Last day in Florence

This afternoon we walked way up to a viewpoint to see the old part of the city bathed in the golden sun.  The highest piazza is at San Miniato church, which we'd read had services starting at 5:30 p.m. where there is Gregorian chant.  Sadly the church was empty of monks, there were only tourists, and the attendant advised us that vespers started today at 6:30, and the music wouldn't start until 7:30, which was too late for us, as we needed to walk back down the hill before dark, find a place for dinner, and walk back to our room to pack.

San Miniato viewpoint was quite peaceful, but was a climb to get to - the next one down the hill was packed with people, vendors and buskers

The view of the city in the late afternoon sun

By the time we found a place for dinner, after walking back down the hill, and finished our meal, it was dark, and when we got to the river we were surprised to see the coloured lights on the Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge).

Lights on the bridge

La Dolce Vita

The posts are getting shorter, the days are getting shorter, our time in Italy is getter shorter...
We're a bit weary and under the weather - we both have colds, but we still want to make the most of our time here.  So today we wandered Lucca, with only one destination in mind - a free Artisan Fair.

The Fair was in an old building with an inner courtyard

A furniture maker finds other uses for wine barrels

The silversmith demonstrated his craft

Then in the late afternoon we caught a train, and in an hour and a half were back in Florence.  We had dinner at Trattoria Bordino, where we shared risotto, asparagus, white wine and chocolate tart with gelato.

Dessert in Italian is dolce, as in sweet, as in la dolce vita, which will soon be over, when we're home, eating a healthier diet with fewer desserts!

Riding the wall

Lucca is a very old walled city, and at the top of the wall there's a well used wide path for walkers, runners, pedal carts and cyclists.  Once the weather settled down - it was a mixed bag today of rain, wind, cloud and some sun - we rented city bikes and took them up the path to the top of the wall, and set off.

A busy Saturday on the wall that circles the old city

One of many bronze sculptures

There were a number of sculptures by Andrea Roggi - the exhibit was called The Tree of Life.

Along the top of the wall, or ramparts - there are lots of signs warning you not to get close to the edge, it drops straight down

Read more about Lucca and its history.

Vernazza to Lucca

We've enjoyed our time in the Cinque Terre, especially our home base of Vernazza.  Now it's time to move on; today we go by train to Lucca.  Here are a few photos from our stay on the coast:

We saw a few dogs on trails, but none as small as this one, Debbie from Germany - she's not too sure about these steps - I hope she got carried part of the way...

Debbie poses for me, with the help of her lovely human

One of the few cats we've seen - this was in Manarola

Also, have a look at a two minute Rick Steves Youtube video called Vernazza After Dark, filmed in the Spring of 2019, which gives a sense of what this village looks like at night, and why he likes it so much.

Jazz in the tunnels

Today we took an early train to the town of Levanto, a short way up the coast from Vernazza, and rented Cruiser bikes.  Soon we were on the oceanside bike path, but didn't get far because there were lots of surfers to watch!

Soon we were at the first tunnel.  A paved path from Levanto to Framura has been created from an old rail bed beside the water.  The tunnels are lighted, with clearly marked lanes for cyclists and pedestrians.

There were lots of places to stop and admire the view

We also stopped to walk up paths to viewpoints, and at one there were people fishing, casting into the surf.

Our bikes; Brad is wearing his new Italian bike cap and Giro di Burnaby shirt

The first town we came to was Bonassola, where the weekly market was in full swing.  We locked the bikes, sat outside at a cafe and ordered calzones for lunch - when they came, they were so enormous we just laughed!  We shared one and took the other one with us - it's in the pizza box on the back of Brad's bike in the photo above!

The path ended at the town of Framura, and after a look at the boats in the small harbour we turned around, stopping at viewpoints we'd missed before.  At one of those, a woman with a dog in her bike basket came along, and I asked if I could take a photo of her dog.  "Yes" she said with a smile.

What's his name I asked... "Jazz, like the music" she said

Opera

We stayed in Vernazza today and had a quiet time reading, relaxing, doing laundry and going for short walks.  This evening we went to an hour long Vernazza Opera Festival concert.  These are held twice a week in the Oratorio, or small chapel next to the church.

There was a soprano, tenor and pianist; they performed an assortment of pieces, mainly in Italian, with one in French and one in English.

