Arrivederci Italia!

Ah...fair Firenze!

This will be my last post on this blog. I am back in the good ol' U.S. of America after a 20-hour sojourn via train, plane, bus and ferry. The jet lag is starting to wear off now and it's good to be back, but I already miss IT-lee, as my mother calls it. Well...maybe not the crowds and hustle & bustle but it was a great adventure full of learning; both the hard way and less hard way. I hope those of you who have slogged your way through these posts have gleaned just a little of what I experienced. So much more could be shared but suffice it to say that if you can, GO! Winter may not be the best time to visit but at least there are fewer crowds and the costs slightly less...not cheap mind you, but reasonably affordable. That's especially true if you do some shopping around before committing - I can't even imagine what it was like before the age of the internet. Need a room in Milan tomorrow? No problem. A ticket to the Scrovegni Chapel? Piece of cake. Trains? Planes? Reservations at Chez Pretense? Got ya covered. But aside from all the day-to-day planning of one's itinerary, Italia is in the end a land of variable climates, foods, people and ways of saying "Buona sera!" (Florence does it different than Venice; go figure.) Thanks for reading and as the locals say,

"Chiao, grazie and buon viaggio!"

Galileo

When most folks think of the Italian Renaissance, they think of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, et. al. But the post-Middle Ages rebirth of knowledge was much more than art. It included philosophy, architecture and science. Most historians agree that the "Father of Modern Science" as we know it, was a man from Pisa named Galileo Galilei. One of Florence's many terrific museums is dedicated to him. 

Playing a major role in the scientific revolution of the time, he is best know for his improvements in the telescope, the development (and mass production) of a military compass and his astronomical observations that led him to support Copernicus' theory of a 'heliocentric' universe; the controversial refutation of the then-current Catholic opinion that the earth was the center of the universe.

This was one of my favorite museums in Florence - especially nice  on a wet, stormy day. It had oodles of telescopes, planetary globes and scientific oddities collected over the centuries by the Medici family, eventually winding up here for our edification. Here is a random sampling of some of the many things I saw:

The clock moves, the earth rotates

Louis XXIV's bedside clock

The first pendulum clock

Can you guess?

San Giorgio

One of the first things you can't help but notice when you drive into Aviano are the surrounding mountains; sweeping vistas of farmland, fields and forest-covered hillsides rise quickly to the lower ramparts of the mighty Italian Dolomites. 

Only a brisk half-hour walk away from town, these hills range from rolling to steep to very steep! And are perfect for getting back in touch with nature after a week immersed in crowds, history and the constant din of city traffic. Unexpectedly we found the hills laced with numerous trails leading hither and yon. 

Hither

Yon

One of Cinzia's favorite places to visit (when the weather cooperates) is an old chapel on a nearby hill named San Giorgio - of 'Saint George and the Dragon' fame. It's the perfect place for a picnic of bread, cheese, olives and fruit since it's a short and easy hoof up to a magnificent view.

It's a lovely spot to sit and meditate on the mountains, the slowly budding trees and greening grass while letting the sun warm your bones; something all too needed in the unusually cold and wet winter most of Europe is having this year.