City of Lucca and Palazzo Vecchio

This weekend I was able to go on fun little trips everyday. It was very relaxing!

On Friday I went to Bologna and bought a new pair of jeans that I desperately needed. (Two of the four pairs I brought with me are ripping). It was pretty hard to find a good pair of jeans because the styles and sizes here are not what I'm used to. Some stores use Italian sizes and some use European sizes, and they only slightly different.

Saturday I went to the city of Lucca with my friend Erin. She goes to the University of San Francisco but is from Hawaii. Her conversation partner Giusseppe also came with us. Lucca is such a cute town! I loved it! The historical part of the city is surrounded by completely intact Medieval walls. You can climb up onto the walls and there's a path that you can ride bikes on. We rented bikes for 2€ and did a loop around the walls. It was so fun! It was my first time on a bike in a really long time.

Sunday the weather in Florence was absolutely gorgeous! I had to get outside. I went for a walk and ended up going to a museum. Haven't been to a museum in a while actually. I went to Palazzo Vecchio. It was orginally built as a government building but the Medici moved in and converted it to a palace.



How much is that doggie in the window? And how cute is Lucca!?!?


A square with the duomo of Lucca and a bell tower. Lucca, though very small has 23 churches. There's nothing the Medieval Italians could better than build a chruch!

Up on the walls. See its like park up there almost. There's a tree lined path for walking, jogging or biking, complete with lamp posts and all that jazz. (That's Giusseppe in the corner.)

My sweet ride. The seat did not fit properly. I asked the bike shop guy to raise the seat but he lowered it about 4 inches instead. Oh well.



Erin and I wanted to imitate all the cute couples riding bikes and holding hands. It was really hard to balance!


Peekaboo!

I wore my new hat!


Admire the lovelty walls of Lucca!


Inside a room at Palazzo Vecchio. I think it was a meeting room? Much of Palazzo Vecchio is still used for events and such, notice all the chairs on the floor.

HUGE murals along the wall.

Staircase


Office of the Medici. The mayor of Florence and one of the important councils still use this room for important things. Can you tell its important yet?

This is a painting of Florence above the desk in the mayor's office.

Medici style fireplace.


Donatello's Judith. It used to be outside the entrace, but was replaced by Michelangelo's David. The David was moved in the 1800s to the Academia to preserve it.


This is the map room. It was my favorite room. I really love maps! For some reason I can just stare at maps all day long. That big ball in the middle is a globe circa 1567.
So that was my weekend. It was really hard to take pictures at Palazzo Vecchio because you can't use the flash. But at least pictures were allowed there. Palazzo Vecchio is also the least important of 3 Medici palaces in Florence. Most important is the Pitti Palace across the Arno (M&D we are going) and the Medici-Ricardi Palace. It was purchased by the Ricardi family when Cosimo moved the Medici to Palazzo Vecchio. (by the way the CHI in VecCHIo is pronounced key)