#kuwtp: Italia...Firenze

Our next town on the tour was Florence, but on the way we made a stop in San Miniato. It is a small quaint town in the Tuscany region and is known for leather making. We grabbed a delicious lunch and walked though the town for a bit.

Piazza in San Miniato

Part of the original buildings in the village

They seems to be filming a commercial for a Classic Car Rental company - loved the car!

Great lunch spot and views

This bread was delish!!

Olive Oil is yummy and a condiment on the table

Another delicious condiment!

When we planned our visit to Florence, we decided not to stay right in Florence. Instead, we stayed in an incredibly charming town up in the hills overlooking Florence called Fiesole. It was a great choice! It was small with a quaint center piazza, narrow roads, cute homes, historic sites and an easy bus ride to Florence for about $2 a person. We arrived in Fiesole on Wednesday afternoon and checked into out super cute Airbnb. While is was incredibly cute and charming, it was a mechanical fiasco. The air conditioning wasn't working so we spent quite while on WhatsApp with the rental company who had someone out to the place in about an hour and a half. They got it working, but it worked for a bout 3 hours and shut off again. Air conditioning isn't the priority in Europe as it is in the US so you sometimes just have to go with the flow - or no flow in regard to our air unit!

The back patio of our place in Fiesole

View from our place. The belltower in the distance is in the town piazza.

Walking down to the piazza. Lots of steep hills in Fiesole.

We had a nice dinner Wednesday evening in the town center of Fiesole - some great wood fired pizza!! My spicy salami pizza was extraordinary! Chris had a yummy calzone! Our place was a short walk (although up a steep hill) from the main piazza so after dinner we headed back up and called it a night.

Fiesole Piazza

The next morning, we caught the bus to the main historic area of Florence right in the piazza of Fiesole. There were not bus changes or anything. It was about a 20-25 minute direct ride to where we needed to go. We had 10 AM tickets to Accademia Gallery, the home of Michaelangelo's David. Since we had a reserved time, we walked right in the gallery and straight into the space where the famous sculpture resides. It took me all the way back to my Milligan College art history days. However, I don't remember the sling on David being so visible or the stone in his hand. It wasn't nearly as crowded as we expected and it was quite impressive. Michaelangelo considered sculpture to be his niche. After one click of my camera, I discovered that I had left the Airbnb with no memory card in my camera. So for the rest of the day, all pics came from our pocket cams (AKA iPhones)!

David

Pieta - also by Michaelangelo

We then went into a room in the gallery that was filled with almost nothing but sculptures and busts. The fact that they grouped them all there together made an impact. The room that housed all of these sculptures was originally a women's hospital and many of the sculptures dealt with death and dying. The next stop in the gallery for us was a group of Middle Ages and Renaissance paintings from a variety of artists. We then moved into the area of the gallery that highlighted musical instruments of the time period. And then more great artwork!

A painting that was in the sculpture room to represent it's history as a former women's hospital.

A girl and her dog!

A dulcimer made out of marble

In the US, dulcimers are lap instruments. I can't how heavy this is - surely it wasn't meant for the lap??

I loved how the underside of the keys was carved - not sure if it's for function or ornamentation.

A whole new meaning to the term upright piano!

Curved panel painted during the Renaissance - the detail was AMAZING!

Close up view of the detail - such fine lines and texture.

So pretty!

We aren't one for crowds so we tried to find things to do in Florence that maybe others may not do. So, our next stop was to the Laurentian Library! Y'all, Michealangelo designed this library!! It was originally designed and built for the De'Medici family (as really everything was done to impress the De'Medici's) but it was then opened to the public. It houses thousands and thousands of manuscripts, documents, and text from throughout the centuries. It clearly was designed to impress the De'Medici family as apparent in the stained glass windows and the floor. We were two of just a very few people there, and the attendant working the space was eager to tell us all about the library. It was as if we had a personal tour guide! I loved it!

Entry Hall

Basically this is their card catalog!! A general topic listed at the top.

A panel of specific texts below - some of these panels seemed interchangeable.

Texts were changed to this bar and stored in the shelf area. When in use, the patron would sit on the bench (visible in another pic) and put the book on the slanted part of the desk. All reading of the materials had to be done at the library.

The type of marble used on the floor no longer exists. All of the symbols in the floors, windows and ceiling were there to honor the De'Medici family. The library was initially designed for their use.

Illuminated text from the middle ages

Leonardi Di Vinci did the drawings in this text. Supposedly, his signature is upside down in the upper right corner.

Beautiful!!

Our next stop was the Scuola del Cuoio. It is a leather making school that was originally a collaboration between the Francisan Friars of the Monastery of Santa Croce and two craftsman families of the area after WWII. It was originally used to teach WWII orphans a craft. It is still in existance today and when students complete the course, they are considered master craftsmen in the leather industry which is huge in the region of Tuscany where Florence is located.

Herbs drying and hanging from the ceiling at the entrance to the monastery garden. The monastery houses the leather school.

Stamps for leather

Courtyard outside the school

Monastery

Next, we spent some time walking through Florence and checking out the sites - Palazzo Vecchio, the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio and other random sites that caught our eye.

Duomo

More Duomo - this ENTIRE building is covered in marble.

Palazzo Vecchio

Dante

Ponte Vecchio - those are shops and vendors across the bridge - mostly jewelry.

Pistachio Gelato

The heat has been a big factor in our trip - it is sooooo hot! The Florence day was a wall for me - I think the heat and the factor of the time change hit me hard on this day. I was done with crowds and Florence and was ready to head back to the hillside of Fiesole! We caught the #7 bus back to Fiesole and took a break from the city and got ready for dinner. We ate a local restaurant with views overlooking Florance, and my meal was phenomenal! Just outstanding. It was a pasta in a peppery parmesan cream sauce with the best tasting, perfectly crisp, little bacon pieces I think I have every had! I am still thinking about that pasta!!

Dinner in Fiesole

Most delicious pasta I have had so far on the trip!

Chris' Tortelloni and Ragu

The next morning, we checked out of the Airbnb and then went to some Roman historical sites right in Fiesole. There is a Roman theater that dates back to the 1st centry AD that is still used for shows today. They weren't showing anything while we were there, but a play was scheduled for the night we left. In additional to the theater, the were remains of a Roman temple and a Roman bath house. On our way out of Fiesole, we stopped to take in final view of Florence from our hillside. What a view!!