Firenze and Tuscany (and the Machine)

After Rome, we took a train to Jenna's current hometown, Florence.

Let me preface this entry by explaining my physical state at this point of time.  The previous night, I had called my father because my feet were so swollen that I was actually worried that I had a blood clot.  They were twice their normal size, and for the first time in my life, I had cankles.  Know when you see an older person, usually diabetic, with really swollen feet stuffed into orthopedic shoes?  That was me except I was wearing flip flops. Because of this, I couldn't wear the shoes I had brought, so I was wearing my flip flops.  Because I was wearing my flip flops, I had two massive blisters on the bottoms of my feet.  So by the time I got to Florence, I was not having a fantastic time being mobile.

My friend, Martha, had told me that Florence was her all-time favorite city, and Jenna was saying close to the same thing, so I had super high hopes for Florence.  As I got there and started walking around, my feet hurt, and it was, shocker, pouring rain.  Guh.  I knew that I wanted to go to Tuscany, so I started by seeing out a tour.  I found a good one, and then walked around while Jenna went to class.

Jenna's apartment is literally right across the street from the Medici Palace and two blocks from il Duomo.  You can't think of Florence without thinking of the Medicis.  I had to go way back into my AP European History brain (or, wikipedia) to remember the Medicis.  The Medici family was a prominent political and banking family in Florence during the renaissance.  Four popes and two monarchs came out of the Medici family, and Niccolo Machiavelli's book, The Prince, was written about the family.  Lorenzo de'Medici was a patron of both Michelangelo as well as Leonardo di Vinci and Galileo was the family tutor for many years.

My first stop was the basilica of Santa Maria Novella.  This church was the first big basilica in Florence.  Construction was completed around 1360.  This was a recommendation by Jenna and was definitely worth it.  I'm still confused about the millions of chapels in catholic churches, but I went with it.  Guess there really isn't an option.

My second stop was the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore or il Duomo.  Perhaps the most famous church in Florence, this is also one of the most beautiful churches in the city.  The outside of the cathedral is a beautiful patchwork of pink and green.  

Of course it was pouring, surprise, surprise.  Are you sensing a theme with my trip?  Rain.  rain, everywhere.  It was pouring and cold, but it was still beautiful.

  

Il Duomo was started around 1296.  It was completed in 1436.  Despite the beautiful and intricate outdoor facade, the inside of the church is completely plain.  White walls, dark wood beams....the only decoration was the beautiful dome. The candles used for prayers, rather than being in rows, were in the shape of trees.

I had wanted to climb to the top of il Duomo, but refrained for several reasons:

1. please see my previous comment about my feet.  It was difficult to stand for even an hour.  

2.I had a cold and was having trouble breathing and knew that if I climbed the 463 steps to the top, a mixture of my asthma, lack on inhaler and cold would probably put me in the hospital. 

3. It was raining and cloudy so the view probably wouldn't have been that great.

4. It was close to closing so I would have been rushed.

Instead, I went to Dante's house.  In high school, we had to read Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy.  It was a rare old, poetic,  read that I enjoyed, so I was excited to see his house, since he was big in this town.  

This was his house:

This was his street:

At that point, I needed the internet to take care of a few things, so I went back to Jenna's house.  We went to dinner at a restaurant she and her friends found, called Dante's.  The big draw to Dante's is that the prices are cheap, and they give you free wine and large glasses.  I am not a big drinker.  In fact, my friends make fun of me because I have one drink and I'm done for the night.  So one glass of wine and I was pretty happy.  One of the things Jenna had said she wanted to accomplish was to get drunk on wine from Dante's and then ride the carousel in the Piazza della Republica.  When we were walking back, they carousel was still open, so on it we went!  My pictures were terrible, because I was a little tipsy and it was dark, but we had a great time.

It was after this time that I saw the true colors of Florence.  Jenna had been raving about this place that sold one euro gelato.  There was a lot of education about this gelato.  Apparently, what you think of when you think of gelato, the billowing piles of colorful treats?  Not real gelato.  So, apparently, all of the gelato I had been eating in Italy?  Not real gelato. 

Fake gelato

Real gelato

Oh well, it was still good.  But the one euro gelato place was real gelato.  We started down the street for one euro gelato and were stopped dead in our tracks when we saw that the store was closed.  There were two men sitting in the front of the store.  We frowned, and turned to walk away, when the older man called out "come."  We turned.  Is this real?  The younger man got up and walked into the store to open it for us.  What?????  So we got our gelato.  We each tipped pretty good that night.  

