Soloing in Florence

We were back in Firenze for another weekend, this time it was much warmer and more enjoyable. We started the day with Marco at the Uffizi Gallery. We certainly didn't make it to all of the gallery but it was much more enjoyable to focus on a few things and get a good history detail of a select few from Marco. We focused on mostly the altarpieces by Duccio, Cimabue, and Giotto. We also saw Botticelli's Primavera and Venus.

After we were dismissed from Marco, I decided to go off on my own. 

So i went to Santa Maria Novella. The interior was huge! Many frescoes including Massacio's Holy Trinity

After a lot of searching, I finally found the Profumeria and Farmacia of Santa Maria Novella. This was originally run by Dominican monks. Each room specialized in a different item (herbals, tea, lotions, perfumes, alcohols, etc)

 I made it to Orsanmichele before it closed. It was originally an open-air grain market, but after several miracles happened there, they walled it up and made it into a church. Each guild had a spot to place a sculpture of their guild's patron saint. Hence the sculptures outside.

My walk down the Arno River

 Saw the sun set over Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo. I wish I had someone to spend this time with :(

 I sat on the amphitheater steps watching the sun set, listening to some lady play the guitar and sing American pop songs. Watched all the young Italian teenagers making out. And enjoyed some time people watching and journaling.

Florence lighting up. The Arno river and Ponte Vecchio.

On the way back from Piazzale Michelangelo, I stumbled upon a beer/chocolate shop (odd combination), and I found chocolate pasta! The store clerk was so nice and he let me try all sorts of milk chocolates. I love these happy little social moments that break the sometimes monotony of architecture and art. It also reminded me of the Chocolatery in the movie Chocolat.

 Second time at Tijuana's for amazing Italian Mexican food!

 Got up early to go to San Miniato. It was quite the climb and seemed appropriate for a Rocky Balboa moment. Inside monks were chanting the whole time we were there, which made for an interesting atmosphere. And then one of the monks stood up from behind the altar in a white robe with a white pointed hood...?

I made a giant circle around the city... twice and finally found the Synagogue, twice because I kept coming back to check if there was a shabbat service going on. I managed to miss every single one. And then later found a sign on the nearby Chabad house inviting all students and tourists to come to shabbat meals. I was very disappointed I missed all of that.

Synagogue from the Piazzale Michelangelo

 Fake David in the Piazzale Michelangelo during the day looking out towards the city of Fiesole up on the hill.

 

I was determined to go to the Laurentian Library and see Michelangelo's famous stairs. Turns out I was totally thinking of a different set off stairs and not by Michelangelo. But these are Michelanglo's real stairs and vestibule

The Reading Room of the Laurentian Library. Also done by Michelangelo. The rows of benches also functioned as book shelves and on the end of the piers, the subject was written and a list of all the books shelved there. The room just feels intellectual... if that makes any sense.

The only reason I was able to see the Laurentian Library was because there was an exhibit on display, so I went to learn about the history of surgery and an exhibit of surgery manuscripts. I gotta say, I have a new found appreciation for modern medicine...

I also went to the Basilica of San Lorenzo (no pictures of the interior though).

 Went to the famous Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine. Famous frescoes by Masaccio, Masolino, and Filippino Lippi. I was more intrigued by the Baroque trump d'loeil paintings from the rest of the church, but the only part I was allowed to walk was by the chapel.

Made another giant circle around the city in search of the art store, getting distracted by cool shops all along the way. And when I finally made it to the art store, it was closed :(.

Had my first experience dealing with finding the train alone... I got on the right train but I wasn't too confident about it and had to ask just about anyone I saw. I still cannot figure out how the trains work here!!

Southern Paradise

Again, let's use our imaginations and pretend that this entry was written two weeks ago...lol.

We had an absolutely beautiful, amazing 5 days in the south of Italy at Paestum, Pompeii, Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and the Island of Capri. We've been getting pretty sick of the bitter cold and snow in Orvieto, so the ample sunshine, clear skies, and warm Mediterranean climate was a real treat!

We had our own coach bus drive us 4 hours south and we started in Paestum. This was an ancient Greek coastal city (around 500BC) that was taken over by the Lucanians and then by the Romans. It is now an amazing archaeological site. The three largest temples (Temple of Apollo below) and the amphitheaters still stand. The floor plans of the houses and shops are still evident and even some remaining mosaic floors are in place. How they built these temples is beyond me, they're perfectly simple yet ridiculously massive.

Unlike most tourist traps, every ruin in Paestum didn't have a fence or rope around it (except
for the Temples of course). And so I thoroughly enjoyed traipsing around as I pleased,
walking on the wall of the houses, climbing on top of columns, and sitting in the colossuem's seats.

 Quiet wandering, time to sketch, good weather, and a beautiful view made for a lovely afternoon.

We then drove to Pompeii and stayed in the Hotel of Mystery... probably not the best name for a hotel. Got up in the morning to tour Pompeii with a guide, who got increasingly frustrated when 30 architecture kids with cameras couldn't stay together and focused for 2 hours... honestly, what did he expect?

 History Reminder: Pompeii was an ancient Roman port city that was destroyed when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. It was buried in mountains of ash and therefore remained nicely preserved for 1600 years until it was rediscovered in 1599 and has been under excavation ever since.

 Original paintings still in-tact

 The peristyle courtyard of a wealthy family's house. Preservationists were able to replant the garden exactly how it was based on the root structure.

