As I sit on the Dalmation coast trying to keep up with the pace of creating content that I set for msyelf and fall further and further behind, I decided I needed to just get the rest of the photos from Italy off my plate and onto this blog. I’ve tried to make them faster to load by compressing them more but there are a LOT of them. As always for words and story see Melynda’s blog at Travelingmel.com
Here are the hilights:
We visited La Specola which may be the wierdest museum in Florence.
We had a GLORIOUS sunset in the Cinque Terre town of Riomaggiore when we arrived. I gleefully snapped away. Then we had a hiking day and some rain. See our video here.
After our fun time in the bell tower of Siena, we climbed Gioto’s Bell Tower in Firenze and went inside the Cupola. That was fun because the boys had been learning about Bruneleschi’s dome and how they still aren’t sure how he managed to build it. See our video here
We went to a bunch of museums including the Uffizi gallery. See our video here.
We scrambled around Florence creating a brief Dan Brown Inferno video, just for fun. (coming soon)
As I mentioned, there are a lot of photos.
Click on a photo and it will bring up a window that you can click through.
Bell tower.
Dan Brown mentions this painting several times in his book Inferno
Back in Firenze we had canolis.
Finn and I took the train while M. and A. hiked to Monterossa.
Photo credit: Finn
Our view from the apartment outside Vernazza
Pizza for second breakfast was delicious.
Post election blues in Vernazza
Stairs in corniglia
Manarola
Looking for lunch in Manarola
Heading back down to Manarola (little down on headland)
The “wine train” used to get supplies up and down.
Halfway up.
Going up past mini-vinyards worked by locals for themselves.
Beginning of hike to Corniglia, the next town down. The old short route was closed due to a major rock slide a few years ago.
Lonely fruit is lonely.
Restaurant for the evening was a bit pricier than we wanted but was warm and delicious.
Our spot for pre-dinner drinks.
Another lonely fruit stand.
Finding our way back for an early dinner (by Italian standards)
Selfie
Anders, Melynda, and Finn
Anders looking out to sea.
Very serious discussion about pokemon is more interesting than what’s behind them.
Brothers
Brothers talking pokemon at sunset.
Kitty was more cute than friendly.
We climbed stairs and took narrow “streets” and found this spot near the church.
Oooooh the light.
The colors of sunset were stunning and made the trip for me.
Crash went the surf! So powerful.
Angry surf is nothing for a real fisherman.
Surf hitting the breakwater at sunset.
Colorful houses above the ocean and surf. Despite being November and cool, we weren’t the only foolhardy souls there.
Happy Melynda.
Houses literally just above the ocean.
This fisherman was nonplussed by the crashing surf on the jetty just out of frame.
As we got off the train, the waves were crashing against the cliffs.
For a small town it was surprisingly difficult to find our apartment before heading down to the shore.
We were greeted in Riomaggiore by a beautiful sunset.
And watch the world go by
Trains make it easy to spread out and relax.
How Melynda feels when she’s headed out to go hiking.
Always, always, always have snacks.
We were ecstatic to get on our first train ride in Italy to the Cinque Terre.
We were undeterred, if not excited to be photographed.
We didn’t have too many days of rain but this day it poured.
Looking out the museum window on a rainy day.
Since it’s bronze, Anders can get away with picking the boar’s nose.
Pet the pig. Wild boar brings luck if you shine his nose.
scientific doodad of historical significance
Galileo’s middle finger. No. Really.
Just a piece of iron work on the way to the Galileo Museum.
That is the scale model of Brueneleschi’s dome we mention in our Youtube video
Slightly calm for a moment.
The boys playing while Melynda smiles. Open space and sunshine make for rambunctious kids.
Looking downstream from the Ponte Vecchio at sunset.
The Palazzo Vecchio was about 100yds from our apartment and glowed in the sunset.
We found a park during one of our Video filming days and the boys were running around unsupervised. This makes Melynda very happy.
That’s Vasari’s passageway leading over the Ponte Vecchio.
Sunsets on the Arno are classic and beautiful. This is from the Ponte Vecchio looking upstream.
La Specola is just down the street from the Piti Palace
The ceilings were somewhat incongruous with the contents below.
Stuffed octopus which is probably several hundred years old.
It was pretty much dead stuff from there on out including a COMPREHENSIVE collection of stuffed critters.
The Rhino hanging from the ceiling was before we even got into the museum.
We inspected a variety of historical displays.
The entrance to La Specola seemed innocent enough with interesting ceilings and displays.
