The Adventures of LorAx: Italy Part 3

Day 5 Continued...Arriving in Florence!

Our next accommodations were certainly the most unique: Villa Morghen. We stayed in a 3 bedroom apartment located in this elegant villa built in the 15th century and later transformed in a Benedictine Monastery in the 19th century. It is now used as a "holiday house" and hotel for travelers. It is situated in the hills east of Florence, so we had a beautiful view of the city from the patios surrounding the Villa. There was also a lovely little town square just up the hill from us with a small grocery and several restaurants (one of which we will never forget!).

One quick picture before going out to dinner

Part of the square where we ate dinner.

Our travel companions were pretty bushed by the time we arrived in Florence, so Alex and I went out to dinner in the little square just up the street from our new home. We ate at a little place called Caffe Desiderio. Of course we had delicious food and fantastic wine (even bought a bottle of local red wine to bring home), but Alex was being awfully quiet throughout the evening. I figured he was probably just tired...but he was secretly planning away. After dinner we headed back to our apartment at the Villa Morghen, but stopped along the way several times to take in the views of Florence rolling out below the hills where we were staying.

Our view of Florence

We stopped for a while here and there...one place had too many mosquitos...one place had too many people...and we slowly made our way back to the veranda outside the villa. And that's when it happened! It's all kind of a blur now, but I'm pretty sure Alex said something really wonderful and sweet and then...........................................................................HE PROPOSED! Funny thing is he had been carrying that ring around the whole trip! Just waiting for the perfect moment. Such a sneaky, romantic Walex!

Post-dinner + RING!

Alex's thoughts on that evening: She said YES! Phew... Also, Foof's first words: "What took you so long!?"

Day 6: Tuscany & Florence
The next morning, after telling our friends what had happened while they were soundly sleeping, we headed out into the Tuscan hills to take a private tour at Castello di Monsanto winery, all thanks to Jeremy and his epic connections. We had an awesome and very informative tour given by the beautiful Valentina. She told us that Castello di Monsanto is world famous for it's Chianti. Chianti is a red wine made from Sangiovese and Canaiolo grapes specifically grown in this region of Italy. The vineyard is over 500 acres, and they now are dabbling in other wines - we got to try a delicious Chardonnay! The winery is also known for it's extensive "Aging-cellar" with an underground gallery that is 300 meters long. It can fit up to 1300 barrels! The long tunnel gallery connects the new cellar/bottling center to the old cellar (originally built in 1740). The walk through the cellar is quite dramatic with stunning lighting and a luscious red carpet leading the way.

After an extensive tour of all the cellars, we went to a beautiful solarium to start tasting wines...

The grounds outside the tasting room

Just before we left, Valentina had a special surprise for Alex and me! Jeremy and Ashley had told her about our engagement the night before, so Valentina graciously gave us a bottle of a special 50th anniversary edition Chianti Classico in a beautiful wooden box. We were so surprised and thankful!!! We'll definitely be saving it for a special wedding anniversary in the future.

Receiving the special Chianti - SO EXCITED!

Travelers + Valentina, our excellent tour guide!

Unfortunately our time at Castello di Monsanto came to an end (not before we all bought a few bottles to bring back to the States!), and we headed back out into the Tuscan sun for our next adventure, recommended by Valentina: the walled city of Monteriggioni!

Such a bright and beautiful day in Tuscany!!!

Monteriggioni is a "comune", or township, in the province of Sienna in the Italian region of Tuscany. It is a walled city set atop a strategic hill which allowed this place to be used as a look-out point and fort during the Middle Ages when Sienna was at war with Florence. While visiting this ancient city, we took time to walk along the walls, visit the tiny Romanesque church in the square, have a DELICIOUS lunch at lovely restaurant, and of course...have more gelato!!!

Here's a panorama from the wall and the church in their main square.

Checking out more views from the walled portions of the city.

A little gelato and snazzy bling!!!

