The region of Tuscony Italy (of which Florence is a part) contained many funerary tombs dating back to the time of the Etruscans and early Romans (roughly 700 B.C. to 300 B.C.).  Th Etruscan civilization of ancient Italy corresponds roughly to the current region of Tuscony, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. The early Romans called the inhabitants of this region the Trusci or Etrusci.  They were eventually assimilated into the Roman Republic in the late 4th century B.C. The artifacts contained in this museum were excavated from some of these tombs. Even after nearly 3000 years many of these artifacts are in near pristine condition.

This is the tomb of Diavolino I dating back to the 7th century B.C. It was excavated in 1900, then dismantled and rebuilt in the garden of this museum between 1901 and 1902.

This picture and diagram indicates how some of the tombs were placed in the countryside.

This round tomb was discovered under a mound as indicated by the diagram below the picture.

Here is a wheeled funerary incense burner dating back to approximately the 6th century B.C.

Gold Etruscan jewelry

For those of you that know us, you may be surprised to learn that on Sunday, we went on a wine tasting tour of the vineyards in San Gimignano. Lorenzo, our landlord in Florence, told us he was going and asked if we would care to join him and another couple, Diane and Ricardo from Australia, on this trip. San Gimignano is about a 45 minute drive outside of Florence. It is gorgeous, hilly wine country. We began our tour at the Tenute Niccolai farm where we saw the vines growing in neat rows along the hillside. The amount of sun each section gets determines the type of wine the grapes will produce. Nothing goes to waste. After the juice has been extracted from the grapes, the skins are dried and used as fuel for the farm furnaces. We then toured the processing plant, which pretty much resembles other winery processing plants I have seen. The wines are "aged" in three steps; first stainless steel tanks, then cement tanks lined with beeswax (which gives it a slight sweetness) and finally in wooden casks.  This final step, time spent in the wooden casks, helps to determine the flavor. We then went to the tasting room where we sampled four different wines that the farm produced (...well, I sampled the wines. Lori did an excellent job of sampling the bottled water provided).

No matter where you stood, you could see vineyards like this all around you.

We were a bit surprised to see that the soil almost seemed clay like. Not what we expected.

The guest vintners?

The traditional aging room.

By regulation this vineyard is restricted to producing only 50,000 bottles of their labeled wines per year. However, like all regulations, there are ways around this rule. The farm sells a number of bottles to local restaurants under a "table wine" label. This farm also  is home to Villa Palagetto and Villa Arnilu, old farmhouses converted into bed and breakfast establishments.

Diane and Ricardo, new friends from Australia

Master control center for keeping the temperature even in the stainless steel and the cement tanks.

The shipping room where the finished product is sent out.

Following the wine tasting, we then traveled approximately five miles over winding, dusty, dirt roads to another vineyard owned by the same family, this one is called La Lucciolaia. Here the whole tour, numbering approximately 45 folks, were served a sumptuous four course luncheon. First course; antipasto (consisting of several piece of cold cuts, cheese, and mini- bruchettas with three different sauces on them. Second course; spaghetti with mushrooms and sausage pieces. Third course; slow-cooked, oven roasted beef with potatoes, cooked spinach, and beans. Fourth course; an assortment of pastries and cappuccino. Of course, during this luncheon, we sampled three more wines (and Lori continued her sampling of the bottled waters provided, declaring them all...bellisimo!).

Our land lord, Lorenzo

The main dinning room of La Lucciolaia

The gentleman on the far left of this picture was one of the owners of the two vineyards we visited.

The antipasto

The main course

The Palazzo Vecchio, bordering the Uffizi Palace, was one the many Medici palaces situated within the confines of Florence. Like all of the other Medici palaces, the Palazzo Vecchio is full of great works of art and sculpture. It is also replete with many secret passages connecting the main rooms of the palace, as well as leading to rooms that were known only to the Medici's . We were fortunate to go on a tour of some of these secret passages and rooms, that the general public usually does not get to see. While a bit claustrophobic at times, it was an fascinating experience.

This diagram shows just a sampling of some of the secret passages and rooms.

Many of the rooms adorned with beautiful works of art, also housed secret compartments  in which valuable items could be stored. This storage space was located behind a painting in a room full of paintings. We were led to believe that all the wall paintings in this room hid such storage compartments. This luxurious room was Cosimo I's "man cave" (Carl and Josh take note). This was the one room in the palace that he could be absolutely alone if he wished to be, as most of his day he was surrounded by family, persons seeking his support for some issue, and/or servants.

In these very private rooms of the Medici, the valuable art also hid doorways to other passages or rooms.

