Firenze and Fiesole

Cosimo II ( the great) A Medici who contributed greatly to the Arts. . The pigeons are always on his head. Every guide book and every DVD travel guide show poor Cosimo with pigeons doing their thing on his head.

I tried a new format this time because it was easier to get the pictures in. All cars in Europe are smaller than America. When we went to visit the Michelangelo Gardens I saw this little beauty. It's a Mercedes. I'd fit nicely and have room for our golf clubs. Maybe ?

When we got to Florence and checked in at our apartment we went looking in the neighborhood. This is Dante at the Basilica Santa Croce. Croce was right down the street from us. We passed it everyday going here and there.
Our first real touristy thing was to go to the Doumo and light a couple of candles for the kids. At a Euro each they should bring blessings. The price has gone up since I was a kid. Below is the exterior of the Basilica. Built in the 1400's and taking 150 years to complete. It was impressive....and crowded.

This is Bobbe with a lion. Have you noticed she likes cats. When we were cruising around especially in the Uffizi Gallery we started to notice that a lot of statues looked like people we knew. So we named them. The one below is a friend who looks just like this guy. You know who you are!!!

This one is Tommy Houk, for those who know him. That's Tom before he cut the beard. We saw people from when we worked at McDonald's in college and from the last 40 years. Oh look...There's so and so. heheheheheh. We were bad.

The gardens of Michelangelo were just across the Arno and were a beautiful open space. they almost butted up to the Boboli Gardens. This is Bobbe being Bobbe. She made me do the same thing but since this is my blog I'm not putting that stupid picture in. And that's final!!!!!!!

The Duomo is in the background. Perfectly composed you know.
This is a picture of our landlady early one morning. It really wasn't that warm out but who am I to tell her. She had lots of friends and cousins around the city and a whole contingent of friends and family in Roma.

The school had a Saturday afternoon program where a different professor would take a field trip with students each week. We went and the trip took us to Fiesole. We rode two buses, you can only validate your ticket IF the bus is running turkey!!!! As I had mentioned Fiesole is a small town outside Florence which had been an Etruscan city. It was very old and very beautiful. We will stay there next time. We went to an old Abbey which had this very small statue in the wall. It was sculpted for the brothers by the sister of Albert Einstein.. or was it his daughter.

this is the courtyard just outside the chapel where the statue rests. The place was so quiet and peaceful .... also built for munchkins. ... as I write this the snow has started again.... god I should have prayed for sun when I was at Fiesole. The professor spoke English but asked who wanted to just speak Italian. Everyone said Si so I had to try to figure out what was being said. Bobbe got enough to translate. Yes, a beginning intermediate translating to a fool. Actually I picked up quite a bit, especially because I can read roman numerals, and I had Latin and Roman history. It was fun to learn and to see that maybe we could still adapt after all these years.

Ponte Vecchio.. Old Bridge...After we checked out of school we stayed a few days in Firenze in a nice 3 star hotel overlooking the Arno. With a shower in the middle of the bathroom.... later about that. This statue in the Piazza Vecchio is " the Rape of the Sabine Women" The piazza was filled with famous art. The imitation "David" was here, Cosimo, lots of lions and perky women and guys with large........swords. It really was a neat place to watch people. It was 5 blocks from the apartment and two from the hotel.

This is Russell, Barbara and Giovanni. Russell was in Bobbe's language class and my cooking class. So we got to know him. We happen to meet three times this day by accident. First at the Internet cafe, then at Boboli gardens and again when we left Pitti Museo. So we walked to the Piazza Vecchio and talked. He was Australian and was traveling for a while in Italy. He was a Opera singer and was also working as a waiter. Just a very nice kid. About 24 years old. Never did hear him sing, wish we had. That's my relative in the back ground. Cover up you fool. You know you need long arms to take your own picture.

This is Bobbe with a cat at Pitti Museo. I think I put this in two or three times. She was missing her Rockie this day.
Santa Croce from the top of the Duomo. We walked past it everyday and finally on Friday went in. This was my favorite church. Earlier I referred to it as the church with the dead guys. It was. The floors were covered with spaces and tiles and writings about who was buried beneath your feet. You walked right over hundreds of burial places. Each marbled and ornately decorated. This guy from 1500, this was Napoleons daughters spot. The really rich had chapels all over the place. We weren't allowed to take pictures and I respected that. It was hard to walk over someones grave. I just kind of tippy toed around as much as I could......Think a 200# ballerina in Nikes' spinning around Arlington National Cemetery.
When we had seen most of the chapels we noticed a lot of very special statues along the wall. "This the burial place of Dante Alighieri", "This is where Michelangelo is buried", "This is the resting place of Machiavelli", "here lies Marconi" it was really amazing how many very famous people from 100's of years were buried here. .....There was also a leather school where Bobbe bought her only souvenir, a small coin purse. Above is our future apartment. It's in Piazza Santa Croce and had the most wonderful green growth. Picture yourself on the balcony giving beauty waves to the throngs down below. We just came from the mountains you remember. Snow etc.

This extra cat just appeared in the blog. Hey I don't know.... Bobbe is on the right.We only stayed in one very nice hotel. This was the shower. It was in the middle of the room between the toilet and the bidet. When I figured out what it was and told Bobbe she...looked....looked again.... NO, NO I don't believe you!!! then another look and ..Oh my God. I stripped naked on the spot and took a shower. It was weird. Drain on floor and a whole room around you. If the room had had jets in the ceiling I would have felt like a '57 Buick going through a car wash on University ave, with no one watching of course.

Florence is a magnificent city. Great schools, restaurants, unbelievable art and Museo, charm, Vespas, and interesting people. It's a tourist town but still wonderful. We got home and happen to see 60 Minutes and a section on Florence Art and the lost DaVinci. We knew the building but hadn't been in it. We missed so much and saw so much and need to return for a month. I think I'm ready to drive a Vespa in the country side but in the city I don't know. Maybe. We plan to rent a apartment or Agritourisimo house and commute to school. You're all welcome to join us. We just don't know when. Next, Very fast trains and Roma.