Firenze, Lucca, & Cinque Terra

Firenza (Florence) is home to many masters of Renaissance Art.  The Medici family were a wealthy family that made their money in the wool trade, and then became bankers and lenders.  They started  the practice of using credit notes.  They then got into lending money, including to the church, at a mere 250% interest rate.

The Medici family wanted Florence to prosper and look beautiful so they provided funding for artists.  Artists came from all over, including Leonardo da Vinci.  It was also home to Michelangelo, one of the greatest renaissance artists. (More on him in a later post.)

Here is an example of some of the beautiful statuary that adorns much of the central core of the city.

They also funded the building of what was, at the time, the largest church, The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (of the Flowers).  When the church was built they had no idea how to construct the dome.  This came much later, 100 years, when the architect figured out how to create an unsupported dome (actually two domes, one inside supporting the outer dome).

This unique dome became the model for the dome at St. Peter's in Vatican City and St. Paul's Cathedral in London.  Despite its age, this church remains the fourth largest in Christendom, after the above two and the cathedral in Milan.  In its day, it could hold up to 29,000 people, as no one sat at church in those days.

As you can see, there are three different colours of marble; white for faith, green for hope and pink (or red) for charity.

Florence is also home to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge).  The bridge is full of merchants, mainly jewelry, art and souvenirs.  Originally the merchants were butchers, but the Medici family changed that in order to reduce the meat remnants being dumped into the Arno river at the end of the day. You cannot have a pretty city that smells of rotten meat.  They even built a separate corridor atop the bridge (see the windows on the upper portion), so the Medici family  could walk across the river  from their home to their office (Uffizi) apart from the common townsfolk.

Today the merchants on the bridge pay up to €30,000 (C$45,000) per month in rent.  You can be sure that the jewelry or artwork that you buy has that rent impounded into the price!

This is the only bridge in Florence that was not bombed during the second world war.  The river was so low that bombing it would have served no purpose, as the rubble would have ensured that the allied troops could still get across.

In November 1966, the city was flooded by the worst flood since 1557.  Above, we are very near the Santa Croce (Holy Cross) square, where the flood waters (and vast amounts of mud) reached incredible depths.  Here you can see Chiara (Claire) pointing to the height of the flood waters.  Look for the white sign inside red circle I made at the top right of the picture. Volunteers from all over the world came to help clear the city of mud.  The locals, thankful for the assistance, called these people Mud Angels!

Florence is also home to the Florentine steak, where the T-Bones come about 4 fingers thick, as you can see here.  Chiara said that Florence was definitely not Vegan friendly.  We did manage to find a salad for lunch, however!

We will come back to Florence in a week's time, so we leave Florence for the time being and move on to Lucca!

Lucca is home to the composer Giacomo Puccini.

Puccini is one of Italy's best known opera writers, and he was prolific.  Among his best known works are La Bohème, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, and Turandot.

He was a scoundrel and had many affairs during his lifetime, including a point in time where he had his wife and his lover on the same property (in different residences of course)!

Perhaps his most famous aria is Nessun Dorma (no one sleeps), from Turandot.

You can see Luciano Pavarotti singing it here if you wish.  By now, you know what to do!

The town itself is quite lovely and even peaceful.  We enjoyed wandering around the town.  Here are some of the sites.

As with all Italian cities and  towns, there is a Catholic Church with beautiful adornments.

In this case, the façade is adorned with a beautiful mosaic.  On this mosaic you see Christ seated and surrounded by the two angels to either side and the twelve apostles below.  The Virgin Mary was also in this mosaic.  However, the patrons of this church found that the church was much to dark and needed more light.  So they built a new window into the mosaic and the Virgin Mary had to go.  To this day, no one knows where she went!

That evening we went to stay at the Villa La Principessa Hotel.

This grand old place was the home of the Duke of Lucca, built around 1320.  It has seen many alterations over the years.  When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, he sent his sister, Elisa, to oversee things in Lucca, and the building acquired its present appearance. It is said that Elisa was very defensive of the citizens of Lucca.  When Napoleon wanted to increase their taxes and remit these to him, she refused, making him very angry. When the Napoleon Court was defeated, all of his relatives had to vacate their occupied territories, including Lucca!

The next morning we were on the way to Cinque Terre.   To get there, we traversed the Apennine Mountains which  are home to the world famous Carrera marble.

The white you see here is not snow - it is marble!

Carrera marble is one of Italy's great exports.  In Edmonton, you can buy it starting at about $25 per square foot for floor tile and goes up from there.

When you see where it comes from and how much work it is to get it to the docks and finally to your doorstep, you have a greater appreciation for its worth!

Cinque Terre translated means five lands. Prior to the 20th century these five villages were essentially isolated for 1,000 years with no road, train or port. They were  literally 5 different worlds, with different dialects even though they were only 11.2 kilometers (6 miles) apart.

Our guide Fulvia has lived in a nearby city, La Spezia. This is now an Italian naval base and  NATO base. Prior to the upsurge in entertainment activity from the influx of troops, she told us of a quote in the Washington Post that said "La Spezia is about the same size as the Manhattan Cemetery, but even more dead".

Fulvia knows the roads of Cinque Terre like the back of her hand.

Here you see the Cinque Terra  terraced hillsides. There are 4,000 kilometers of terraces on which they grow, grapes, olives, nuts, seeds and sundry other items.  To put that in perspective, the distance by air from Vancouver to the eastern tip of Newfoundland is 4,435 kilometers.

Now, being isolated and on steep mountain slopes, not conducive to raising animals, they ate mainly vegetables, seeds, nuts, fruits and some fish, and no meat or dairy, and  use to live to 100 - 102 years of age.  Now that they meat and dairy, their average age has come down to the European standard life span. One for the VEGANS!  (Sonya made me write this section!)

Each of these towns is nestled on the coastline and have steep vertical inclines, as you can see here!

And here!  Remember buns of steel?? Perhaps titanium here???

There are no automobiles allowed in town.  However, there are still parking issues - as you can see here, there is competition to find a good place to park your boat on main street!

The fastest way to get between towns is by ferry.  Here, George and I are listening to our guide on our headsets while admiring the beauty of the coastline.

See what I mean?

After what was a relatively long day of touring, we were all glad to be back in the comfort of our coach and on the way back to Lucca for dinner at an Agritourismo.  Google it if you want to know what they are!

Tomorrow, we are off to Modena to visit a Balsamic vinegar producer, the Ferrari museum, and  Parma to see how Parmigiana Reggiano  cheese is made!

See you soon,

SnP