Another great aspect of Villa Dianella is that it is nicely situated in
central Italy and allows for quick and easy access to other site-seeing towns
such as Florence and Pisa. On Tuesday I
made the short 30-minute trip to Florence to spend the day and explore the
museums, plazas and palaces of what most consider the epicenter of the
Renaissance era.
I arrived in Firenze (Florence) around noon and was immediately immersed
in the mass of tourists. The crowds were
everywhere and it was a bit disheartening.
I wasn’t expecting to be by myself or anything, but some streets you
couldn’t even walk down because a horde of 70-somethings were listening and
following a tour guide like sheep and blocking the entire path. None the less, I had my short “TO SEE” list
so I headed off on my one-man Florence tour.
First stop was the Florence Cathedral. These cathedrals just keep getting bigger and
more impressive. Both Barcelona’s and
Milan’s cathedral's were spectacular, but the detail of the exterior on Florence’s Duomo was truly amazing. Similar to the others, it took centuries to
build and is actually undergoing renovations still today.
Florence Cathedral's dome is the largest brick and mortar dome in the world.
The mosiac detail on the outside of the Cathedral was spectacular.
Next on the list was the Medici Family palace, now called the Pitti
Palace. I walked across one of the many bridges to
the "Old Town" where the palace was located. Perhaps the best views in the city were from
the bridge overlooking the Arno river.
The Ponte Vecchio bridge has a multitude of shops lining the edges.
The Medici Palace...it's a bit bigger than their hunting abode, the Villa Dianella.
There were about a half dozen bridges that allowed crossing the Arno River from the newer part of town to the Old Town.
After walking through a few of the big plazas such as Piazza della Signoria, I finished up my Florence experience with a trip to the
Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno to see Michaelangelo’s David. As you can imagine on such a crowded day, the
lines were long, but they went fast. I
eventually made it in and was rewarded with such a magnificent piece of marble
art work that I instantly understood why this is such a monumental piece of
art history. The statue is massive and so
perfectly proportioned. The detail in the
muscles and body is truly amazing. The fact that it’s all constructed from one piece of giant marble is difficult to contemplate.
Bartolomeo Ammanati's "Fountain of Neptune" in the center of the Piazza della Signoria.
The Accademia delle'Arte del Disegno museum was built specifically to house Michelangelo's David. The statue was moved from outside in the Piazza della Signoria in 1873. There are numerous other paintings and sculptures in the museum, but David is the main attraction by far.
Most paintings and sculptures of David up to the point of Michelangelo's creation were of him after victory holding Goliath's head, but Michelangelo choose to portray David prior to his battle and gave him an intense and focus look, yet a calm and ready pose. Another reason the statue is so popular is because the people of Florence in the 16th Century viewed this statue as a symbol of defense of civil liberties against the bigger surrounding powers such as Rome.
The David was a perfect culmination to my Florence visit. I jumped back on the train around 4:30pm and
headed back to Villa Dianella. Overall, Florence
was a beautiful historic city and I can tell it had a lot of character, but for
me the crowds of people made the entire experience dispiriting.
When I got back to the villa I rested up and relaxed. Around 8:30pm I sat outside on the patio area
and watched the stars come out. There
aren’t a ton of outdoor lights on the estate so the stars are big and bright.
It was a nice relaxing way to end the day.
Sun starting to go down and the stars starting to come out.
On Wednesday it was time to leave my namesake villa and head off to
Bastia on the island of Corsica. Oddly
enough, it rained on my last day at the villa.
There was barely a cloud in the sky the entire time I was there and on
my last day it rained…it was like the village of Dianella was crying
because I was leaving, at least that’s how I like to think of it. I grabbed a quick breakfast before I left
because I knew Wednesday was going to be my busiest, most intense travel day of
the trip. I had all the taxis, trains
and ferries coordinated perfectly, but if anything went wrong or was delayed,
it would all get thrown into whack.
