We arrived in Firenze at 2 AM on Tuesday 10th February and went to the waiting room to rest and wait for dawn. They had chairs instead of benches so we didn't sleep, but we were at least warm.
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Michelangelo’s David
Postcard |
At 7 AM we left for the Firenze Youth Hostel and while washing, Danielle met up with Christine a Canadian we met in Paris. We headed into town together and went to the Academy of Fine Arts where there was Michelangelo’s David and some other of his unfinished sculptures.
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| Basilica di San Lorenzo - Internet Photo |
Outside, there was a demonstration starting up of leftist groups at Piazza San Marco. Then we went and had a look at the
Basilica di San Lorenzo and the Capelle Medeci that had more Michelangelo sculptures and a Michelangelo rip off (tribute?) by Bronzino, the martyrdom of Saint Laurence.
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| Basilica di San Lorenzo - Internet Photo |
The church is a quite strange structure, built and altered over many years and is one of the largest churches of Florence, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family.
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| Palazzo Medeci-Riccardi - Internet Photo |
We then had a look at the Palazzo Medeci-Riccardi which had a brilliant fresco on the ceiling by Luca Giordiano. We had lunch at the University cafeteria which was quite cheap but very, very crowded and met Christine again and had a coffee to compare notes.
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| Fresco by Filippino Lippi -Postcard |
After that we went to the Cattedrale (Cathedral) which is absolutely immense but fairly empty inside except for a ceiling fresco, that was too high to see very well.
Lastly we had a quick look at the Chiesa di S. Maria Novella which had a mosque like feel to it with some very good frescoes by
Filippino Lippi. In all, a full day for us tired chickens but we hope to have a good night’s rest tonight.
The photos below are of the Fontana dell'Ammannati in La Place de la Seigneurie.
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| Fontana dell'Ammannati |
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| Danielle at the fountain |
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| Fontana dell'Ammannati - Postcard |
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| Ceiling in Galleria Uffizi - Postcard |
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| View of Torre d'Amolfo |
On Wednesday we had another busy day. Firstly the Ufizzi Gallery, which has been the most interesting and historical to date. We then went over Ponte Vecchio back to the Palazzo Pitti and saw the collection of paintings and murals there.
The modern art section was closed, but it was an anti-climax after the Ufizzi. The building themselves are very plain but are nearly always highly decorated internally, the walls and ceilings that is.
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| Interior Palazzo Vecchio - Postcard |
Then we went to the Palazzo Vecchio and saw the Hercules statues in the hall of the 500 and also saw many other rooms with frescoes on the walls and ceilings.
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| Rollerball Movie Poster |
After that, we took a leisurely walk through town to find somewhere for lunch near the university where it is generally cheaper.
Then made our way down to the Piazza S. Crocce and the Astor Theatre to see the
Rollerball movie which had just been released. The Astor was on of the few cinemas in Italy that screened foreign movies in the original language - possibly because of the number of students in Firenze, a university city.
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| Vivoli Gelateria - Internet Photo |
The movie was pretty disappointing, however, across the road was a gelataria called the Vivoli, which had testimonials from people all over the world. Well, it was just about the best ice cream we’ve ever tasted (I had zabaglione and mousse).
We had dinner at the University cafeteria and then went back home for the night.
On Thursday we caught the train to
Pisa, put our bags in at the station and then headed for the tourist office. This was becoming a bit of a ritual by now.
We went up the Pisa tower which really has a lean on it, Danielle started to feel a bit funny, due to the height and the lean.
We then went to the university cafeteria and had lunch, meat ravioli and salad, cheese, bread, mandarins and a beer for 500 L each and very good. I don't know why we didn't do it before.
Then we went back to the Pisa tower to see the insides of the cathedral and the dome.
All three buildings are built of marble and it is definitely the best material for long life and weatherproofing, although obviously a bit heavy for use on soft soils.
However the churches that have been built in marble seem to have been the best preserved and the driest.
These two postcards show the three buildings from different views.
