Okay, here's the lowdown on Willow's Adventure with us
Day 1 - Flying from San Francisco to Rome via Frankfurt. It took a
bit day longer than planned as we had mechanical issues, but luckily, we weren't in a big hurry
Day 2 - View of Rome from the Spanish Steps and Willow attempting to climb the 138 steps. And yes, our first 'real' meal in Italy was pizza. It was delicious.
Day 3 - Florence! First picture is of Willow at the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore which is a very common tourist destination. We didn't go inside that cathedral, but did go into the Basilica di Santa Croce where funerary monuments to many famous people can be found including Galileo Galilei (who supported Copernicus's view that the Earth revolved around the Sun), Michelangelo Buonarroti (as in THE Michelangelo who painted the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican and who carved David), Niccolò Machiavelli (considered one of the main founders of modern political science) and Dante (who wrote The Inferno) as well as a host of others.
And to Kathy's comment about my backpack - I always travel with a backpack to tote my stuff around. That particular backpack has been all over the world and this time I simply added Willow to it as it was easy to keep her in there and easy to take pictures that way. It was the beginning of the tourist season, so crowds at some sights were quite substantial.
Day 4 - We took a bus tour of some of the other towns in Tuscany. The first picture was taken at a vineyard with a view of San Gimignano. San Gimignano is a medieval walled city known for its towers. The town used to be full of towers and now there are only 7. People lived in the towers with their kitchens on the lowest level and the upper levels having the bedrooms. At night, the ladders from the lower levels would be pulled up to prevent anyone from entering the upper levels.
The second picture is of the cathedral in Siena which is very different from most. The interior has alternating stripes of green-black and white marble throughout showing the Moorish influence on the design. The cathedral had a collection of Gregorian chant books so that's what Willow is looking at in the third picture.
The forth picture is a statue of Fibonacci. Fibonacci was a mathematician that lived in Pisa.
The last picture was of Willow in the Piazza di Campo in Siena where the Palio horse races are held twice a year. These horse races can be seen in the opening scene of Quantum of Solace staring Daniel Craig.
Day 5 - We took a train from Florence to Venice and got on our cruise ship. The train behind Willow is the Orient Express. If you've ever taken a cruise, you know that you get to meet towel animals throughout your cruise. This walrus was the first of many Willow got to meet.
more to come...