The next morning, I had to meet my bus at 8am, so I got up and headed out.  I was impressed that most of the girls were awake by the time I left.  I was also impressed at the amount of studying that happened in that apartment.  Finally, I was impressed by the sun, that was finally shining.

Anyway, my tour was taking me to Pisa, San Gimignano, and Siena.  Our first stop, Pisa.  Everyone knows Pisa for the leaning tower, obviously, but does anyone know anything else about this city?  I didn't think so.  

The city was founded in the 5th century BC on the shores of two rivers, the Arno (which also runs through Florence) and the Serchio.  It's proximity to water made it a huge maritime port for many centuries. Since then, the rivers have carried sediment that have filled in the shores.  Now, Pisa is a full six miles away from the shore line. 

The leaning tower of Pisa was started in 1173.  It was to be the bell tower of the city cathedral.  The original architect had the idea to build it out of marble.  Unfortunately, based on what we just learned, he was putting a heavy substance, marble, on a previously unknown sandy foundation which caused it to start to lean.  They had made it to the second floor when the tower started to settle.  The architect took off in the middle of the night and was never heard from again.  They don't even know his name.

Over the next century, Pisa was involved in wars with Florence, Lucca and Genoa which allowed the foundation to settle.  In 1272, a new architect came on board and to compensate for the tilt, they stacked the next few floors to be heavier on one side than that others.  

Construction was stopped again in 1284 when Pisa fell to the Genoans.  Construction started again in 1319, and the final bell tower was completed in 1372.  

In the 1990's a team of structural engineers figured out a way to reinforce the tower so it is no longer continuing to settle.  

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.  Through my other posts, you've noticed my dislike of tourists who flock like sheep to the places that are famous while ignoring the places that are just as beautiful becuase they aren't on the map.  So I was not really looking forward to Pisa, tourist trap that it was.  

We were left on the outside of a gate that led to a walled courtyard.  I didn't know that the tower was in a walled courtyard. 

Second, I was impressed with the beauty of the baptistery.  Know what I said earlier?  Everyone just walked past this without looking.  I would have hated to have missed this.  

You walk past the baptistery, past the cathedral, and there is a huge, white leaning tower.  It's really leaning, and also gorgeous.  

I just can't describe it.  The white marble against the blue sky and green grass.  The shadows from the columns on the outside.  It was everything.  

Our group caught the bus and headed out among the rolling hills of Tuscany.  They say the Tuscan sunlight is different.  I can undoubtedly say that is true.  The area is gorgeous.  A mixture of greens, yellows and browns.  Rolling hills of green grape trees and groves of olive trees.  It was breathtaking.

We stopped for lunch at a vineyard restaurant.  They served fresh bruschetta with olive oil harvested on the premises.  The olive oil is so good here, I could drink it.  It's salty and crisp and full of a delicious flavor.   The wine was full of flavor, tart and crisp.  They served pasta with tomato sauce and prosciutto with cheese.  It was one of the best meals I have ever had.  

They had olive trees growing outside of the restaurant.  This is how fresh the oil was.

From there, we went to San Gimignano, a walled city in the Tuscan hills. 

This city was built in the first century AD, when two brothers fled Rome and one of them built a castle on the site of an old Etruscan settlement.  In 450, the Saint of Modena saved the castle from being destroyed by Attilla the Hun, and renamed it San Gimignano from it's previous name, Silvia.  A walled village grew up around the castle in the 6th and 7th centuries, making it a walled city.  

While I was walking around, exploring, I came across a scenic overlook.    In the distance, I could see the rain falling from the sky.  It was gorgeous.

A huge storm came up and it started raining again.  The thunder reverberated through the walls of the town.  Not sure if you know this, but I am slightly terrified of lightning.  I say slightly terrified, in the manner that most people are terrified of death.  If I'm not inside, I will have no part of that, so I practically ran to the bus.  While we were waiting on the wall, the sky opened up to reveal a brilliant blue sky.  It stopped thundering, so I didn't have a panic attack.  

The sky was pretty. I wanted to take a picture, so I did.

I was even ok to have my picture taken.

The sky opened up again when we went to Siena.  The rest of the group went on a tour of the cathedral.  At this point, I had seen so many cathedrals that they were all running together.  I didn't want to pay another 15 euros to see another freaking cathedral, so I went off on my own.  

I honestly don't know what the big deal about Siena is.  It's a UNESCO World Heritige Site.  It's old.   It's described as "picturesque."  It was pretty, I suppose, but I didn't get the hype.  The cathedral was striped which was cool.  The center had a huge bowl shaped piazza which is apparently famous for horse races, but it seemed a little small for that.  I guess I missed the memo that described what was so cool about Siena.  As an information nerd, I don't take this lightly, but it's just another city, with another cathedral.  No big deal.

