BigWeather's Blog

After class I decided to wander around take some pics and enjoy Florence. Below are some pictures of piazza vecchio.

Today was the first day of classes. I have the 9:00 history class. We met our teacher who is very nice and passionate about the Italian Renaissance. We went to Orsanmichele for the second half of the class. Orsanmichele was originally a grain market. The market was closed off during the fourteenth century and was used for grain storage and a meeting place for the guilds.

The bottom floor of Orsanmichele which is now a church.

A replica of a florin.

The St. Mark statue made by Donatello.

Shields representing some of the guilds.

After class we visited Panini Toscani and bought our textbooks. At 7pm I had a cooking class. The class was super fun and enjoyable. We made chicken and biscotti.

Since we had nothing planned my apartment walked around Florence and found our classes.

Enjoy this road sign.

We took a bus first to Pisa since it was raining. From the Pisa parking lot we took a mini train to the tower. The leaning tower was very cool and interesting to learn about. The tower leans due to the soil in Pisa. The tower has a curve that helps balance out the sinking. We then proceeded to enter the baptistry. The baptistry was amazing and had great acoustics. While we were there they did an acoustic check.

The baptistery of Pisa

The cathedral and leaning tower of Pisa.

Inside the baptistery.

View of the cathedral from the baptistery.

Afterwards we headed to Lucca. Lucca is a beautiful city and one of the only cities with city walls still perfectly intact. The walls are a heritage site and protected. We were able to ride bicycles along the wall. The weather was gorgeous and riding around was very fun. Apparently Lucca was one of the only cities that was autonomous for the majority of its history. At one point Florence bought Lucca then gave the city back to the people. After the ride we went to the cathedral and a plaza in the city. The cathedral were very pretty and had some nice murals. The plaza had two gates that could be shut. This is because the area used to be a prison. Prisoners were confined to the area and not allowed to leave.

One of the churches in Lucca.

An example of the mismatched columns of Lucca.

A segment of the city walls.

Biking on the city walls.

Part of the city walls.

The prison converted into a square of Lucca.

On Saturday we took a bus to Siena for the day. Siena is a very nice city that was historically at odds with Florence. Their government is composed of nine people from the different sections of the city. They are highly competitive between the different sections of the city. Twice a year they have a horse race and the winner gets bragging rights and an award.

The elements are so much cooler here.

We walked around the various areas of Siena and visited the cathedral. The cathedral had several mosaics and a music room. The music room held old sheet music collections and a painting that imitates people standing around arches. After the cathedral we visited the piazza del Campo. The piazza is a wedge shaped paved area in front of the government building.

View of Siena

The Piazza del Campo

The cathedral

One of the mosaics of the cathedral

One of the panels in the music room.

After lunch we went inside the government building and up the tower. From the tower we could see all of Sienna. While we were up there it started to rain so we had to make a hasty and interesting climb back down.

View of the city hall.

One of the statues featuring Romulus and Remus.

View from the top of the tower.

Part of the staircase that we had to climb.