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Travels in Tuscany
By Kamouraskan and Lariel
Disclaimer: This article is copyright to the authors January 2006. All photos used were taken by and are the property of the authors.
A while back we both decided that we would never again do the midnight ride to Stanstead Airport. The free flights on Ryanair just weren't worth the stress. We also agreed that we were getting too, ummmm…. mature (yes, that's the word) for a packed two or three-day rush about some great historical city.
Maturity be damned; this travelogue is all about us leaving at 3:00AM for Stanstead on a Monday night/Tuesday morning and arriving back on 2:00AM Thursday night/Friday morning. It's also about how we tried to see the whole of the Renaissance through three of the most important cities of that era in only three days.
Preparation
Repeating what would appear to be obvious; long before you set out, do
your research online, and make it thorough.
We
hit our usual sites - cheap air carriers, Venere for accommodation and the Rough
Guide for general advice. The advice from the Rough Guide, Cadogan, the Lonely
Planet and a couple of traveller forums seemed to indicate that Pisa was less
of a stinking tourist-trap money-grubbing hell-hole so we took a gamble, turned
our backs on two nights in Florence and plumped for Pisa instead. Thank God
for the internet.
Tip: We like being near the train station. Yes, in most average size North American cities the rails travel through the worst of the older, sometimes abandoned sections of town and they are seldom, with the exception of possibly Montreal and New York, near any major landmarks. But in Europe, nearby you can usually find quiet, inexpensive pensiones or guest houses and a scattering of cheap but good restaurants. As well, the train stations in Europe invariably have a major bus hub giving you access to all parts of the city. When you get off the plane, even the greenest traveller can find Stazione Centrale on the posted schedule, and hauling your luggage that first day to your lodgings only a few blocks saves the embarrassment and cost of a shifty cabby in a strange city. At the other end of the scale, places that advertise their closeness to tourist sites are surrounded by overly expensive crap, far from a choice of transit, and usually have gangs of carousing drunks under your windows at two in the morning.
Michele's Guest House
When we first began searching online for a place to stay in either Florence
or Pisa, we found that there were very few places listed at under £100
a night for a double. Now, we do not ask for much. Safe, clean and quiet are
all we generally want, as we simply need a place to leave our bags and sleep
when we get back from our wanderings. Unfortunately, the few places in our range
were all unavailable, even though we were booking four months in advance. Except
for Michele's Guest House. At £80 pounds for two nights, it was half the
price of any other listing.
Usually after finding a possible location, we generally do a search and try to find other references and independent comments on the place but we were unable to find any links that did not refer directly to the home site of the Guest House. This was not comforting as it generally meant that the owner was web savvy and could be hiding something under the carpet. Finally after an exchange of correspondence and no alternative locations anywhere near the price or location, we jumped in and hoped for the best.
We were very lucky. If you are after three to five star service and luxury, the Guest House is not the place to go. But if you, as we have said, are after clean, safe and quiet, you could hardly do any better than Michele's, certainly at that price. As well, the owner is a contributor to Lonely Planet, one of our recommended travel sources. The rooms were cleaned and beds made while we were out. The bathroom, though shared with another room, was spotless with new fixtures. Michele was friendly, offered excellent advice, and provided free maps and information on Pisa and the surrounding area that he obviously loves deeply.
Tip:
If you want romance on your trip, be sure to specify a double bed.
Surprisingly often, two single beds are pushed together and you can find your
romantic nights literally falling through. Michele's, we are happy to report,
was a proper double bed.
The Day Before
Now, to get to an airport for 6:30am with at least 90 minutes of the required
check-in time to spare requires some planning as well as a death wish. The evening
before, we packed everything but the clothes we were to wear and our bathroom
bag, made our trip sandwiches and packed our drinks and snacks in a separate
bag. We managed to fall asleep by 10:00 and stumble about at three. Lariel cleverly
hid her purse while obsessively tidying up the house (can't have our cat sitters
see how we REALLY live) and this slowed us down so that we were only on the
road at 3:45am. The good thing about that is that the EVIL M25 is really only
useable at 3:00am anyway, at least until London commuters discover this fact
and switch to a 4am -12pm workday. Of course, after a rush to get there, the
flight was delayed for twenty minutes, but hey, it gave us the chance to see
the new wallpaper Stanstead has added since we were last trapped there.
Day One - Pisa and Lucca
So we arrived at Galileo airport on time and to brilliant sunshine. We
had expected it, and even planned our itinerary around it. According to the
weather service, we would have sunshine for Tuesday (our day in Pisa and Lucca),
rain for Wednesday (day in Florence) and Thursday the possibility of sun with
clouds (Pisa again). Unlike England where, when someone in this benighted country
catches a brief glimpse of the sun they call it a sunny day, I knew that even
in October, Italy could count clouds floating between us and a scorching midday
sun and call it sunny with clouds. I had read about the beauties of the town
of Lucca, which contrasted starkly with the doom and gloom many of the travel
writers gave the subject of walking around Pisa and Florence. So after hardly
dropping our bags I convinced Lariel to get back on transit and go to Lucca
right off, my theory being that Florence was going to be spent indoors checking
out the museums and interiors of churches, and we could do that in the rain.
Lucca
As always, it seems everyone except Britain has a cheap and on-time train
system. A short and inexpensive 30-minute ride took us outside the great walls
of this unusual town. I'd pressed for us to visit Lucca for several reasons.
One: like two of my favourite places in the world, Quebec City and Conwy, it
was still enclosed by its original ramparts, which I had read had been changed
into a circular swath of green space. Two: Hardy and others admired it as having
many treasures in a small congenial space. And finally, like Venice, it was
a car-less space to wander, consisting as it does of dozens of narrow, paved
streets which cyclists rather haphazardly hurl themselves down. It all makes
for a refreshingly urbane and sedate little city.
Originally Roman, with a banking history as long as Venice and nearly as successful as Florence, it managed to remain independent right up until Napoleon invaded in 1805, something proudly proclaimed on the main entry with the word 'LIBERTAS'. Like Heaven, you really have to work to find your way to St. Peter's Gate, certainly the best way to enter. And when you do, you find what really is a little-known jewel in Tuscany's crown.
To
anyone whose feet haven't mysteriously disintegrated under the strain of walking,
Lucca is a manageable place, with its main attractions in perfectly wanderable
distance. Of particular note is the Duomo, especially its striking statue of
Volto Santo (Holy Face), said to be a true effigy of Christ carved by Nicodemus,
an eyewitness to the Crucifixion. According to legend, the Volto Santo came
to Lucca all by itself, first by boat from the Holy Land and then by oxen guided
by divine will. What was more amazing to us was the fact that the statue shows
a black Christ. And we didn't think that was just the ageing of the cedar wood.
The Duomo of Lucca is crammed with pretty amazing things to see. As well the Volto Santo, there is the Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, the masterpiece of Sienese sculptor Jacopo della Quercia, which was described as 'the loveliest Christian tomb in Italy' by John Ruskin. We didn't see it, as the room it was in was being guarded by two harpies who looked like they wanted to charge us admission - a truly frightening sight in a church.
As we were about to see the beginnings of the Renaissance in the next few days, the exterior of the church of St. Frediano was an important reminder of how beautiful but stilted the Byzantine style was. The mosaic that sprawled along the exterior façade was stunning. The inside was more bizarre, though. A beautifully carved 12th century baptismal font stands in front of an awful bas-relief of carved garlands of fruit, which people of more tolerance might describe as kitsch if that weren't such an anachronistic term for it.
More bizarre than the tacky artwork, though, was the mummified remains of St. Zita, which came as a bit of a shock as she wasn't mentioned in any of the guidebooks, nor were there any explanations for the tourists who stumbled into her enclosure. Our library books said that St. Zita was a servant with the habit of giving away all her own food, clothes and in some cases even her bed to the needy. When she started giving away her employers' goods, she was lucky she didn't have her hands chopped off, as most employers wouldn't necessarily be too enthusiastic about having a saint accomplish good works with their possessions. Luckily, she seemed to have the rarer sort of employer - she did get into trouble at the time, but her saintly tendencies seemed to win out and later on it all came good when she was canonized before being preserved for all of posterity to see. We felt quite sorry for her, laying there in her servant's dress while the world gawped at her through the glass case. Of course, like most saints, she is let out on her Saint's Day, but only to be 'caressed'- something (thankfully) of which there were no further explicit details.
Having exhausted ourselves with two churches and a brief wander around the town walls, we decided we'd better sit down with a carafe of wine and enjoy the Roman Amphitheatre. Only a few walls and the surface space had survived, so the enterprising Luccans had turned it into a sweet little oval plaza full of shops and cafes. We drunk our local wine, ate a couple of ice creams and did some souvenir shopping before heading back to the train.