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Baptistry, Cathedral and Tower
Postcard |
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Tower, Cathedral and Baptistry
Postcard |
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Presbytery and High Altar in the
Cathedral Postcard |
The inside of the cathedral was very nice, low-key and covered in huge and mostly good paintings, 3 to 4 m across. The dome, although decorative from the outside is very plain inside and had the weirdest statues around the inside, very medieval.
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| The Cathedral |
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| The Cathedral side view |
Our walk back through the town was pleasant to the railway station – through narrow lightly trafficked streets and covered footpaths made for a peaceful atmosphere. We only spent a day in Pisa, but could easily have stayed longer.
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| Lucca city plan - Internet Photo |
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| Building of Lucca - Internet Photo |
The train trip to
Lucca took only 40 minutes although we waited nearly that long for a bus to the hostel.
The bus ride was one of the weirdest we've had, Through super narrow streets round and round in circles travelling at least 5 km to go about 1.5km.
Lucca is a small walled city, and the wall is still intact, but now covered by grass. Luca seems a bit more involved than we at first thought, heavily influenced by the Etruscans and so we spend a bit more time here.
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| MotoAuto - Business Card |
After dropping off our backpacks anyway we walked back into town in the late afternoon and saw another type of three wheeler vehicle that is made in Bologna at Motoauto. For more details see the
Three Wheeled Vehicles page.
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| Danielle and backpacks |
In the photo of Danielle below, you can see our backpacks with the wheels added to the bottom of the frames. This was something I first constructed in Switzerland and repaired in Spain, that allowed us to drag the packs rather than carry them which was really useful for some of the long treks to Youth Hostels which were often located in the outer suburbs.
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| The Charley Camel 3-Wheeler |
The next morning, Friday we walked back through Lucca, looking at the churches and dodging cars. We're getting at better at leaping into doorways.
We've decided that Luca is a very nice town. We stopped again at Motoauto, the motorbike shop which also sells MV Agustas and took a few photos of the three wheeler. The guy there, Luciano invited us in (it had just begin to snow), and we talked about the bikes and three wheelers in general and after exchanging addresses he gave us a mini bottle of Sambucca and Cynar for the road – a really nice guy.
Then we went to the station cafe to have a coffee and were tempted by a buccellato, which is a Lucca specialty. It’s a sort of bun that tastes like panettone only heavier and has some liqueur in it, and is definitely easy to swallow. At the moment sitting here in a cafe, warm, listening to an old Elton John song, smelling the smells of coffee making, liqueur and bars in general, life seems pretty good. The snow outside makes it even more so.
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| Bologna towers |
In the late afternoon, we caught the train to Bologna, travelling through a bit more falling snow. When we arrived, we went to the tourist office we had a long rave, about everything from jazz to spaghetti with a guy there.
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Model showing the towers in Bologna
at the height of the craze |
In the middle ages Bologna began to expand rapidly and this is the period in which its famous towers were built. Wealthy merchants built towers essentially as status symbols, and the city became plagued with them. Only a few now exist.
We headed to the hostel, left our packs there and caught a bus back into town. Buses in Bologna are free from 6 to 9 AM and from 4:30 to 8 PM for workers and it’s not publicised, so only tourists buy tickets at these times. We found the university cafeteria and had dinner for 1,000L for both of us – a bit better than the “cheap” trattoria suggested by the hostel warden for 2,000L.
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| The Town Hall |
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| Tiporagrafico Stile - Business Card |
On the way back to the hostel we stopped at a printery called Tiporagrafico Stile and talked to Giorgio Zanetti which was quite interesting. They do design work, offset, letterpress and assorted stuff, all commercial but of a high-quality.
I couldn’t help but think about our Amber Press in Sydney and how we could broaden our repertoire of work. At the time they were printing some cards, of two artist’s paintings, which were quite a good colour match to the originals which were in the printery for reference.
Just before heading off to go to the hostel we stopped at a busy little cafe and had two huge cappuccinos for 300 L and the Barman was described by another customer as the best in Bologna, not in looks but in heart – I could well believe it. The best Friday the 13th for a long time.
