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.