Milan

These pictures are from our last couple days in from Milan.

From 2009-10-25 Milan

This is Santa Maria delle Grazie where Leonardo's Last Supper is located. This has got to be one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had. Being able to have about 10 minutes just staring at one of the finest works of art ever.

From 2009-10-25 Milan

The world famous Teatro alla Scala opera house. We got to go inside and take a look at the inside and take a tour of the museum. I'm not to up of the opera scene, but it was pretty interesting.

From 2009-10-25 Milan

This is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It's like a big shopping mall.

From 2009-10-25 Milan

They've got all the big names here. Louis Vuiton...

From 2009-10-25 Milan

...Prada....

From 2009-10-25 Milan

...McDonalds?

From 2009-10-25 Milan

They say if you put your right heel on the bulls little balls and spin your wish will come true.

From 2009-10-25 Milan

The Milan Cathedral. Another Duomo.

From 2009-10-25 Milan

From 2009-10-26 Milan

This is supposed to be some very famous street for fashion. I have no idea what to do here.

From 2009-10-26 Milan

Castello Sforzesco

From 2009-10-26 Milan

From 2009-10-26 Milan

A lot of these sites are overrun by cats. We saw over twenty in this place alone.

From 2009-10-26 Milan

From 2009-10-26 Milan

From 2009-10-26 Milan

From 2009-10-26 Milan

Galleria Ferrari Museum

From 2009-10-24

On our way from the villa in Tuscany to Milan we had some time to stop off at the Ferrari Museum to take a look at some really nice cars. These Italians really take this stuff seriously.

From 2009-10-24

They even have a test track right next to the factory where they test very car that comes off the production line.

From 2009-10-24

My dad really loves cars, so this was a real treat for him.

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

From 2009-10-24

Toilets in Italy

From 2009-10-24

Ok, the normal love-fest I've been having for Italy is going to take a slight side trip here to talk about toilets. Please take a close look at the picture above. This is not a toilet! It's a hole in the ground. I think it's time for them to get with the times and get some real toilets over here. It's one of the few categorizes when the USA beats Italy hands down.

Many of these restroom are uni-sex, so you might walk out of a stall and find women standing there. That took me several times to get used to, and it still kind of surprises me. Also, I think they purposely leave the toilet seats off because they don't want people hanging around too long.

From 2009-10-18 Tuscany

And what is the whole deal with the bidet thing? I kind of get what it is for, but have never even tried to figure out how to use it. Does anyone have experience with this?

Ok, that's the end of my toilet rant, for now.

Dinner at Carmignano

From 2009-10-21

On Wednesday evening I arranged to have the villa owner's daughter Serenella cook my family dinner. She is amazing cook, and prepared a 5 course dinner for us. It was one of the best meals we had on the entire trip and we didn't even need to leave the comfort of the villa.

From 2009-10-21

Antipasti

From 2009-10-21

First Course

From 2009-10-21

Another first course

From 2009-10-21

Second course and side dish.

From 2009-10-21

We finished it off was Serenella's own recipe for Taramisu and sweet desert wine. After the meal we moved over to sit in the living room where she served us coffee. What an amazing experiences! Thank you Serenella and Adriana.

Carmignano at Night

From 2009-10-21

I was just playing around with my camera trying to work on my night photography. This is a shot from the back of the villa over the town of Carmignano with Prato and Florence in the background.

Camera: Canon
Model: Canon PowerShot SD780 IS
ISO: 80
Exposure: 15.0 sec
Aperture: 3.2
Focal Length: 5.9mm
Flash Used: No

Day 10 - Tuscany (San Gimignano)

From 2009-10-21

On Wednesday Sue and I decided to take a one and half hour drive down to the medieval hill town of San Gimignano, near Siena.

From 2009-10-21

This town can trace it's roots back to the 3rd century BCE and the Etruscans. It is know today mainly for it's many remaining towers.

From 2009-10-21

Unfortunately it also is know for it's very touristy main drag that has a lot of shops. I feel that this detracts from the historical appeal of the city. But if you break off the main street in just about any direction you find many nice little streets.

From 2009-10-21

Like this one.

From 2009-10-21

Here was the small church in the center of town.

From 2009-10-21

I loved these nice arches all throughout the city.

From 2009-10-21

And the tall towers were really well preserved.

From 2009-10-21

I'm a big fan of cats, so every time I come across them on this trip I just had to take pictures. This one was very friendly and just walked right up to us and let us pet him/her.

From 2009-10-21

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."
-Albert Einstein

Tuscany (Florence)

From 2009-10-20

On Tuesday we made our visit to Florence and met up with my cousin Mathew and his girlfriend Lil.

From 2009-10-20

The Palazzo Vecchio was with historical seat of power in the Republic of Florence. It is located in the Piazza della Signoria.

From 2009-10-20

The first place we visited was the Uffizi Gallery probably the most important art museum after the Louvre in Paris. I have been studying Renaissance art for the last few months, and have been looking forward to this visit. This picture is from one of the windows of the Uffizi of the Ponte Vecchio or "Old Bridge".

From 2009-10-20

Santa Croce

From 2009-10-20

From 2009-10-20

From 2009-10-20

Pazzi Chapel

From 2009-10-20

From 2009-10-20

Michelangelo's David. I'm so glad that we were able to visit in the off season in October because we were able to walk right in and have all the time we wanted to admire the artistry of Michelanglelo's most famous sculpture. Wow, what an amazing treat.

From 2009-10-20

The Duomo and Brunelleschi's Dome. A few weeks ago I finished reading a book about the construction of this dome. I wish I would have got to go inside it. ;(

From 2009-10-20

ALbert liked the dome too.

From 2009-10-20

From 2009-10-20

"The Gates of Paradise" by Lorenzo Ghiberti. He won out in a competition to make these doors for the East side of the baptistery over Brunelleschi.

From 2009-10-20

Ghiberti's self portrait in the door.

From 2009-10-20

The baptistery, Duomo, and Giotto's Campanile.

From 2009-10-20

And last, but not least on our way out of town we got to see one of my favorite of all churches, Santa Maria Novella. We only got to touch on a few places of interest on Tuesday. I was planning to return to Florence by myself on Friday to do some real site seeing, but instead I decided to get the worst cold ever.

This means that I must now plan another trip to come back and finish what I started. Anyone interested in a trip to Italy let me know. I think I'll do Venice next time too.