Città in collina e di più!

Hill towns and more!

I feel a tad bit behind on my blogging, but only because SO much has been happening in the last few days. Let's start at the beginning.

Saturday was our last day of the Dynamo session. Since the evening performance was no doubt going to be hectic, I took the opportunity after breakfast to lounge beneath the villa's linden tree. I doubt I'll ever be able to recreate the peace and calm of that morning. The wind was rustling ever so gently through the tree, I had Jim Brickman playing softly in my headphones, The Princess Bride open in front of me, and a rumbling thunderstorm rolling over the mountains.

That evening, our wonderful theatre kids put on their performance of a Macbeth-Grease mashup (we lovingly called it "Greasy Macbeth"). Of course, I still couldn't take photos...but I was so proud of all those teenagers!! A special kudos goes out to our Macbeth (Christiano) for jumping onstage and improvising when Lady Macbeth wasn't ready for her entrance. And also a shout out to Wanda (aka Francesca) who was our main contact and theatre person at the camp.

Wanda and company.

I feel incredibly honored to get to work with the kids at Dynamo. It is very easy to forget that all of them have battled, or are still battling, horrible chronic illnesses or cancers. It is very humbling tho be a part of a camp where they can simply be kids again. I'm also happy to say that the big wigs in charge of the camp loved us and already want us back for next year!

On Sunday, we packed up our bags and headed back to Florence. The first thing we did upon arrival was hit the Stibbert museum. For those who don't know, the Stibbert is the largest weapons/armour collection in the world. A sword dork's DREAM! Unfortunately, photos are not allowed...so I cannot show you any of the thousands of swords/weapons/armour/artifacts that we saw. But here is an exterior photo that represents the Stibbert well:

Heraldry on every wall!

Since it was Ron's last night in Italy, we all decided to take a little road trip for dinner. We ventured slightly west to the little town of Lucca. Lucca is one of the Tuscan towns that still have medieval walls around the city center!

It has a "moat", too!

In its heyday, Lucca boasted 160 privately owned towers and 70 churches inside the walls. Today, the ramparts around the city are a walkable city park. Inside the walls, Lucca still retains most of its medieval charm.

On Monday morning, we said goodbye to Ron. Joseph (my fellow foodie and wino on this adventure) and I decided to take off to the heart of Tuscany for a little more adventure. We hopped in the car and headed for Siena...an even more beautifully medieval town! Siena is a classic Tuscan hill town.

In Siena, we found loads of history and quaint cityscapes. But most importantly, we found wine! We lucked into a pretty inexpensive class at the Tuscan Wine School, where we learned about the wine making and categorizing process in Italy. And we got to drink wine. And we got diplomas for it!

After coming up on wine and knowledge (and buying more wine to take home), we headed back to Florence on winding Tuscan roads. A surprising fact about Tuscany: There are a lot more trees than you expect. Which is great! Until you want to take a picture of the countryside and all you can get are trees zipping by. We did pull off the road a few times and named to get a couple good shots.

Back in Florence, it was time to say goodbye to Joseph so he could make his way back to America. This meant today (Tuesday) I was all on my own!

Now, I adored exploring Tuscany with Ron and Joseph. It was like having 2 big brothers around all the time to mess with. But I'm really glad I finally got a day to wander around by myself.

This morning, my first stop was the Tuesday market aft Cashina park. This, I'm told, is where the locals ACTUALLY shop. The energy was incredible! There were vendors for clothing, kitchen tools, makeup, flowers, produce, food, bags, sunglasses, etc. It was a very vibrant atmosphere.

After checking out the market and grabbing a pastry and cappuccino...I set of to the city centre. My next stop was the Galileo museum. Quite honestly, the name is a tad bit misleading. It is not, strictly speaking, a museum dedicated to Galileo. It is a museum dedicated to all renaissance scientists from Galileo and beyond!

One of Galileo's contraptions for measuring time/distance/angle ratios

Book written by Galileo for the Medici family 

Telescopes!

Science is cool!

So, I have a few more days here in Florence before I go back for the second session of Dynamo Camp. I'm sure I will fill the time with museums, exploring and (of course) gelato! I'll let you know all about it!

Ciao!!