We got back to Florence around 8 and I went back to Jenna's house.  She had gotten ingredients for dinner, so we cooked and then went back to the one euro gelato place.  I went to sleep early so that I could wake up for my last day in Europe.  :(

The next morning, it was sunny again and the sky was a beautiful shade of dark blue.  I got up and headed out to see Florence in the sunlight.  I went back to the Duomo to take pictures, but I was apparently up too early to get inside.  I got some good shots on the outside.

I meandered the streets, actually able to walk a little better, and came across this square.  It was a museum of some sort, and outside, I saw a familiar statue.

It's not the real David, but it's a good fake.  The square filled within 5 minutes, and suddenly, a trumpeter started blaring his trumpet and out came some oddly dressed people on horses.  They rode out from the museum and stood in the square.  I almost saw an Asian tourist have her hand bitten off by the horse which made me laugh hilariously, but since I have a fear of horses and a dislike for tourists, I left and meandered some more until I found the Ponte Vecchio. 

Ponte Vecchio was built by the Romans.  The first reference to it was in 996.  The bridge was washed out by floods in 1117 and 1333, but rebuilt for the final time in 1345.  It is the only original bridge in Florence.  During World War 2, the Germans left Florence and destroyed all of the bridges crossing the Arno, except for this one.  They had already destroyed buildings on either end of the bridge, blocking their access, so it was spared.

There are beautiful shops on the bridge.  I thought they would be touristy, but imagine my surprise when I found out that they were high end jewelry stores.  There have always been merchants on the bridge, and it's said that his is where bankruptcy began.  It is said that the economic concept of bankruptcy originated here: when a merchant could not pay his debts, the table on which he sold his wares (the "banco") was physically broken ("rotto") by soldiers, and this practice was called "bancorotto" (broken table; possibly it can come from "banca rotta" which means "broken bank"). Not having a table anymore, the merchant was not able to sell anything.

It's a beautiful sight.

The Arno River from the Ponte Vecchio

My last hour in Florence, I met Jenna and Emily for lunch and then I headed to the airport.  

Europe was everything I dreamed of and more.  I didn't realize how altered my life would be by taking this trip.  I backpacked.  Around Europe.  Mostly by myself.  I met people who changed my opinions on the world around me and opened my eyes to another way to live.  I watched my little cousin interact like an adult with the people in her world.  I ate food that was amazingly delicious, and way out of my comfort zone.  I drank wine or beer every day and ate gelato everyday. I realized that there are a lot of ways in which Americans are completely uptight, and they're usually about things we shouldn't be uptight about.  There are other things that we are way too relaxed about.  I spent two weeks enjoying everything I saw and absorbing as much as possible.  I can't wait for the next trip I get to take that will broaden my mind even more.  Afterall, as St. Augustine says:

Grazie per la lettura! Buon giorno!

Danke fürs Lesen! Guten Tag!

Ευχαριστώ για την ανάγνωση! Καλή μέρα!

Greeced Lightning

The plane ride to Athens was uneventful.  There was a really hot guy sitting next to us, but that was pretty much it.

We got to Athens super late.  I had arranged for a taxi to pick us up so that we would know in advance what we were in for.  The taxi driver picked us up, but didn't speak English at all.  If you've never been to Greece, I'll clue you in, there are no Greek phrasebooks.  So we couldn't communicate at all.  It was weird.  We got to the hostel around 1:30am and we needed to be at the ferry no later than 7am.  Four short hours after falling asleep, we were up again and in a taxi going to the ferry.

When I made the ferry reservation, I knew Jenna and I were going to be exhausted.  The ferry ride is 7 hours long, and the chairs are first come first serve.  There is also no guarantee that your seats can be saved.  We spent an additional 5 euros a seat for a reserved airline seat.  When we got to our seats, an Asian woman was sitting there.  We told her that she was sitting in our seats, and she started yelling at us in Chinese,telling us to pick another seat.  She yelled for a good 5 minutes before the other people in our section started backing us up, telling her that she needed to move.  She finally left, but didn't stop yelling at us as she left.

We sat down and fell asleep for a few more hours.  Thankfully.  When we woke up, we were pulling into a port.  I took pictures while Jenna studied.

Beautiful Church

We landed in Santorini and I wasn't sure about what to do.  From what I had read, there would be donkeys, and we wanted to ride them up.  We couldn't find the donkeys, so we hired a taxi, but not before taking this picture.

