Saturday's 11:38 a.m. train took us to lovely Lucca. Even though I was there just a couple of weeks ago, I still find it fascinating and managed to take another hundred pictures - digital is wonderful! Nancy, Margaret, Al and I climbed to the top of the Guinigi tower and were rewarded with a splendid view of the whole city. The monthly "third weekend" antiques fair was going on and we browsed around a bit. One of the highlights of Lucca is the charming "Piazza Anfiteatro" - on the same spot as the ancient Roman amphitheatre. A great place for an afternoon coffee and people watching - a lot of children in the piazza today since it was "Sabato" (Saturday). Back at "home", Nancy cooked a wonderful pork and pasta dinner for us and a good time was had by all! More later!
I HAVE SET UP A NEW PHOTOBLOG SITE FOR THE 2014 TOURS. YOU CAN STILL SEE PHOTOS FROM 2008 TO 2013 HERE. TO VIEW THE LATEST TOURS GO TO: WWW.INTUSCANYWITHPATRIZIA.BLOGSPOT.COM
Il Duomo e Vaggio a Fiesole - The Cathedral and a Trip to Fiesole
Friday morning finds us in line with many other tourists to see the magnificent Duomo of Florence. After a look around and under (ruins from an earlier church) the cathedral, we go around back to take in the Duomo Museum - a collection of treasures from the church, statuary and drawings and models for the building of the Duomo. On the streets again, we settled in for some good pizza - each one had one! After a short break at La Contessina, we hopped a bus for a 20 minute ride to the village of Fiesole which sits above Florence. The main reason to go is to climb to the viewing point to look at the city down below and then to continue the uphill trek to St. Francis Church, so that's what we did. Fiesole has been around longer than Florence (a Roman outpost at first). Etruscans had lived in Fiesole since way back in the BC times, but when Rome decided it wanted the city, it got it - there are still Roman ruins in town. Our day was capped off by a bit of vino in the courtyard before retiring for the evening. More later!