Adventures in Italy 6: Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Monterosso

On Friday, June 17, 2016, we again got a bit of a late start from our apartment in Florence as we packed everything up to be ready to go. Then it was time for a fancy breakfast.

Mikayla's fancy breakfast

Erika's fancy breakfast

Meanwhile, I had already eaten by that time and was anxious to see more of Florence before we left, so I went out exploring on my own for a couple hours.

I visited the Bargello (bar-JELL-o) museum, which is housed in a building built in the 1200s, later used as a prison (with executions in the courtyard), and eventually turned into a museum.

Bargello Museum, Florence.

Il Pescatorello (small fishboy), Vincenzo Gemito. Borgello Museum, Florence.

Someone discovered that under the plaster in the chapel was a series of frescos.

Hidden frescoes, Bargello museum chapel.

Then, there I was, walking along, minding my own business, when suddenly I came across a gelato place.

Gelato with excellent presentation. (Taken by Sharon)

Well, my training kicked in, and presto!

Randy in his natural habitat.

I came across this guy doing chalk art, which I thought was amazing.

Given the limited parking, Italians are really into scooters.

As I wandered, I stumbled upon another random church.

Chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano (Church of St. Michael and Gaetano), Florence.

Chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano

 Here is a relief in the church depicting Peter being crucified upside-down. :(

The church had its own fancy ceiling.

...and its own fancy floor.

I didn't have time for the full Palazzo Vecchio gallery, so I went into the basement to see the archeological remains of what was once the Roman Theater of Florence, back in the first century A.D.

Here is what the theater looked like back in the day.

Roman Theater of Florence, first century A.D.

And here are a few of the remains, which are now under the present Palazzo Vecchio.

Remains of the Roman Theater of Florence, now under the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

  

At noon, I met up with everyone else at the apartment, where we met the owner, who had been very helpful in arranging our parking. He apparently lives in Siena (an hour away).

I saw this T-shirt, and it foreshadowed the day nicely.

A bike ride in Lucca

After we carefully drover our huge van out of Florence through those narrow streets, we drove towards Pisa, and Sharon noticed that Rick Steve thought the little town of Lucca was charming, and not very touristy because there isn't anything in particular to draw them there.

So we decided on the spur of the moment to exit the highway and check it out.

Lucca has a wall around the old part of the town. Most towns tore their wall down when it was no longer needed, but Lucca kept theirs and are proud of it.

So we entered through one of the gates and started to check things out.

Entering the old town of Lucca

Erika and Mikayla enjoyed the carousel there.

It wasn't going, but they got in a spinny thing and went nuts with it.

Then we saw a bike rental place and decided on the spur of the moment to rent bikes for everyone, including one tandem bike. Erika and Shaylee had limited success on the tandem, but I saw that Roger and Mikayla seemed to have it down by the end.

After having walked all day for 5 days straight, it was so nice to sit on a bike and just go "Wheeeeeeee!!!" (Which I literally did out loud at least once).

As we did everywhere else, we peeked our heads into this church that we came across.

We came across this church, Chiesa di San Michele in Foro (Church of St. Michael in, er, a hole? 

Not sure Google Translate is giving me the straight scoop there). It was built on the ancient Roman Forum here by at least 700 A.D., and rebuilt in 1091.

Chiesa di San Michele in Foro, Lucca, Italy

So we locked our bikes and took a look inside. I believe this is called a Rameumptum. JK.

And this painting is surrounded by a "tuh-duh!!!"

Lucca was adorable, and it was fun to ride down the narrow streets.

The top of the wall had a wide sidewalk all around it, lined with trees on both sides. It was so cool to ride along there. "Ring! Ring!"

Roger and Shaylee on a tandem bike along the walls of Lucca.

This bike ride was one of my favorite parts of the trip, and it was totally unplanned.

Here's everyone doing their victory lap before turning in the bikes.

Italy was playing in the Europe Cup soccer tournament, so someone had set up a big TV in the courtyard for everyone to watch. So we watched util it was halftime.



It was fun to see the people all excited about it.

And we of course sampled the gelato on our way out of town.

Here is the "moat" outside the wall.

And then we continued to drive towards Pisa, enjoying the countryside along the way.

A card game was going on behind me as I drove. I believe Roger was victorious as "The Great Dalmuti." (A game which is, appropriately enough, in Italian).

Pisa

In Pisa we parked at the free parking lot (at Parcheggio Pietrasantina), and took the free bus to the tower.

When we walked through the gates and saw the tower leaning there, I was actually more impressed than I was expecting. It was pretty cool. So was the cathedral and baptistry there. (I got to hear the choir singing in the cathedral, which was awesome).

The thing to do there, of course, is to take silly pictures. So, here goes...

And, our attempt at forming a Wilson "W".

I'm not sure how Sharon did this, but it makes you realize, "It could be worse..."

The Twisty Tower of Pisa

And Erika summed it up with her snapchat.

Sharon was very excited to get "a piece of pizza in Pisa."

The pizza at this particular place reminded us a lot of a frozen Totino's pizza. (So either it wasn't that great...or Totino's is more authentic than we thought!)

We didn't bother hiking up the tower (partially because it could fall down any minute!), but here's what it looks like from below.

And with that, we bid the tower farewell and took a 15-minute walk back to our van.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, towering (and leaning) over Pisa.

Monterosso

At that point, we realized that we had taken a bit more time that we had planned to make those stops, and now we were pushing it to get to the coastal town of Monterosso before our hotels gave up on us. We thought about taking a train from La Spezia to avoid the crazy winding roads, but it seemed too late for that, so we called to make sure we were ok with our hotels, and then Roger bravely drove the winding, narrow mountain roads while we all hung on for dear life.

Here you see the freeway sailing over the area, and the tiny (two-way!) road that we had to drive down. In a 9-passenger van.

It was exciting to catch our first glance of the ocean.

In Monterosso we stayed in separate hotels (there were barely any places available for 3-4 people when we booked), and by the time we got settled, we called it a night.

We were looking forward to hiking "Chinque Terre" ("five lands") the next day.

In our next episode, join us on our hike along the rocky cliffs and lush mountainside of the Italian coast.