These private rooms were adorned with as much beautiful art and sculpture as the main rooms of the palace. The woman at the far end of this room was Cosmo I's first wife, Eleanor of Toledo. She had 11 children.

A secret room off of a secret staircase. Not sure what the purpose of this room was.

Our secret passages tour of the Palazzo Vecchio (which lasted one and one-half hours) began of the street level floor in this room. The wall behind this costume, was part of the original Palazzo Vecchio prior to later enlargements of the palace. This costume was worn by the signoria, city council members who helped to rule Florence during the 13th and 14th centuries. Each signoria member was nominated and elected by a guild to which he belonged. They served for two months at a time and had to reside within the Palazzo Vecchio during their tenure. If they wished to be re-elected, they had to wait at least one year between terms. This rule was established in an effort to keep any one person from becoming too powerful, within a group that was very powerful by its nature.

This is the first secret passageway up into the palace from the room pictured above.

The top of the stairway.

This is one wall of the "man cave" of Cosimo I. Each of the lower paintings covered a hidden storage compartment, or in at least one instance a doorway to another passage.

One of the hidden storage areas behind the paintings in the "man cave".

As mentioned earlier, there are incredible artworks throughout the palace. This is a ceiling of just one small room that made up part of the secret passages tour. The artwork was coordinated with each other to form a theme or tell a story. In this particular room the corner pieces (highlighted at the bottom of the picture) depicted one of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) with the surrounding pictures continuing the theme of that corner.

This weather vane at one time sat atop the Palazzo Vecchio. The lion is the symbol of Florence.

These huge pictures adorn both side walls of the main meeting room of the palace. They reportedly tell the story of Florence, and/or of Cosimo I's life.

The huge ceiling tiles partially seen in the top of the previous picture, were painted and framed on the floor of the great hall. They were then hoisted up to be secured in place on the ceiling. This is the other side of the ceiling depicting the rafters of the roof and the beams to which the ceiling paintings below were attached. The wooden beams seen here are original to the palace and remain in good shape because of a good ventilation system that keeps the wood from being affected by humidity. The rafters are anchored to the outside walls with gaps to allow the wood to expand during warm weather without causing damage to the supporting walls. The beams also support the ceiling tiles with tie-rods that also allow for some movement. The guide told us that when a bomb was exploded outside the palace in the 1990's, the beams only moved a few centimeters and no damage occurred.

Yesterday, we visited the Galileo Museum of Science (located on the backside of the Uffizi). While the inventions of Galileo are clearly the centerpiece of the exhibit, the museum houses scientific inventions gathered across several centuries. A large portion of the museum is devoted to the development of aides to navigation (e.g. Compasses, sextants, cartographic tools, etc.) as well as exploration of the heavens and of the microscopic world. Obviously, Galileo's work on improvement of the telescope was huge, but equally impressive were his studies of physics (i.e. The laws of motion).

This larger than life "Representation of the World" depicts the view of the earth as the center of the universe at the start of Galileo's career. This was in keeping with the teachings of the Catholic church at that time. Galileo refuted much of this thinking by his research and almost cost him his life. He was forced to repent.

Wednesday, we decided to take a "leisurely" stroll (some of it seemingly almost vertical) up to the Michaelangelo plaza overlooking Florence. Following the unification of Italy, there had been plans to make this site a museum to Michaelangelo. However most of the statues expected for this project never arrived, so the museum idea died. It is still a spectacular view of the city from here. As can be seen in the second picture, even some of the old wall that had surrounded the city is clearly visible. We met and talked to some interesting folks while there: a young couple from Manila, an older couple from Ottawa, and an American film company from PBS.

We traveled thousands of miles away from home, and climbed a "mountain" to the piazza di Michaelangelo, only to run into an american film company from PBS doing a promo shot with Peter Greenberg, travel consultant for PBS and CBS. Go figure!!!

Atmosphere really does add to one's dinning pleasures. One of the many  "hole-the-wall" type restaurants found all over Florence. Food was excellent.

The Baptistry has been undergoing extensive cleaning/renovations since before we arrived. Until today, the section facing our apartment was uncovered, revealing the scaffolding surrounding the building. This morning, we watched workers raise a new covering over this section so they could continue their work. It was a fascinating process.

From parade central, we bring yet another activity below our apartment. Alerted by the sounds of a band and singing we looked out and discovered this religious parade going by. Investigating, we learned that it was a special day for Peruvian immigrants, "The Day of Miracles" ( the shrine depicted was in a home in Peru. The house was destroyed by a volcano but the shrine was undamaged. Apparently several other miracles occurred around the shrine).   They marched to the front of the Duomo (the very heavy shrine being carried by about 20 men) sang some songs, and said some prayers. Children were lifted up to the shrine and swung in the form of the sign of the cross. The women carried incense and walked backwards so as to not show their backs to the shrine.Many of the religious belonged to the Order of Assumption (as in Assumption College).

