Florence, Italy

We visited Florence about four times during our trip since it was only about a thirty minute train ride from our hotel. Florence was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and this city became an artistic haven for so many famous Renaissance artists and architects.

Looking at the dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore from the bell tower.

The Basilica of Santa Croce. It is also called the "Pantheon of Italian Glories" since so many important figures of the Renaissance are buried in the church.

Michelangelo's Tomb

Memorial to Dante. Florence exiled Dante for political reasons, so he died in Ravenna. I'm sure now they are really wishing that they hadn't exiled him. Ooops!

Galileo's Tomb.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It is the fourth largest church in Europe and of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture. Work began on the church in 1296, but it was not completed until 140 years later. In 1478, the Pazzi plot occured when a rival family conspired to kill the Medici family as the worshipped here on Easter Sunday. Giuliano di Piero de' Medici was killed and Lorenzo the Magnificent barely escaped with his life. A few decades later, it was the spot where Savanorola preached against the "decadence" of the Renaissance and held his "burning of the vanities."

The Baptistery

The Baptistery and town square as viewed from the tower. It was here that Savanorola was later executed by an angry mob.

A view from the corner.

Inside the church...

It really is quite massive and breathtaking. And best of all for a poor college kid - free!

The Arno River that runs through Florence

The Ponte Vecchio is Florence's famous bridge that is filled with high-end jewelry shops. It was the only bridge of Florence that was spared when the Allies bombed the city in WWII. All other bridges were destroyed, but this was saved because of its beauty and historical value.

Cortona, Italy

This is my first post in a very, very long time. My computer's hard drive failed shortly after my last post about Patmos, so I've had to wait until I arrived back at home. So, obviously, I made it back safely and am ready to start posting more pictures. I lost about 60% of my pictures on the crashed hard drive, but there were still some that I had trasferred to flash drives. With the remaining pictures, I'll start again in chronological order, first with Cortona which we visited in mid-September.

Cortona is a small town now, but it was a very important city in antiquity. Most likely, it was first built by the Etruscans nearly three thousand years ago, and became one of their most important cities. In the picture below, the rocks at the very bottom of the wall (the largest stones) come from the original wall that protected the city during Etruscan times! The city also has some surprising myths surrounding it. The Catholic Church claimed that Noah spent many years in this area after the flood and one of his grandchildren was the founder of Cortona. The pagans claimed that Cortona was the home of Dardanus, who fled Cortona and founded Troy in Asia minor, so Rome also would owe her existence to Cortona (since Rome was founded they claim, by refugees from Troy). Also, Aristotle claimed that Ulysses settled and died near Cortona after returning from the Trojan War. Whatever her early history, let it just be said that Cortona is very, very old!

The town hall in the town square of Cortona.

The Duomo of Cortona, very near the summit of Cortona. I think my two friends Michael and Tim were about ready to pass out from the steepness of the hike to the top (about 2,000 ft)!

Inside the Duomo.

The next two photos are of the Medici fortress on the summit of Cortona. The fortress was completed in 1561 and built by Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici.

Looking over the roof of the Duomo and into the Tuscan valley at sunset.

A view on top of Cortona facing Lake Trasimeno which you can see in the upper left of the picture. The lake was the scene of a famous battle in 217 B.C. when Hannibal ambushed the Roman army under command of Gaius Flaminius, completely destroying his army. It was the second of Hannibal's three major victories on the Italian peninsula.

A very steep street through Cortona. I wonder what they do when it snows or gets icy? If you took one step on that and slipped, you'd probably slide all the way down to the town square, about 500 meters further down!

Supposedly the tunic of St. Francis of Assisi.

Isle of Patmos

OK so now I'm in Greece and am going to try to post everything in the next few days. Our whole Europe group has been here eight days now, but we leave tomorrow. We went on a three day cruise with multiple stops to different Greek islands, one of them being the Isle of Patmos. This is a really small island famous for being the island that John was exiled on. Not only do we know that John was exiled on this island, but we know where he stayed. His pupil recorded that he and John stayed in a cave with a view of the harbor. As far as we know, only one cave has been found on the island that faces the harbor. The cave has two niches in the stone wall. One is supposedly the area where John laid his head and the other is a handle that he used to raise himself up when he woke up. Another unique part of the cave is a split in the rock that makes a triangle. The Greek Orthodox Church says this was created when Christ visited the cave and the crack represents the holy trinity. I don't know about this, I wish dad was here to investigate the rock. I think this is just like the 1,000,0o0 pieces of the holy cross that are still floating around every little chapel in Europe! However, what historians really are sure about is that this cave really is the cave where John received the vision for Revelations. He was quite an old man at this point in time and was probably spared from death by the Romans due to his age. Here's what Revelation 1:9-18 reads:

9 I, John, both^[e] your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11 saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,”^[f] and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia:^[g] to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His rig ht hand on me, saying to me,^[h] “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

View of the Patmos harbor.

The entrance to the cave. This was actually an important Christian college during the late Ottoman Empire and played an instrumental role in producing leaders for Greek independence.

We couldn't take pictures inside the cave, but this is a view from the outside looking in.

Barcelona, Spain

Our final stop in Spain was Barcelona which was by far my favorite Spanish city. It felt so alive and vibrant that we could have spent the whole trip in Barcelona and still not have seen everything we wanted to see.

Downtown Barcelona as seen by a cable car taking us up to the fortress.

Barcelona from atop the fortress

Five of us from our group. It was really, really windy up there!

Barcelona has the largest aquarium in Europe.

I just had to show this. These guys are most likely illegal immigrants from North Africa and they can be found all over Europe. They sell purses, watches, sunglasses, etc. that they've probably stolen. The reason their wares are in sheet with strings is so that if they see a policeman coming, they can pull the strings tight and book it. Notice how they're all looking one direction - they're looking at a guy coming who appears to be a police.

Madrid, Spain

Next we went to Madrid which also happened to be my birthday. We went to the Palacio Real, the Museo Reina Sofia which was a modern art museum, and then we walked around some. No pictures were allowed in the Reina Sofia and only outdoor photos at the Palacio Real, so I don't have too many pictures of Madrid.

The palace of the Spanish royal family is the largest palace in Western Europe. It has 350,000 sq meters and over 2,800 rooms. Due to its massive size, the royal family lives in a smaller palace on the outskirts of Madrid. The Palacio Real is used only for important functions and has also been used for many international treaties.

Indoor pictures weren't allowed, but I did get to take this picture before the guards standing just left to the curtained door started yelling at me.

The Reina Sofia has one of the largest Picasso collections in the world, and its most famous possession is the Guernica. It is a highly symbolic work begun by Picasso fifteen days after Nazi bombers destroyed the Spanish town of Geurnica in 1937. The town was bombed to test the efficiency of Nazi bombers even though no military units were stationed in the town. Around 1,000 civilians were killed and the town quickly became a symbol of senseless Nazi cruelty and ruthlessness. Picasso's work represents the horrors of war and the suffering civilians who can be helplessly embroiled in conflict.