Buon Giorno from Fierenze and Tuscany

By 'popular demand' the visual content is shifting away from just sights. Hopefully, the change won't adversely affect the ratings!

By the way, clicking on the pictures should bring them up, and clicking again should make them full size.

If you like churches and old paintings Italy is the place for you!




The Ponte Vecchio bridge is the real subject, but Carol happened by.

The bridge is the only one crossing the Arno River not blown up by the retreating Germans in WWII, supposedly on Hitler's direct order. This explains why the thing is so tawdry (close-up!) but it does look great from this vantage point, which is the Piazzale Michelangelo in the hills across from Florence (Fierenze to the Italians)



Today we traveled by bus to the Tuscany region, which is south of Florence. It was a full day trip including stops at San Gimignano and Siena. These are both ancient towns where everything is stone, and little to nothing has been built recently.
It's magical walking through these places, where the pavings are the same as when Roman sandals first trod them. Many stone steps are so worn that a careless move can be painful. Most walls and walks include volcanic rock, which is grey with large pocks & has mixed content (it looks like coarse concrete cut to a flat face, but with unusually large aggregate) and sedementary limestone (typically brown). Important buildings also have marble in white, green and pink.



In San Gimignano there are no level places outside of buildings. Except for wires, the outside of the buildings appear to be original (centuries?)
It's a hilltop fortress with two defensive perimeter walls, great stone gates with massive wooden doors, etc., where folk from miles around would flock under threat.
As when it was originally built, few live within the walls.















Within the fortress we found this spot where you can see original roof sub-structure as well as tile roof surfaces. The stone steps next to Carol have hollow spots from centuries of foot-fall, especially at the doorways where a 'rotation move' naturally wears the stone. One misstep and....









In Siena the Coat of Arms on the palisade behind us is everywhere; it's of the Medicee. This dynasty 'sponsored' Michealngelo and most of his masterpieces belong to them and adorn their tombs. Like so many other dynasties they simply 'died out', but they seem to have built Siena.