Trips

Fri., 8/19/11 - Livorno, Italy - Lucca and Pisa
            This morning we took another tour in the heat and humidity, this time to Lucca and then on to Pisa.  Lucca is a city originally walled by the Romans and later enlarged, as the city grew larger.  The walls have been maintained as a wide walking and cycling path.  It is like a 4 km long park around the city.   It was planted with chestnut trees 200 years ago and they now provide a very pleasant area.
            Lucca was a town that created silk cloth (most of the silk thread came from Asia) specially embroidered with gold and silver thread.  It was a very rich city and therefore the fortified walls were necessary.  The mountains around the town are rich in Carrara marble.  The white on the mountaintops is not snow, but marble.

 

Walls of Lucca

Walking/cycling path on top of the walls

 

 

            Puccini was born in Lucca.  His statue is in the square near his house.  He was a musical genius but a real rogue - he smoked about 70 cigarettes a day and had many women.  He was very rich, so his wife stayed with him.

 

Statue of Puccini

 

Puccini's birthplace

Luigi Boccherini was also born in Lucca

 

 

            St. Michael's Church and square are built on the site of an old Roman forum.  It is built of the local grey and white Carrara marble and is quite elaborate on the outside incorporating several architectural styles - Roman arches, decorated columns, carvings, replicas of traditional silk designs, etc. 

 

Facade of St. Michael's Church

 

At the end of the street is a just visible building with trees on the top which was a Medici home.

 

Fountain in the square

            We went into the Basilica of San Frediano.  The front facade has a mosaic of Jesus ascending into heaven and the 12 apostles are shown below him.  Inside we sat in the chapel of St. Zita.  She was a servant who found ways to feed and clothe the poor.  One time she had an apron full of bread loaves and when the mistress asked her what she was hiding, she opened the apron and the bread had changed to flowers!  (A flower festival is held in her honor each year.)  Another "miracle" is her mummified body lying at the altar of the chapel.  She was not embalmed, but her body is preserved inside the glass coffin. 

 

Basilica of San Frediano

 

             Back to the bus and on to Pisa.  We had a long walk from the bus to the Field of Miracles, which is the grassy park where the Baptistery of St. John, the cathedral (or Duomo), leaning bell tower (Tower of Pisa), and ancient cemetery (Campo Santo) are located.

Wall around the Field of Miracles

View of the Cathedral and the Leaning Tower

 

Baptistery of St. John

 

         The Baptistery is round and made of white marble.  The cathedral is also elaborate white marble and was built in 1063.  The inside had many huge but dark paintings and a ceiling of wood and gold paid for by the Medici family.

 

Exterior of the Cathedral

Cathedral interior

 

Interior closeup

         

          Of course, the leaning bell tower is the main attraction.  The soft soil below the three-meter deep foundation could not support the weight of the marble structure.  After the third tier was erected, it was obvious it was going to lean, so the architects bent the next tiers in the opposite direction.  It created a "slight banana" curve.  There are seven bells in the bell tower that could not be rung because the vibration would create more instability.  An internal stabilizing column helped some.  In 1990 an international group sought solutions.  They removed some soil from the high side and straightened the tower by 12 cm.  Other stabilizing efforts stopped the tower from increasing the lean and it is now supposed to be stabilized for the next 300 years.

 

The leaning bell tower

 

Details on the first tier

Sat., 8/20/11 - At Sea - docking at 6 PM in Barcelona, Spain
            This was a day of recovery.  Washing a bunch of clothes in the tub was the only activity.  We ate a nice breakfast in the dining room, ate salads for lunch, and then went to high tea and ate little sandwiches and scones.  I finally had time and energy to attend a culinary lesson - making Spanish tapas or appetizers.
            We arrived a half-hour late in Barcelona, perhaps, because of the heavy fog we sailed through around noon.  It was sad to say goodbye to Jose and Ana, Pat and Stan, but we all exchanged e-mails and Jose will send us a group photo.

