Jeanette and I traveled to West County Mayo the day after Thanksgiving last year. We discussed our ‘bucket list” and discovered that we both wanted to go to the Tuscany region of Italy. With that, a few days later, he had our tickets to Pisa.
On Jeanette’s birthday, 9 February, we left for Tuscany to visit Florence and Siena. We flew from Dublin to Pisa, and it was pouring rain when we landed. This was one of those times when a decision didn’t include the “cheap” way to get somewhere. The relief of seeing our driver waiting to take us from Pisa airport to the city centre of Florence (about 90-100 minutes) repeatedly flooded over us. High-five moments.
More importantly, what we immediately saw and felt. This is
where we were let out at Piazza di Santa Croce. We had no idea. We gasped and
laughed and were in awe. It turns out that Jeanette had been there as a young
woman at 17 years old.
We spent the next few days in
Florence and were enamored by it’s architecture, history, extensive art
collections (kicked off the Renaissance here backed by the Medici family who
ruled for 60 years) and people.
We were in complete awe and gave rainy Florence a 10. While there, I looked up some interesting facts about Florence (credit to https://www.florencetoursitaly.it/blog/8-things-you-didnt-know-about-florence/):
- The Duomo, Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, took 140 years to complete.
- In 1339, Florence became the first city in Europe to have paved streets. The city paved all its streets with donations from wealthy merchants and banks. So perhaps all roads should lead to Florence, not Rome!
- Florence is the home of gelato. Yum!
- The Uffizi Gallery has the largest Renaissance art collection in the world. Move over Louvre.
- Florence is the birthplace of the piano. No way!
- It was the capital city of Italy for a while.
- Gucci, yes, Gucci, was started here in 1921. (shopping is available at gucci.com. New Spring 2024 shoulder bags can be ordered starting at $3200 USD)
The photo below is of Michaelangelo's David sculpture. On the same visit mentioned above, Jeanette saw the David when visiting Florence in the late 70's. We've always had a replica of the David since she acquired it as a youth. Now, to see it again after all these years was a beautiful, emotional experience of memories and a flood of feelings. (I've left that video out of the blog.) 😊
When I was a boy, my mother had a coffee table fine art book
entitled “Uffizi.” I remember laying on
the floor in our home in California at 7-10 years old and looking at the art in
the book. On the cover was a painting of a woman from a work of art known as
“La Primavera” by Sandro Botticelli. Standing in front of this great piece with
my flood of memories from my childhood thoughts was surreal. I think moments
like these helped build an appreciation for the world's fine arts.
A stroll through the neighborhood.
Just a neighborhood school on a side street with a fading
fresco. Finding the extraordinary in the
ordinary...
A priest and his students at Santa Croce the day we were leaving.
*************
Next Week: We’ll share our visit to Siena. Suffice it to say,
Siena = Exquisite
(Love Tuscany)
No comments:
Post a Comment