My first stop was Pisa. I’ve
been told by a few people that Pisa has one thing to see and one thing only,
the leaning tower. I’ve heard it’s
spectacular and that I shouldn’t miss it, but don’t get stuck in Pisa (meaning
don’t miss your train) or you’ll be bored to death. With this in mind, I planned to arrive in
Pisa at 12:30, cab it to the tower, snap a handful of photos, jump back in the
cab and grab my train at 1:02pm – 32 minutes total! Ready, go!
I was off to a good start by getting a cab driver who knew the drill – I
obviously was not the first person he’d helped accomplish this 32-minute time
trial. It was like clockwork, he dropped
me at one side of the tower, I snapped some photos, walked around, posed in
front of it, laughed because it is such an engineering and/or geological miscue
on someone’s part, and then the cabbie was on the other side ready to snatch me
up and head back to the station. We
caught some traffic on the way back, which I thought screwed everything, but I
sprinted down the train station stairs and rushed to platform 9 and was on the
train by 1pm…two minutes to spare!
It really is an amazing thing to see...I mean the building is completely tilted and looks like it's going to fall over at any second.
The tower had been closed for several years, but now it is open and people can climb to the top.
This is the shot I came for...after this I jumped in the cab to rush to catch my train.
Next stop was Livorno, one of Italy’s biggest port towns and the
departure city for the ferry heading to Corsica. It was a 20-minute train ride from Pisa, which
gave me plenty of time to catch the ferry at 2:15pm. However, if I missed the ferry there wasn’t
another one until the next morning, so I didn’t want to cut it close. Fortunately, everything ran smoothly and I
made the ferry, so I was able to sit back and relax and enjoy the four-hour
Mediterranean ferry ride.
The "ferry" to Corsica was actually a full-on cruise liner with a mini casino, restaurant, lounge with a piano player, and plenty of deck space.
Arividerchi Italia...
Once the rain clouds cleared and the sun came out the views on the ride over were gorgeous.
My first time on the Mediterranean.
Beautiful cloud and sun views as we pulled into Corsica.
Bastia is the main port for Corsica and this is where just about everyone comes into before heading off to different parts of the island.
I arrived in Bastia, at the northeast part of the island, around
6:15pm. Now, for the first time this
entire trip I arrived in a city without a pre-booked hotel. I tried, but nothing was available for the
nights I needed. And, I was now in
France, which means French, by far my worst language. Italian was tough also, but Spanish is
similar enough that I was able to get by, plus English totally flies in Italy; France,
not so much. I bought a Paris
guide book when I was in Milan, which had some words and phrases so I had been practicing, but I was far from being able
to converse. None the less, it was time
to put what little I knew to the test. Keep
in mind at this point I’ve done two weeks in Spain, which wasn’t just Spanish;
the whacky Spaniards spoke traditional Spanish in Madrid, Basque in San
Sebastian and Catalan in Barcelona so that was three languages for the price
of one. Then I did a week in Italy, so
by the time I started using French my vocabulary and accent were all over the place. The brightside is that the French probably
won’t know I’m American because of my screwy made-up SpanTalian words and
accent.
Bastia is a small walkable town so I was able to find a tourist office
and ask for some tips on hotels. They
pointed a few out and I was able to find a room for the night at a nice place
called Hotel Central. I’m going to try
and stay here the entire four nights, but I have to check back in the morning
to see if they have availability. If
not, then I’ll have to switch up.
Once I got settled I headed out for a beer or a "petit biere." The normal size beers are smaller than ours, plus they have even a more "petit" size which is basically a couple sips.
The owner of the small sandwhich place I stopped at for dinner had just visited New York a few weeks prior so he was eager to test his English. Plus, he was a huge WWF/WWE fan so we got to talking about that and he almost flipped out when I told him I went to the
Hulk Hogan vs King Kong Bundy steel cage match at the LA Sports Arena on April 7, 1986 (it was for by sixth birthday). This is us doing our best wrestling faces.
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