Travels in Italy

We said a fond goodbye to our new friends in Florence, it was a visit that will give us many fond memories. Wonderful food, good friends, treasures of the centuries and many new experiences. As an added bonus the Irises were in bloom which is the flower of Florence. It is wonderful to see Italy through their eyes. Susan and I had a marvelous visit with Sister Julia in the Protestant Cemetary of Florence called the English Cemetary. Sister Julia keeps those buried here alive with her stories and photos of their lives. Here we found the tomb of Elizabeth Barret Browning. I could have spent hours listening to Sister Julia's stories!!

The Uffizi gallery was magnificent with a special tour of the corrider above the Ponte Vecchio. Michelangelo's David was breathtaking, especially when you realize he was only 19 when it was carved.. Our follow up trip to the Marble Caves of Carrarra brought it from the beginning to the finished product. It is amazing to think that David began has a piece of marble from this place and they are still getting marble from it today. It was a great way to tie it all together.

















Ponte Vecchio


Today we arrived in Lucca, where Puccini once lived, and had a lovely lunch at the home of Rotarian Marco Pociani. We then toured the city on foot with the help of Matilde Andreini. We had a special tour of the Palazzo Bernardi where we made our presentation later in the evening. It was a lovely suprise to have Antonio Mazzarosa, my host from Pisa, and his father at our presentation. It seems like a long time ago that we started in Pisa. We also had a special trip to the music institute in town. It was a great day and we finished with a view of the town at night