Florence

Florence is the capital city of the region of Tuscany in Italy.
In the past, Florence was under the Medici Family's rule. The Medici family was a very important family in Florence during the Renaissance. The family ran many banks and they supported many artists like Michelangelo.
The central city of Florence is a World Heritage Site; there are many historical places and buildings there. It was very impressive city and we had a nice time there.

 The David in the Academia Gallery was very tall; it measures about 4 meters. It was very elaborate; we could see the veins in his arms. It was amazing that it was sculptured from marble. The David was placed in front of the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio but now it has been moved to Academia Gallery to protect it from damages. There is a replica of the David at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio. I took a picture of the David there because taking pictures was prohibited in Academia Gallery.

A replica of the David

Facade of the Florence Cathedral

It was a masterpiece of Gothic architecture of marble many colors. 

The Duomo is the landmark of Florence. I decided to attempt climbing to the top of the Duomo.

Duomo's height is 90 meters and it has 464 stairs to the top. 

Where you made it

It was hard; however it was a valuable experience to climb it. The view overlooking the city was breathtaking!

The Giotto's bell tower

I saw the Giotto's bell from the top of the Duomo, the tower's height is 84.7 meters and it has 414 stairs to the top.

The Florence Baptistery

And then, we went to the Michelangelo Square.

 The Michelangelo Square ( Piazzale Michelangelo)

We enjoyed the view of Florence from Michelangelo Square. There is replica of the David in the Michelangelo Square, too.

The Duomo & the Giotto's bell tower

We found the Rose Garden walking down the Michelangelo Square.

We enjoyed sculptures by Folon there.

I loved the view of the city from his sculpture; it was perfect as a picture frame.

Saint Patrick's Well ( Pozzo di San Patrizio)

Saint Patrick's Well is near the Orvieto station. The well was commissioned by Pope Clement VII who took refuged in Orvieto during the sack of Rome in the 16th century. 

The well is unique. Wells are usually used winches and small buckets to get water, but this well is 53m deep, and has 248 spiral stairs to get water. It is  amazing that people at that time possessed a knowledge and skill to build such a big well.

where you looked down

The water of the well

where you looked up

Civita di Bagnoregjo

We went to Civita de Bagnoregjo by the route like the following. First, we got on a train to Orvieto, and changed to Funicolare(cable car) to the center city of Orvieto.

We took a taxi to Civita de Bagnoregjo because we learned a bus wouldn't  come a few hours later.

Civita de Bagnoregjo is a town in the Province of Viterbo in Central Italy. This town is called "lipase che muore"( the dying town). Only 20 families live there now and the city has recently been revived by tourism. It looked like Mont Saint-Michel in France from distance.

 the bridge to the town
No car, on foot or by motorcycle

The entrance at the top of the hill

The houses built from stones. 

The town was small and charming.

An old woman invited us to see her garden and we were moved by the very impressive view looking down from her garden.

 the rock face ("calanchi" in Italian) 

Amalfi

Amalfi is said to be the most beautiful beach in the world. Positano, one of the beaches at Amalfi is said to be especially beautiful. It was one of the places we were really looking forward to visiting on this trip. We took a bus tour to Amalfi. The tour picked up and dropped people off at each hotel. It was a little expensive (€65 /person), however we really enjoyed the beach and clear blue ocean thanks to the tour.

The  right edge of the rock looks like a lady holding a bunch of flowers.

The ocean was so clear that I could see the bottom of it.

The bus stopped a most amazing viewpoint where we enjoyed Positano beach. It was breathtaking. The actual scenery was more beautiful than my picture.

I had an hour of free time at Positano. Positano was very small city; the road in the city was very narrow; cars can't drive there. We walked the lanes enjoying the scenery.

 The Saint Maria Assuntan with beautiful flowers and the ocean

lovely shade

Amalfi is famous for lemons. There were lemon chocolate, lemon liquor, and lemon soap etc...

A lemon sherbet stand

It was good to beat the heat.

The bus repeated up and down...

...and arrived at the Amalfi

 The Cathedral of Amalfi

The Cloister of Paradise

.

I looked down a street from the stairs of the Cathedral

 The gelato I ate at this shop was great!

fabulous scenery in Ravello 

Blue Grotto in Capri

We moved on to Naples from Rome; we didn't leave the Naples station; we just left the one train and got on the local train to Sorrento.

Sorrento station

Sorrento is a good location to leave from to get to the Blue Grotto in Capri Island. I was looking forward to going the Blue Grotto in Capri.

It was all about luck; if the waves were high, we wouldn't be able to go into the cave. We were at a loss whether to go or not that day, because it was almost 2:30 p.m. Our guide book says that the best time to go was between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Anyway, we decided to go and pray that we could enter the   Grotto.

We got on a ferry at Sorrento which would take us to Capri Island.

We changed to a boat like the following at Capri Island.

We were so lucky, we made it!!
We changed to a small boat with a boatman who would take us into the small cave in front of the entrance.

The entrance to the cave was very small like this.

The inside of the cave was not so small, although the entrance was small to get through with a small boat. There were about four boats in the cave.

The surface of the sea was shining blue in the sunshine coming through the small hole of the entrance. It was mysterious and impossible to describe. We were very moved by the beauty.

We saw a few people was swimming there, they were very lucky!
By the way, I paid a high price for the beauty; I left my expensive sunglasses in the smallest boat when I left it and by the time I realized it, it was too late to go back for them...