Italy Part Five -- Florence

After visiting Assissi, we drove to Florence and turned in our rental car. We certainly didn't need a car for our last two cities, Florence and Venice. While cars are allowed in Florence, the historic part of the city that tourists want to see is all easily walkable.

Florence is arguably the most beautiful city in the world. It's in the center of Tuscany, which many people think is the most beautiful area in the world. The light in this part of Italy is incredible, the inspiration of world-renowned artists through the centuries. Take for example the photo at the top of the page--it looks like something you would see on a post card. But it's just a snapshot I took, and I'm no great photographer.


And look at this photo. It's unretouched--a black and white sunset, captured about an hour later than the photo at the top. But it's not black and white film--the sunset actually lost all its color and resolved into shades of black, white, and gray. I've seen thousands of sunsets, but this is only the second black and white one I've ever seen--the first was in Colorado, maybe twenty years ago. I have no idea what rare meteorological condition takes all the red and orange and yellow and purple out of a sunset.


This is a far more typical Florence sky, with those glorious cloud formations in real life that we see so often in Renaissance paintings.


Lois found us a hotel right in the middle of Florence, looking out on the famous baptistry. It sounded like a good idea, being centrally located, placing us within walking distance of everything we wanted to see. What we didn't count on was all the nightlife--loud music into the wee hours of the morning. Followed by the bells of the Duomo at 6am!


Here are the famous Baptistry Doors--except that what is there today is a copy. The original gold doors are too precious to be left out in a public square. As you can see, there is still always a crowd in front of them.


Outside the famous Uffizzi Gallery are statues of great Renaissance figures. Here Eric salutes Leonardo da Vinci.

I found most of my photos from this trip, but somehow I have misplaced the ones I took inside the Accademia Gallery, of Michaelangelo's David. Well, you all certainly know what that famous work looks like!
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Italy, Part Three--The Appian Way

Getting Out in the Countryside

You may have noticed from my photos of Pompeii and Herculaneum that Italy is an exceptionally photogenic country. Wherever you point your camera, you get a beautifully composed picture. One other country I have visited is similarly camera-friendly: Japan. The difference is that in Japan most of that composition is man-made--every patch of greenery in the city becomes a garden, and even in the countryside agriculture is laid out in pleasing patterns.


In Italy, though, Mother Nature is the gardener. Flowers grow wild, sunshine is golden, and the intense blue of the sky is punctuated by strategically placed clouds. Some of the poplars are planted, of course, but most spike skyward in random places, perfect to punctuate a photo--or a painting. Even the chickens are worth chasing down for a portrait, and not even Ireland has more shades of green.


After visiting Naples, Pompeii, and Herculaneum, we rented a car and drove out to see the famous Appian Way, the tomb-lined ancient Roman road. This is the tomb of the great orator Cicero.


We stayed at a farm B&B, where the family cats climbed the roof and came into our rooms to visit, and simply explored the area within convenient driving range. We were well off the regular tourist path here, visiting the small towns and villages dotted here and there.


Hillside villages are old, their narrow streets not designed for modern traffic. At one point we could not get the car we had rented through, and had to back out of a street until we could turn around.


And the past is everywhere. On the edge of one village we found the ruins of a Roman village, just there, not labeled, an archaeological dig left for people to admire ... or ignore.
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Nepal - Kathmandu, Part Two - January 10, 2009

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Last morning in Kathmandu. We walked down to Durbar Square and took photos of the temples and the palace, as well as the hippy-dippy Freak Street. *Sigh* Forty years ago our generation never imagined ourselves as one day being old folks feeling nostalgic for the 1970's!


We were out before the hordes of tourists, so I got a couple of good photos in the market. Most of the fabric shops, though, were closed, so I was unable to find the neat fabric we were rushed past yesterday.


Unable to get our boarding passes online, we went on out to the airport, paid in dollars for our departure fee, which was a hassle, but then had a nice lunch before taking our plane. We'll make a connection in Delhi, then another in Paris for home.


That's the end of my India/Nepal journal, but not the end of my photos and videos. For the next few weeks I will post here the best of the ones that didn't fit into the journal entries.
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