As soon as we checked into the hostel, the proprieter said "Welcome to our winter."  It was chilly, maybe 50's during the day.  

We got to the hostel and I took a shower while Jenna took a nap.  Then we set out for Oia, the northern town on the island.  While we were walking out the door, Jenna made a friend.  There was a random dog wandering around the streets.  We named him "Casty" because he was all black with a white paw.  At first, I thought he had a bandage on his paw.  Turns out that was just his coloring.

He REALLY liked Jenna.

We took a bus up to Oia and walked around.  Since I like to tell people what I'm looking at, I'll explain a little bit about the history of Santorini. 

Santorini is the southern most island in the Cyclades.  It is a group of 6 islands, 2 inhabited, 6 uninhabited. The islands are the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred some 3600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (68 mi) to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis.  Santorini, along with one other Greek island, are the only locations in Europe that have a desert climate.

The main island consists of two major towns, Fira (or Thira) and Oia.  Our hostel was in Fira, but the town everyone has a picture of is Oia.  This place also has the best view of the sunset over the caldara.  It was cloudy so the sunset wasn't that fantastic, but the views were amazing.  Jenna and I walked and got lost.  It was wonderful.  Like Venice, there were so many beautiful pictures here....The photos can tell you more than I ever could.

Afterwards, Jenna took me out for a lovely birthday dinner complete with Baclava.  It was fantastic.

It was officially winter time there, and it was pretty chilly, so we headed back to the hostel early to sleep.  When we woke up, we had breakfast outside (can you say cold?) and discussed our plans for the day.  We were going to get Vespas to ride around the island (Jenna was going to do a 4-wheeler), but when I went to sign the paperwork, they told me that we needed a motorcycle license to rent it and my license wasn't sufficient.  Jenna didn't even have her license with her.  I was also worried because it was so cold outside, and I remember those vehicles being very very cold when the wind is whipping through your clothes.  After a side bar, we decided to rent a car.  It was difficult to find an automatic car, but we did and we got on our way.  

One of the first places we wanted to go was to Ancient Thira, the original site of the Minoan settlement.  On our way down there, we found some beautiful beaches - black sand, white capped waves.  The wind was crazy, but that added to the beauty. 

Finally, we drove up, a road with 10 or so hair pin turns to the site of Ancient Thira:

When we got to the top, we couldn't even get out of the car.  As soon as we were finally able to get out of the car, we could barely stand.  The wind was so strong.  Know how newscasters who are standing in a hurricane can barely stand up?  The winds were that strong.  It was absolutely incredible.  I've never experienced anything like it.  

Jenna bracing herself against the wind

The settlement was up another hill, and I told Jenna that I refused to go up there.  I was actually worried about going over the edge of a cliff.  So we got in the car, took pictures from the car, and took a picture of the sign to prove that we tried.  

From there, we went to the Red Sand Beach.  We couldn't actually get on the beach because we couldn't figure out how to get there, but we ignored some do not enter signs from the police and climbed another hill to see what we could see.

Greece is full of beautiful little hide-aways.  I fell in love with the architecture in this sleepy little town.  Everything about it was perfect.

We had a gyro for lunch and caught the bust down to the ferry.  

There are a lot of stray dogs in Santorini, and Greece in general.  There were a couple of strays wandering around the port, but we aren't sure if this guy was one of them.  His owner wasn't anywhere around, if he wasn't.  He was enjoying his time in the sun, so we named him Sunny.  Jenna was amazed by my completely original and creative dog names.

The ferry back was uneventful.  Jenna studied, which looked a lot like this:

We saw the sunset:

The entire time we were on the ferry, they were showing a newscast of 5-10 men being led out of their homes in handcuffs.  They were wearing suits, and screaming at the assembled crowds.  Everyone was extremely angry.  I got online to see what was happening.  It turns out that in a rally held several weeks ago, a Greek rapper was murdered.  These men were the rulers of the Greek facist party, Golden Dawn.  They were being arrested for murder, bribery, extortion and basically, running a criminal group.  So, in Athens, where we were going, there were both pro and anti fascist protests taking place all over the city.  The news I read said that they were riots.  Jenna and I decided not to tell our mothers what was going on until we left and we also agreed to keep our heads down, but alert, just in case anything happened.

We got into a disagreement with a taxi driver who tried to overcharge us for the ride to our hostel, and ended up dropping us off 2 blocks away because he didn't know where he was going.  When we got to the hostel, I had a shot of Ouzo, a Greek adult beverage, that had now been offered to us twice.  "When in Athens..." I thought.  It tasted like rubbing alcohol and burned about the same way going down.

