Pisa

The train from Florence to Pisa took an hour.  It was a bit different in flavor--more of a local, commuter train. Our hotel in Pisa, Hotel Astor, was also close to the train station. We didn't like this room as much-- two twins pushed together and then twin bunk beds. That part was okay but the room was so small if anyone tried to move around you felt like you were stepping all over each other. And the bathroom was tiny. Oh and one Tuscany thing in general-- both hotels were this way-- the towels were like sheets. Seriously! I've never seen anything like it (well, nothing called a towel anyway). They did a surprisingly good job of drying off your body and they did dry out afterwards quickly, but they did a lousy job of drying long hair. 

This is a stack of several "towels." No worries of us stealing these!

We collapsed in the hotel for a few hours. We just rested and cooled off. Then we set off to see Pisa.

Some kind of military complex in Pisa. We found
the walls topped with broken glass interesting.

Santa Maria della Spina--a tiny little church sitting on the river.
It looked like a gingerbread house.



Entrance to the tower

Beautiful tile around the tower base

Trying to get a straight line in the picture
so you can see the tower is slanted not
just the camera

From this view you really see how much it leans

We wound our way up to the area around the tower. I was surprised at how pretty the tower was. I'd only really known it was leaning-- I hadn't really noticed that it is ornate. I also hadn't realized until we planned this trip that it was the bell tower of a big cathedral. Pictures tend to show the tower by itself but it is really in a big complex of buildings. Freestanding bell towers like this are common in Tuscany. The next pictures show the whole complex: baptistry (with the dome), cathderal and tower.


Cathedral and baptistry

The cathedral itself was kind of random.  We were walking along the side of it noticing that it was very mismatched. There were scraps of marble with upside down writing, parts of symbols, etc. Like it had been scavanged from other places. Made me wonder if the building project had lost funding after the mess up of the tower. :-)We are rather amazed still that when the tower started sinking at just level two they kept building up rather than going back and fixing it. Of course, if they'd fixed it, Pisa wouldn't be on the map.

Mismatched marble in the cathedral

A good view of the baptistry roof

The Campo Santo--a walled cemetary

People posing for silly photos

We spent some time by the tower, watching people looking like idiots trying to pose for pictures (leaning on the tower, pushing the tower, etc) and got some yummy pizza and sandwiches to eat there on the grass. We didn't bother to go in the tower. The Eiffel Tower killed the kids on those types of experiences. We wandered around the whole perimeter. My son really liked the stretch of old city wall, and chasing the pigeons that lived in it.

Old city wall

On our way back to the hotel, we wandered through the Piazza Cavielli (the Knight's Square). It had some beautiful old buildings though the square was currently under renovation and thus a bit of a construction mess. This square was the political centre in medieval Pisa.

Palazzo dell'Orologio and a statue of Grand Duke Cossimo I de'Medici.
I loved the painting on the buildings. 

I honestly can't remember what this building is.
Just know that it is in Pisa.



For reasons too hard to explain, we had to find the
statue of Garibaldi in another square of the town.

We heard this street musician from a few blocks away and couldn't
figure out what it was going to be.  Palazzo della Carovana
is in the background.

We sat and listened to this street musician for some
time.  He was very good. 

In the morning, we had to go out and hunt for breakfast since this hotel didn't have it. We ate at a little coffee shop then walked up to the river. We checked out an old tower in the old port area and watched people crewing on the river. We found a park with a ship playground and the kids goofed around on that for a while.

Watching people crew on the river

Red Tower

Some sort of ruins that we wished weren't fenced off.

This pickup soccer game looked fun but extremely hot.  There was
a loud pop when their ball got into the busy road and met its end.

Playground with Red Tower in the background

 

There were lots of these signs in Italy-- no pictures, no animals, no food,
no mobile phones, etc.  But on this one in the park, we couldn't figure out what
the picture of a church represented.  Building a church here is prohibited?

We tried to do a little shopping in town but found we didn't really have the patience or energy to shop so we wound up taking the short train (5 minute ride) out to the airport several hours before we needed to. We had lunch there and just hung out waiting for our flight. We were right that this trip, though short, would be long enough for us. We'd all had a great time and were ready to go home. Our feet were too tired for any more.

 

As we landed in Malmö around 5:30 pm we found-- surprise, surprise--RAIN. Lots of it. We had to dig out our jackets (which we hadn't used in days) and umbrellas to get from the plane to the hanger and then from the airport out to the car. It was wet and cold. Sweden was welcoming us back. 

