Another brief stop in Florence

This is the third time I passed by Florence.  Each time was in a hurry, and each time I saw just a bit surface of the city.  It was so crowded even in the light season when we were there.  But one has to admit how impressive is the city.  Our first stp is at the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, founded in 1018.  It is in very good shape, and allows one to have an overview of the north side of the river from above.

From the hilltop we walked down to the old gate entering the city.  We passed a rose garden where sculptures by Jean-Michel Folon (from Belgium) were there for passengers to enjoyed.  I like the following two especially, since they reminded me of a Chinese saying "read tens and thousands of books and travel tens and thousands of miles to open ones mind...."

 
By the suitcase sculpture, we met an 80 year old Italian man, Franco.  He talked about his experience during WWII, when he was only 6.  German soldiers occupied the north side of the river, and alien soldiers on the south side of the river.   Germans blew up all the bridges except one.  Then Americans liberated them all.  Americans gave them chocolates, chewing gums.  His Mom remembered fondly the nylon stocking, and American records.  4400 American soldiers were buried here.  And in August every year, they still celebrate and remember the day of liberation. Americans in that generation had done something good, and was loved and respected by many people in Europe.

Robin, Dino, Susan and I decided to skip any museums as we were really short of time.  So we just wondered around town on the north side of the river, then crossed the bridge to the south side and back.  We got to see the outside of Cathedral of S Maria del Flore up close:

St Niccolo quarter:

The Vasari Corridor:

We had lunch at the Pizza del Marcato Centrale:

And we witnessed the recycling system in action.  Florence is very good with all sorts of recycling, and obviously invested well in the system:

At last, our tour of Florence ended with a visit to the gelato shop.  Life is good when one has a gelato cone in hand!

Carrara Marble Quarries

From Lucca, we took an excursion to Carrara to visit the marble quarries.  The town of Carrara was originally uilt by the ancient Romans to house workers in the nearby quarries.  Now one can see the post office and other government buildings with marble statues in front and with marble sidewalks:

Getting to the quarries was a rough ride on 4 wheels drive jeeps.  One can see the marble caves on top:

When we got to the top, we then see the mining operations below, including a view of the "Michelangelo Valley" where the artist selected the marble for his David sculpture.  In the old days, everything was done manually and with the help of mules for transportation.  How incredible!

 
We tasted the local produced "lardo", a delicacy consisting of thin layers of pig's fat aged/fermented in marble tubs with sea salt and spices such as rosemary, black pepper, garlic, cinnamon, and star anise.  The brine/fermentation (for 181 days) was said to convert the bad fat to good fat healthy for miner's body.

Simply walk about in Lucca

Walk about in the narrow streets of Lucca let one imbibe in the events from the past.  In 1805, Napoleon con quested Lucca, and his sister Elisa ruled the city from 1805 to 1814 as the Grand Duchess of Tuscany.  Apparently she was a very ambitious woman/ruler, although not necessarily liked by her local citizens.  She cultivated sculptors, encouraged (marble) trades, established schools for boy and girls, demolished old and built new constructions, including the port of Elisa as part of the City Wall, and a botanic garden.  She went exile after Napoleon's fall and died at age 43.  Below is a square she cleared in front of the now government building.  She left 4 columns at the edge of the square, intended to put Napoleon's sculptor on top.  It was never materialized before the change of power.

 
Robin, Dino and I bumped into a fenced mansion accidentally.  Nothing was mentioned on the map or tour map.  But the mansion turned out to be the holiday home of Elisa.  One can still see the grandiose of painted ceiling.  The garden obviously has decayed over the years.  Robin was very impressed that I found the mansion and the free exhibition.  She commented that she will name her new baby cow after me.  She will choose a smart with an inquiry mind to name after me.  Ha!  How do you like that?!

The sculpture of Dante was added to the facade of the basilica of St. Michele, as a celebration of Italy unification:

 

 Lucca is also the birth place of Puccini.  A statue of him sits at the plaza leads to the house he was born on the right corner.  Too bad the opera performance will not start until April.  We missed it!

Many people from Lucca immigrated to US.  Dino's grand father was originally from Northern Italy. We went to visit a small museum displayed the history of Lucca immigration.  Some old pictures showed a street scene in the 19 century, and boys all wearing the pocket watches.

 

Life goes on.  Residents who live in Lucca simply live their everyday life.  We saw kids plying soccer in Plazza Anfiteatro, two nuns walking down the street, lady waking her dog, and local artists' work being exhibited in Elisa's holiday home.

 

 

Towers in Lucca

Lucca is famous for the many towers in town.  Dino, Robin and I climbed two of them and enjoyed the view of Lucca from high.
Torre Guinigi was the first tower that we climbed.  This is a tower with oaks trees on the top level, and took 230 steps to get to the top.:

 

The second tower was next to the St Martin's Cathedral.  One can see the cathedral from above:

Robin and Dino, and me up on top of the tower.  Dino used his camera to take a selfie of the three of us:

One finds Roman and early Christian ruins in the basement of the church: