“You’re spending a full week in Milan? But there’s nothing to see there.” That was the common refrain from friends and family when I finalized my Italian itinerary, finishing with a week in Milan, Italy’s second largest city and its economic powerhouse. Sure, people conceded that the Duomo was worth visiting, and maybe even Sforza…
It is like nothing else I have ever seen, like nowhere I have ever visited. From the terraces (rooftops) of Milan’s cathedral, the Duomo di Milano, my view is incredible, both of the building itself and its signature 135 slender spires, and of the city as a whole. Each step, every turn, brings a new…
Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance. It’s a small city, and unimportant in modern Italy, but a hub for tourism. Along with Rome and Venice, Florence is one of the places on nearly every Italian trip itinerary. And rightfully so. The city is beautiful, and has a lot to do. It also makes a great…
Walking through Florence’s Museo Leonardo da Vinci is a mixture of excitement, awe, and a bit of overwhelmed angst. The institution has taken the drawings of the Renaissance’s perhaps most iconic figure, drawings representing inventions ranging from a helicopter to a tank and all things between, and built them. Some are small models and others…
There is an excitement that is palpable as I enter the room at Museo Galileo in Florence. Here in a display case on one side of the small room are the great man’s personal telescopes, the ones he built to observe the skies, helping to change astronomy as we know it. It’s an extraordinary feeling…
A morning coffee overlooking a tiny marina in a small and colorful village along the Mediterranean coast of Italy’s Liguria region. Everything about this seems out of a movie. A sip of my cappuccino (overpriced, but in a moment like this, who cares?) and a splash from someone jumping from the rocks into the water.…
I know it is only a replica, of course. The original of Michelangelo’s David is safely tucked into the Accademia Gallery just north of where I am standing outside Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. But there is something about seeing what is perhaps the most famous sculpture of all time in its original spot, where it was…
Way back in 2002, when this writer was just a college student, one of my closest friends spent a semester studying abroad in a small town in Italy I’d never heard of. The experience changed her life, and for more than twenty years, I’ve heard her wax poetically about Siena. So when I realized that…
Most visitors to Florence make a beeline straight for its most famous sight: the Duomo. The fourth largest church in the world (behind St. Peter’s in Rome, St. Paul’s in London, and the Duomo of Milan), it dwarfs the city around it, although perspective makes it seem a bit smaller from the square immediately surrounding,…
There are few, if any, landmarks on the planet more recognizable than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is unique, and not only for its tilt, which is somewhere between 4 and 5.5 degrees after having been stabilized in the early 2000s. It represents a distinct architectural style, Pisan Romanesque. And it caters to one…