But it was nice to be "home" again.  Nice to sleep in our own beds and the kids like having food at their disposal 24/7.

 

Florence

Sunday morning, we slept in a bit and then enjoyed breakfast at the hotel again. We'd thought about trying to go to church, but the meetinghouse was a ways out of town and I wasn't very confident in the times listed on the web for meetings. We spent the day just walking around Florence. We walked to the Duomo first. We were amazed at the size and beauty of that place. The pictures just don't capture how impressive it is. We walked all around it.



Approaching Il Duomo,
 The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

The intracacy of all the marble decorations was amazing



Giotto's Campanile (Bell Tower)

One interesting thing, as we were on the back side a group of priests came hurrying along the road by us. The oldest was ornately dressed. Then there were two others in calmer robes and then a body guard. We wondered who they were but figured they must be important-- probably headed to preside over mass at either the baptistry or the duomo. Next we headed on to the square with all the statues. On the way there we could hear drums coming towards us. We were able to watch a procession go by. They had a number of groups in different medieval livery with trumpets and drums. The groups would take turns playing as they marched up the street. There was also one group with flags that they would throw high in the air-- they looked really cool twirling as they went up and down. The procession also included a bunch of priests and nuns and everyone had badges saying something about the society of the baptistry. We didn't know if this is a regular Sunday morning thing or a special occasion, but we enjoyed it.

Thanks to the Internet, I was able to research this procession and I learned that it was an annual celebration of the birthday of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence.  It has been celebrated as a holiday in Florence for hundreds of years.  The procession we saw includes the local church and government authorities and they march to the cathedral where they take place in a special ceremony presided over by the archbishop of the area. I'm guessing the archbishop is the priest that we saw. Fun that we happened to be in Florence on June 24th.

Wandering the streets of Florence

We wandered through the major city squares. Florence really is a beautiful city-- so many old, impressive buildings that are still used and well-maintained. Banks with a front of gorgeous Roman arches, stores set in lovely old buildings.  I think overall it is the prettiest city we've seen. We enjoyed just wandering up and down walkways and alleyways, wandering from cool looking tower to cool looking tower. 




Approaching Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's City Hall

Sculptures at Piazza della Signora.



More lions

Looking up towards Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge that has stood
on this site since 1345

We crossed the Arno river and climbed the hill up to Piazzola Michelangelo.  That was a bit of a hot climb but luckily you could usually find shade to walk in.  That Piazzola has a beautiful view of the whole city, unfornately it is also the car guy/motorcycle guy hangout for Florence for some reason-- a constant stream of vehicles going back and forth - same ones over and over-- so it was noisy and chaotic. 

So European!

We bought some gelatto and rested a minute then went on up higher to a beautiful church higher on the hill, Basilica di San Miniato al Monte. It also had a beautiful view and was much more peaceful. 

  

View of Florence

 

You can see a stretch of old city wall

We were able to peak around inside for a few minutes before mass started and it was beautiful inside as well.  The ceilings were colorful and frankly amazing. The green, white and red marble all over the inside and out were beautiful.

These stained glass windows looked like fire embers

Inside Basilica di San Miniato al Monte

When I think of Florence, I will always think of bells. With all the different churches, it seemed like you could always hear bells ringing. 

If you look close you can see a ringing bell protruding from the tower

By the time we walked back down off the hill (my son counted 189 steps plus a lot of just incline), we were hot and tired. In truth, we mostly enjoyed the hot, though. It has been so long since we've felt it.  We did eat a lot of ice cream though. I think the kids counted that we had gelatto seven times during our 3-day trip. We rested in a park for a bit and then headed back over the old bridge, Ponte Vecchio, to the city. That bridge is literally covered with fancy jewelry stores-- very sparkly. We went back past the Duomo to see if it was open for visiting yet. It wasn't and didn't seem like it actually ever would be that day. Oh well, we enjoyed getting a better look at the front of the building and at the beautiful brass doors of the baptistry. 


Front door of Il Duomo and another lion

The Baptistry of St.John with its famous doors

I realize there are many museums in Florence that we did not visit. We've found that our family is much happier exploring in the open air, away from the press of the crowds. Since we'd checked out of our hotel that morning, we all carried our backpacks around on this adventure. We were ready to put them down.  We went to the train station and and bought tickets for Pisa.