Florence & Pisa

Continuing with my first European trip back in 1984 — after we made it out of Rome alive — we headed for Florence and Pisa. Florence had always fascinated me because of both Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni and Leonardo da Vinci, who were both born in the 15th century not too far from Florence.

The older of the two, da Vinci, considered to be one of the greatest painters who ever lived, had been born out of wedlock and educated in Florence by the renowned Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. After beginning his career in Florence, da Vinci went to Milan for a while and then went back and forth between the two cities before spending some time in Rome and finally in France. He died in France and was buried there in the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin at Château d’Amboise.

Michelangelo was also sent to Florence for his education, but not in art. All he wanted to do was paint and he was soon taken under the wing of the Medici family who were willing to employ him to do just that. He also took up sculpting and began to bounce around between Bologna, Florence and Rome after the death of Lorenzo de Medici. Eventually he returned to the patronage of the Medici family before being commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. That project took him four years to complete. He died in Rome and was buried in Florence at the Basilica Santa Croce.

We began this visit at a leather factory and then went on a walking tour of the palace and chapels of the Medici, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio, Saint Mary’s Cathedral (also known as the Cathedral of Florence), the Baptistry, and Santa Croce. Even though the statue of Michelangelo’s David that stands in front of the Palazzo Vecchio is a copy (the original is safely housed in the Galleria dell’Accademia), it is still exquisite. I bought a small copy of it for 9,000 lire (roughly $5,00). Since there wasn’t any barricade or guard to prevent me from doing so, I touched my finger tips to my lips and then placed them on Michelangelo’s tomb at Santa Croce.

The next day, we left Florence for Pisa. We stopped at the main square where we could visit the Cathedral, the Baptistry and the Leaning Tower. This time the tower was open. On a later visit, it was closed as it was in even greater danger of toppling and was being shored up by hanging counterweights on the one side to try to straighten it out a bit. On this first trip, we only had a short morning break in Pisa.

Next time — Eze, Monaco (Monte Carlo), and Nice

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