Another slice of Pisa

This morning's mail found additional photos of the Singers' visit to the Italian city of Pisa, where street vendors and tourists mix it up on the way into the cathedral grounds. Wilmer Henninger and Molly Shortridge sent the pictures.

Molly is ignoring the aggressive handbag vendor, but the guy on the left looks interested. (WH)

Cafés on the right and tee-shirts on the left! Bringing up the rear we see David with the baseball cap making sure wife Gwen does not get swept away. Phyllis is sporting a pony tail, while Marla makes a statement in red. (WH)

The first view of the cathedral grounds is framed by the old wall. (WH)

Molly, right, and friend get in the spirit of things at Pisa. (MS)

After Friday morning's visit to Pisa, the Market Square Singers visited the town of Lucca on their way to Florence. Lucca it is famous for its Renaissance-era city walls. The walls around the old town remained intact as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region.

As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade that encircled the old town, although they were used for a number of years in the 20th century for racing cars. They are still fully intact today; each of the four principal sides is lined with a different tree species.

Lucca's town square. (Internet)

The Academy of Sciences (1584) is the most famous of several academies and libraries in Lucca.

Lucca is where composer Giacomo Puccini (La Bohème and Madama Butterfly) was born, and his birthplace was a highlight for several of the Singers.

Dan greets the world-famous composer in front of his birthplace. (WH)

Next up are Karen, Ken, and Molly enjoying a musical moment with the Maestro. (MS)

 Soon it was time to leave for Florence for the evening concert, the third in the series.

"On the way to our concert in Florence," Wil writes, "Elizabeth and Karen discuss the merits of comfortable versus fashionable shoes." (WH)

Photo by Wil Henninger.

How cool is this? Seeing the group's poster advertising their concert in Florence! I wonder if there were tee-shirts, mugs, baseball caps, and backpacks -- all sporting the group's logo, of course -- on sale in the church narthex.

Florence is famous for its history. A center of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance. The historic center of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year and has been ranked the city as the world's 72nd most visited in 2009, with 1,685,000 visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, noted for its history, culture, Renaissance art and architecture, and monuments.

The site of  Friday's concert was the Orsanmichele Church, located on the Via Calzaiuoli in Florence. It was originally built as a grain market in 1337. Between 1380 and 1404, it was converted into a church used as the chapel of Florence's powerful craft and trade guilds.

Interior of the church. (Internet)

"Eric gives us some encouragement during practice before the Florence concert," according to Wil. (WH)

Singers Chris and Judy stroll in Florence following the performance. (MS)

 I was beginning to think that the Singers were existing only on gelato until the next picture arrived today. I am not sure which day this was taken, but it looks like a very nice little meal.

Wil writes, "So far, we all say the food is so good that we can't not eat all of it. One of us had a half a pannini and croissant breakfast." (WH)

[May I add a personal memory here? In 1967, I was a student at Montpellier, in southern France. At Easter, some of us students hitch-hiked to Rome. We also visited Florence and Milan. Since I was a student with very little money to spend, I had the cheapest thing on the menu -- spaghetti, of course! -- for lunch and dinner. That made 12 big plates of spaghetti over six days. Guess what the university restaurant served the night we returned to France.]