Italy #4: Views of the city

We took lots of pictures while we were out walking around the city, and so these are just a few of my favorites. We really enjoyed the architectural heritage, monuments, and artistic charm of Florence.

There were lots of motorcycles parked everywhere in Florence, and well as buzzing through traffic very quickly.

This is the Arno River in Florence, which we crossed many times each day from our apartment to go into the main part of the city. There is one famous bridge (Ponte Vecchio, where this picture is taken from) which has lots of shops across it instead of cars.

I like this picture because of the colors and the fact that you can see statues and the Duomo's dome - just a normal view in Florence.

The Duomo is on the left, and in the center of the picture on the lamppost coming out from the building you can see the Florence coat of arms.

From the top of the Duomo - in the background is the belltower. Notice that I am keeping a tight hold in the railing, because we were up high!

A view of the city from up high. The second bridge is the famous Ponte Vecchio.

I love this view of the Duomo - it's so BIG!

Italy #3: Museums and Siena

We went to two main museums in Florence: the Uffizi Gallery and The Gallery of the Academy of Florence. There were several famous works there, which we took pictures of (even though it was against the rules)!

This painting, The Birth of Venus, but Sandro Botticelli was commissioned by the Medici family of Florence and is now kept in the Uffizi Gallery. I thought it was interesting that there was a stone replica beside the painting so that blind visitors could also experience it.

And of course, Michaelangelo's David statue, which was in The Gallery of the Academy of Florence. It was so lifelike  - we were amazed!

During our last day in Italy, we took a trip to Siena, which is also a city in the area of Tuscany, famous for its medieval cityscape, among other things. This is a picture of the Duomo in Siena, also very detailed and covered with marble panels like the one in Florence.

This is the Piazza del Campo (Campo Square) where we sat to eat our lunch. It was sunny and beautiful, filled with other people eating and feeding the many pigeons in the square.

View of another church on our hike up a small hill to get a better view of the city.

And the Siena Duomo from far away.

Italy #2: The Duomo

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the main church we saw on our trip to Florence. Normally, it is called "The Duomo". Construction was begun in 1296 during the Gothic period, and completed in 1436. The dome was started only after about 100 years of construction. The dome was supposed to reject traditional Gothic style and do away with the typical external flying buttresses (like at Notre Dame) which were disliked by Italian architects and forbidden in Florence.

The exterior of the Duomo is made of pink, green and white polychrome marble panels.

This is the front of the church - so much detail on every part of the structure!

And the the dome from the inside. I could have looked at it all day, because there was so much going on in the painting. It was supposed to be a representation of The Last Judgement. 

Then we climbed the 463 steps to the top of the dome to see the views outside. This is halfway up, and you can see the detailed marble floors in the church's main entryway.

And one view from above - it looks to me like the typical Italian countryside in the background.

In order to go up to the top of the dome, we had to buy a combined ticket with all the attractions. So to get our money's worth, we decided to "quickly peek" into the baptistery, and we were amazed. This is the ceiling inside, and it is entirely a mosaic!!! Again, it is a representation of The Last Judgement.

A part of the mosaic ceiling in the baptistery - it's gives both the amazing "how did they do that?" and the "ewww, gross!" feeling!

Italy #1: food and people

During the past week, I traveled to Florence, Italy with a friend and colleage from LCC. We haven't finished sharing our pictures yet, but I will post some of the ones from my camera.

Our first night in Florence, we ate an "apertivo", which is like a buffet. We paid for two drinks, and then got to eat as much food as we wanted! After traveling all day, we definitely enjoyed the meatballs, pasta, bread, salad and wine.

This picture is from the Uffizi Gallery (art museum) that we visited on our first full day in Florence. There were lots of statues and paintings to look at, and although we weren't supposed to take pictures, I couldn't resist taking one of the beautiful ceiling (and accidentally getting my face in the picture too)!

A MASSIVE calzone that I ate for dinner one night - stuffed with two different cheeses and zucchini - yum!

This is us inside the Duomo, a very famous cathedral in Florence. There is a big dome at the front of the church, which is painted with a representation of The Last Judgement. We climbed 463 steps to get to the top of the dome and go outside, but also got to stop partway up and see the painting up close - it was so beautiful and lifelike!

Another afternoon we ate at an outdoor cafe and just soaked up the sun. I ate pizza with spicy salami, blue cheese and red onion. 

Here I am at the main lookout spot in Florence - behind me you can see the big dome on the right - the same dome in the Duomo that we visited earlier in the day.

On our last day in Italy, we took a short bus ride to Siena, and enjoyed the very medieval streets, buildings and atmosphere there. It was a beautiful day, so we got sandwiches from a deli and ate them in the main square in the sunshine. It was perfect!

The last night we ended up spending the night in the airport (unplanned - a long story). The pictures is when we were killing time in a bar, and the very kind workers let us hang out after they closed before we caught our bus to the airport. We were very tired by this point, because it was at 2:30am!

More posts to follow as soon as I get more pictures! :)

more smelt

A couple weekends ago, I went to the Smelt Festival with a couple LCC friends in Palanga, Lithuania. My friend, Bethany, posted some pictures on her blog, which I also wanted to share with you.

There were LOTS of people walking the streets at the festival. We saw...

Fish being roasted over an open fire, 

An amber fish,

And an anchor holding strength competition!

We ate fish soup, fried smelt, and cream of wheat with ham gravy.

Close-up of fried fish - with eyes and heads and everything included!

We couldn't quite bring ourselves to eat the fish heads. But the rest was good!