Pisa at night
Being the seasoned travellers that we were, we knew we would need to pace
ourselves. So as soon as we got back from Lucca, we headed off again, foolishly
deciding to walk through Pisa to get to the Campo dei Miracoli - a good twenty-minute
walk if you 
were
chasing the last of the sun, which we were. Unfortunately, we were doing it
by way of the glamorous Italian shops and so when we eventually arrived at the
UNESCO World Heritage Site, the sun had already faded from the sky. Still, the
site of the Leaning Tower peeking drunkenly over the rooftops in the gathering
gloom was stunning.
Now, we have come face to face with several icons on our travels, separately or together - the Coliseum, Big Ben, Sydney Opera House and the Eiffel Tower to name a few, and I admit we are getting quite blasé about them these days. But you know you are somewhere unique when a building can be bought in the shape of dried pasta. As the bags of little Leaning Towers testified, we were firmly in Italian Icon Land now.
We would hate to give you the impression that this was tacky though. The Campo dei Miracoli is very beautiful, with the infamous Leaning Tower merely one of four stunning constructions and arguably the least interesting (apart from the lean, that is). We took a few archetypal photos and then ignored it for the rest of the time we were in Pisa, the Duomo, Camposanto and Baptistry being far more interesting buildings. Plus, it cost too much to get in and there was no way our legs could take that many steps, as tempting as it was to hurl things off it in a pitiful attempt to recreate Galileo's experiment. Instead, we sat on the steps and enjoyed the views before returning to a well-deserved night's sleep.
Day Two - Pisa; why didn't anyone tell me?
'Oh, you won't need more than a morning in Pisa,' everyone had said. So
we'd planned to spend our full day in Florence and see Pisa before we left for
our flight home, but we were so knackered already that we changed our plans
and decided to take a leisurely day hanging out at the Campo dei Miracoli and
we were glad we did. Making a lie of the weather reports, the sun blazed above.
We took our time, drank in the views and sunbathed on the grass whenever we
wanted to.
Plus, it took us hours to peruse the souvenir stands - just how does one choose the right mini leaning tower for a friend or family member? Would you like yours in plaster/plastic/soapstone/with limoncello in it? Or should it be edible or have a pen set in it? Or perhaps a pillbox or even a snow globe? Oh what the heck - go mad and buy a bag of that dried pasta.
We broke up the souvenir shopping with pasta, wine and at last, well-paced visits to the Duomo, the Baptistry and the Camposanto.
Tip: buy a combined ticket. The thrill of climbing the 300 odd steps of the Tower is priced at just slightly less that the cost of seeing all of the three other main sites. According to our guidebook, you could purchase a block ticket for the group. However, when we got to the Tourist Office alongside of the Campo, we found you could mix and match sites for a variety of prices. Our choice of the Duomo, Camposanto and Baptistry, ignoring the two museums and Tower, came to only 16 Euros.
But
First, The Most Famous Cock-Up In The World
..as Lariel charmingly described it, leans rather alarmingly in about two
different directions, which is no mean feat for one tower. Claiming with astonishing
insouciance not to have noticed the lean until building was well under way,
the Pisans tried to compensate by sticking wedges underneath it and building
bits of it at opposite angles, with the result that there's a slight bend to
the middle - a bit like a banana, only much more subtle. Still, by some miracle
the construction stayed upright, although it continued to list at an alarming
rate. It was only when a similar tower elsewhere collapsed that the Pisans decided
they better do something and in an attempt to stabilize the shifting structure,
they added weights, which clearly was never going to be a long term solution
given the fact that the whole thing was build on sand. It's only recently that
they've finished shoring up the substructure and thankfully, we were able to
enjoy the views without scaffolding.
Some facts about the Leaning Tower:
The Tower is, of course, open to the public for an extortionate fee and although the guidebooks say you can't go out onto the balconies we did see people whizzing round the rim and taking photos. The thing to note, as well as the rather steep entry price, is that there is no elevator and around 290 steps.
