Leonardo Science Musem

Saturday, April 26, we deiced to go to the Leonardo Science Museum.  It was pretty good.  Some what like science museums in the states.

Looking out the window onto on of the courtyards of the main building.  Obviously this building was not always a science Museum.  

They had great exhibits about Leonardo Di Vinci.  One very long hall was lined with models of his inventions on one side and drawings and explanations on the other other side.  This is a model of one of his mining machines used to dig canals and deep trenches.

Another hall was all about musical instruments through the ages. with great specimens of all of them.  In the middle of all of the string instruments was this one.  A Hurdy-Gurdy!  I had always heard the term Hurdy Gurdy, but did not know it was a stringed instrument.  Really interesting!

After walking through many floors of the buildings we got the last one about airplanes and naval ships.  This is a manned torpedo!  Two men would sit on this torpedo and guide it towards their target!

They even had cannons!

It was a pretty good visit.  After we were done we rode the Metro to the duomo and got some Panzerotti.  Yum Yum.  They sure are good.

Lugano

Friday we had to go to Lugano, Switzerland to take 2960 Swiss Francs in cash for a security deposit on a new apartment. We helped the Burgers and missionaries assemble trier Ikea furniture and kitchen stuff and install the light fixtures.  After lunch we cleaned up and then went for a drive to see some of Lugano.

We drove east along the upper end of the lake that is much less populated.  We surprisingly drove back into Italy and through lots of tunnels. The lake was perfectly still and very beautiful.  I finally found a place to stop and take some pictures.

 The mountains around the lake are very vertical and also beautiful.

We turned around and drove back to Lugano and then part way up one of the mountains.  There were homes built all up the mountain side. Here is a view of the city of Lugano.

 We then went down into the city and had trouble finding a parking lot. Our Tomtom doesn't have a map for Switzerland so we were in dark territory.  We parked near the city park and wandered around.  There were kids playing under this tree/bush. It looked like a great hiding place.

 They had azaleas (or are the rhododendrons?)

 And Tulips - Peggy's favorite

 And even Hostas - one of my favorites

 I this this is a Camilla which does well around these lakes.

 The walk along the lake led to wards the city.  There was large chess game going on.

 It was a great walkway

 The city is right on the lake shore.  They even had paddle boats

 This is William Tell, the one who shot the apple off his sons head. I did not know he was Swiss.

 This is the mountain side we drove up.

 Peggy peeks around the three and just the right time.

We got some gelato and walked back tot he car.  Lugano was very beautiful.

Volterra

The last day of our trip we got up, cooked breakfast again. And drove about 40 minutes to Volterra.

 Volterra is another walled city but it is up on a very high hill.  I understand that this is the town where one of the vampire movies was filmed.  It is also very famous for its Alabaster.  Lots of rock shops.

 Torch holders on the walls around the town piazza

 The town bank on one end of the piazza

 An interesting window

 Above a more interesting door

 Next to one of the churches we went in was a little chapel with this display showing the carts that were used to gather the dead.  Yes - "Bring out your dead.  Bring out your dead!"

 Here was a little gift shop all based upon Cinghiale - the Italian name for the wild boar that they hunt here.  Of course Cinghiale is also the name of a cycling club.

 Beautiful streets everywhere

 At the other end of town was this old roman ruin.  I read that this was just a garbage dump for hundreds of years until around 1950, the local mental hospital took it on as a project to excavate and unearth the old ruins.  It was great for the town and good therapy for the patients.

 As we were walking back toward the car we just missed the procession that was leaving the church on Palm Sunday.  Everyone had their olive branches that were freshly cut that morning from the local olive trees that are everywhere. The priest was singing into a mobile load speaker system.

 Another wonderful side street.

 We then drove around the town on the out side of the wall and found this other entrance.

 A view of the old castle

Looking north from the same spot is this beautiful valley.  

We then took off in the car for a 3.5 hour back to Milano.  We had a great trip.

Florence American Cemetery

Driving back from Florence we pulled over to the Florence American Cemetery where many of those killed in WWII here in Italy are buried.  It was very peaceful, very clean, neat, and immaculate.

 Wisteria

 Beautiful canal and bridge across to the cemetery

We got there a little before their closing.  We were able to watch them lower the flag for the night.  It was very moving.

We then drove back to our suite, got some pizzas and had a nice dinner at home.

Firenze

On Saturday we got up, cooked breakfast in our kitchen and drove to Firenze (Florence).  Because parking is such a problem we decided to Park a ways out of the city center and take a bus in.  It worked out OK going into the city.  We got off the buss at the train stations and then found our way to the Basilica.

 The basilica was enormous.  And there were thousands of people there!

 It was very ornate on the outside.

 And there was a line to get in.  It was only a 20 - 30 minute wait

 Inside was not quite so ornate, but very grand.

 I saw one of the security guys riding a scooter across the floor.

 Here is a very interesting clock. 

 Sister Keeffer wanted to climb to the top of the dome of the basilica so of course I agreed to go along.  We bought tickets and found the line.  The line was very long and after 30 minute it had moved about 10 feet.  At this rate we were going to wait for 4 - 8 hours.  We decided to go try the bell tower.

 It was also very tall - about 400 steps to the top.

 Here we are about half way up the tower.

 Now we are at the top.  About the same height as the top of the basilica.

 The view was fabulous.  This is looking towards the Uffizi Gallery and Ponte Vecchio

 It was a long ways down to the ground

 We got down, found our companions and walked towards the river.  Some of the street performers were very strange!  This guy was dressed like an ork or something.  He was busy decorating his tree.

 This guy was all in white dressed like Moses with a book 

 Some fancy Gelato

 This is the famous Ponte Vechio bridge where all of the gold smith shops are.

 The replica of the David 

 Statues were everywhere!  

 Sorry you cant quite read the price tag.  only 3900 euros!

We ate lunch at a little shop. wandered for a while then  had some Gelatto.  We then got back to the train station and it took us at least 45 minutes before we figured out which bus we needed to take to get back to our car. Once back in the car we drove to Piazzale Michelangelo.  A great view point overlooking the river and city!

 All and all it was a good day.  Lots of famous sights.  But lots and lots of people. Tough fighting the crowds.

 One last door I saw in Firenze.

 Each of the panels was different.  Here is the detail on one of them.