Florence

The Duomo

 Florence is "The Duomo" and "The David".  The Renaissance.  Whats more, the Duomo and the David, are actually very intertwined.  There is a story there that we only learned on our visit to this great city.  We thought that Venice was overrun with humans, if possible, Florence is even more saturated.  Naturally, they are two of the most visited cities in Italy, outside of Rome.  Once you see the Duomo you can easily understand why everyone wants to see it up close.  Not a picture, but the real thing.  That is definitely how I felt about Michelangelo's David.  The lines to see inside the Duomo were far too long for our liking ... but I did manage to get tickets for a guided tour to see the statue of David.  Needless to say, I was pretty happy that we managed to get tickets on such short notice.

David

Initially, I thought " who needs a guide to see a statue"??  However, that was the only way to get tickets that "skip the line".  Again not wanting to spend the short amount of time we had standing in a line, we went for the guided tour.  Were we ever glad we did!!  The guide was actually a teacher (special education) and so knowledgeable.  It was immediately apparent that he loved sharing the story of Michelangelo and the David...we were engrossed.  

David

What we did not know before going to see the David was that Michelangelo actually had his sights on the Duomo.  He wanted to be The Artist to finish the exterior of the Duomo, but he was considered far too young and inexperienced for such a project.  He was told that he would have to prove himself first, before even being considered for such an important job.  So he said "alright then I will do a statue of David, but unlike any that has been done before".  And with that he chose his piece of marble and then built an enclosure around it.  For the entire time he worked on David he never came out of that enclosure.  He sweltered in the heat of summer and suffered the cold in winter.  He ate, slept and carved his masterpiece in that enclosure.  No one saw the sculpture until it was completed.  Folks brought him food and he had a little cot to sleep on - that was about it for comfort.  It was him and David.

Prigone

Now I ask you - do you know of any human today that has committed themselves to a project in that way?  No-one - there is no-one that displays that sort of dedication.  Remarkable does not even begin to describe it.  The attention to detail and the degree to which he studied the human body is incredible.  He carved the veins in the arms and hands!  Now why did he make David naked?  There are many answers to that question; the most obvious being we are all naked before God.  But there was some vanity there as well, it is much, much harder to carve a naked David than a clothed one.  And after all - he was auditioning for the big job!

Gates of Paradise

 There has only been one Renaissance, and from that one period in time the world has been gifted all this beauty.  Seeing Michelangelo's David was a seminal moment in my life.  And maybe, partly, it was being enlightened as to the character of the man that did it for me.  Alas, we Ioved the visit.  In addition, to the David there were other statues that we also loved.  They are called "Prigone" or prisoner.  They are said to be "prisoners of the stone" until Michelangelo "freed them" by carving them out of the stone. And then there are the Gates of Paradise - the doors of the Baptistry that took 27 years to carve.  Made of bronze with gold covering, they depict scenes from the bible.  The detail and perfection is stunning.  There are many folks wanting to glance at the doors and take pictures in front of them.  But if left alone with the doors you could stare at them for hours and hours and still not take it all in.

Florence piazza

  Sadly, the visit came to a poor end however.  As we were getting on the tram to go back to the hotel Michael was pick pocketed.  Now, he did a foolish thing by putting his wallet in his back pocket, he was rushing and just not thinking.  That has now made our lives a bit more complicated.  Thank goodness I was able to cancel the cards before the thief was able to get money.  And thank goodness I had taken the credit card and had it separate from other cards - otherwise we would have really been in a bind.  Lesson learned:  Wallet goes in front pocket only.  Never, ever in the back pocket!!  We cannot fly back to Mazzaro del Vallo from Florence so we are taking a shuttle to Pisa and will fly back from there.

 

Venizia

Venice

 Venice is, of course, iconic and unique.  Not another city in the world like it.  And everyone should visit, if possible.  Just not at the same time😉!!  Crowded doesn't even begin to describe the city.  Is it possible to be loved too much??  From our conversation with one native of Venice (born and raised) we gathered that there are problems.  He says that the locals are being slowly "relocated".  The government has no interest in helping the locals ... as a result they are being priced out of the housing market.  Much too profitable to rent all the property to tourists.  

Venice - old and wet

Of course, that is an issue in many places including the United States.  But maybe not to the extreme that is seen in Venice.  Put bluntly, Venice is a cash cow for Italy.  How many visitors is enough?  Are there too many for the city to accommodate?

