Spring Break-Pisa and the Leaning Tower!!

When we saw everything in Florence for the day, we took a train to Pisa and stayed the night there!  It was really beautiful.  As soon as we checked in and dropped off our bags, we went out exploring to go see the Piazza del Duomo at night!

Il Duomo Cattedrale

The cathedral, baptistery and bell tower were all light up.  It was really spectacular to come around the corner and see the tower lining the night sky!

Bell tower (aka Leaning Tower of Pisa)

We ate supper at a small, local place and headed back to our hotel where we had...salami, cheese and wine from Florence!!  Kyle was determined to go into a really nice deli to find some salami to take home and we also got a small sample for us to try for the night.  We ended up getting salami piccante and salami with truffle oil along with some herb crusted cheese.  Unfortunately, they threw away the salami when he went through customs...

Wine, cheese with herbs, and salami with truffle oil
What a way to end the night!

The next morning, we found out when the church opened, ate our breakfast and were on our way!

Breakfast of champions-cappuccino,
tomatoes, mozzarella, and salami with cheese!

The piazza definitely looks very different during the day and was filled with people!

Cathedral and bell tower

Baptistery

The building next door sold tickets to visit the different areas in the church and we were lucky and got one of the next times to go up the tower with just enough time to see the baptistery first.

Model of Il Duomo with
the baptistery, tower, cloister and city wall

This baptistery is the largest in Italy and shows the transition between Romanesque and Gothic architecture.  The lower course is Romanesque and the upper courses are Gothic.

Interior of the baptistery

Both the interior and the exterior are clad in marble, however, the interior has very little decoration.

Pulpit

Camera hole in the screen for pictures

Looking down on the baptistery

Next, we went to the magnificent tower so we could climb up!

Torre di Pisa

The 296 steps seemed like a piece of cake when compared to the trek we made the day before.

Years of wear on the stairs

Climbing up was quite the experience-each time we changed sides of the tower, we leaned a different way.  You could even see the wear path on the stairs move from the inside to the outside walls of the tower.  The marble was also worn down about two or more inches in some places from all of the people who have climbed them over the years.

View of Pisa

View of cloister

If you look closely, you can see our
shadows in the picture-we're the
blob off to the right!

The views were absolutely amazing!

Cathedral and baptistery

We made it to the top!

Some of the bells!

Part of the structure that was added
to help keep the tower stable

When we finally made it down from the tower, it was time to visit the cathedral!

Elaborate bronze doors

The cathedral was started in 1064 and wasn't finished until 1118.

Elaborately decorated pulpit

The first major renovations happened in 1595 after a fire destroyed many elements in the church.

Left transept

There were beautiful paintings all along the aisles and while we were there, two men were cleaning the marble of the altar with steam.

This makes for an awfully nice leaning post :)

We had to try out attempts at 'touching' the tower...

Let me just try and straighten this out...

Our trip to Pisa was definitely worth it.  After grabbing our bags from the hotel, it was time to catch the train back for a relaxing afternoon in Rome!

River Arno running through Pisa

Spring Break-Next to Firenze!!

Tuesday morning (13 March), we got up really early and left the hotel by 5:00 a.m. so that we could catch the early train to Florence!  Our first stop was getting breakfast and mapping out our hectic route for the day-unfortunately that stop had to be at a McDonald's because it's one of the few restaurants that doesn't charge extra for sitting down.  

Frantically planning our day

The first place we visited was the Santa Maria Novella which is right next to the train station.  The facade is an example of Italian Gothic but the interior has some elements from the Renaissance.

Santa Maria Novella

Santa Maria Novella courtyard

Santa Maria Novella nave

After visiting the Santa Maria Novella, we went to the Medici Chapel.  Then, we followed the street which had a large market where vendors were selling leather goods of all sorts.  We ended up at the entrance to the Basilica di San Lorenzo which is also connected to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (library) whose entrance stairs were designed by Michelangelo!

Entrance stairs by Michelangelo!

This was a very innovative design because for the time he was combining rectalinear and curvilinear forms.  The center stairs seem to be spilling out but yet contained by the standard linear stairs to either side.

Wood carved ceiling of the library

Study pews in the library

Next, we went to the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's David is housed.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures.  After that, we went to visit Il Duomo which is the big cathedral in Florence.

Il Duomo

We visited the inside of the church, ...

Il Duomo nave

Dome of Il Duomo

...then saw the outside of the bell tower, ...

Campanile di Il Duomo

...viewed the facade, ...

Facade of Il Duomo

...then went to the Baptistery, ...

Dome of the Baptistery

...and then we decided it was time to climb the huge dome of Il Duomo!!

Going to the top!

At first, Kyle was really excited to go to the top.

What?!? Stairs the whole way!!! (463 stairs...)

Then, I told him we had to walk the entire way...

Transept of Il Duomo from the dome

When we got to the rim of the dome, I told him we were halfway there.  Maybe I lied...

Steps inside the double dome-designed by Brunelleschi

The view was definitely worth it when we got to the top!

View of the city

We finally made it!

Then, it was time to go back down and I maybe told him that there was a slide so that we wouldn't have to walk down all of them.

A slide down!

Maybe I lied again...

Grrrrr!!

The stairs down seem a little scarier, especially when they disappear over the side of the dome...

Stairs going down

Once, we finally were down we realized that it was quite the accomplishment and we were very proud of ourselves!

Yep, we were all the way up at the top!

Next, we went to the house of Michelangelo!

Casa Buonarroti

Unfortunately, they were closed...

Closed on Tuesdays :(

After our failed attempt at visiting Michelangelo's house, we visited the church that he regularly attended.

Santa Croce nave

The church has the tombs of both Michelangelo and Galileo inside.

Tomb of Michelangelo

Tomb of Galileo Galilei 

Cloister of Santa Croce

Facade of Santa Croce

Next, we walked around the city some more before heading to the last museum.  We had a wonderful view of the Ponte Vecchio which has shops built all along the top of it.

Ponte Vecchio

We went to the Palazzo Pitti and tried to see the Giardino di Boboli but the last entrance time had already passed.  The Palazzo Pitti is one of the grand palaces in Florence which used to belong to the Pitti family who were rivals with the Medici family.  Later it was used by Napoleon Bonaparte as his residence while he was in control of Italy.

View of Giardino di Boboli from a window in Palazzo Pitti

We only had one more thing left to see and lucky for us, the way there involved us actually crossing the Ponte Vecchio!

Walking down the Ponte Vecchio

We're almost there!!!

Courtyard of the Uffizi

Ta da! This is a replica of the famous David sculpted by Michelangelo.  In his left hand, you can see him holding the stone that he used to take down Goliath.  This replica is in the exact place that the original was.

The David replica in Piazza della Signoria 

Just another reminder-we climbed to the top of the dome-that's right!

463 steps to the top!