When it is time for lunch, not even the lines visiting the Duomo get in the way

Look what we found just a stone's throw away from our apartment. We traveled around 5000 miles to run into an exhibition about the Lakota (Sioux) tribes of South Dakota. What a interesting exhibit. It was put on by Alessandro Martire, an Italian lawyer who became interested in this native american community at an early age. We had the good fortune to meet him and spent around an hour talking with him. By the age of 18, he was living and studying in America. He spent ten years living with a Lakota tribe in Rosebud , South Dakota, becoming an honorary member of the Lakota Sicangu nation. Upon his return to Italy, he began working for Italian recognition of the Lakotas as a sovereign nation (which he accomplished). He became an International Lawyer for the Lakota Sicangu Nation at the High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. He was hired as a consultant for the movie "Dances With Wolves". Some of his exhibit items were also in the movie ( the bow and arrows as well as the knife belt pictured against the red tapestries). We also had the good fortune to witness the making of an obsidian spear head by traditional methods. The pictures depicted here and in subsequent postings are from this excellent exhibit.

This exhibit is only a small portion of the Lakota items Alessandro Martire has accumulated over the years

The first picture is the demonstration of making a spear head. The gentleman doing the actual fabrication is from Ireland and specializes in making ancient weaponry using traditional techniques. The gentleman standing right behind him in the yellow polo shirt is a consultant from the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC. In the second picture, the man in the leather jacket standing next to the demonstrator is Alessandro Martire, the creator of the Lakota exhibit. The third picture shows the tools needed to make the spearhead along with the finished product. The final picture depicts the Lakota (and A. Martire's) philosophy. It was an excellent exhibit and we enjoyed speaking with Alessandro. He continues to work pro bono for the acceptance of the Lakotas as a sovereign nation. He has arranged for the exchange of students from Florence and the Lakota nation in South Dakota  to visit each other.

Imagine our surprise seeing a lot of these little electric cars driving down the street and being plugged into recharging posts on the curb. We thought of Devin right away because of his love of cars. There appears to be only enough room for two in these cars. Some are very colorful. Others are plain.

We were fortunate to discover A museum devoted entirely to the inventions of Leonardo DaVinci. It was only a 5 minute walk from our apartment. The brilliance of this genius was clearly on display in the countless models throughout the museum ( such as the mobile multi-canon device shown in the first picture. This was to be mounted on a ship and all of the canons had to be fired at once to keep the ship stable. It was reportedly the precursor to modern day tanks). Many of the exhibits were hands-on allowing the visitor to fully appreciate the inventions. Included in the tour was a 100 minute History Channel video depicting DaVinci's life and works. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the day there.

Do we know anyone who likes Legos and My Little Pony? We found this cute "little" toy store around a corner from our apartment, guarded by this full-size Lego character(it was almost as tall as I am). So of course we had to explore. This "little" store went on forever!!! There had to be at least ten different rooms focusing on various types of toys. There was the Lego room of course and another room devoted to My Little Ponies. And much to our surprise a room devoted to Halloween (where we found this Joker mask). Naturally we thought of Lucy and Eamon and had to snap some pictures. It was like being at home and wanting to buy things for them.

We have come across a number of school age groups since we have been here. Talking with several of them we learned that they were from private schools throughout Italy on two-day and three-day field trips. The schools take many one day trips but only one overnight trip per year. The children for the most part pay their own way. If they can not afford it, the school will pay for them. They all were very well behaved and attentive, taking notes, drawing examples of the art, and/or taking pictures on their phones. These children were middle school students (12-13 year olds). There were no parents present; just teachers, 3-4 teachers for up to 75 students.
The group in the posed picture below was from a private Catholic school in Milan. After this picture, they sort of adopted us for a half hour. Insisting that we join them in a group picture (actually several), they were full of giggles and laughter. The teachers were very interested in how schools in America differed from their own (for instance, the music teacher was paid a little over 600 euros per month for working ten hours per week). They wrote down the name of Lori's school and our email address so they could share their pictures with us, and probably to exchange emails. Lori was in her element and her smile went from ear to ear.

One piece of free entertainment we have always enjoyed watching have been what we assume are the unlicensed street venders. They play a constant game of cat-and-mouse with the municipal police. The venders display their wares and aggressively try to get tourists to buy them. The municipal police "stroll" by as if going on a leisurely walk and the venders pack up quickly and move off to the sidelines. No effort to actually stop the street venders seems to occur. Just harass them.
Equally interesting is watching what we call "...the gypsies" (if that is what they really are). Some will focus on begging from the tourist waiting lines. Others will plunk themselves down on the street as if disabled also begging for money. If you look closely, you could see a snack nearby to keep them satiated. A kind soul, not knowing any better could try to reach down to help only to be surrounded by other "gypsies" who may make an effort to pick pockets. What is really interesting is to see how fast these "disabled" folks can get up and move off if a municipal officer comes by. Worthy of an Oscar nomination.