The Age of Discovery
I have great respect for the whole Galileo-dropping-balls-off-of-the-Leaning-Tower
thing. (And apparently I am not alone in this, as mentioned above, the Powers
That Be have roped off the section of grass in the shadow of the tower for all
those tourists who attempt to imitate it to the detriment of anyone passing
underneath.) You have to be impressed at the mind of a man who would ignore
both assumption and authority to ask if a heavier object really would hit the
ground before a lighter one. And when the cannon ball did strike the ground
at the same time, there are two immediate effects. One, you have to wonder if
there is a constant speed of descent and might be driven to calculate it. The
other, far more significant, is that nothing can be assumed. All things must
be observed before acceptance. And if you are of a rigorous mind, proof must
be duplicated with the same results.
But that is not sufficient reason for a former science student to go to Pisa, to see the site of this event. There is little to learn about the event by standing with the tourist tat sellers along the sidelines and marvel at the man's mind. Or pose in such a way as to appear to be holding up the tower. (Proof if anyone ever wanted it that a joke is only funny the first billion times). Better to go as we did to his grave in Santa Croce in Florence to honour him. Or to the Museo di Storia della Scienza to see his original equipment. I am referring to his lenses, etc. you dirty minded sods.
The
Duomo
An amazing building in its own right, construction of the Duomo started
in 1063 and it really was the archetype of Pisan architecture - it was the first
to be decorated in those striking black and white stripes that have become so
typical of the style. Entry is through the huge bronze doors of the Portale
di San Ranieri, cast in 1180 by Pisano, the first architect of the Leaning Tower
and consisting of biblical scenes of astonishing fluidity and detail. As well
as housing Galileo's lamp, the Duomo is also home to Pisano's impressive pulpit,
decorated with scenes from the New Testament, which was packed away and promptly
forgotten about after a fire in the 16th century and was only found again in
1926.
Time waits for no man
As a pendulum clock fanatic, I had long heard the story of Galileo observing
the swing of a lamp in some church. Of course, the church was a cathedral -
the Duomo of Pisa and one of the most marvellous buildings in history. We spent
hours lying on the grass in a haze of exhaustion and wonder between it, the
Campo Santo and the Baptistry. I spent even more time admiring the New Testament
stories on the bronze doors before finally entering. I sat in the back, as Galileo
would have, where the lamp is perfectly framed by the smallish altar window.
Any movement beyond that outline would be easily measured. As well, Pisan architecture
is marked by alternating black and white marble stones (Florence uses green
and white) and as the lamp's supporting cord descends, it is marked by graduated
strokes along side, almost as a grid. Now logic assumes that when the lamp swings
further away from the centre, it would take a longer period to return to the
centre (something which can 
clearly
be measured by the framing of the altar window). But I could imagine Galileo
sitting there, watching the lamp swing to the right (tic) increasing its velocity
to the left (tock) counting his heartbeats and comparing the time passing to
a previous observation when there was only a light breeze and a slight sway
and computing that it was the same regardless of the distance travelled. Only
when the lamp was lowered for the candles in to be extinguished or lit, according
to the ceremonial requirements, did the length of the cord did change the speed
of the return to centre.
With that information you can create a pendulum that will keep time far more exactly than any water sand or candle. And why are accurate clocks important? With accurate time measurement, you can set noon by the sun in one village, travel a known distance to another where it should be noon but the sun isn't quite overhead, and by measuring the shadow at that specific time, calculate the circumference of the Earth. You can work out the distance to the Moon and or travel across seas on accurate maps rather than simply hug the coastline. There is a reason that the divisions of Longitude and Latitude are in minutes. The Renaissance was not just about art, but challenging assumptions and exploring once closed avenues. For one minute in the Duomo in Pisa, I felt more in touch with that spirit than several classes in school.
The Baptistry
Marvellous from the exterior and frankly disappointing once you get in,
what is apparently the biggest Baptistry in Italy contains a huge octagonal
font and another lovely Pisano pulpit plonked in a rather austere interior.
We went in because our Campo dei Miracoli ticket gave us access.
The Camposanto
The squat, white marble building that runs alongside the Campo dei Miracoli
is actually a huge cemetery, and it has been called one of the most beautiful
cemeteries in the world, both for the building and for the stunning frescos
that it contained. We liked the look of it - plus we were intrigued by some
of the things we heard about it, so it was definitely on our list of Things
To Do In Pisa.
