We have an early start this morning to beat the line to see David.  At 8.00 am there was quiet a line.  At 10.00 when we exited the museum the line was much much longer.  15,000 people a day see David. Prince Charles and Carmello were there the day before, sorry we missed them actually.  It would have been a brag note along with the cuppa with the Pope.  David spent the first 400 years of his life in the open air.  A few years ago they moved him inside and a person attacked the statue and smashed his foot.  It has been repaired and the security has been improved.

Michelangelo won the right to carve David in a competition run by a President who had defeated the Medici Family in an election. He only lasted one term.  The idea of David was of the little man defeating the unbeatable competition. This concept “rang a bell” the President and so Michelangelo got the commission to carve David.  He surrounded himself in a wooden enclosure inside the workshop and carved David over three years.  The stature is 5m high and the reason it was so acclaimed was because the body of David was in good proportion. Given that he didn’t work from a plaster model rather he worked from memory, makes the final product all the more exceptional.

Pictures of David.

 

The forth and last Piete

Notice the Piete has a very large arm.  Michelangelo start the sculpture and had his apprentices finish it off.  The arm and the size of it is a reflection of the skills of the carver.

This where David stood for 400 years before being moved inside out of the cold.

The Merdici family believed art should be for everyone.  The second picture is a modern addition to the landscape.

This was followed by a walk around the city centre and shopping in a jewellery and a leather shop. Louise and I had a great lunch in a small restaurant followed by Florence’s best gelato.

Once again the church was centre stage white green and white marble and all sides had been cleaned except one.  Da Vinci designed and built the crane that got the golden ball to the top of the dome.

 

 

Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence

The Golden Gates of Paradise

 

Modern art in Florence and my artistic flair

In the evening we went to the castle where Machiavelli lived or was exiled to in 1511 to 1513. The host was very interesting and made us all at home straight away.  The aperitif was blue sparkling wine. We went on a special private tour of the home and showed us the cellar and took us through the under road tunnel which Machiavelli would use to go to the pub in the evenings rather than crossing the road. The meal consisted of salami, two types of pecorino cheese, mortabella, prosciutto, crusty bread with olive tapenade, green pesto and tomatoes. First course was ricotta filled ravioli with truffle and cheese sauce and rigatoni with wild boar sauce. Second cause was beef off the bone with roast potatoes and the final course was panacotta and anniversary cake.  These meals were all matched with wines from the Tuscany and some from their own winery.  We were entertained by a brilliant singer and a guitarist.  The floor show was provided by Mario and Maria (Our guide) dancing the salsa a couple of times resulting in all the males having to commit to dancing lessons. This was a fabulous evening with the group having a fantastic night and even the festivities continued on the bus with great music, joyous singing and seeing the lights of Florence.

Louise looking splendid in the country side

Our host, come waiter playing Machiavelli, the tunnel under the road to the pub and the view of the Tuscan landscape from the restaurant.

Today we went to Pisa.  On the way we saw rice fields, the region famous for Asti Spumanti (a favorite from our younger days), Campari and Nutella.

On the way we saw Genova.  Its claim to fame is Green Pesto and is also very famous for stone cutting and even though the marble mines will run out, some time, there will always be an industry cutting stone. It also had lots of tunnels and bridges with very steep mountains. Also we saw the Marble Mountains. We thought it was snow on the mountains however the mountains are made of marble.  These are the mountains that Michelangelo came to pick his marble blocks to carve except the block he used to carve David; it was given to him.  There is only 100 years of marble left in the mountains and they only pay 5 Euro per tonne tax to mine it.

This is not snow, it is marble aptly called the Marble Mountains

Pisa was all that was expected. A little bit of information was that the tower was leaning when it was being built.  It was simply built too high for the soft soil foundations that is was built on. If you look at the structure about five floors up they tried to straighten the structure; they failed.  The whole area was once a swamp and the soil is very soft, hence the problem. The tower was closed in 1990 and a committee was formed to solve the problem of the leaning tower. A number of solutions were tried. They have poured lead around the base of the tower opposite the lean (600 tonnes).  It is holding the tower at the moment however they are concerned that the pressure halfway way up the tower on the inside may be too much and it may explode like a similar tower did in 1989.  They now have a monitoring system in place and you can climb the tower but we didn’t take that option up.