No visit to Florence would be complete without a visit to L'Acadamia...the National Museum of Art. Fabulous works of art in many medias (paintings, books, wood panels, sculptures, etc) abound throughout the museum. The David, of course, is the centerpiece. Attributed to Michaelangelo, debate continues today as to whether or not he was the actual sculpturer. Who cares? It is still a beautiful piece of art. No matter what side you view it from, there is always something different to see...(does the left side of his face have a different expression than the right side?...does his right hand, the one holding the rock, seem out of proportion?).
Just as fascinating to us, and almost lost in the presence of The David, are the unfinished marble statues. Just looking at them, one can see what Michaelangelo meant when he said he did not create the sculpture, he merely released it from the marble.

We have been here for 10 days and we have been serenaded every day by all kinds of music; the church bells every 1/4 hour, street musicians, and today running (not Marching) bands.

We all know about the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona Spain, here we have the "Running of the Bands". We were fortunate enough to run into these folks later in the next square. (Click video link!)

http://youtu.be/HOV8JNLHtPM

Who knew that playing music could be strenuous? http://youtu.be/GF7fULZo1Z8

This group was paired up with the previous group (i.e. Dark green shirts) and would alternate with them playing music. It almost seemed competitive. It occurred to us that this band looked like they were in Boy Scout uniforms. Lol. Fun and interesting to watch. Very gung-ho in their performance.

http://youtu.be/fvOQ-aQUfZM

While sitting in our apartment writing this post, we are being serenaded by a fairly raucous but talented swing band down below in front of the Duomo. Life does not get much better than this.
Today we visited the renowned Santa Croce Basilica with its beautiful chapels, paintings, and sculptures. Within the Basilica are the burial plots of the really big names in the art world; Danti, Michaelangelo, Gallileo, DaVinci.

In addition to the artists' burial plots mentioned in Part 1, we also found Marchiavelli's and Donatello's. As part of this trip we were able to visit Michaelangelo's house a couple of streets over. There is so much history here in Florence, it is doubtful we will be able to see it all in this one month trip. We may just have to return here another time!

We woke up this morning to a vastly increased police presence  (about 50 more or less, including plain clothes officers) in riot gear (e.g.  Helmuts, billy clubs, and shields). Sensing that something was going on, we went to investigate and got caught up (literally) in a student protest about wages and job opportunities (a rough estimate being about 500 students). After we took the picture of the front of the protest with the signs, we found ourselves surrounded by the students. As we were trying to work our way forward and out of the crowd some genius threw a couple of colored smoke bombs. Life got really interesting for a few moments. At the rear of the student protestors were what appeared to be older protestors (not sure if they were supporters of the protest or opposition). We finally got clear of the crowd safely and went on to visit the Uffizi, none the worse for the wear.
One day the streets are clogged with runners, the next they are clogged with protestors ....ahhh Florence.

This is cool! We are sitting in the middle of a large road race about to begin, in the street below our apartment. I would say there are  1000 runners expected to participate .Canopy tents set up from different sponsors...a very loud PA system...and a lot of enthusiasm. Quite a sight. They told us they will do this every Wednesday through June so maybe next week better pictures.

First group of runners returning. This is only a small portion of the total.

These are pictures from the local "supermarket" around the corner from our apartment. Notice the plastic glove to handle fruits and vegetables. Other than items written in Italian and a few different items offerred, not that much difference from American markets. Prices are good here, except for meat (e.g. $25 for a kilogram). The market itself is about the size of many convenience stores but is called a "supermarket". The quantity of items offerred is also limited. Except the wine department, which made up almost half the store.

Now here is the "big" market". Similar to Haymarket Square in Boston or North Market in Columbus Ohio. One can get just about anything here, such as pig, rabbitt, something that looks like brains, cow stomach, and all kinds of nuts. Even can get octopus.While the vendors seem to be quite acommodating, many of the older Italian women can get very demanding as to how they want the meat cut. All the meats can be expensive, such as beef being $25 per kilo, sausage was $5.90 per kilo, and we paid $6.40 for two chicken breasts. One does have to walk around comparing prices. Nothing is plastic wrapped.

And of course , one item that every shopping list should not be without. Of course I am not sure how one cooks this item, .....let alone eat it (ugh!!!!!). It did seem to be a popular item.