Trip3 and Pisa

 I thought I had some better pictures for the rest of trip2, but not too many good ones...therefore, on to trip3.  Prima fermata, Siena.  Here is the home of the infamous horse race takes place.






Then on to Firenze (I'm not sure why we call it Florence...barely even close).  Note Brunelleschi's dome still a strong presence in the city.

 Here is an interesting idea, lets just cantilever off for our new addition...driving some structural engineer crazy!

 Del Duomo (di Firenze).

 Between the two shells of the dome.  I had been climbing for quite a while on stairs that circulated circumferentially until the slope of the dome allowed direct climbing up.

Standing on a walkway near the top of the vertical portion just below where the dome starts to slope inward.  This picture is looking almost straight up.  As the crack denotes, time takes its toll on all.













When in Roma... (do as the tourist do...take pictures of the Colosseo.)  





























La Fontana di Trevi... although you can't see it in this picture, the area in front of the fountain was packed... I actually held the camera as high as I could and hoped for the best.









And of course, the Pantheon.













Here in Pompeii (note I saw this spelled with either 1 or 2 i's) with Vesuvio in the background.


Pompeii is/was a lot bigger than I imagined.

After we returned from the 3rd trip, I realized I couldn't spend all this time in Italy and not see the leaning tower.  As you can see, my camera actually distorts the image.  The tower does not curve...It is straight and it leans more significantly than expressed in this picture.








This is most likely the last post containing a lot of pictures from Italy, but maybe we'll see a few from Charleston, SC...

Trip2, part1

 As you might have noticed from the visit to the Ducati museum, I visited Bologna.  Like most Italian cities, Bologna has a "centro storico" or historic center.  And of course, beautiful churches.

 Also, Bologna is home to not one...but two leaning towers.  These towers may be more typically medieval that the famous one, but as you can see, this one leans a quite a bit.















During this trip, I visited Bologna, Trento, Trieste, Ravenna and Rimini.  The next few photos are from Trento.  Trento is probably my favorite Italian city so far.  It is nestled in a valley at the foothills of the Alps and has both beautiful scenery and an interesting mix of historic and modern/contemporary architecture.

 In Trieste, we can see some similarities to the architecture commonly found in Vienna Austria-(not really all that far away)

 There is also an ancient forum here.

I hope this panorama turns out!

Ducati

 Sometimes you have to look at more than just architecture.  We have visited several art museums - however, I might be the only one here that understands visiting this particular art museum...

Milano - del Duomo

The main cathedral in Milan is magnificent.  If, for no other reason, this is good enough to take a trip to Milan.

This 'enclosed' street is also a particularly nice space.  It directly opens onto the same piazza as the cathedral.

The following photos were taken from the roof levels of del Duomo.  The amount of detail this high up is astounding, and all in marble.  No wonder it took 500 yrs to complete-and without any design changes.

The piazza in front of the cathedral.  The 'covered' street would be to the right of this photo.

Trip1, part3 - Vincenza and Verona

As we approached Vincenza we stopped by one of the Villa's by Palladio.  The owners are actually American, and only use it part of the year and they give tours occasionally.

This is a photo of the back of the Villa.  The front was getting some restoration done.

Here is the most famous of Palladio's villas, The Rotunda.  It is only open for tourists 2hrs on Wednesday and Saturday.










This is an interesting work by Palladio.  The original medieval basilica has passageways through it that are not spaced evenly.  Palladio, wanting to use symmetrical elements(being driven by classical styling).  You can see the (commonly called) Palladian window shape formed by the arch and the smaller rectangular gap to each side of the arch.  Palladio could then vary the width of the rectangular openings and to get the arches to line-up with the existing passageways.





This is one of the many Palaces by Palladio.  We walked past several, but this is one of the few that you can stand back and get a decent picture of it.









Although almost everything in this city has something to do with Palladio, there are more typical buildings.













And even some more modern ones.
















However, this is Vincenza and back to Palladio - or at least his statue (with the Basilica on the left).












And this is Palladio's final work, the inside of a theater.  He completed the conceptual design in the last 6 months or so of his life.

Behind the classical facade is a perspective built stage that give the appearance that it is much deeper than it really is.  The road you see is about 12 meters (~39 ft) long.  Although the illusion is not perfect, it is pretty good.









And now, Verona:





We didn't stay in Verona long, but we did see there 'Coliseum' which is still being used for entertainment (concerts and such).

And we visited Castel Vecchio.  A medieval castle where the inside has been reworked and turned into a museum.









This last photo is from the castle just to give you an idea of the city of Verona and the river that runs through it.