Such an unassuming building on the outside, but more interesting inside, with marble floors and painted ceiling fading to show its age

At the intermission we stepped outside onto the terrace - the sun had set; you can see the boats in the harbour, the breakwater, and on the right, a few lights from the next town

The performers take their bows and receive applause

Almost the last to leave, Brad got this shot of the chapel 

A hike, two train rides, and a swim

Today we hiked the trail from Vernazza to the next Cinque Terre village, Corniglia.  First we purchased our Cinque Terre National Park day passes, which are required if you want to get past the checkpoint hut at the start of the trail.

Steep and rocky, the path went up and up, past the cliffside restaurant where we had lunch yesterday, and up some more.  We were walking on one of the ancient routes between villages, which at one time were only accessible by sea. It was getting hot!

Brad waits for me on the trail

We admired the views down the cliffs to the blue Mediterranean Sea, the stone walls and terraces, grape vines, olive trees, flowers, prickly pear cactus, lemon and lime trees and more.

A lizard ran in front of us, then posed on the rock wall

Sometimes the trail was fairly wide, other times it was narrow single-track. As time went on it was crowded here and there with other hikers.  Imagine our surprise to go around a corner and find a small cafe on the side of the cliff.  The good news was: they served ice cold slushies made with real oranges, iced coffee, and had a bathroom for customers, the bad news was we were only half way!

What a treat to stop, sit in the shade and slurp cold drinks. 

The view out the window of the cafe; we could see our destination

We arrived in Corniglia, found a delightful small cafe with a patio in the shade, had lunch and headed for the train station.  We wanted to take the ferry back to Vernazza, and since Corniglia is the only town without a harbour, there's no ferry service.  So we walked down a very long brick staircase from the town to the train station, bought tickets from the machine, waited on the platform in the hot sun, squeezed into a crowded car, and jumped off at the next town, Manarola.

Down at the harbour, at the ferry ticket kiosk, we were shocked when the young person told us the ferry wasn't running from Manarola because of the rough seas (it looked calm to us), but it was going from Riomaggiore, the next town to the south.  We weighed our options, and decided it was time for gelato, the train back to our home base, Vernazza, and a swim.

A great way to end the day - swim then step into the arch for a fresh water shower, and sit on a rock to dry off in the sun

Cliffhanger

When the rain stopped in the morning, we set off on the trail heading south.  It went up and up, with many sets of rock stairs, and stunning views.

We saw the ferry leaving Vernazza while we were on the trail south

There were many stops to look at the view

Lunch on the edge of a cliff with the town in the background

 

We hiked up the trail heading north to see the afternoon sun on the harbour and town

Heading West

Today we take a train to La Spezia, then catch the Cinque Terre Express train up the coast to Vernazza.  Here are a few more photos from our time in Florence:

Art in the Boboli Garden

The garden at the back of our hotel

The black ceiling of a nearby restaurant, with umbrellas

This is the second dog that came into the restaurant; the servers didn't even blink an eye

NOT an X rated post

Google maps told us that it would take 22 minutes to walk to the gallery we were after, and that it would take the same time by bus or car!  Not that we wanted the latter, but it tells you how tricky the traffic is with all the narrow streets busy with cars, motorbikes, buses... It's always nice to find the pedestrian-only lanes.

We arrived at the gallery road, found the right line, for those with reserved tickets, and entered at our designated time of 10 o'clock.  Once through security, we found a spot away from the mass of people to synchronize our Rick Steves audioguides on our phones, and we were off!

Mercifully, the Accademia gallery is reasonably small, unlike the massive Uffizi we visited yesterday, and soon we were standing in front of Michelangelo's famous statue David.  It really is impressive, and large!

And here he is... well part of him...

Most of the crowds were in the room with the Michelangelo sculptures, so it was a relief to go down a hall to the Museum of Musical Instruments.  The collection came from a Medici prince, and had some very old and unusual items.

This piano-guitar was crafted around 1793 in New York by the Dodds & Claus workshop

Next we walked to the Santa Maria Novella basilica complex to see an exhibition called
Leonardo: a vision of science bridging art and nature.  Da Vinci actually stayed right there in 1504 - 1505 so it was fitting to have the exhibit in what used to be the dormitory wing.

What's wrong with this picture?  No crowds!  We arrive inside the Santa Maria Novella buildings behind the basilica

The courtyard at the end of the hall in the photo above

The exhibit was surprisingly hi-tech, and showed some of the diverse areas Leonardo studied, like tree rings, which plants can be used to produce dyes, the effect of gravity on plants, and more!

This Da Vinci device disorients the plants - they don't grow as well as ones that experience normal gravity

After the museums we enjoyed a nice walk along the Arno river.  Later we sat outside a popular "craft pizza" place, and talked with two people from Segovia, Spain.