 One of the side streets of the city

 A replica of the mosaic found. This was a pretty 

big hunk of mosaic with the tiniest pieces ever.

 A view of the forum with surrounding temples

Other points of interest: the gladiator's training grounds and housing dorms, the amphitheater. Tracts on the cobblestone streets are still entrenched from heavy wagon traffic. The "fast food" joint, the bakery and grain mill, the brothel (with paintings correlating to a menu of sorts), the public baths, the market place, several wealthy houses, Temple of Apollo. Plaster casts of bodies that were found in the exact position where they died from instant asphyxiation. A hole in the wall where slaves who were left to protect the rich-people's house tried to escape. 

 Mt. Vesuvius off in the distant. Similar to my "snow in July!?" face that I make fun of tourists for having in Colorado, this is the "snow on Vesuvius?!?" face. The locals say Vesuvius never has snow on it, very rare with all the cold weather Italy's been having. We therefore were unable to climb to the top... :(

 A view from the front of Pompeii. It was incredibly interesting to get so many histories combined into one: the history of the Romans in Pompeii, the tragic event of Vesuvius, the discovery and 400 years of excavation.

 That afternoon we went to the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. This museum had more statues, sculptures, mosaics, etc than you could ever imagine. A lot of things from Pompeii, but also all over Italy. I saw sculptures and mosaics that were taken from places we had already seen in Rome, which was cool to put two and two together. Probably the highlight for most people was the gated Gabinetto Secreto which held a collection of the highly controversial "erotic" sculptures and paintings from antiquity. This collection has been put on and taken off public display so many times over the last 500 or so years, and now I think you have to be a certain age to enter. I think they were counterproductive by concentrating all of these pieces in one room to be gawked at by immature high school boys and even more immature adult americans.

 Beautiful sunset heading back to Pompeii from Naples. That's Island of Capri, as Marco would say, an "antipasto" for our travels to come (a preview).

After dispersing from the group on Friday, we headed to beautiful Sorrento on the Amalfi coast. The bus drive was not unlike Colorado mountain driving at its most curvy (but without the snow thank god), quite impressive might I say.

 

A view from our hostel, good representation of the fantastic colors in Sorrento.

 We headed to town of Positano to go for a hike... And as we have quickly learned from hiking around Italy is that it always starts with the stairs... never-ending, tiring, butt-busting stairs.

 

But the higher we went, the more incredible the views!!

 We always joke back home that there better be a Wendys or Chipotle at the top of 14ers. Well there actually was a bar at the top of this hike! How convenient!

 

Took a lunch/beer break on some gorgeous bluffs over a cliff. 

Choreographed a sweet photo of the hiking crew. (Photograph by Blake Archer)

 Terraced gardening. And then a small group of us decided to keep climbing, ya know, just to see whats at the top... and that's how it all started...

 And boy did we some things at the top!!! One of those is Capri out there. No better place to watch the setting sun I'd argue

 Group decision: Well let's just go down the other side of the mountain and see where we end up...

 

Exhibit A of the winding roads we took on the bus.

 

Beautiful terraced groves of citrus trees

 

Cute little Italian house in unknown town

 

We found a little hiking buddy who followed us around in the unknown town.

 Exhibit B of crazy winding roads. Boy did that make walking downhill rough on the knees. (That's the unknown town in the background).

And to end a hiking story that nearly rivals the "getting struck by lighting on Bierstadt" story, we ended up BACK in Sorrento... ya 18+ miles over a mountain. What a trek! But an amazing day with a great group. No doubt a story I'll keep telling for the rest of my life.

Spent the night in Sorrento, and surprisingly woke up the next morning without too much soreness.

  Took the ferry out to the Island of Capri (not the casino lol, but now I understand Capri pants and CapriSun)

  

 The island up of two mountains on opposite ends of the island (Capri and Anacapri), with the main town and harbor in the middle (what I called the crotch of the island). This picture is of the harbor and Anacapri.

Again, you can't keep me away from hiking! And of course it started with stairs straight up the cliff face (turned out it would have only been 1.8 euro to take the bus up... let's just say this is penny pinching at its best 

 The highlight of Anacapri was the Villa San Michele, home of the famous 20th century Swedish doctor Axel Munthe. He was an incredibly interesting guy, an author, architect, doctor, and animal enthusiast. I bought his book "The Story of San Michele" and am looking forward to reading it and discussing closely with Marco. 

 

Not to mention this villa was GORGEOUS and had incredible views.

  

 Later in his life, the doctor was advised to leave Capri because the sun was making him terminally ill. And so he reluctantly moved back to Sweden. Story goes that when he died, they found a return ticked from Sweden to Capri, because it was always his hope to one day return back to his beautiful island.

We took a ride up the one-man ski lift thing to the top of Anacapri. What a cool way to see the views. 

 Edge of the world? It was disappointingly a bit foggy at the top. 

 (far left) Hiking trails galore, and of course we had to do all of them... (just left) The hiking crew who conquered the Positano-Sorrento hike and now the Capri hike! 

 We made it to the bottom (back in the crotch of Capri thankfully), and watched a soccer game. Surprising that there is this much flat land on the island at all.

 A beautiful rainbow and some quiet time at the beach to end another terrific day in paradise.

 Leaving the harbor of Capri on the Ferri back to Sorrento and back on our bus to take us back to Orvieto. THE END