Why do all cities in Italy have 3 or 4 names?  Either it’s because their beauty leave the visitor stammering in search of the word, or because these places all have a cultural heritage dating back thousands of years.  This past weekend I finally had the opportunity to visit Florence, a city filled with so much beauty it actually sickens people.  A friend of mine moved there a month ago so I had a place to crash and another friend had a car for the weekend.

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My weekend was spent immersed in the outward beauty of the city. I did a lot of slow walking, visited a lot of the famous monasteries and churches, and went for an afternoon hike in the hills surrounding the city.  The first photo below is of downtown Florence, taken from San Miniato al Monte.

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Visiting a friend who already has roots in a city can be one of the most rewarding things about travelling.  In addition to walking, I met a lot of interesting people from a wide variety of backgrounds this weekend.  Invariably talking with these people led to talking and walking.  This is how I had the opportunity to take that afternoon hike.

Surrounding Florence are hills I do not know the name of but this did not matter because once there I would not have been able to speak it.  Along the hike were some extremely rewarding vista’s of the city and the countryside of farmland, vineyards and olive groves that surround it.

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Each time I go to Italy I find the experience so personally rewarding that I wonder how I can keep leaving.  Someday I really am liable to visit for some number of years.  This time however I did leave, and I did it by learning to drive stick through the countryside.  Success!

On a more technical note, I’ve continued to work on my gallery.  I’ve also made an upgrade to WordPress and completed the integration of the Gallery2 software with WordPress.  I haven’t yet decided on the best way to link my galleries with my blog posts, sohe gallery for my trip to Florence is here.  Everything else works great though.  All of these photos are pulled directly from the gallery, with titles and all.  No more uploading wheeee!  Anyway, the plugins are the Lightbox for WordPress for image display and the WPG2 for pulling images into WP from my galleries.  This is my first experience using Lightbox, and I really like it.  I’ll probably be applying it frequently.

The last stop on the trip through Italy was Rome. Overall, Rome’s city center was very touristy, so primarily that is what we did: see the sights. We also ate the food, which was amazing. Steph had some hot tips on where to get gelato, a specialty in the city.

First off, you want to go where Romans go for their gelato. Second, you want gelato that isn’t looking that great. If you get the stuff that is all bright and radioactive looking, it wasn’t homemade. Third, if the place is busy in the morning. San Crispino and Gelateria Giolitti were our top picks. The deliciousness of the gelato available at these two stores was simply uncanny. Some of the mass-produced gelato was also sampled for comparison and found to be inferior.

Here are the photos, beginning with Piazza del Popolo:

Now some of the famous ruins. Ancient Rome is largely a public attraction, but the two main events require a ticket. These are the Colosseum and the Palatine, Nero’s infamous palace. There is one ticket for both of these sights, it costs about 11 euros, and is available at both sites. Now most people do not know about the Palatine until they see it on their double-ticket. A real useful hint is to buy this ticket at the Palatine, thus avoiding hours of lines at the Colosseum. Here is the Colosseum viewed between two of Ancient Rome’s famous forums:

And the view of Rome from the Colosseum:

And a view of the ruins from the Palatine:

And finally, the Roman senate:

One night I took my camera and a bottle of beer back to the ruins and walked around their exterior. These are the results:

The Arch of Septimius Severus:

Rome at night:

The next day we visited the Vatican City and took a long walk through the city. Here is Saint Peter’s Cathedral

Rome and the Tiber:

A view of the Palatine over the location of the ancient Hippodrome:

Finally, Rome is known for its many ornate bronze and marble fountains. This one is my personal favorite:

Unfortunately, I was unable to find out its name!

One easy day-trip form Naples and undoubtedly the most common is to Pompeii, the 2000 year old Roman city so perfectly preserved by the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The city was buried under some 50 feet of ash and pumice until the 18th century when it was rediscovered and excavating (still not completed today) began.

A plaza in Pompeii:

Some of the more interesting artwork at the Pompeii site are the frescoes and the mosaics of the villas. These are also the most difficult to preserve.

Here is a typical side street in Pompeii:

The largest Ampitheater of Pompeii:

Another plaza, behind the ampitheater:

One of the main streets through Pompeii, Vesuvius looming in the background:

The experience was very eerie, a city so preserved and so dead, almost brought back to life again by the millions of visitors it receives every year. Modern Pompei (Minus the second i) and its inhabitants sit just near the historical city, in the same dangerous path of the slumbering Vesuvius.