DAY 8 | ROME – PISA – FLORENCE TOUR

Europe Trip
DAY 8 | ROME – PISA  – FLORENCE TOUR

Breakfast in hotel, then after we proceed to the venue as instructed which journey today 600 KM.
First we depart to head for PISA. Passing the most beautiful region once again of Tuscany. So beautiful, that even Tony Blair takes regular annual holiday here in the local villa with his family. 

Arrival at Pisa. Explore the "Miracle Square" where it boosts of the three of the world wonders. - The Leaning Tower, the Baptistery and the Cathedral, all in Cararra White Marble. The cemetery next to it, has soil brought back in the middle ages from the Holy-land. Ticket to go up the Leaning Tower is expensive, ask your your manager for this information.
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The view heading to next tour


La Piazza Del Duomo, Pisa


Battiestera, Italy








Step in the Baptistery of St. John (Italian: Battiestero di San Giovanni), is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building in Pisa, Italy. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the Duomo di Pisa and the cathedral's free-standing companile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The baptistery was designed by Diotisalvi, whose signature can be read on two pillars inside the building, with the date 1153. 


Pisa Cathedral facade





Wen Lin & Florence


Florence at The Leaning Tower


Pictures with gangs of tour mates & tourist.








Piazza dei Miracoli (Italian: Square of Miracles), formally known as Piazza del Duomo (Italian: Cathedral Square), is a wide walled area located in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. Recognized as an important centre of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. Considered a sacred area by its owner, the Catholic Church, the square is dominated by four great religious edifices: The Pisa Cathedral, The Pisa Baptistery, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and The Camposanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery). 

The name Piazza dei Miracoli was created by the Italian writer and poet Gabriele d'Annunzio who, in his novel Forse che si forse che no (1910), described the square as the "prato dei Miracoli" or the "meadow of miracles". The square is sometimes called the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles). In 1987 the whole square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Depart for Florence, southbound. Passing by the Thermal bath area of Tuscany. Enjoy the sight as we travel along. Arrival at Florence. Here is again, city tour is on foot. 

 View and photography: St. Mary of the Flowers church; the Door of Paradise: The Signoria Square; The Uffizzi Gallery; the Ponte Vecchio: the statues of David and the Equestrian statue of the Duke of Tuscany.












Piazza Santa Croce






Florence & one of tour mates, Choy Teng



Piazza Vecchio, Firenze




Piazza Della Signoria is an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the focal point of the origin and of the history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political hub of the city. It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Ponte Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo and gateway to Uffizi Gallery.

The Palazzo Vecchio ('Old Palace') is the town hall of the city. This massive, Romanesque, cremellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany. Overlooking the square with its copy of Michelangelo's David statue as well the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi, it is one of the most significant public places in Italy, and it host cultural points and museums. Originally called the Palazzo della Signoria, after the Signoria of Florence, the ruling body of the Republic of Florence, it was also given several other names: Palazzo del Popolo, Palazzo dei Priori, and Palazzo Ducale, in accordance with the verying use of the palace during its long history. The building acquired its current name when the Medici duke's residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti.





Ponte Vecchio, Firenze





The Ponte Vecchio ('Old Bridge'), is a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. The Ponte Vecchio's two neighbouring bridges are the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Ponte alle Grazie.

Along the Ponte Vecchio, there can be seen many padlocks affixed in various places, especially to the railing around the statue of Benvenuto Cellini. This is a recent tradition for the Ponte Vecchio, although it has been practised in Russia and in Asia before. It was perhaps introduced by the padlock shop owner at the end of the bridge. It is popularly connected to idea of love and lovers, by locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river, the lovers became eternally bonded. This is an example of the negative impact of mass tourism: thousands of padlocks needed to be removed frequently, spoiling or damaging the structure of the centuries-old bridge; however, it seems to have decreased after the city administration put a sign on the bridge mentioning € 160 penalty for those caught locking something to the fence. There is a similar ongoing padlock phaenomena at Ponte Milvio, due to one of Federico Moccia's books. The bridge was severely damaged in the 1966 flood of the Arno. The bridge is mentioned in the aria 'O mio babbino caro' by Giacomo Puccini. 





The Gate of Paradise
The Gate of Paradise by Ghiberti - 1452, Michelangelo had judge the door worthy of paradise but not for this reason the door has this name. The door name paradise stems from the fact that in the Middle ages, every year during the procession dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the converts came to be anointed in the Baptistery just from that door and then earned the paradise.


Street Art at Florence










Facede of the Cathedral


The Original facade, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and usually attributed to Giotto, was actually begun 20 years after Giotto's death. A mid-15th-century pen-and-ink drawing of this so-called Giotto's facade is vissible in the Codex Rustici, and in the drawing of Bernardino Poccetti in 1587, both on display in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo. 













Street Art, Florence Town

Porcellino, Italy
II Porcellino (Italian 'piglet') is the local Florentine nickname for the bronze fountain of a boar. The fountain figure was sculpted and cast by Baroque master Pietro Tacca (1577-1640) shortly before 1634, following a marble Italian copy of a Hellenistic marble original, at the time in the Grand Ducal collections and today in display in the classical section of the Uffizi Museum. The original, which was found in Rome and removed to Florence in the mid-16th century by the Medici, was associated from the time of its rediscovery with the Calydonian Boar of Greek myth.

 Visitors to II Porcellino put a coin into the boar's gaping jaws, with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck, and they rub boar's snout to ensure a return to Florence, a tradition that the English literary traveller Tobias Smollett already noted in 1766, which has kept the snout in a state of polished sheen while the rest of the boar's body has patinated to a dull brownish-green.


Time for rest. Stay Tune.

Hotel Details:
Hotel Villa Anna
Via Rosselli,
33 - Montecatini Terme (Pistoia)
Italy
Tel: 39 0572 78416
Fax: 39 0572 78416 (same as tel)

Date: 18th September 2010