Florence and Pisa

Day 7     Livorno, Italy    Thursday, July 31, 2014

Michelangelo's David was just one of many highlights of our personalized tour of Pisa and Florence.

Our tour started right away at 8:00 the instant they let us off the ship in the port of Livorno. As with France the day before, it was Janet's first time in this country. Our tour was with three others -- a month earlier we teamed up with Angela, her mother Chris, and daughter Hannah via a website called Cruise Critic to book a private tour. It turned out to be great, with an excellent driver/guide named Enrico.

Guess where we went first? Pisa is only a short distance from the port, so we were there first before the tourist masses. The tower is simply the campanile (bell tower) for the cathedral, which is the way numerous churches were built all over Italy. Construction of the tower occurred in three stages across 199 years. Work on the ground floor of the white marble campanile began in 1173. The tower began to sink after construction had progressed to the second floor in 1178. This was due to a mere 9-foot foundation, set in weak, unstable soil, a design that was flawed from the beginning. Construction was subsequently halted for almost a century, because the Republic of Pisa was almost continually engaged in battles. This allowed time for the underlying soil to settle. Otherwise, the tower would almost certainly have toppled. In 1272 construction resumed and in an effort to compensate for the tilt, the engineers built upper floors with one side taller than the other. Because of this, the tower is actually curved.

Here is another view of the cathedral with its leaning campanile. They spent 10 years recently strengthening the substructure so that it will no longer continue to tilt, as it did about a millimeter or two each year. When they completed their work, it was "big news" that they straightened it 2.5 cm (about an inch).

So Janet is trying to push it back that inch. It was funny how many people were taking this kind of picture.  When the structural work was discussed in the 1960s, they thought they should straighten it even more, but officials decided against it; they said it was important to retain the current tilt due to the role that this element played in promoting the tourism industry of Pisa!

Originally our group of five had said they wanted to climb the 296 steps to the top, where there are people in this photo, but we decided to spend extra time in Florence instead. By the way, the tower on top is 2.5 feet shorter on the lower side than on the taller side (186 feet). And, it leans 12 ft 10 in from where it would be if it were totally straight.

Next stop -- Florence! It was about a 90-minute drive from Pisa to this spot overlooking the city -- the basilica San Miniato al Monte (St. Minias on the Mountain). It sits at about the highest point in the city, and dates back to 1013, much earlier than the Duomo and other Renaissance churches in Florence.

The interior is said to be one of the most beautiful of all churches in Italy:

We loved the wooden beamed ceiling and the mosaic of Christ in between the Virgin Mary and St. Minias, completed in 1260. The choir is elevated over the crypt and we got to walk up there where I took this photo:

Little has changed in this basilica over its 1000-year history, and we felt lucky that our personalized tour was getting to see what most visitors to Florence do not.

This picture shows the campanile, and also Janet, Angela, and Hannah in the parking area. The original campanile collapsed in 1499 and was replaced in 1523, although it was never finished. During the siege of Florence in 1530 it was used as an artillery post by the defenders and Michelangelo had it wrapped in mattresses to protect it from enemy fire.

From San Mineato del Monte you could take a long staircase down to Piazzale Michelangelo, a touristy overlook to the city, but we drove in our van. Behind Janet is the Arno River passing under the famous Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) where we would visit later.

Here is another photo from the piazzale showing in the foreground a tower from the original city walls, and on the other side of the Arno (a bit left of center) is the Basilica of Santa Croce where we went next.

Here is Santa Croce (Holy Cross) from the front, in the piazza. The campanile rises high off the back right. Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by St. Francis himself.

This is the inside of Santa Croce, with another wooden ceiling and 16 chapels under those archways. It is the largest Franciscan church in the world, 120 yards long (a football field including both end zones!). The construction of the current church, to replace an older building, was begun in 1294.

This is Michelangelo's grave and monument in Santa Croce. The church is also the burial place of other illustrious Italians, such as Galileo, Machiavelli, Giovanni Gentile, and Rossini, which is why it's also called The Temple of Italian Glories.

There also was this plaque honoring Leonardo da Vinci. I didn't get a photo, but they also had one honoring Enrico Fermi, the nuclear physicist named for the lab where Brian spent many months working at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. Fermi helped invent the first nuclear reactor.

This one reminded me of the Statue of Liberty, but is actually the tomb of Giovanni Battista Niccolini (1782 - 1861), a poet and playwright.

 Pretty spectacular altar, yes? In 1966, the Arno River flooded much of Florence, including Santa Croce. The water entered the church bringing mud, pollution and heating oil. The damage to buildings and art treasures was severe, taking several decades to repair.

 

 Our next "event" was lunch here at Trattoria Cesarino, an intimate little place off the tourist trail. This was one of the many reasons exploring with a group of five was so much better than touring with a bus load. Enrico ate with us and helped with the menu choices.

