Final Day. . . Pisa & Florence Italy!

Oh my! It has taken me FOREVER to sum up this European trip of mine--but I am finally down to the very end. . . so HERE GOES!

Our first stop was Pisa with the leaning tower that you see in the above photo,


The amazing Cathedral (you can see the Baptistery and the Tower in the background) :



Here's a close up of just the Cathedral:



Here's a close up of the Baptistery:



The awesome square with it's arched entrance:





The Clock Tower inside the Square:



Here's a view of the main street inside the Square:



This next photo is one of the cool statues inside the square:



This next photo shows some of the old walls surrounding the city of Pisa:



Here I am, hanging out in front of the Baptistery:



When we went inside--they closed the doors and there were about 30 or so of us in there. Then this woman came and stood by the huge font and explained about the acoustics of the building which was AMAZING! She began to sing an arrangement of notes from the center of the room (dome) and there was about a 3 second delay where the sound was held and vibrated back down from the top of the dome. So she started singing and it sounded like 3 or 4 voices--all in harmony. (she was harmonizing with herself) It was truly beautiful and I was so impressed with the knowledge these people had to build a building with such an amazing natural sound system like that! I was really touched by her singing and just being in such a beautiful old building. It was quite an experience!

Of course, no Pisa experience is complete unless you climb the tower! So of course we did that too! (My mother-in-law was quite the good sport about it) and so we made our way to that amazing 6 degree leaning tower:



Here's a close view--looking right up at it!



Of course, I was concerned about that 6 degree lean--so I did my best to prop it up before we made our way to the top:



And made it we did! As you wend your way up the winding stairs--there are signs periodically along the way that will tell you the degree of lean you are at (as if you can't tell already by the way you are feeling!)



The view from the top was INCREDIBLE! Here is looking down at the Cathedral and Baptistery:



And another view of the city from the top of the tower:



And here is a view looking down on the square:



And this is my best shot of the city from the top of the tower with the mountains in the background:



And then my dear mother-in-law and I took pictures of ourselves by the bells (it was a bell tower after all) on the top of the tower of Pisa--and just after that shot was taken of me--I nearly went over the edge--as the bells RANG OUT on the hour (it was 10:00 a.m. in the morning) and they were so LOUD and surprising--and I had the SNOT scared out of me--let me tell you! (thank goodness I look calm and collected in the picture)



I had to regain my composure before I ventured back down. . . and both my mother-in-law and I made it safe and sound with just a bit of 'ringing in our ears'


And last but not least is Florence!



Florence is an absolutely incredible city--the art is astounding--and the rich history of the city:



The 'standout feature' of those above photos is the amazing Duomo and Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral Of Florence--which took six centuries to complete and is the 3rd largest in the world:







This shows the cathedral with the beautiful carved doors:



And here is a closer view of that beautiful green door:



But of course (for me and MANY others) the piece de resistance--was the STATUE OF DAVID! I mean, that's one of the reasons to go to Florence--to actually SEE David! To me, Florence was the statue capital of the world! There were statues EVERYWHERE and I would have taken a GAZILLIONS photos of many of them--but my camera battery died! However I DID manage to get David before it went kaput--and my mother-in-law graciously lent me her camera for the rest of the trip. . . so I will have to come back and post a 'Florence Statue Slide Show' when I get them off her CD she sent me.

For now I will just end with David--as he is a beauty!



This truly was the trip of a lifetime and I was so happy my face was permanently etched in a HUGE grin (Much like the Joker's) for the entire trip!

And WHEW! I'm FINALLY done blogging about it! So a big thank you to all those who waited patiently for me to finish and didn't bug me THAT much about it!