The next morning, we got up early and, after a breakfast of crepes, walked the two blocks from our hostel to the Acropolis.  As we walked, we heard the protests from one side of the city.  They were yelling over a megaphone at 8:00 in the morning.  

We bought our tickets at the acropolis, and headed in.  The first major site we saw was the Theater of Dionysus.  

You may not know this, but I enjoy the theater.  In fact, at one point, eons ago, it was my life's goal to possibly do something involving the theater.  I'm sure no one knew anything about this, but as you can imagine, I was excited about seeing this theater.  It is the earliest preserved theater in history, which means to me that it is sthe oldest theater still standing. It was built around 500 BC.  Sophocles produced Antigone here.  Aristotle attended plays here, and then went home to write The Poetics.  The significance of this site blew my mind.  Jenna snapped about 50 pictures, because, as she said, "This is a big day for my little theater nerd."

It was, Jenna.  And even now, I'm still excited.

What's so crazy is that you can still walk on the site.  There are parts that are roped off, but otherwise, you can walk all over the seats.  Wow!

Next, we walked up the south slope of the Acropolis and came upon Odeon of Herodes Atticus - an ampitheater built around 267 AD.  This is when the tourists started.  There were no fewer than 4 cruise lines there.  They had signs.  I started crying.  However, I was at his point that we heard the second set of protests on the other side of the hill.  It was really cool, to be standing in the land where democracy was started, listening to to people protest the very foundations of that democracy, from the left, and the right.  Amazing. 

We then climbed up to the Propylaea among the masses. 

Rick Steves says this about the Propylaea:

"The entrance to the Acropolis couldn't be through just any old gate; it had to be the grandest gate ever built.  Ancient visitors would stand here, catching their breath before the final push to the summit and admire these gleaming columns and steep steps that almost fill your field of vision."

The Propylaea

Off to the right was the Temple of the Athena Nike.  

To the left is the Monument of Agrippa.  Each emporer would add his mark on this monument.  Marc Anthony had golden statue of himself and Cleopatra atop this monument.  The winner of the Olympic Games, riding in a golden chariot with four horses was the first statue on the monument in 186 BC.  

As we passed through the Propylaea, we came to the top of the acropolis.  Holy cow.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  We couldn't believe how cool this was.

The front side of the Parthenon is covered in scafolding, but the massive size and knowing the significance of the site was awe-inspiring.

My favorite part of the Acropolis was the Erechtheion.  It was off to the left, and didn't have the crowds.  I thought the architecture was cooler, even though it's likely overshadowed by the Parthenon.  The Erechtheion was built on the site of the ancient Mycean palace.  The rocks from this palace (built around 1350 BC) are still on the site.  This is supposedly the site where Athena and Posiedon fought over naming rights of Athens.  Posiedon threw his trident and it opened a crack in the earth.  Athena stabbed the site with her sword and an olive tree sprouted up and carved itself into her likeness.  She won.  

On the other side of the Erechtheion has a crumbling wall overlooking Athens.  I loved the juxtaposition of old and new.  

Like a magnet, you are drawn to the Parthenon.  You can't help but be drawn into its orbit, and want to run to it and explore more.  One of the things that's so cool about the Parthenon is that it was built, in 440 BC, using optical illusions.  The base is sloped and the columns bend slightly inward.  The construction is what has preserved this structure for so long, and what makes it seem so powerful.  

It's indescribable to explain how you feel standing atop the Acropolis, overlooking a city that has paid such a huge role in not only history, but politics, religion, theater, philosophy, theology, architecture, art....everything has been touched by this city, and this site.  The magnitude of that is overwhelming and you feel it standing on this gigantic hill, looking at structures that are thousands of years old, and walking where the greats have walked...Sophocles, Aristotle, Caesar....

From the top of the hill, Jenna noticed another site down below that she wanted to go to.  The tourists were getting a little out of hand at this point, so we left to go to this new site.  

We found out that his site was the Temple of Zeus the Olympian.  Historically, we found out that this site was started in the sixth century, BC, and wasn't completed until the second century AD.  Now, it's just in ruins.

Jenna showed her strength...

It was at this point, we got completely fed up with the tourists.  Jenna was trying to take a picture, and people actually stepped in front of her to take their pictures.  This was our general feeling towards tourists at this point.

We left Athens and headed back to Rome.  Got back to the hostel late, so we had dinner and went to sleep.  The next morning, we got up to see the Vatican, and got in with no problem.  St. Peter's was gorgeous, so I warmed up to it a bit.  The line for the museum was 2 hours long, so we didn't go in.  Instead, we headed back to Florence to being the last part of my trip.