Firenze=Florence

When they said we were headed to Florence in the region of Tuscany, I pictured rural areas with vineyards, like in the film, "Under the Tuscan Sun." We drove past an area like that... but we never stopped. 

The city of Florence is beautiful and rich with architecture, like the Duomo, adorned with sculptures, like Michelangelo's David, and bustling with crowds of tourists.

Seconda me, la foto sotto e perfetto. (In my opinion, the photo below is perfection.)

I had dinner with Bree and Phon one night and since they are adventurous eaters, they ordered the lard and honey appetizer and tripe. I tried both and liked neither. I was happy with my prociutto and melon and the cheese plate.

The lard was not the consistency we expected. It was like a thin slice of meat, most likely shaved fat. 

Pretty Pisa

On the way to Florence, we stopped in Pisa to take in the architecture, history, and art.

We stopped in Pisa specifically to visit the Museo delle Sinopie, which features costumes based on Pisano fashion of centuries past. There were also some costumes from Castellani's 1954 film "Romeo e Juliet." Part of a costume maker's job is to research the fashion of the time period to be depicted and sometimes a lot of the information comes from the artwork of the era. 

Near to this museum is a building which holds a room full of floor to ceiling frescoes. During World War II, Pisa was bombed and the frescoes fell from the walls. What was left on the walls was a rarity, the underdrawing, which is never supposed to be seen. Before restoring the frescoes in their original setting, they removed the underdrawings and moved them to the museum. The colorful frescoes were the inspiration for the red and blue garments shown below.

The dress below was to be Juliet's wedding dress... but she got cold feet. Sorry couldn't resist. Gorgeous dress, though.