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| Shoveling snow |
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| Snow in the countryside |
The next day we split up for the morning, Danielle went to have a further look at Bologna and I headed off to the three wheeler factory, All Cars (A.C.).
I caught the bus and walked out in the direction of Pianoro and then started hitching. After about five minutes in the cold and slush (10cm of snow last night) I got a lift about halfway and then after hitching for a bit caught a bus which stopped 2.5 km before Pianoro.
I started hitching again and 10 minutes later a guy stopped and said he was going to Pianoro so in I hopped. He was a photographer called Paolo Ferrari who did studio and freelance work and was off to photograph the unseasonal dump of snow for the newspaper.
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| Paolo Ferrari - self portrait |
I told him about my three wheeler project and my reasons for the visit, and he said he knew the makers of the "Charley Camel" so after photographing snow and buying me a cappuccino, we headed back through a war-damaged tunnel-bridge to the factory.
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| A completed Charley Camel |
The guys there were quite friendly, if a bit short on technical information, and after a short chat they took me on a tour of the factory, really just an assembly line – motors and drive parts, bodies were made elsewhere. I tried to take in as much as I could but will probably forget a lot. For more details see the
Three Wheeled Vehicles page.
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| Studio FN - Business card |
After joking with the staff for about half an hour Paolo drove me back to Bologna and the university mensa where I met Danielle and had a cheap lunch with her - and good too. We then went around to Paolo’s studio, Studio FN, and had a bit of a look at his set up and his work.
The snow photos were for the newspaper Il Resto del Carlino, which derives its name from the fact that it was given free with a packet of cigarettes to make up the value of a Carlino, a coin with the picture of King Carlo on it. Italy had a problem with spicoli (slang for small coins) 20 years ago, similar to the situation now.
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| Bologna - Postcard |
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| This sums up Bologna |
He took us to the local bar for an aperitif (gin, lemon, sugar and Blue Curacao Liqueur) which was quite nice. Then we split for the modern Art Gallery and he for lunch. The modern Art Gallery was a bore, only one third full and not much that was outstanding.
We dropped back around 6:30 PM to Paolo’s studio to watch some photo printing and have a bit of a chat, and ended up back at the bar, where one guy shouted around of Spumante and Paolo paid for another. It was really friendly and spontaneous, as much as it could be in the circumstances that is us as totally odd strangers.
Paolo invited us to have tortellini with him on Monday night (which he said was the traditional Bolognese dish, not Spaghetti Bolognaise which he said was Napolitano) if we were still around but it doesn't look like we will be. We went back to the hostel for hot showers and some bread and cheese.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but I think my experience with Paulo and his enthusiastic approach to his work probably influenced me to pursue my interest in photography when I returned to Australia.
As our money is very short we didn't want to cash a travellers cheque into Italian Lire for only a couple of days, so on Sunday 15th February we decided to push on to Milano instead. We were heading back to Switzerland to see Michelle before leaving for Greece.
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| Milano in the snow - Internet Photo |
We arrived in Milano around 3 PM and had to decide whether to spend the remaining 4000 L on food or the hostel. We found out the hostel was still closed, so that meant we ate well, but would spend the night at the station.
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| Typical railway cafe - Alamy Photo |
We had dinner at around 6 PM at the station cafeteria which wasn't too bad, and hope to pick up leftovers to help us through the night. We only got two bread rolls, a bit of mortadella and some grissini, but were there from 6 to 11 PM keeping warm.
At this stage we were so poor, that when someone left the restaurant with food on the table, we quickly sat down and finished whatever was left - within reason. We didn't sleep much although we could at least stretch out and get some rest, and no hassling by railway police for a change.
On Thursday we caught the train to Pisa, put our bags in at the station and then headed for the tourist office. This was becoming a bit of a ritual by now.
We went up the Pisa tower which really has a lean on it, Danielle started to feel a bit funny, due to the height and the lean.
Then we went back to the Pisa tower to see the insides of the cathedral and the dome.
