Lucca - part 3

The last thing Sarah and I did in Lucca was make our way over to the Torre Guinigi. This was such a beautiful town and such a beautiful day that there were bound to be some fantastic views.


Just like Florence, Bologna, San Gimignano, and about every other Italian city I've been to, Lucca used to have quite a few towers similar to this one. Not many survived the middle ages and the Renaissance, but there are still a few great ones out there. This one even had trees growing at the top!


You always have to pay a price to get to the spectacular views. Both money and a long climb. I don't think this one was too expensive.


However, as this sign shows, the way was fraught with danger.


But Sarah was there to lead the way.


We made it safely. And with smiles on.


We joined the trees and a few Italian teenagers at the top and took in the lovely views. I don't have much to say about them. Well, nothing really. So I'll let the pictures do the talking.




















The end.

Lucca - part 2

Lucca was originally another Etruscan town, but unlike most others that I have visited, it was not built on a hill-top. Supposedly there is evidence somewhere that an earlier people, the Ligures, also had a settlement here. They were the people who gave their name to the Ligurian Sea and the Region of Liguria (of which Genoa is the capital). Anyway, it was eventually taken by the Romans.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Lucca was a fairly important town, being attacked by Odoacer (the first Germanic king of Italy in 476) and later by the Eastern Roman Empire. The Lombards made it the seat of one of their dukes, and by the 11th century it had become the feudal capital of the margravate of Tuscany. Lucca eventually became an independent commune, having acquired a charter in 1160, and were an independent republic for almost 500 years. In fact, when the Medici family became the Grand Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, Lucca was the only independent part of Tuscany.
Well, there's a lot more but I'm tired of writing about it. Lucca was eventually taken by Napoleon, the Bourbon family, Tuscany again, then finally became part of the new Italian State in 1847.


The Duomo di San Martino, aka the Cathedral of St. Martin, which was begun in 1063.


Hmmm. I forget what this church is.


Here is the Church of San Michele in Foro. It was built over the forum of the old Roman town. The facade was built in the 13th century.


San Michele in Foro was rebuilt in 1070 by Pope Alexander II, but there was much older church on this site. All of the columns are different.


The Basilica of San Frediano is named for Fredianus, an Irish Bishop of Lucca from the 6th century. The mosaic of The Ascension of Christ the Saviour is from the 13th century.


There were a lot of people out on this Sunday. This is something that I've noticed a lot in Italian towns. People are outside a lot. Whether it's the evening passagiata (where people stroll aound the streets and piazzas to see others and be seen) or families out on a weekend afternoon, Italian people spend a lot of time outside. It's nice. Although the passagiata can be kind of annoying when you're trying to get somewhere quickly and there are thousands of people clogging the narrow streets and walking very slowly.


I thought that some of the first areas we walked through in Lucca were pretty plain and boring, but later we walked through some very pretty piazzas.


Sarah hangs out with her friend Giacomo Puccini.


The Piazza Anfiteatro was built around the old Roman amphitheater.

The last thing we did in town was climb up one of the Torre Guinigi. It is a medieval tower that survived the Renaissance and even has trees growing on the top of it. It gave us some spectacular views which will be in the final Lucca posting.

Lucca - part 1

Either the weekend before or the one after (being so far behind with these postings, I can't remember) we went to Fiesole, we headed west to the city of Lucca. I'll talk more about Lucca's history in the next post. Anyway, it's about 50 miles west of Florence, and is on the same train line we used to take to get to the beaches at Viareggio. It is also about 10 miles northeast of Pisa.


Lucca is also in the region of Tuscany, and is the capitol of the Province of Lucca. It is most famous these days for its very intact Renaissance-era city walls. Above you can see the section of the walls that we entered after arriving at the train station.


A view to the right of the massive moat. No attacking army would ever pass this mighty barrier. Actually, the moat is so small that I assume that it was only there to trip up any siege machines.


We were really fortunate in our timing. I think the city is pretty, but not spectacular (compared to some other towns we've seen in Italy). The walls, trees, and the surrounding scenery are what make Lucca so beautiful. But since we went in the Fall, the colors were fantastic. Above is one of the town's towers seen through the trees.


The defenders would have had plenty of open land in front of them when shooting at attacking forces. This shot from the wall shows some of the changing leaves and the mountains. In the third posting you will see better shots of the surrounding views.


More walls and tiny moats.


There were trees growing along the entire length of the walls.


The walls are really wide and there are quite a few parks on top of them at some of the larger areas, like the one above. In fact...


There is even a road that runs along the top of the entire ring of wall. There were so many people out playing in the parks, excercising, walking, and riding bikes-which is what we came to do. It's great. The former city defenses have become a huge city park. The police even drove their cars around up there. If you ever stop by Tuscany in the Fall, I highly recommend going and renting bikes for an hour or two.


Sarah tests some anti-siege weaponry atop the battlements.


Then flees the scene, expertly navigating back towards the path. I wonder what the Renaissance engineers would have thought about the current usage of their defenses. I love it. I think all cities should build huge defenses around them, wait 600 years, then turn them into parks. Brilliant!

Fiesole - part 2

After seeing some of the things that Fiesole had to offer we headed over to see the views towards the south.


This first picture is actually from the town's main piazza. You can see the Florence Cathedral between the trees.


To get to a spot with an even better view you have to climb up even higher. The road was quite steep.


Here is a view towards the southeast. In the foreground you can see some olive trees and some weird modern sculpture.


This is more to the south. You can see a lot of the hillside that leads down to Florence.


This view of the southwest includes the historic area of Florence, the Duomo, and the road that leads up to Fiesole.


I guess this shot is more towards west-southwest, out towards Sesto Fiorentino then Prato. But those are too far to see.