Beautiful architecture and flowers

We spent two days just walking and walking.  The city is not really that large, you could walk it in a day.  It rained most of the time, the whole area around Venice was experiencing unprecedented amounts of rainfall at that time.  So we walked in the rain.
 

Feeling the effect of the water

 

Venice is, of course, a very old city surrounded by water.  It seems odd that a city built on a lagoon, which is actually 118 small islands all connected by bridges, would be such a powerful force throughout history.  But there you have it, Venice has not only been very powerful but also very wealthy. Eventually, Venice lost some of its prominence and now is more tourist destination than commercial or financial titan.

Rialto Bridge

Sadly, Venice like everywhere is feeling the effect of the changing climate.  The water rises with the tide and floods the city.  It that were not bad enough the city is also sinking.  Efforts are underway to address all the issues, hopefully they will be successful.  In the meantime, their lives are surrounded by and linked to the water.  

DHL delivery guy

 The canals are their roads.  Packages are delivered by boat, groceries and everything else imaginable.  Even trash pickup is by boat.  The only roads are for walking.  Needless to say the water on the canals gets pretty churned up.

Out for a gondola ride

Amazingly, the gondoliers do not get tossed off their gondolas by all the other boats whizzing by.  The smarter ones take the side canals where they don't have as much traffic to contend with.  Regardless, of the route they all have Popeye arms!  

 It was a great visit but now we move on to Florence.  And no doubt more crowds of tourists.  We really hate being tourists preferring to settle in to a place for awhile.  But for a week we are tourists- like it or not.  

 

 

 

Safely tucked in as the bad weather catches up...

 

We knew the weather was coming but we needed to get as far as possible as we have lingered too long in Sicily.  After a brief stop in Porto Empedocle, we made it to Mazara del Vallo and prepped the boat for some high winds.  When the wind arrived our wind instruments clocked it as high as 50 knots, this was while to weather stations were showing 25 knot winds.  Oops... wrong again!  We were reassured though as the marina workers were busy as can be walking the docks and making sure all boats were secure.  At one point, they knocked on our boat and gave us an extra lazy line to attach.  So... in all, we had six lines for the bow of the boat and three for the stern.  It was bouncy, but we were secure.

 

Porto Empedocle

 Porto Empedocle is just a fishing port... yet holds an important place in history.  In July of 1943, Porto Empedocle was the site of the landing of Allied forces in Sicily (one of the sites).  The Axis troops were taken by surprise as the landing took place in horrible weather, but the Allied forces pulled it off.  Two months later the Allied troops had control of all of Sicily.  It was the beginning of the fall of Mussolini.  And now in 2023, for the good folks of Porto Empedocle seeing an American sailboat show up in their harbour was quite surprising.  One person asked us, "how did you get here"?  We replied, "well, we sailed here, of course".  Needless to say there were lots of stares and picture taking by the locals.  

Interesting bench in Porto Empedocle

 

Its a very nice little town which we enjoyed, even though it was just a short stopover.  I had a chance to practice my Italian and get yelled at by crazy Sicilian men who had a hard time understanding my Italian😳.  More practice required!!

 

Pup is ready to get off the fishing boat after a long day

Once we had Talaria secured in Mazara del Vallo and it was clear that the weather was not going to allow us to sail for a few days we made the decision to take a road trip.  The fact that we lingered too long in southern Sicily combined with the weather delay forces us to adjust our sailing plans.  Sadly, you are only allowed to stay in the EU for 90 out of 180 days.  From day one in the EU it is a race against the "Schengen" clock.  And it is a long way from Montenegro to Gibraltar!  

Mazara del Vallo

 

We put together some plans for a few days in Venice, Pisa and Florence as it was now clear that we would not make it up the western coast of Italy as far as Rome.  Initially, that was to be our staging ground for visiting that part of Italy.  Instead, we will make the trip by train and plane. 

Mazara del Vallo

The very good folks at Mazara del Vallo agreed to keep a close eye on Talaria for us.  Being a very small marina we felt completely comfortable that they would indeed watch things closely.  The fellow on the boat across spoke good English and was nice enough to give us a ride to the bus stop.  First a bus to Palermo and then a short flight to Venice to start our little excursion.

 

Mazara del Vallo

 

The weather has kept us from sailing and also from spending much time looking around Mazara del Vallo.  We plan to spend a bit of time in the town when we return from our road trip.  And then its on to Trapani and likely on to Sardinia from there.  Plans are still evolving!

One of the many churches in Mazara del Vallo