Ana, Jose, Marge, Gale, Stan, Pat

Sun., 8/21/11 - Barcelona, Spain
            This morning was a "turn over" day.  Many people ended the cruise and many more joined us for the next seven days.  It was a wise decision we made to take a tour around Barcelona and avoid the disembark/embarkation madhouse.
            Our motor coach first drove us up to Montjuic, one of the hills of Barcelona.  This park has a fortress up on top, many overlooks of the city, and a huge botanical garden.   Montjuic means Jewish mountain and at one time there were many Jewish merchants operating in this part of the city. 

Barcelona from Montjuic

 

Barcelona from Montjuic - Gaudi's Church of the Holy Family is in the center

Barcelona from Montjuic - Monument to Columbus

 

Monument to Sardanes folk dancing on Montjuic


            We passed the Royal Palace, which was built in 1929 and is now a museum in the exhibition area of the city.  Two universal expositions have been held in Barcelona.  We passed the park where there is a replica village (Poble Espanyol) of all things Spanish.  It sounded like the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo or a recreated Spanish cultural living museum.  We looked at the ornate brick (Arabic style) bullring, Arenas de Barcelona.  It has been saved even though bull fighting will be illegal in the city as of Jan. 2012.  It is now a shopping mall with at least 15 restaurants.

 

Royal Palace

Venetian Towers with a large fountain in the Plaza d'Espanya beyond

 

Arenas de Barcelona - the old bullring

 

Casa Batllo - designed by Antonio Gaudi

 

 

            Antonio Gaudi was an avant-garde architect who created many very unusual, creative buildings in this city around 1900.  We passed several of his house creations. 
            We spent an hour admiring and learning about Gaudi's Catedral de la Sagrada Familia (Cathedral of the Holy Family).  Begun in 1882, it is only 65% complete but since he made plaster models and detailed drawings, workmen continue to add to it and expect it may be complete in by the year 2026.  Eight of the 18 towers on this sandcastle are complete.  There will be a tower for each apostle and one each for Mary, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and the tallest in the center will be for Jesus.  Fifty columns represent trees - one for each week of the year, 8 have fruits (in color) at the top - four on the east side are Spanish summer fruits and on the west, winter fruits.  Nature and religion are the intended theme.  The east side facade depicts the nativity with angels providing music - violin, guitar/lute, and bassoon!  The cypress tree above signifies eternal life and the white doves in the tree, peace and harmony.  The opposite facade (west) features the last two days of Jesus' life - the last supper, Judas' kiss, Jesus carrying the cross with Gaudi himself watching from the left, and the crucifixion.  Eventually there will be 700 stain glass windows - few are complete.  It is a strange monument to Catholicism.  Gaudi is buried inside his church.

 

Model of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - East or Nativity facade

 

Model of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - South facade

Model of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - West facade

 

Model of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - North facade

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - East or Nativity facade

 

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - East or Nativity facade

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - South facade

 

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia - West facade - Gaudi self-sculpture on left in lower level of central niche

  

          We boarded the bus and rode to the Gothic Quarter, dating to the medieval ages, 12 - 15th centuries.  We went inside the Cathedral de Barcelona that has some gilded chapels. The church has a cloister with 13 white geese in honor of the 13 year-old girl (St. Eulalia) martyred during the Tetrarchy of Diocletian (293-313 AD) because she would not worship the Roman gods. 
 

Barcelona Cathedral or Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia

Roman aqueduct and wall

 

Making giant bubbles

 

    

           We walked to the area where the Romans built their temple to the Emperor, C. Augustus.  Four of the original columns remain adjacent to a four-story apartment.

 

 

 

 

          Our group was small, it was Sunday while most of the country is "on holiday" and there was not much traffic so we had time to drive around the Olympic Village area.  We took pictures of the golden fish sculpture by Frank Gehry that serves as a landmark for the area, the Olympic marina, and the Barcelona beaches. 

 

 

Gehry's golden fish at the Olympic Village

 

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