Apparently, a group of Pisan knights on the Fourth Crusade brought a little souvenir back from the hill of Golgotha - soil, in order that eminent Pisans could be buried in holy earth - and promptly set to building their cemetery. Not content with nicking someone else's earth, the Pisans also took fancies to old Roman sarcophaguses they happened to find lying around. They turfed the hapless ancient occupiers out of them and settled in for a blissful eternity in stolen coffins amid stolen earth. The joke being, that occasionally they mistook old Roman baths for coffins, and ended up interring themselves in someone else's dirty old bath. Still, it looked classy and really, that's all that counts.
Paintings once covered over two thousand metres of the cloister walls, but incendiary bombs dropped by Allied planes in the Second World War set the roof on fire and the frescoes were destroyed by the molten lead. Only a few fragments remain, the most impressive of which is the Triumph of Death series, effectively capturing the morbid mood of a nation ravaged by the Black Death in the fourteenth century.
Taking a brief break from culture, we retired again for more ice creams, another lie down on the grass and a last bit of souvenir shopping. Hunting for the perfect gift is an art form and we had long ago decided that the memento of choice for the daughter back home was an eraser - cheap and functional, easy to transport - it was the perfect souvenir and we'd never had problems finding one (so much so that the poor girl must have hundreds of the things by now) until we came to Tuscany. Still, it was the touristy thing to do and eventually, we found one, tucked away in a fancy paper shop.
As we made our purchase, we had another chance to again watch the tourist antics. What is it with these people? Who of your friends would try to have their picture taken appearing to be holding up the Leaning Tower by posing at a distance in front of it with your arms outstretched <Please, My Sides Are Splitting>. The visitors feel obliged to line up along the fence, one after another. I thought a shot of them doing this was at least worth a photo, but Lariel refused to give me the camera. We declined the priceless photo op and sensibly had more wine instead.
Day Three - Florence without any legs
Or, the search for a Little Naked David.
Spending the whole night with your legs throbbing away in bed was an odd
sensation that I'd 
never
experienced before, so it was with some trepidation that we got up the next
day and gingerly tested our creaky old bones and tired muscles. Our legs and
feet are definitely getting too old for all this, but thank God Michele's Guest
House has a bidet - perfect for soaking tired feet in (well, what else would
you use one for?) so eventually we felt ready to tackle our biggest challenge
of the trip so far - Florence In A Day! Having threatened the poor daughter
with her very own Naked David - or at least, another eraser for her collection
- we felt we were on a quest and managed to get our wobbly legs working enough
to carry us down to the train station again.
Tip: Don't forget that in many European systems, you punch your train or bus ticket in the date stamp machine, or risk getting caught by the inspectors, as we did - again (we'd already been caught at Pompeii). This time, it was an honest mistake and we pleaded sheer exhaustion. The inspector accepted our exhaustion and ignorance and wrote out the information on our ticket. So much for our claims to being experienced Italian travellers.
We had lucked out again though, and the weather held for us. We stepped off the train after an hour's ride, and using just our tour book maps were able, in about 20 minutes, to make our way through the modern shops and crowds to the old city.
We'd spent several hours trying to decide which of the dozens of sites we would spend our short time on, always reminding ourselves that we would be back in Florence in about a year. We knew that the Uffizzi might be one of the greatest museums in the world, but it also had world-class line-ups to match. As we'd not been completely sure which day we would be in Florence, we had not made the necessary pre-booking online, something we would certainly recommend. Sure enough, we watched the line at the entrance move about 30 feet in the half hour we were enjoying the environs, leaving at least another 100 feet just to get into the building, much less to the ticket counters.
Appropriately, Brunelleschi's great dome guided us to the Piazza. Despite being called a "Cathedral in Pyjamas" we were both taken aback by the beauty of the square in the bright sunlight, even besieged as it was by the hordes of tourists who thronged about.
The Duomo seemed to twinkle merrily in the sunlight, wearing its green, red and white marble stripes like a rakish, natty jacket. The largest of its time, an incredible achievement of architecture, the Duomo stunned and inspired Michelangelo, which was just as well really, as it was intended to impress the heck out of all the other neighbouring superpowers of the time, like those pesky upstart Pisans. It is worth remembering, though, that as the natty exterior was only added in 1887; Michelangelo and the others would have been marvelling at quite a different sight than the multi-coloured one we see today.
The inside was interesting enough too. Of particular note are the two frescoed cenotaphs; interesting not so much for their artistic value but because they represent the huge con tricks played by the Florentines on the wealthy men who coughed up loads of money on the understanding they would get a properly impressive statue to commemorate their earthly doings after death. Once they had popped off, the poor saps ended up with a plaster painting of a statue on the wall.
