We spent our last two days in Sienna and in Florence. I didn't have very good Internet access either day, so here are the last pics.
On the road to Sienna, we discovered that they include signs for the most important things at each exit. Gas, food... and espresso. Natch.
The interior of the duomo in Sienna. It's known for the amazing black-and-white striped marble. Beautiful!
One of the many frescoes in the duomo. Of course I took the picture of the one with the horse ;)
On the way back from Sienna, we stopped at an Etruscan tomb. The word "Tuscany" comes from Etruscan.
We also visited a museum that had a number of finds from the tomb. These pottery vessels are perhaps 3 inches tall... so amazing to see the delicate artwork on something so small, and so old! It's not hard to see how this region became famous for its pottery.
The agrotourismo where we stayed had a tractor made by Lamborghini. The hubby now wants one, but only if it comes in a red convertible model.
View from the second floor of the Uffizzi Palace in Florence. The building at the end, with the tower, is the Castle Vecchio, home to the Medici family for hundreds of years. The Uffizzi houses many of Italy's most famous works of art, so we spent a lovely morning staring at incredible art. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside.
Beautiful interior courtyard in the Castle Vecchio.
Everything in the castle was painted. The ceiling is on the arcade surrounding the courtyard.
This is the main meeting room in the castle. When Florence declared itself an independent republic, all 1700 citizens of Florence gathered in this room to witness the signing of the document.
One of the paintings in the main meeting room, depicting some medieval battle where Florence was victorious (of course).
The palace is home to many of the Medici treasures. This is an inlaid curio cabinet, with the inlay done with marble from the region (yes, all those tiny details are ROCKS. The geologist-husband loved it!)
There was an amazing map room, with every map from the mid 1600's, of the entire earth as it was known at the time. The detail on each map was incredible.
Here's the detail from Egypt. You can even see the tiny pyramids next to Cairo!
Another amazing painted ceiling - this one was original from when the castle was built in the 1400s.
And finally, the first of our many plane rides home. Ciao, Italy!
That pottery was beautiful and I bet those maps were neat to see. I've never been outside the US before, well except for Canda but I don't even remember it since I was little. lol
ReplyDeleteWoops, *Canada!
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