Finale

Things to love about Italy:

1. the gelato--a different flavor everyday
2. the coffee
3. the wine with every meal
4. the pasta--so many shapes and sauces
5. the pizza
6. the pastries
7. the shopping--leather bags
8. the art even on the street and "no entry" signs
9. the architecture with the warm sunbathed colors.
10. my great niece being there to visit!!

Let's do it again and see everything that we missed the first time.  --Ann--

Santa Croce

Santa Croce Cathedral where all the greats are buried.

front facade of the Santa Croce. The interior was the most beautiful I have ever seen.  The Duomo was grand because of its size this because of the frescos and stained glass.

 Michelangelo is buried here as are Leonardo daVinci, Galileo, Rossini who wrote the William Tell overture, Dante, Niccolini who designed the Statue of Liberty.

 The view from my bedroom window of our flat.--Ann--

A Quick trip to the Grocery Store

We stayed in a flat a couple blocks from where grand niece was living for the semester so we picked up a few things at the grocery store.

 The fresh produce looked sumptuous.........

 He could spot a tourist...the breads and pastries.........

 the deli

 cheese

 and more cheese

 olive oil, sunflower oil and corn oil don't you wish our packaging made it that easy?!?

 Pasta in a aisle as long as our cereal aisle. a shape of pasta I had never seen.

 ah the vino with the black rooster for Chianti from the region.

Believe me I had to slap my hands so I wouldn't fill up a cart as if I were cooking for a family of five. I just bought coffee and yogurt.  The flat we were staying in was on the third floor. We could handle that no problem?! The web site didn't say that the apartments had 15 foot tall ceilings, seventy five steps up and seventy five steps down.  Makes a person think twice about how many groceries to buy at a time. My fitbit said we walked 95,000+ steps from Monday to Monday and 3 of those days were travel without many steps. We walked 41+ miles in and around Florence. --Ann--

The Winery

It was good to get out of the city and see the countryside. I can only imagine how beautiful the country is in spring, summer and fall. There are oak trees and olive trees and vineyards. The Appennino Mountains are in the distance and divide Italy east and west.   Italy was not a Republic until after WWII.  Each region had its own independent government.  This winery in a symbolic effort to unify Italy started mixing grapes from the north, middle and south regions to make a new wine, Chianti was the result. Chianti from this area will have a black rooster on the label.

We tasted vino, a sparkling  spumante, a light refreshing white that started with a v, chianti classico and a reserve chianti  which was very rich and oaky and ate crostini with their olive oil, afterward we had a dessert wine with biscotti the dessert wine was sweet and thick like a creme sherry. It was all delicious.--Ann--

Where Did I Go??

Where did I go??  Some hints................

the coffee was fantastic.

the wine and pizza was even better.........

My last post left you guessing where I was going from the settings of my recent reading list. I matched the setting to the book in the comment section of that post for those with the need to know.

Hubby and I had been to Minnesota to visit a niece and watch hockey in early February,  she had just booked tickets and didn't want to travel that far by herself.  I couldn't come up with a reason not to go with her so the next morning I booked the same flights.

I went to Florence, Italy with my niece to visit her daughter who is studying abroad for the semester. Florence is the setting of Inferno by Dan Brown.  When I read the book I had no idea that I would ever visit any of the places he described.  Sometimes everything falls into place.
The art and architecture took my breath away.
The Cathedral of Florence, aka Santa Maria del Fiore, aka Duomo, aka Dome

Building the dome was an engineering feat of the day. Brunelleschi not only figured out how to build the dome, it was to be taller and wider than any previous dome, he also had to invent and built the machines powered by oxen to construct it.  Ross King wrote Brunelleschi"s Dome How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture.  It is magnificent. No building can be built taller than the Duomo in Florence.

The twenty-four hour clock that runs counterclockwise from 1443.

Michelangelo's David and his unfinished works that look like they are trying to escape from the marble. We saw hundreds of nude sculptures and paintings and even found a couple with clothes.

We posed on the way up the walk to the Piazzale Michelangelo for a view of Florence, the statue with the little dog is at the Boboli Gardens.

 Trying to get from point a to point b, if all else is failing take a picture of the map.  A winery  tour tomorrow.--Ann--