Stopped here for a delicious lunch!

After a long day of wine and exploring, we went back to Florence to scope out some of the more famous parts of the city. Stop #1: Loggia dei Lanzi. This is an open-air gallery on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence where many antique and Renaissance sculptures are kept. Here are a few of our favorites:

Then we walked over the Ponte Vecchio, stopping to window shop at the many jewelry stores that line this bridge over the Arno River. This bridge was built in Medieval times at the narrowest point of the Arno as it runs through Florence.

After such a long day of exploring, we headed back to our apartment at Villa Morghen and made another home cooked meal. Couldn't get enough fresh tomatoes & pasta! We would need plenty of food and sleep to recharge for our next day of sight-seeing in Florence.

Day 7: Florence Part 2

This was a very busy day of sight-seeing in Florence. We started by saying good-bye to our trusty rental car as we would no longer need it (or have anywhere to park it) in Rome. Alex and Jeremy bravely drove this car through the tiny, confusing streets of Florence and eventually met Ashley and me in the ticket line at the Uffizi Gallery. As someone who loves art and art history, this was a mandatory stop during our time in Florence. The building was originally created to house Florentine government offices, and then became a gallery to hold and display all the art collected and commissioned by the Medici family, Florence's most famous political dynasty. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the gallery of the art, but here are links to some of the more famous works we saw.
La Nascita de Venere - Botticelli
Primavera - Boticelli
Medusa - Caravaggio
Annunciation - Leonardo DaVinci
Of course even the hallways were dripping with art and sculpture. Here is a link to a virtual tour of the South Corridor. There are also many rooms housing treasured objects collected by the family.

Gotta love an audio tour!!!

I could have stayed in the Uffizi the whole day, but we had so many other sites to see in Florence. Next stop: Piazza del Duomo! This square in Florence is home to it's famous domed cathedral, Basilica di Santa Maria de Fiore. The exterior of the basilica is faced with multi-colored marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris. The basilica has a long and interesting history of construction, destruction, and battles for building the dome, or Duomo. In the end, Brunelleschi won and there is a statue commorating his achievement. His innovations in architecture allowed for a dome of this size to be built for the first time ever without the support of flying buttresses, and it's construction has been mimicked in famous buildings all across the world (including St Peter's Basilica in Rome). The interior of the basilica is equally exquisite but certainly more toned down compared to it's exterior.

Brunelleschi creating his dome. If you zoom in you can actually see the dome sketched on the paper in his hand!

Posing for portraits turned out to be a dirty, rotten tricky.

The square is also home to a Campanile (bell tower) and Baptistery with the "Gates of Paradise" doors by Ghiberti, bitter rival of Brunelleschi.

Taking pictures as we climb to the top of the Campanile.

Gates of Paradise close-up.

Exquisite mosaic ceiling inside the Baptistery.

Next stop: Boboli Gardens of the Medici Palace. We spent a lot of time wandering the grounds, but unfortunately there was not much in the way of flowers probably due to the high summer heat. We did take some time to check out these very interesting grotto's designed to mimic natural caves, although I am not sure how many caves look quite like this...

On our tour map it actually mentioned that the grotto would be open for "frolicking" at 5 pm, so of course we could not miss this unique opportunity.

We also snapped a few shots of this famous statue in the gardens...

Can't explain it...just enjoy it!

Now you may think we were done after this point, but no...there was one more thing to see before we headed off to Rome in the morning. We had to swing through the Accademia Gallery to see two of Michaelangelo's most famous works: the David & "Slaves". We could not take pictures in this gallery, but I hope you will have the chance to go see them in person one day. The enormity and perfection of David is incredible, and the raw movement of figures almost breaking out of stone in the unfinished "Slaves" are just inappreciable in pictures.

That about does it for Florence! The next morning we had a tasty breakfast in the town square near our apartment before heading to the train station to take a high-speed express train all the way to Rome, our final destination!