The J Boz Family: Ciao Italia! Week 2

I know there were a lot of pictures from our 1st week in Italy ☺ Now for Week 2!

Friday

We woke up in Salerno that morning and caught a train to Florence.

heading into city center

our first glimpse of the Florence Cathedral

Construction on the cathedral began in 1296 and was consecrated in 1436.

Jimmy jinxed himself when he told me before we left on our trip that we were only going to eat at one Hard Rock Cafe. ☺

Luke is totally thinking, "seriously, ANOTHER church??!!!!"

There are Luigis in Florence!!!

Saturday

The door to the Cross is one of the monumental gates of surviving thirteenth-century walls of Florence. We walked through it every day on our way in and out of the city center of Florence.

There was a Christian gift shop across from the entrance to the duomo of the cathedral. We went in there on Friday evening just before they closed. This nun took an instant liking to the kids. In fact she was THRILLED when we returned Saturday morning to buy some things. She was a delight and I detected a bit of spunkiness in her too! ☺

There were A LOT of people in Florence that day. Sometimes it pays to get there early to get up towards the front of the line even if we have to wait awhile.

While we were waiting for the Duomo to open we took turns going through the Florence Baptistery. The Baptistery is one of the oldest buildings in the city, constructed between 1059 and 1128 in the Florentine Romanesque style.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was given a commission in 1425 to create these doors. It took him 21 years to complete them. These had ten panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament.

The entire ceiling is made entirely of mosaic ceiling dating from 1255.

making our way up to the duomo

☺

This is a picture of Jimmy laughing at me. We are at the base of the dome inside the cathedral and although there is a plexi-glass barrier on top of the short wall....it didn't help,,,,,.it was a long way down! I am griping that ledge with all of my might while at the same time pushing myself up against the wall as I scoot along it (and all the while telling the kids to hold on and slow down!) The kids on the other hand thought it was awesome because on the movie Mr. Peabody and Sherman this is where Sherman and his friend fly into on one of DaVinci's flying machines! ☺

going on up! (doing much better now ☺)

The views were amazing!

This was the first octagonal dome in history to be built without a wooden supporting frame.

We walked around the outside of the duomo just below those black windows on top of the bricks.

After the duomo we went to the Florence Market for lunch.

After lunch we walked around and saw some "interesting" things.....

The Crucifix of Santa Maria Novella is one of the crosses shaped (tempera and gold on wood, 18'x13') by Giotta dating from 1288-1289.

Sunday

This was a parking garage we walked by that morning.......

It was Easter morning and we came upon a parade making its way to the Florence Cathedral.

We decided that since everything would be closed due to it being Easter Sunday and there wouldn't be a lot of drivers on the road (we'd heard Italians were crazy drivers) we headed off to drive through Tuscany for the day. And of course as soon as we get in the car, someone decides to tell he feels carsick (he never gets carsick)......and he didn't.....he was fine 10 minutes later.....

Tuscany - we were just ahead of everything being in bloom, but it was still pretty.

We headed down to San Gimignano. It is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy.

Most of the stores had these olive branches hanging outside.

an Easter treat - Lindt chocolate bunnies!

After we left San Gimignano we spent the afternoon driving through the Tuscan countryside.

The Tuscan countryside looks just like it does in pictures, however I'm not sure the kids noticed........

Monday

We started off our day at the Uffizi Museum.

The diptych of the Dukes of Urbino is one of the most famous works of art of the Italian Renaissance. It was painted between 1465 and 1472.

Did I mention that a lot of other people started off their morning there too??!

The Birth of Venus was painted by Sandro Botticelli between 1482 and 1485.

The white dots lining the inside of the dome are seashells!

The Ponte Vecchio Bridge from the Uffizi

The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") is a medival stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers and souvenir sellers.

In order to connect the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence's town hall) with the Palazzo Pitti, in 1565 Cosimo I de' Medici had Giorgio Vasari build the Vasari Corridor above it. To enforce the prestige of the bridge, in 1593 the Medici Grand Dukes prohibited butchers from selling there; their place was immediately taken by several gold merchants.

Luke had had enough of art and so he and I found a bench where he could take (a much needed!) nap.

After lunch we came upon these trash cans being dumped. The cube sits underneath the ground and collects the trash. Then the whole thing is lifted out of the ground and the trash is dumped out of the bottom of the cube. We had never seen anything like it before.

Oh the things we "exposed" our children to on that trip! That statue is absolutely magnificent!

Such amazing details in that sculpture.

Visitors to Il Porcellino put a coin into the boar's gaping jaws, with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck, and they rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Florence.