I know this is going to be exciting only to me, but I ordered a beer without specifying any brand or anything, and they brought the brand that was featured on a poster on the wall I was facing - Menabrea. I hadn't realized the poster was even a beer advertisement (I thought it was a wine since the bottle was so big) until they brought it and my bottle was right there on the wall poster. That made lunch even more special! hahaha

After lunch we drove over to the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo's David. The other three preferred to shop, so only Janet and I did this for about 45 minutes. Luckily we had arranged for tickets in advance to go straight to the front of the line and on in (with Enrico's help).

The world's most famous sculpture, carved from 1501-1504, is 13.5 feet tall. David is getting ready to slay Goliath with the sling over his shoulder and the stone in his enlarged right hand. It originally stood outside in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (town hall) for 300 years, but moved inside to this gallery in 1873. A replica now sits where the original was.

The gallery had more than David. The "Prisoners" are four unfinished sculptures of male nudes by Michelangelo which illustrate how a sculpture takes shape. There also was this sculpture:

It's called the Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna. The gallery had many famous paintings and other sculptures that Janet and I had time to view (and read about) before leaving to rejoin the group.

Enrico then drove us to probably the most touristy spot in Florence, the Piazza San Giovanni where the Duomo/Campanile/Golden Doors are located. Since Enrico was not a licensed tour guide, he could not take us inside any of these but simply let us roam on our own. He probably knew we would not have enough time to purchase tickets to the cathedral and see it in our allotted time, but he let on that we might. So, Janet and I walked around it and saw the famous Golden Doors of the Baptistry up close.

The Baptistry is the oldest building in Florence, dating to the 5th Century. These doors are known as Ghiberti's Paradise from 1425-1452. The ten 24-carat-gold panels depict scenes from the Old Testament.

At 164 yards in length, the Duomo (cathedral) is the 3rd largest in the world after St. Peter's in Rome (which we would see the next day) and St. Paul's in London. Work began in 1296 and it was consecrated 140 years later. The huge dome (cupola) was completed in 1434, and is 50 yards wide and 125 yards tall.

You can see that tourists have climbed to the top of the Duomo's cupola. The golden ball at the very top (374 feet up) dates to 1474.

With some extra time since we did not care to shop (as the other three were keen to do), Janet and I wandered down the street and came across this beautiful carousel in Piazza della Republica. The paintings around the top are all of famous Florence sites.

This photo is the interior of another old (14th century) church we just happened to walk past. Called Orsanmichele, or "Kitchen Garden of St. Michael", it was constructed on the site of the kitchen garden of the monastery of San Michele, which is now gone. The exterior is famous for having 14 niches in which are statues of various saints carved "competitively" by 15th-century artisans (who each tried to out-do the previous sculptor).

This picture I took from inside our van as we negotiated the small crowded streets through Florence. I don't know how those drivers do it; if I were driving there, I'm sure I would come to a complete stop under the assumption I would run over dozens of pedestrians or parked cars. It was another advantage of having a small tour group of five in a small van, because we got to see some of these "real" streets and sights whereas the big buses just park outside the city and everyone walks to only the biggest attractions.

Enrico dropped us off right near the Ponte Vecchio to let us roam for an hour. This famous bridge, constructed in 1345, has many jewelry shops stemming from the original Medici Family order in the 16th century to allow only goldsmiths to vend there.

The bridge was crowded, as expected. See the windows on the 2nd floor? That is part of a 1-kilometer passageway (the Vasari Corridor) built it 1565 connecting the Pitti Palace on the south side of the Arno with the Ufizzi Palace on the north side. The Medici Family wished to walk in anonymity from their residence to the city's administrative offices in the Piazza della Signoria. Janet and I decided to walk to there next.

It was a short stroll to the famous Piazza della Signoria, where you can see behind her the Palazzo Vecchio, the old town hall. If you enlarge the photo you can see the David replica where the original had stood for over 300 years. The square has many statues and connects to the Ufizzi Palace just to the right side looking forward from this photo.

When we returned to where the van was to drive on back to Livorno, we saw this unusual set of sculptures climbing the side of this building. ????

We drove on back to the port, relishing in the Tuscan scenery along the motorway. It was a wonderful day.

As we departed Livorno, I got this shot of the ship yard, the lighthouse, and an old rusting hulk. Just a little farther along I saw this statue:

A woman wearing a red head scarf and blue shawl holding her baby. She is also holding a tablet of some sort. I found her intriguing, so I researched it. She is Madonna of the People, erected just a year ago and already a symbol of Livorno. Holding her baby Jesus, she is protecting all the people who leave the port.

We watched the sun set out the window where we were seated for dinner, capping quite an eventful day. Of course, there was still the Flamenco Dancers show that night, and more Michael on the piano. But we could not stay up too late because we'd be at it again early the next morning with the same three fellow cruisers to see Rome for another personalized tour.









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