Here is a bit of a close-up on Florence.


And a bit closer of a close-up. Brunelleschi's dome on top of the cathedral is on the left. San Lorenzo is the other dome just to the right of it. You can also kind of see the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio to the left of it.


In the middle of this picture is the stadium of ACF Fiorentina, called the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Sarah and I went with Steph (and half of the Syracuse students) to watch Fiorentina beat Roma 4-1. Sorry Steph.


We photojournalists must occasionally take up precarious positions in the service of our craft.


If you blow up this picture, already zoomed in quite far and looking towards the east, you still can't see I Tatti. The villa is kind of tucked into a valley that keeps it just out of view from Florence and Fiesole. But I think that one of the construction cranes in the picture (possibly the one on the right) might be the one that hovers above me every day at work as it is being used to build a new building on site. Getting permission to build a new building in Florence is almost impossible.


That's us.


Then we had to start the descent, which was much nicer than the ascent.

Fiesole - part 1

After a long, long break I might be ready to start posting again. I have many, many pictures from a number of new cities that Sarah and I have visited. It's been a while though, so bear with me. I'll start off with an easy post. Not too much information.
Fiesole is a very old town that sits high on a hill above Florence. It is most famous now for its spectacular views of Florence from the northeast. But for a long time the view was only of an empty river valley beneath some beautiful hills. The Etruscan hill-town of Fiesole was probably built around 800 years before Julius Caesar established Florence (then Florentia) as a settlement for his veteran soldiers in 59 BC. The Romans had conquered Fiesole in 283 BC, and the town was the sight of the half Roman, half Vandal general Flavius Stilicho's victory over the German barbarians in 405 AD. After more attacks during the Gothic Wars and by the Eastern Emperor Justinian, Fiesole became an independent city during the early middle ages. Florence and Fiesole, who were about equal in power at the time, fought many times unitl 1125, when Florence finally conquered Fiesole for good. It eventually became a place for rich, Renaissance-era Florentines to build their country villas.
Did I say there wouldn't be too much information? Okay, enough history. On with some pictures.


The view from Fiesole is great, and will be documented in the next posting, but the town itself is pretty nice. The good ole' number 7 bus will take you up from Florence to Fiesole's main piazza, which may or may not be called Piazza Mino.


This statue represents the meeting of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuel II in 1860. These two were instrumental in the unification of Italy, called the Risorgimento. Vittorio Emanuel II became the first king of a unified Italy.


The Fiesole Cathedral is a Romanesque church that is dedicated to Saint Romulus of Fiesole.


The altarpiece. There it is.


The church has a shrine to the martyr St. Romulus, who might have been the first Bishop of Fiesole, and his martyr friends. There's also a shrine to St. Donatus of Fiesole. He was another Bishop of Fiesole and came from Ireland.


These guys disapproved of my picture taking.


We went to a little museum that has a lot of Etruscan remains, two cats, and one humorous curator. Outside the museum are a lot of Roman ruins. See. They're ruined.


Well, not all are ruined. The amphitheater still looks good. It has a nice view to the hills and valleys to the northeast (complete opposite to the view of Florence).


Sarah had a performance on the ancient stage.


She played to a packed house.


And one rude jerk of a heckler.


Actually, they still have concerts in the amphitheater. That would be a pretty nice venue.


I did not open this door. It apparently contains the danger of death.


I had been keeping a file on the old computer of images of tiny vehicles in Italy. It may have been lost with the old computer. If not I might eventually have a posting dedicated to small cars. Anyway, here is one example.
Part two will continue with the views from Fiesole.

Temporary Halt

So. We don't have a working computer at home (now that we have reliable Internet access). I also can't get the pictures off of Sarah's camera right now. So the postings will eventually resume. Hopefully before we move back to the States.
But there's good stuff to come. We went to Milan, Parma, Urbino, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, and other places. We are also going to Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento, Capri, and who knows where else.
Stay tuned...

Padua - part 2 (The Arena Chapel)

The reason we made this trip to Padua was so that Sarah and Kellin could see the Scrovegni Chapel, aka the Arena Chapel. The fresco cycle by Giotto inside the chapel is one of the most important masterpieces of Western art. How do I know? Because the two highest art authorities I know (Sarah and wikipedia) told me so.


Lara, Sarah, Prof. Hatfield, and Kellin make their way to the chapel. In order to get in you have to make reservations for fifteen minute time slots. Sarah, Kellin, and Prof. Hatfield had a total of 45 minutes each, while Lara and I were only given one half hour each. This was because Sarah and Kellin were going over the presentation of Prof. Hatfield's lecture on the fresco with him.


Before you can enter the chapel, you have to sit in a chamber and watch a little movie for fifteen minutes. All the while the air and temperature are being stabilized or something. Then a sliding glass door lets you into a hallway, then another door lets you into the chapel. I think that this is because, aside from its importance, it was also bombed during WWII, so there was a lot of damage.


It is known as the Arena Chapel because the land that Enrico Scrovegni purchased for it was adjacent to the remains of a Roman arena.


Well, I'm not sure when it was built but the fresco was completed by Giotto around 1305.


Enrico's father Reginaldo degli Scrovegni was the usurer encountered by Dante in the Seventh Circle of Hell. But Enrico probably built the chapel to amend for his own sins.


In a place like this there was obviously no photography allowed. So here are some images from the web. Here is one end. I think this is where Enrico's tomb is located.


Here is the opposite end. The frescoes depict the lives of Christ and of Mary. On this end is the Last Judgement.


And here is a close-up of the Last Judgement.


And finally, here is the famous Kiss of Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus when he told the authorities that he would identify Jesus by means of a kiss.