Italy Part 9: Rome - Neighborhoods

We arrived in Rome mid-day on May 22. From the Termini train station, we walked about 50 minutes to our apartment just around the corner from Campo dei Fiori. It wasn't until we'd been there a couple days that we figured out the public transportation system and realized we could've made the journey by bus in maybe 10 minutes. :)

The street our apartment was on

Anyhow, Campo dei Fiori plays host to a huge farmers' market every morning.

A few of the many, many booths with fresh produce

Pasta. Just pasta!

Oils, pastas, pestos, etc....

We wandered up a few side streets and found:

Lovely Gucci ad....

Details of that big fountain in the middle,

the one with the obelisk sticking out of the top.

In the evening, we walked northwest until we came to the river. This view greeted us:

The dome of St. Peter's in the Vatican City

And when we turned slightly to the north, we saw:

Castel Sant'Angelo

I wanted to go in, but I didn't get the chance on this trip.
Next time!

Another evening, we took a walk in Trastevere - a neighborhood to the south of our apartment - and had dinner at a great little restaurant called Vincenzo alla Lungharezza. On the way there, I snapped this photo:

More later....

Italy Part 8: Florence - Sunset

One evening in Florence, we walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo, a plaza/park on the other side of the river. It has a great view of the city, and we wanted to watch the sun set.

Piazzale Michelangelo seen from our apartment (with zoom)

There is a bronze copy of David in the center of the plaza.

We weren't the only ones with the idea of watching the sun set from there!

The Duomo

The sun setting over the river

Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio, and the Duomo at sunset

Italy Part 7: Florence - Palazzo Vecchio

The Palazzo Vecchio is a huge old palace in Florence. The Medici family used to live there, and many of their enemies swung from the tower with a noose around their necks!

The Palazzo Vecchio

The great hall on the second floor

The paintings in the Great Hall were enormous!


The ceiling


Stairs

A cherub

The blue room - check out the ceiling!

The ceiling

Random works of art

Floor details

Freaky face on a wall

The Map Room
In the center is a very large globe

Globe

And on the walls are many old maps.
I particularly liked this one of eastern Africa.
See the elephant?


Above the elephant it says,
"This region produces many elephants"!

The view on exiting the Palazzo.
That's a copy of Michelangelo's David,
in the place where it (the original) stood
for 300 years before being moved indoors.

Italy Part 6: Florence - The Bike Tour

On the Saturday that we were in Florence, we went on a bike tour. The company picked us up in downtown Florence and drove us about 45 minutes southwest out into the countryside near a village called Poppiano. Poppiano has a castle and a Count, and has since at least the 1200s!

These days, the current Count and his family run a winery and olive-oil making facility in their castle.

The castle

Castle courtyard

The castle shop

The most flavorful, delicious olive oil I've ever tasted!
I was able to bring a small bottle of it home with me in my carry-on 1-quart zip lock bag.

Olive press

Their wine was good, too, though I didn't bring any of that home.

More casks

Lots and lots of wine!
(Gus is normal-sized in this photo; it's the cask that's the wrong size!)


The view from the castle tower

After the wine and olive oil tasting and tour of the castle, our tour guides put us on bicycles and led us on a 13-mile bike ride in the surrounding countryside.

Vineyards

More vineyards, with olive groves on the far right hill

The local scenery

The whole excursion (van ride, castle tour, biking, lunch, more biking, and the van ride back to Florence) took about 7 hours. It was a very fun but exhausting day!

Italy Part 5: Florence - Around Town

Here are various photos I took in Florence.

This photo was taken from our apartment window.
This man sat in that chair every day,
looking out over the river - he had a great view of Ponte Vecchio.
All day he would paint the view and sell the paintings to passersby.

Zoomed-in view
I bought two paintings from him.

Another artist!

Tiny cars! I would love to have one of these for driving to work and back.

Cheese and olives at that central market

A whole shop just for pasta!

Mailboxes in a quiet neighborhood on the other side of the river

The view of the east end of the city from the other side of the river.

Gus in front of the doors to the Pitti Palace

The old city wall