Florence and Pisa

 Dear Gentle Readers

I'm skipping some of the places I visited in Tuscany simply because I am too far behind to catch up. Needless to say, we visited Monteriggioni ( a tiny walled city), San Gimignano (The city of towers, 14 of them) and Pienza overlooking Val D'Orcia with simply stunning views of the Tuscany landscape.

Oh, alright here's a picture, vintage Tuscany from Val D'Orcia.

Nuff said, now for Florence. I must admit I had no expectations about Florence, but since we were passing it, we decided to visit it. I am so glad I did! Google Maps safely guided us to a parking place outside the city and we walked, and walked and walked...

Until we came upon this, the Palazzo Vecchio or Town Hall with the Arnolfo Tower above it, one of the signature landmarks of Florence.

Next to it was the Loggia dei Lanzi, an open-air sculpture gallery, containing some noted works like Giambologna' Rape of  the Sabine Women and Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa. What's unusual about the latter is Cellini poured the bronze as one piece, not in several pieces as was the practice at the time.

Of course, there was also this masterpiece, a little work by Michelangelo, his famous David sculpture. The piece of marble he sculpted this from was rejected by his contemporaries as being too tall and thin and not any use. Michelangelo didn't listen to them and sculpted probably the most famous statue of all time.

Nature calls so we sought out a public toilet. They charge €1 to spend a penny nowadays. That's inflation! Anyway, I was sitting inside the forecourt of the toilette and I saw this picture of children playing in medieval times. There's children playing with a hoop and stick, one boy with a spinning top, another with a hobby horse and a girl holding up her rag doll. It was a simpler time and not a screen in sight!

We were leaving Florence when I noticed a dome peeking above the rooftops. Thinking it might be mildly interesting, I suggested to Victoria that we go and have a look. A few minutes later we emerged into Piazza del Duomo and found ourselves standing beneath one of the most extraordinary buildings I have ever seen. No photograph can adequately convey the scale of Florence Cathedral. It simply has to be experienced.

 The front of the Florence Cathedral. Construction started in1296 A.D. and took 140 years to complete. It's huge and breathtaking, but take a look at the side.

It's just immense and notice the dome.

It's the largest brick dome ever built. Brunelleschi's Dome is one of the great engineering achievements in human history. In the early 1400s nobody knew how to build a dome that large. The traditional Roman methods required enormous wooden centering to support the structure during construction, and Florence simply couldn't obtain enough timber. So Filippo Brunelleschi devised an entirely new method: a double-shell dome with ingenious brickwork patterns that allowed it to support itself as it rose.

This is the bell tower that goes with the cathedral,  Giotto's Campanile. Sorry about the scaffolding but even medieval masterpieces need maintenance every now and then.

Opposite the cathedral is the Florence Baptistery and octagonal building for baptising people of course. The bronze doors are unique in that they show scenery in 3D which was revolutionary at the time. When Michelangelo saw the doors, he called them "The Gates to Paradise" and the name stuck.

Here they are. Well actually, they aren't. This a replica, the originals were too valuable to be left out in the weather and now reside in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.

And that's that. We walked over 17,000 steps that day, the most I have ever walked in one day. Here's the evidence on my smartwatch.

 Nevertheless, we still had one more thing to see today - The Leaning Tower of Pisa.

First thing you see is Pisa's wall. It wasn't very thick compared to other cities of the time.

Of course, when you have one of the world's most recognised structures, you have the souvenir shops hoping to make a quick buck (or euro) from you as pass by.

This is the Pisa Baptistery, similar to the one in Florence.

This is the Pisa Cathedral, the leaning tower is actually the bell tower to this but unusual as it is not attached to the cathedral as usual but separate.

Here is the big attraction, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Construction began in 1173 and after only three stories were complete it began to lean because of the soft clay and sand under its foundation. Construction was then halted for nearly a century due to wars around Pisa. In 1372 it was completed. In 1990 the tower was closed because the lean had progressed to 5.5 degrees. Engineers then removed dirt from the high side and allowed the tower to straighten up to about a 4 degree lean. Why not straighten it up completely? Because then it would not be The Leaning Tower of Pisa anymore. Lead weights and steel cables help support the structure so it should be stable for decades to come.

An awesome sight and another bucket list item ticked off!

And of course, many, many people proving their originality by doing the absolutely stupid pose of getting a picture of them supposedly holding up the tower. There were so many doing this. I refused to do this on principal.

And just to prove we were there!

But that's not the end of the story. As we were walking away from the tower, a tall black man approached us and gave me a high five, then gave me a little sculpture of an elephant and a bracelet to Victoria. Then he revealed his real purpose, opening his bag to reveal leather belts he was selling. I asked him how much and he said €45! I said I was not interested and tried to give him back the elephant, but he wouldn't take no for an answer, he kept saying "for my family, for my family". Then he said "How much would you pay?". I said I don't need a belt, I already have three. But he was bloody persistent eventually dropping his price to €20. Victoria said "Give him €20" which I did and she said under her breath, "to get rid of him".

So now I am the proud owner of a belt I didn't want. That's the second time we have been played and I'm getting very sick of it. The next person who tries this is going to get very short shrift and I will just walk away and ignore them.

P.S. Victoria has been fighting a cold the last couple of days but it hit her hard during the night. She's gone back to bed for another hour to get some sleep. We were planning on stopping in Lucca on the way to Venice but with a 4 hour drive to Venice we may have to bypass it.