Florence & Pisa

Florence and Pisa were on our original tour list.  On Day...4?...we finally took one of the tours we had originally signed up for.  Florence was terribly crowded.  My camera battery was near dead, and photos?  Well, I just didn't take many.

Florence was the center of the Medici patronage.  Firenze!  Florence!  The home of Dante, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci...it was the center of the Renaissance.  The churches are incredible, the use of marble is gorgeous.  From a distance, we saw the golden doors of the baptistry.  It was heart-wrenching to hear that the Arno flooded in 1966, rising 15' through this cultural center of art and beauty.

 I believe the name of this basilica is Santa Maria del Fiori.

 The dome is enormous.   I think our guide said it weighs something like 39 tons?  And it's a dome within a dome.  I remember thinking that if that thing ever collapsed, it would leave a crater.

We were able to enter Santa Croce, the Church of the Holy Cross.  This is where all the "famous" people are buried.  Or used to be buried.  Our guide said that when the flood came through, many of the crypts were disturbed.  a disturbing thought.  It's been cleaned and restored, after all, it's been more than 50 years, but signs of the flood are still visible.

As we left, we stopped to get a last look at Florence.   We were only there for a couple of hours, so we did not get the chance to see David or explore any of the museums or much of anything, really.  We did enter Santa Croce, but that was it.  We will have to go back again, when we have some time to really explore.

We were scheduled to visit Pisa, but the rain had begun coming down in torrents.  Our tour group was of the elderly variety.  We were the youngest on the bus, by at least 10 years.  Several of them rebelled, and said they had no interest in Pisa.  I really wanted to see that leaning tower.  I mean, I've heard of it forever.  Imagine being so close, and not going to see it?  Luckily people spoke up, and we continued to Pisa as planned.

There is not much to do there, as we did not have the time to climb it or visit the baptistry, but wow.  It is quite impressive, and I was surprised by how beautiful it was.  Perhaps it was the grey of sky that made the marble glow.  I loved it.  At this point in the trip, it was the highlight.

I guess it is built like a banana.  By the time they got to the third floor, they realized it was sinking.  They decided to combat the tilt by building at an angle, trying to make it straighter.  Through the centuries, it has continued to sink.  In the 1800's, they dug down and tried to shore up the foundation.  Our guide said it should be good for another 300 years before they have to do something else to keep it from tipping all the way over.

Next up:  Rome.  Stay tuned!

Good to be Home

10 days after the quilt show ended, my husband and I flew to Barcelona to catch a cruise ship.  For 12 days, we cruised in luxury, visiting ports of call along the Mediterranean.  Because of the weather, several of our ports were changed.  On one day, we skipped the port altogether.  Lots of days of winds of 55 knots, and 11.5' swells on the bow.  wow.  Did it ruin the trip?  Not at all.  We were on vacation, and enjoyed every minute of it.

To begin with, we flew business class, which is nothing short of amazing.  Have you seen business class these days?  With recliners and power outlets and privacy galore?  I still was unable to sleep, but I was more comfortable than I've ever been in an airplane.  SO nice.

 I suspect this is the biggest smile I've ever worn on an airplane.  I've always hated to fly.  These accommodations now have me disliking it, quite the step up from hating it!

 Look at this leg room!!  Wonderful!!

We boarded our ship in Barcelona.  Our first port of call was to be Menorca, but because of weather, we stopped instead on Majorca.  What a lovely island!

 We were there on Good Friday, but we still had the opportunity to enter this amazing Gothic cathedral.  I don't remember what it is called, but it has the largest rose window in the world.  I had to take the picture from an angle, to get any color to show in the image.

This castle was used by Generalissimo Franco to house 600 political prisoners during the Spanish Civil War.  The interior has graffiti etched into the stone.  I guess the good part for them was that they had the room to move around.  The original "jail" in the castle was a pit with a coned roof and no windows whatsoever.  Horrific, to be sure.

 The town center of Palma boasts this 700 year old olive tree.  I took a dozen different shots of this tree, hoping to use one or more of them in a quilt, eventually.

When we left Majorca, our next port of call was Marseilles.  Hubby and I had signed up for an all day tour of Provence, which was cancelled due to lack of sign-ups.  Instead, we visited Avignon.  Stay tuned, and I'll tell you about it in my next post.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get back in the groove of being home.  I miss my cabin steward the most.  No one is making the bed for me in the morning, no one is turning it down for me at night, and I really miss the chocolates and fresh fruits, delivered daily.  It's some kind of life, to be sure!