St Francis

Here is the prayer of St. Francis... one of my favorites...

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Lord, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in forgiving that one is forgiven,
it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Here is the town of St Francis... Assisi

Roman ruins from 200AD and the other buildings
just were added right around it.

Amazing paintings in the church from 500 AD

Narrow streets of the village.

Monastery on the hill above the town of Assisi.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

San Gimangmno

 I cannot spell it or pronounce it.

But a lovely town with 14 towers.  It used to have 200.

raw cheese for sale

towers were a way to watch for enemies and a sign of wealth.

beautiful view of the countryside

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Day 5 - Part 2

Happy Veterans Day to all of you who served our country.

Day 5, Part 2

After the American WW2 Cemetery, we went to the town of Sienna.  Oh my what a lovely town.  The church, the main square and the clock tower were amazing.

Medieval city wall of Sienna.  No one was coming in!!

Carved heads of important civic leaders adorned this building 
from the 1500s.

Fantastic medieval streets and architecture.

The Sienna cathedral took 100s of years to build.

sculptures on the church were amazing.

Clock tower was built in 1250!!!

In America, if something is 200 years old, we think it is old.  It is quite a perspective change to visit these places and realize that 1,000 years ago, other humans were looking at these buildings.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Day 5 Part 1

Italy Day 5, Part 1... the American Cemetery from WW2 near Florence

During WW2 the American Armies worked their way up the Italian peninsula from the south.  There are three cemeteries in Italy for American soldiers from WW2.  As the troops made their way north, an additional cemetery was needed, and then finally a third.

We stopped this morning at the 2nd US cemetery in Italy.  It is near Florence and holds about 4300 graves from the fighting in 1944 and 1945.  One row of young men after another.

This is the map of the campaign and its progress.

Those who died made it possible for those who live
on the hill above to live in freedom.

1800 of the graves are unknown.
So sad.  So many tears.

41 People on our bus.  There was not a dry eye among them.  In a year, we will not remember the name of what city we visited or what we liked better Siena or Florence. But to our dying day, we will remember the visit to this cemetery.

So much is owed by so many to those brave young men.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Italy Day 4 - Florence

We spent all day in Florence.  It was fantastic!!!

Street vendors dressed like a monk or ???

The resting place of Galileo

The doors were huge and amazing.
look at them compared to the size of the
man sitting at the table.

The Baptistry at the Florence Cathedral

The Florence Cathedral

More of the Florence Cathedral

some of the panels of the door to the 
Baptistry of the Florence Cathedral.
Zoom in to see the detail.

The paintings were huge and amazing.
It was such an important thing in the medeval
times to preserve on canvas the pictures of
what we believed.

Michelangelo's The David

Many sculptures by Michelangelo were left 
unfinished after his death.

Another view of the David.
Which he sculpted from age 25-28.

The domes of the Florence Cathedral.

So many statues.

So much architecture!!!

Church from the 1200's

The beautiful things of history leave me speechless.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the Good.

Italy Day 3

Today we visited the towns of Pisa and Lucca...  Again, a fantastic day!!!

First, let's talk about the leaning tower.  The Leaning tower of Pisa is actually a church bell tower.  That doesn't get advertised much does it?  In 2000 a project was undertaken to stop the lean as it was continuing its movement.  The tower was straightened from 5.5 degrees to a 4 degree list.

The tower actually leans more at the bottom

And is straighter at the top.  That is because as they built it, 
they built the leaning side taller so that as it rose, it would
become a bit more level with each floor.

City wall in Lucca ca. 1500

Inside one of the church in Lucca.  Ca. 1100.

Church in Lucca Ca. 550

Walls of Pisa Ca. 1500

Church in Pisa that has the famous leaning bell tower.

Narrow streets of Lucca so typical of medieval and
renaissance European construction.

We had a lovely day!   Tomorrow we go to Florence to see the famous statue of David.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.