Scala

"Scala" means "stairs" in Italian.  This was the first of many, many, many stairs I would climb that day in Florence.  This is walking up into the Ufizzi Art Museum.

 

I actually thought it was interesting.  Some parts were more exciting than I was expecting, but other parts were kind of boring.  It's a really, really big art museum.  Some of the pictures were good, some of the pictures were wierd.

 

Apparently a really wierd picture.  Kieran's face says it all.

 

There was a nice view from the window of the Ponte Vecchio, which is a famous bridge.

 

From the Uffizi we could also see the Palazzo Vecchio, and it's tower....which we climbed...

 

See?  This is where we could climb up to....

 

This is inside the Palazzo Vecchio. 

 

It used to be a government building but then got turned into a private palace for the Medici family.

 

 It was kind of cool with the painted cielings and everything.

 

From the top of the tower in the Palazzo Vecchio you could see our next climbing destination...The Duomo.  At the time it was the largest dome built, designed by Bruneleschi.

 

 

The Duomo is a huge church.  We walked inside it and then....climbed up all the way to the top of the dome where there is a look-out area.

 

But before we did, we looked at the doors of the baptistry next door to the Duomo.  There are made of bronze and are super detailed.  They were designed by Ghiberti and it took him 40 years to make the front and back doors.  Michelangeo said they were beautiful enough to be the gates of paradise when he saw them.

 

Inside the Duomo...

 

We reached the top of the Duomo in time for sunset.  Here is the bell tower of the Duomo, as seen from the top.  It was designed by Giotto.

 

 

Florence has a lot of two things: a lot of art, and a lot of stairs!

macchina da corsa

"Macchina da corsa" means "race car" in Italian.

On our way to our resort in Tuscany we stopped at the Ferrari Museum.  (We couldn't pass right by with my race-car crazy brother Kieran in the car, or my dad for that matter...)

 

And so we saw lots of shiny red cars...

 

I mean lots of them.  Look at this...Kieran and Daddy.  The caption is "woah!"

 

This is a souvenier for my grandpa.  He wanted us to bring him back any old Ferrari Dinos they had lying around.  They wouldn't let us take it with us, though.

 

And here we have a SUUUUPER shiny red car.

 

After a very long windy road we finally got to our hotel!

 

 

It was a really big hotel and we had connecting rooms with my mom and dad.  There was no one really at the hotel besides us, so we had the pool and the spa all to ourselves!  (November is not their high season.)

 

We took some walks around our hotel and we had a picnic on our hike and it was fun.  The weather was perfect.

This is the view from our hotel room.  It is the little city of Barga.

More of the resort...

 

Barga at sunset...

 

Barga on a foggy morning...

 

Anyone else wish you could do this?

 

 

My dad takes wierd pictures...

 

While we were in Barga we traveled to different places in Tuscany.  We stayed there for five nights.  Stay tuned for more wierd pictures.