Get Thee to a Nunnery

We arrived in hot and humid Florence yesterday about noon.  A short taxi ride took us from the train station to Casa Santo Nome, di Gesu otherwise known as the Convent Hotel.  Once a 15th Century palazzo (a wealthy familys' mansion), it fell into disrepair, changed hands, was a military hospital in 1915, provided lodging for female university students, and finally was donated to an order of nuns, who now run it as a hotel.

Sister Nicola checked us in, explained the curfew (1 a.m.), pointed out the breakfast room and sent us upstairs.  Our room overlooks the garden.  The ceilings have to be 18 feet high.  On our floor there are three lounges with comfortable seating; the big sitting room has an artfully painted ceiling with cherubs and more, and you can look out tall windows into the garden.

After settling into our room we walked a few blocks to the Boboli Gardens  By this time the late afternoon sun was providing beautiful golden light as we walked the grounds.  The garden is huge, built on a slope, and we only had time to see part of it.  A classical Italian garden, started in 1549, it's been changed and modified over the years, and now also has some modern sculptures.

Neptune, spear fishing with his trident

 During the night there was a terrific thunder and lightening storm, with torrential rain, which cleared the air and cooled the temperature.  It was a much more pleasant walk this morning, over the Ponte Vecchio, to the Uffizi Gallery.

We had reserved online for a timed entry and so got right in at 10:00.  It's an enormous building, and was crowded, but we were able to get close to the paintings, and move right along.  We stopped for coffee at the terrace on the top floor, which was a nice break.

Taken through the window on the second floor of the Uffizi.  Zoom in to see the rower about to go under the Ponte Vecchio

Primavera - the Botticelli room was a favourite

Leaving Venice

We're leaving Venice today, wishing we could have stayed longer, as there's SO much to see!  We had fun, saw a lot, and enjoyed our visit to a very unique city.  We'll take the train to Florence this morning.  Here are a few assorted photos from our three and a half days in Venice:

Mail is delivered by cart

Tree pruning taken out by wheelbarrow to a boat - everything comes and goes by boat.

A common sight - not many people have dryers

I guess you cooperate with your neighbour across the canal if you want to add a clothesline!

A rowing lesson

For something different on our last full day in Venice, we booked a lesson with Row Venice.  We were lucky to have not only our instructor Regina, but also an interpreter named Sebastian, who spoke excellent English.

The wooden boats were flat bottom "shrimp tail" ones that ordinary people would have used, in Venice of old.  We started off learning the basics while still tied to the side of a small canal.

We watched our instructor arrive

Brad has the first lesson

We set off up the small canal, with Brad rowing at the front and Regina doing the power steering at the back.  Soon we went out into the lagoon, which was a bit choppy because of boat traffic.  Once across the "lanes" of traffic and into calmer water, I had a turn.  Then Brad learned how to paddle at the back, which is harder and requires a different type of stroke.  Then, ACK... I tried it.

Notice how beginners have their paddle tied to the oarlock!

Saint Mark's Basilica and other adventures

Today our first stop was Saint Mark's Basilica - we joined the throngs of people going inside for the hour that the interior is lit, between 11:30 and 12:30.  We had made sure we were dressed modestly - no bare shoulders or bare knees, according to the rules for visiting churches in Italy.

The interior is truly breathtaking, with gold mosaics, inlaid marble floors, carved columns, Byzantine icons and towering domes. A lot of what adorns both the outside and inside is from the time when Venice was a maritime power and fleets brought back the spoils of war, often from Constantinople (now Istanbul).  The style of the basilica has been called "Early Ransack."

Taken from upstairs, looking towards the altar

The four bronze (97% copper) horses from about 175 BC were moved inside to protect them from the elements.

Gold leaf was baked onto small glass cubes to make the mosaic tiles, then they were pressed into the plaster.   They capture and reflect light; the glow given off symbolizes the Devine light of heaven.

Time for a snack and coffee

Entering Cafe Florian is like stepping back in time.  It opened on St. Mark's Square in 1720 and claims to be the oldest cafe in the world.

We took a vaporetto across the Grand Canal to go up the church tower there, as guidebooks say it lacks the long lineups for other towers and provides a view of Venice and St. Mark's square from across the water.  But alas, the tower was closed for renovation!  So much of Venice is old and crumbling and in need of renovation.

We went instead into an art gallery close by, and found a free and delightful exhibit of altered texts, maps and even globes, plus other art.  All done by Emilio Isgro, an Italian artist and writer.

Altered globes, map and text on the wall behind