On to Turin

After Pisa, we headed to Turin. There was no tour to see the Shroud of Turin, which is not on normal display, and no one seemed to know if we could see anything. So we walked to a Cathedral, asked a few questions, and found the altar where the famed shroud is stored. The square shape above that altar is a reproduction of the face in the shroud. A wonderful find for us.

The image of the sunflowers reminds us of the beauty of northern Italy, where large fields of flowers are growing all summer for use in sunflower oil. I had no idea that would be a major cash crop.

The Leaning Campanile

We drove into Pisa and the bus dropped us off just across the street and past a wall from the Leaning Tower, or Campanile. What a wonderful world there is in the window of a Trafalgar Tour Bus! I also loved the leaning tree, which I never heard of before seeing it. Is there a heavy wind in Pisa, heavier than in Chicago?

City of Art and Architecture

A city of art and architecture, Florence is filled with buildings that are architectural works of art in their own right, and many of them are adorned or filled with works of art of all shapes and sizes. These two edifices are cathedrals; elsewhere, in a nondescript academy of art building, one can see the original DAVID, one of Michelangelo's true masterpieces.

Faces

Some faces we saw in Italy would include the mime we saw outside one of our fine restaurants, one where I ate pizza if I recall, and our excellent Trafalgar Tour Guide, Marco Cini. He was the architect of the trip and did an outstanding job!

Sunday in Florence

We arrived at the overlook outside Florence mid-day on a Sunday. All around the area there were wedding parties celebrating the day. We saw five weddings there at one time. Looking across at the city, the dominating building is the magnificent Florence Cathedral.

Under the Tuscan Sunflowers

The road from Roma to Firenze . . . Florence, in English . . . is brightly lit with lush fields of sunflowers. Upon our arrival in Tuscany, we stopped at an overlook outside Florence to see the town, featuring the famed Ponte Vecchio. In Italy every Ponte (bridge) is named, often for a family of importance in the area.

Headed to Trevi

A look down at the Coliseum, where much of the underground staging and storage areas are now open to the sky and therefore more impressive in their size and scope. Later that evening we of course threw coins into the Fontana de Trevi . . . The Trevi Fountain in English.