Everything has a lean to it including my head

Even the sculpture had a lean, joking it is a sculpture of the fallen angel

We then traveled to Florence, Firenze or flower and arrived late and went to a 600 year old castle.  It really did need heating.  They have heated one room and it cost 40,000 Euros; the other rooms are on hold. Although it was a quick meal it was traditional home cooking done by the owner’s aunt.  We had spelt soup, tomato and bread sauce, pasta with vegetables and cheese, roast pork, homemade salami with fennel and peppercorns, cheeses, olive tapenade with tomatoes on crusty bread, biscotti with desert wine all washed down with lots of their own wine. We also had saffron flavoured jelly on pecorino cheese.  The saffron is grown on the estate and last year they harvested half a kilo (50,000 Euro)  It is the only privately owned castle in Italy.  It had a room called the conspiracy room.  It this room the owner plotted to over throw the Merdici Family.  Sadly for him, he failed and he was exiled to the castle and if the castle hadn’t been designed by a very famous architect the castle would have been destroyed.

Alberto, our host, cousin of the owner, Dud in the cellar, the courtyard and the courtyard.

We had great home cooked food tonight, with wine, and we were looking forward to our bed in Florence.

Ops just realized we posted out of order.  We have been fighting the internet and this is the result.  Will work on it tonight

 

Ciao

Early start this morning or at least it felt like it. We looked over the views of Florence from the same location we visited last night and had some great panoramic views. I don’t know whether it was the previous evening or the fact that this was the last day but the bus was subdued on its way to Sienna.

Last panoramic views over Florence

This is where the famous bare backed horse race happens.  It’s like the Melbourne cup on Steroids. They take three months to prepare the jockeys and your horse is drawn out of a hat.  The horses are blessed in a church and if they leave fertilizer, it is good luck for the people.  The riders are given sticks to whip the horses and the other riders and they race three times around the square which is shell shaped.  They put sand over the stone square and they ride bare back.

Pretty safe really(not), and the prize, a painted flag(whoopee). It something I think that was dreamt up during a night out on the grog and should have been forgotten in the morning. However, being Italy it is an annual event with great passion and rivalry.

The racetrack in Sienna

This town is famous for its banking industry.  Like all banks it was bailed out in the global financial crisis.  I noticed something else about this about this town; it had a predominance of bald headed men.  I have thought hard and long about this and I can come to no reasonable explanation as to why they would all congregate in a walled city like this.  The other thing that is interesting about this town is that if you build you had to use the one colour and type of brick.  It is called Sienna red.  I wonder if the Mayor owned a brick factory??

Some more views of the cityscape of Sienna

 

I hope I look as stylish as this guy at his age

After this we drove to Roma for our last night together as a group.  We had a meal in the Marriott with great views over the city landscape.

We enjoyed the company of the other travellers and especially the guidance and effort afforded us by tour director Maria and our driver Alfredo who can drive a bus on road that should be good for a little Fiat let alone buses.

 

Just a foot note.  The internet in the hotels is dreadful so I apologize for the intermittent posting.  We have a package on the boat which means I should be able to upload all the postings I have written but not uploaded.

Ciao

Happy Birthday Chris

Today we went on a trip up the side of Lake Como to catch a boat over Bellagio.  On the way we saw George Clooney’s home.  Apparently he will be home in June so we couldn’t drop in for a cafe.  Our guide was telling us that Jonnie Vercase left his home on the lake to his niece.  After a while she put it on the market for 13M Euro.  They were deciding whose bid to accept when a Russian came along and offered 35m Euro.  This has set a new benchmark in Lake Como and has affected all properties in the area. Lake Como is surrounded by the Alps and we could see the Alps of Austria and Switzerland.  So if we say we saw Austria and Switzerland we were not lying.

Cafe with George…not home

Bellagio is both beautiful and draining on the bank balance. The china in Italy is amazing, as is the leather goods, cloths, shoes…. We were supposed to explore the island however we had a very interesting tour of two shops.

 

We cruised around a part of Lake Como.  We saw a house the Guinness family bought as an investment to rent out.  Unfortunately they forgot about the 185 steps down from the road and no garages.

Steps what steps

The National Trust Estate has a house of the lake that makes a lot of money as a weddings’ venue.  It costs 1000 Euro for a simple civil ceremony and that doesn’t include the reception or getting the mayor to perform the ceremony.  You might recognise the tree in the garden as it is the tree in the James Bond movie when Daniel Crag is recovering from his injuries.

Daniel Craig recovered under that tree

Further on down the lake we found the location of our next June long weekend.  It costs $150,000 a week, breakfast not included.  A Russian hired it for three weeks for his daughter’s wedding.  I am starting to worry about validity of the Russian money being invested in this country.

Long weekend here we come

In the afternoon we went for a walk along the lake with the expectation of going up the mountain on the cable car.  It must have been the Maseratis or the Ferraris from Melano taking our attention  because we walked past it and took some time to realise it; anyway the gelato was good.

The Ferraris of the boat world  Boat shed too small I think?

