Pisa tourists and Florence friends

The day has finally arrived! I've been putting off writing this post because I knew it would be a long one. :-) But in the last few weeks, I've finished reading both The Monster of Florence-- a true story of a serial killer in the 1970s in Florence, and The Birth of Venus-- a historical novel based in the Renaissance era in Florence. Both books actually mention some of the same areas in Florence and I learned a lot more history about the city. I wish I'd read up more before we went!

After our fun few days in the Cinque Terre, Zach, Jonathan, David and I boarded a train for Florence. But first, we stopped in Pisa. The architecture was amazing. I loved it. But the tourists were way worse than even Venice! Yes, yes, we were tourists too, but it was madness! :-) I tried hard to avoid them in my photos though. Here's the famous tower:

The lawn of the Field of Miracles was immaculate, with signs in certain areas telling people to keep off the grass in several languages. Which made it kind of sad to see people tramping all over the grass after stepping over the fence. As an Aggie trained to stay off the grass at the MSC, I was outraged! :-) Below is the Baptistry.

This seemed to be the official pose for tourists in Pisa, so we figured, why not!

After all the obligatory "hold up the tower" photos, we got ready to board a bus to get back to the train station. Zach had to run to get us tickets for the bus, but while we were waiting, Jon and I did our own impressions of this random mailbox.We made it to the train station on time--thank you Zach-- and arrived in Florence during the "golden hour" which would be perfect for photos, but we were starving so we grabbed some pizza. Mine was the frutti di mare kind, so it had calamari, shrimps and crab on it. It was really good! We boarded a bus to go to Zach's friend Massimo's house in Fiesole, and I found this beyond cute Vespa. I think I'm in love. ;-)Fiesole is just north of Florence, in the Tuscan hills. Our short bus ride dropped us off and I ran to get photos of the view. The light was fading, but I hiked down to a clear spot and started snapping. The most prominent dome in the photo is the famous Duomo of Florence. 

On the other side of the hill where Fiesole's town square is located, you have a completely difference view of the countryside. We were waiting for Massimo and his girlfriend Stine to pick us up, so I kept taking photos.

Stine and Massimo rented the bottom floor of this adorable house. Check out their door!

This is the view from their front patio where Jonathan and Zach slept.

Their front gate. Zach took these photos.

That evening, Stine and Massimo barbequed for us. We had sausage, potatoes, salad and delicious wine. Zach met Massimo when he studied abroad in Florence for 6 weeks a few years ago. They became great friends, so it was really cool to meet him and Zach enjoyed catching up with his friend.

The next day, Massimo had to work and Stine needed to plan their future trip to Vietnam the day after we were leaving, so Zach, my brothers and I headed out to explore Florence. We walked everywhere that day, and it was a lot of walking! I was still feeling under the weather, so we didn't rush anywhere though. Zach found the house he lived in while he studied and showed it to us. He said he had parties and kicked his soccer ball around on this patio.

Walking around, I discovered the car I've decided I really really want: a Fiat 500. It's so beautiful and tiny and I loveeee it! I can't wait for them to come to the US. I came home and researched it because I fell in love. Please Fiat, give me my 500! I also found out that Luigi from the Pizar movie "Cars" is based on the original Fiat 500. Adorable!Don't know what this statue is, but I thought it was really cool so I asked the boys to watch for cars and took a photo from the middle of the road. :-)

Here's another car we all liked. I don't really know what it was called, but it's pretty sleek!After some more walking around, we went to the Accademia gallery. We waited nearly an hour in line because we didn't listen to Rick Steves to book a reservation beforehand(we didn't know when exactly we'd be able to go) and we couldn't make reservations the day before because it was Sunday. The line took much less time than we thought, and we only melted for a little while in the heat outside. :-) It was totally worth it because we were able to see Michelangelo's David. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside, but I have to tell you I was blown away much more than I expected. It's incredible! Also in that museum is the statue that is on the cover of The Monster of Florence book.

Here's one of the photos I took of the Duomo-- the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It was mentioned alot in both the books I read! To the left is the facade, the center is the Dome and the right is the bell tower. I loved the bell tower the most! I read somewhere that when the church was being built in the years beween 1296 and 1436, there was no technology to create a dome of this size, but they built the opening anyway, trusting that someone would come along who could do it. During that time, Filippo Brunelleschi was born and won a contest to design the dome. Funded by the Medici family, this piece of architecture was revolutionary!After shopping in the market around the Duomo for a while, we met up with Stine and Massimo. We headed over to the Palazzo Vecchio where we found an outdoor replica of the David and lots of other statues. I didn't like the replica near as much as the original. :-) Near there is the Piazza della Signoria, where we found this statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa. I was intruiged by the detail! Look at that hair!

 

Right nearby was a long courtyard that I've since learned is part of the Uffizi Gallery. It had a lot of statues along the walls of famous Florentines. I don't know who this guy is, but I swear his eyes are alive. Uber creepy!

This was a "live" statue. He was really funny so I had to get a photo with him.

As you walked through the courtyard, you could hear angelic voices echoing all around you. This group below sang the whole time we were there and it really made the atmosphere something special!

At the end of the courtyard a bride and groom were taking wedding photos with the Arno river behind them. The whole area was just beautiful.

I was so happy to be able to experience the city Zach fell in love with. 

As we all walked around Florence, we passed this building. I don't know what it is, but I loved how the light was shining.We headed back to Fiesole because the final day of the town festival was happening that evening. We all decided to go. Here is the view along the road we walked up to get to the festival.

I know this photo is blurry, but it's another view of Florence behind us!

Zach took this photo. Below is the festival where we met up with some of Zach and Massimo's friends. 

We had the food and drinks from the region, listened to live music and just hung out with a bunch of people from Fiesole. Here is our table with Massimo(wearing yellow), Stine(right behind him) and friends.

The next day, we had to say good bye and headed on to Milan!