We were most fascinated by the Sacristy and its gruesome connection with the infamous Medicis. Lorenzo (the Magnificent) Medici - and the Pope's banker at the time - took refuge in it after Pope Sixtus IV put out a hit on him. Lorenzo's brother was not so fortunate, not being able to find sanctuary behind the great doors (presumably, Lorenzo was holding them tightly shut at the time). Poor Giuliano was stabbed to death in the church, by priests hired by the Archbishop of Pisa. Sadly, the angry rent-a-mob rustled up by Medici sympathisers to rail against the papist plot got a bit carried away with their remonstrations and the whole affair ended with a five day rampage in which 80 people were killed. And it all goes to show that you really shouldn't turn the Pope down for a loan when he asks for one.
Climbing to the top of the dome would have been a great idea had we any sort of stamina or not been on our incredible 'The Renaissance In Three Days' tour, so perhaps next time. Meanwhile, here are our top cheap and fast places to visit.
The Baptistry Doors
Most date the beginning of the Renaissance from 1401, as this was the date
that the Baptistry doors were put out for a competition. Though not the originals,
(we would be seeing them in a few minutes) it is an essential stop for any culture
vulture.
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
Just behind the Duomo, the cavernous space where Michelangelo carved his
David is now the repository for the original bronzes that made up the Baptistry
doors. Beautifully restored, one by one they have been placed here as the years
passed. His Pieta is still here on the stairs as you ascend to look over the
courtyard. Of somewhat dubious provenance, (or else they would have more likely
remained within the Duomo,) are the usual motley collection of worshipful relicts
- fragments of the True Cross, a finger of John the Baptist, St. Philip's arm
and bits of other saintly celebrities.
Donatello's astounding Mary Magdalene is worth a visit on its own. Though its inspiration may conflict with what we may now believe of the Magdalene's true story within the ministry of Jesus, no one can deny the intensity of this early 15th century statue. A refreshing change from the usual overblown, pious Renaissance women, she almost appears to have been carved by some modern artist within our own era.
Piazza
del Signoria
If the Piazza del Duomo is the religious heart of Florence, then the civil
and military centre is the Piazza del Signoria. Most people go there in order
to see David and instead find themselves in some sort of statuary yard sale.
I wanted to see where Savonarola instituted that greatest of crimes against
art and culture, the Bonfire of the Vanities (yes, it isn't just a book by Tom
Wolfe or a film with Tom Hanks). Though a democrat working against despotism,
Savonarola also believed that Florence was drowning in excess and along with
blush and wigs burned some of the great treasures of the Renaissance and antiquity.
Unfortunately for him, his popularity was of the hula-hoop kind and Florence
happily reverted to excess, but not before burning Savonola on the same spot
a year later. Isn't irony fun?
Of course, the big attraction of the Piazza is Michelangelo's David - a replica, of course, the original having been carted off to the Accademia. In person, he is quite a size (sadly not where it matters though!) and when you stumble into the Piazza, you almost don't realise you've found him, jostling as he is for space amongst the other collection of sculptures (Cellini's Perseus is particularly excellent, although some of the other pieces are a bit ropey). But just follow the sound of camera shutters clicking, and you'll find him immediately.
Santa Croce
A contradiction in many ways, Santa Croce is a Franciscan church, and despite
St. Francis' belief that small is beautiful, it is one of the most important
churches in Florence. Despite his insistence on humility, the Head Inquisitor
was headquartered here. And some of the greatest superstars of the Renaissance
were buried here. Michelangelo to Machiavelli, Galileo to Ghiberti are all found
in this one spot. Dante was exiled from Florence, but a monument is erected
here nonetheless.
Each of the above required more than a few hours each to appreciate, and we were now left with only enough time for a meal and a quick visit to the Ponte and Palazzo Vecchio.
What, you ask? What about the Pallazzo Pitti, the Orsanmichele, the Bargello, etc. etc.?
Once again, we only stuck our foot in the water but there is a method to our madness. Our plan is to live long enough to have the time to return and properly experience each of the cities we have only dropped in on.
So Class, What Have We Learned?
Well, we found that if we were truly adult, we should have booked off for
more days. That Pisa is definitely worth more than a day. That it is far cheaper
than Florence but perfectly located for trips to the more expensive city. And
that you really can experience a potted version of the Renaissance in Three
Days.
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