The evening meal was in a local restaurant where we had a salad, pasta with three cheese sauces, steak done with parmigiano and rocket and carrot cake and lots of local wine. The steak was interesting because the cheese gave it a salty taste and the rocket provided the pepper.

Happy birthday Zac, we tried to text but the reception on the ferry wasn’t the best as we exited Venice.

Verona here we come.   These people know how to dress.  They are very smart.

 

We went to Guilette’s house of the Romeo and Guilette fame. How cool was that and we also went through the whole house and stood on the balcony.  In case you think it is strange if you hold the right boob of Guilette it is meant to be good luck in love.  I felt she was a little cold….

Guilette’s balcony and me !!!!!!

Verona also had a very cool flower market in the square.  They also had an interesting arena.  It was not as spectacular as Roma but it was better than the Athletic Oval in Toowoomba.

Arena and view of square from cafe

Then we went onto Milan. We went to the largest castle in Italy. This place had a moat that went all the way to Venice.  It was 200m by 200m and the walls were 6m thick.  Also the holes in the wall in the pictures were for the timber structures to act as scaffolding while being built.

Milan has been governed by various countries over the period of its existence and they all have had an influence on the general culture and architecture of the city.  Interestingly, I believe the city has Parisian influence in the style of the building.  In any case it is a very stylish city.

 

We also saw the fourth and last Pieta of Michelangelo. He died at the age of 89 while he was completing it.  It was carved out of a previous sculpture which was of a man holding the body of Christ as ot was removed from the cross. Michelangelo was unlucky in love and he believed that the only true love was the love of a mother to her son. We have seen the first Pieta and we are going to seed the other two in the next couple of days.  A bonus….

 

We then had a tour of the Milano Opera House and stood in a balcony alcove.  We marveled at the marble columns in the centre of the building carved out of single blocks of marble and the large busts of Toscanini.  This was the home of Maria Callas one of last centuries greatest Sorpranos.

Check out the dancing girls (Ballerinas)

We then had a tour of Milan’s cathedral.  I didn’t want to go as I am churched out and I am exhausted.  Guess what, I was blown away by the mosaics and the general structure of the church.  It was built by a Duke because he had a child and the church was large enough to hold the 40,000 people standing.  This was part of a pact the Duke made with God if he had a child. Today it has a congregation of 80.  This probably explains the great big advertising billboard on the side of the church. They have to pay the bills somehow.

 

Dining with Hugh

We then had a quick trip to Lake Como and straight to bed.

 

This morning we went to Murano Glass factory.  Mind you it is a very small factory with only 5 master glass blowers and yes it cost me.  Louise has to get her ears pierced again.  At least it will make it easy for the boys to buy presents for Lou. I resisted the option to purchase a chandelier; I don’t think our entrance is grand enough for a 10,000 Euro chandelier.

Interestingly the glass factory also makes gondolas, 60,000 Euros each.  They are painted black in remembrance of the people killed by the plague.  Venice has 400 bridges and a population of 55,000.  It has a daily visitation of 80,000 people. There are no cars in Venice.

Not another bloody tourist

Before we visited the Basilica we had lunch in St Mark’s Square.  There was a quartets  playing on either side of us, sun shining, big beer and lots of people to watch.

Looking relaxed

We visited the Basilica in St Mark’s Square.  Venice is famous for its mosaics.  This basilica is covered with mosaics on the floors and the ceilings.  The floors are very uneven because it is sinking under the weight of the marble in the building.  Many of the mosaic are painted with 24 carat gold. The effect is quiet amazing; however it is a Basilica which is a church for the Pope whom they saw as a king.

 

Another entrance mosaic

We also had a walking trip around the residential areas of Venice. You would certainly know what you next door neighbor was up to and what they wore.  Lines are strung between houses and we were constantly walking through washing.  Funny enough they mustn’t wear undies/panties because I never saw any on the lines Oh la la.

Pop over for coffee anytime

 

This guys, is how the Italians stop you peeing in the corner. It splashes over you shoes.

 

Leaning tower of Venice

In the afternoon we went to the island of Burano. This is a fishing village where each house is painted a very bright colour.  If you own a house on Burano you are not allowed to change the colour of your house without permission.  This village is also famous for its lace.

We had an amazing dinner of risotto with shrimp, spaghetti with clams (pippies), tempura shrimp and calamari, sea brim with salad and biscuits dunked in liqueur.  All this was topped off with great company and lots of wine.  On the way back one of the older ladies fell off the gang plank.  It was a bit interesting because we were concerned about the boat crushing her.  A few stitches and lots of bruising and she has survived, just.  A very traumatic end to a day.

Colourful houses

Casanova’s original house in Burano

Leaning tower of Burano

Ciao