to say, she peed her pants before we got there. Lol

(She’ll thank me for that info being shared publicly when she’s older)

We got cleaned up and proceeded on an hour drive to Pistoia. Not famous for much other than it may be the root of our word Pistol which seems to be where they were originally manufactured. 

Let me google it… Yup. Where the first pistols were made.   

    
    
    
 We had pizza at the Cafe de Duomo on the square. My Italian is markedly improving as the days ago by. I don’t think anyone spoke English today until we got to our hotel tonight. And we survived, so I’ll call it a win. Although I don’t think anyone will give me any awards for my Italian anytime soon. Ha
 That made someone happy 

 we travelled on to Bologna, up a little mountain for what was supposed to be a scenic view of the city. Too much smog to see anything unfortunately in the picture but it would have been beautiful.

  
We stopped for a wine and cheese snack at a little restaurant at the top   

    
 The main attraction was the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca, a church that has been here since the 1200s  

The really amazing thing about this church is the arched walkway that leads all the way from the city of Bologna up to the church. 666 arches to exact. Creepy.

I had seen photos of this before but didn’t even know what it was until we got there. 

  
*i realize now that my photos are lacking, so here’s some that aren’t mine to show a little better:   

    

This path goes forever

  All the way from the city to the top. And there were better people than me walking the entire thing. 

 There used to be a cable car to take you up to the top, but it stopped in the 1970s when they paved a road to the top  

Lastly, we headed into Bologna for the night.  It was a little grittier than I expected but nothing where I felt unsafe. Lots of Graffiti, very fast pace… Reminded me a lot of Belfast, which wasn’t my favorite place. We drove downtown and after a few narrow alleys and near death experiences, we found our hotel- Il Canele.

The only place on the only canal in Bologna (like a little mini Venice)

The hotel clerk moved a “tow away zone” parking sign to make room for our car. However I looked at the spot and thought No.way.ever. Would I fit there. So I told the guy he had to park it. So he did! He had to get out and move some scooters…he just started picking them up and dragging them around by hand…haha but he did it!

 
The room was very cool. Regal almost if we were in the early 1900s but man do the beds feel like they are from the early 1900s lol.  
 We went out walking down Via Independenze where all the shopping is towards the Piazza Maggiore, basically the old city center. I had to laugh at the giant Lamborghini logo lit up on the side of the building. Reminded me of the movie Idiocracy where they advertise the Gaterade stuff on the moon….

 
But it turns out there was a festival they were prepping for and it was sponsored by Lamborghini. We even saw them unloading the cars for the event.   
   
The fountain of Neptune was really cool.   

Even their public drinking fountain has major character.  

There was a Disney store along the way and Norah had to stop and go to the “Inside Out” store since that the latest and greatest movie craze. We got lots of ideas for Santa.    
  The hotel clerk recommended a restaurant around the block called Victoria. We had the house red wine and sparkling water   

An antipasto platter with mortadella, fresh mozzarella, Parmesan prosciutto and bruschetta. Norah had pizza.    
I ordered “beef ribs” in a sauce. I received some sort of pork like steak… But whatever. It was good. Haha

   Kegan had some sort of beef medallions and mushrooms. The Italians could teach the Irish a few things about potatoes. They were amazing.

  We finished up with a little scoop of Nutella gelato from a “gelateria” we passed on our way back. 

  Norah was ready for bed quickly. Ha

 So were we after a few glasses of wine. I quickly fell asleep but because of the time change, here I sit awake at 4am writing this 🙂
Tomorrow is the city of Revenna with some amazing art and architecture and we arrive in Florence in the evening.