There were too many people around the boar for Jack to put a coin inside its jaws, but he did give the snout a good rub!

The Arno River from the Ponte Vecchio

We spent the better part of the afternoon just walking around, so after awhile we stopped for a well deserved gelato break.

more lemons!

Looking out on Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo.

Il Duomo, the Tuscan countryside, San Gimignano, the Uffizi, Michaelangelo's David, art, food, "old world" feel, Ponte Vecchio, The Gates of Paradise, and SO many more things made Florence Jimmy's favorite city in Italy!

We were easily amused with some of the street signs in Florence ☺

We decided to take a gamble on dinner that night. The kids' quesadillas weren't bad....the fajitas.....eh......

Tuesday

Off to Venice we went!

Jimmy's lunch

Jimmy had read that the best way to explore Venice was to just "get lost". So that's what we did!

We'd walk down a street until it became a dead end and then we'd let one of the kids pick left or right. They had a blast!

They also got a kick out of watching the gondolas go under the bridge that we were standing on.

The Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge

The Rialto Bridge

And of course there was gelato in Venice! ☺

Jimmy was adamant that we not eat at the Hard Rock Cafe in Venice. But earlier in the day when we were walking around, Jack needed to throw his gum away. Jimmy pointed out a trash can to him not realizing that it was a trash can outside of the HRC store! This picture is of Kate after the millionth time she'd asked that afternoon if we could eat there for dinner and had been told NO!

Piazza San Marco

St. Mark's Clock Tower - it dates from the 15th century

One can not go to Venice and not ride in a gondola!

We took our ride after 7pm, so the light wasn't as harsh. It was really peaceful.

our gondola driver

Marco Polo's house

about to go underneath the Rialto Bridge

It was a little nerve racking getting off the boat before the kids.

No parents!!! Let's go again!!! At least Jack and Kate would have........not so much for Luke!

Wait.....is anyone going to help me off???

We didn't eat until pretty late that evening. This little guy had been a pill all day and come to find out, the next day, he hadn't been feeling good because he started running a fever. So he was more than wiped out from walking around all day. I'm not sure he even ate anything before he crashed.

Wednesday

Venice's garbage "truck"

We headed back to Piazza San Marco.

We headed up into Campanile, the bell tower of St. Mark's.

St. Mark's Basilica - the present structure was consecrated in 1084.

The upper levels of the interior are completely covered with bright mosaics covering an area of about 8000 m².

The presbytery is separated by an altar screen formed by eight red marble columns crowned with a high Crucifix and statues. Behind the screen, marble banisters with bronze statues of the Evangelists and of the Four Doctors mark the access to the high altar, which contains St Mark’s relics.

I loved the floors!

Daddy caved for lunch! Actually he had caved the night before, but the wait was too long by the time we'd gotten there so Jimmy said we could eat here for lunch. And BELIEVE me they didn't let him forget! ☺

Later that afternoon it was time to head to Milan, so we headed to the "taxi" ☺

Poor little guy slept all the way to Milan.

Thursday morning we headed to Lake Como for the day.

We got off the train in Varenna about an hour north of Milan.

We had to wait on the ferry to take us to Bellagio, so walked over into the town of Varenna.

This was about the best view of the Italian Alps we had all day. There was a forest fire in the area which made it quite a hazy day.

Where there are water and rocks.....

getting on the ferry to Bellagio

We spent the day exploring the streets of Bellagio.

I know this isn't the best picture of them but this was such a cool little find. We had been following this path and came across these steps leading down to a marina. Jimmy and I soaked in the views while the kids threw rocks into the water.

The forest fire that blocked our views of the mountains was just across the lake from us.

After lunch we found a park next to a rocky area. The boys threw rocks into the water while Kate searched the rocks for treasures!

Before getting back on the ferry to Varenna, we took time for a gelato break ☺

The boys fell asleep on the train back to Milan. So Kate took the opportunity to entertain us.

Friday

We headed into Milan to the Piazza del Duomo.

Construction on the cathedral began in 1386.

heading up to the terraces.....ok more like dragging him up to the terraces.....he'd had enough of churches by this point (and I can't say I didn't blame him!)

the crypt

It wasn't uncommon to see things like this inside the cathedrals.

Torino's Bull - a tradition says that if you put your right heel on the bull's balls and turn on yourself three times, this will bring you good luck.

giving it a shot!

When in Milan one MUST go shopping, right? (at least for cheap nailpolish ☺)

There wasn't a whole lot to do in Milan so we passed the time just wandering around.

Later that afternoon we had to get ready to head to the airport. This little guy didn't even last very long on the subway that was taking us back to our hotel!