Dan's Parents Visit: Pisa

January 16th

We got up early on the morning of the 16th so that we could drive from Siena to Pisa.  Dan was not happy about this early morning nonsense.  We tried to find our Bed & Breakfast first, but did not have much luck.  Because we had a timed ticket to climb the tower, we temporarily gave up looking for the hotel and drove over to the Pisa Cathedral complex.....or whatever you call it.

Unfortunately it was grey and rained on an off while we were at Pisa.    

Camposanto, Baptistery, Cathedral, and Tower!   

(The tower looks like its trying to make sure it gets seen in the group photo)

ART! or....something....

The two sides of the foundation of the Tower.  

The brownish /reddish/grayish bricks surround the Tower just above ground level.

Piazza!  Piazza del Duomo!  That's what the complex is called.  ANYWAY.

Climbing the Tower was odd.  You are going around in a spiral that is at an angle (5 degrees if I remember correctly).  It is a little vertigo inducing.   Also you can see how the steps have worn in a serpentine pattern to counter-balance the leaning as people have climbed to the top.  

Dan and Sherrie and the bells (left). Jim being silly (right).  He was on the downward leaning side.

The front of the Cathedral.  

This photo is at an angle so the Cathedral can feel special too.

Inside the Cathedral at Pisa.  White and black stone for everyone! A neat chandelier (right).

Altar and mosaics (left). They still had their nativity scene up (right).

So much ceiling (left). Jesus is too fabulous for you (right).

A full view of the Cathedral.

The Baptistery.

The Baptistery has a double cupola which gives it some interesting acoustic characteristics.  It also has some very cool geometric flooring.

A view of the Cathedral and tower from the Baptistery.   

Obligatory Pisa Tower photos.

The outside of the Camposanto is not that exciting, but the inside is neat.  It was heavily bombed during WWII.  It used to be quite colorful with many brightly painted frescoes on the walls.

Looking through the center courtyard.

A view down one side.  Each of the black rectangles held a tomb on the other side.  This side isn't as full or the stones have been removed/replaced.  The most recent burial we found was for 2002.

An example of one of the more elaborate tombstones. 

The Cathedral and Tower peaking out over the other roof of the Camposanto.

We took a break for lunch at this point.  This guy was just across the street from the Piazza.   He was handing out flyers for Subway.

The Tower in its glory.  Seems short, huh?

Jim and Dan "appreciating" the art.

Dan and Sherrie pushing over the Tower model. 

In Pisa the wi-fi is called wi-pi.  It's very clever you see.

I'll conclude our adventure in Pisa with this artsy alley photo.

Dan's Parents Visit: Montalcino and Siena

January 15th

Montalcino - 

We left Siena to go on a side adventure to Montalcino, home of Brunello wine.  The morning was cool, and thus we had a lovely view of the fog receding by the time we got up the hillside to Montalcino.

A coworker of Dan's put us in touch with Laura who is the manager of Il Palazzone, a small winery in Montalcino.  They had a lovely view and the wine was superb.

WINE! We sampled the 2009 and 2010 Brunello and the Il Palazzo "table wine". Their table wine is infinitely better than the general table wine.

The doors to the tasting room (left). Dan helps load wine (right).

A view from the vineyard:

At this point we bought lots of wine, packed up the car and started back toward Siena. We took a wrong turn and ended up going on a scenic backroads drive AROUND Montalcino. We finally got on the right road and headed off to explore Siena. 

A photo from the car while driving back to Siena:

This concludes the Montalcino portion of our adventure. 

  Siena - 

Like many towns in Italy, Siena is full of churches.

Remember this church, we will see it 2 more times today. (Sighting #1) 

 We wandered off to find the Cattedrale di Siena in hopes of touring it. 

Touring a church in Italy?! Madness!

There were many steep steps.	A lion! With weird eyes...	Dan going toward the light.

Apparently white and black was fashionable when they built this church.

A view down the center aisle.

One of two rose windows.

Looking up into the dome.

Popes! Popes everywhere!

The Cathedral's monstrous edifice.

The full edifice and a tiny truck zooming by.

The Cathedral, Dome, and Bell Tower (which you can't climb. boo!). 

 The Bell Tower has an increasing number of widows per story as it goes up.

You can, however, climb the unfinished portion of the Cathedral. Which we did.

Views from the top of the wall:

The walkway and spiral staircases were very narrow and had several low doorways, hence this sign.

Views from a little higher up:

Such a good-looking family in front of the Cathedral.

My hair never cooperates.

Look how bent that middle column is (left)! Going down the steps to the Crypt and Baptistry. It almost doesn't look like there are steps (right).

The Crypt was unexciting in my opinion but the Baptistry was neat.

The very fancy Baptismal Font (left) and in case you forget, we die.    Hello marble skull floor design!

Dan's very artsy photo of the chain links outside the ticket office for the Cathedral.

Hey! It's that church again! (Sighting # 2)

At this point we went back to hotel to take naps and hang out until an appropriate dinner time. We then ventured out to the Piazza del Campo to find said dinner.

This is the Torre del Mangia and the Town Hall. It is also known as the Tower of the Eater, for the first bell ringer Giovanni di Balduccio who was known to spend his money on food from the Siena taverns.

The Piazza del Campo is famous for horse races and it is home to the Palio di Siena. Dirt is brought in to cover the circular track and spectators can watch from the middle or the balconies of the buildings surrounding the track. It was depicted at the beginning of the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (somewhat appropriately, this clip is in Italian).

Don't worry, we managed to find dinner at one of the restaurants that circles the Piazza. We had a very charming waiter.

 Church at night! (Sighting #3)

This concludes our adventures in Siena.

We have guests: Dan's Parents Visit

January 11th-14th

Dan's parents came to visit!

They finally arrived, late on Sunday evening after getting delayed in Chicago, rerouted in Germany, and lost their luggage somewhere along the way.

Dan was just coming off night shift so Monday was mostly hanging out and getting over jet lag and readjusting sleep schedules.

We took Jim and Sherrie to downtown Naples and walked around a bit.   We acquired gelato.

Dan had a meeting on Wednesday, so we couldn't really go anywhere until after that.  When Dan got home we packed up the car and drove up to Siena.

When we got to Siena, we pulled into the parking area for our hotel, and Dan ran in to get the code for the gate.  However, the front door was locked, so he pushed the intercom.

"Ciao?"

Yes, we have reservations.

"No."

......Excuse me?

"No. We're closed.  No reservations."

We made reservations online...

"No. We're closed."

After a little more discussion it turns out the hotel was closed for renovations and had told the booking site to take them down.  Evidently, the booking site had NOT removed them.  They were very kind and got us a place at another hotel not too far away.