Italy: Florence, Assisi and Cinque Terre

[moloch]

Here is part II of my Italy report. In October, my wife and I spent a number of days in Florence (Firenze). Our stay was split by a short visit to Assisi. The weather during this portion of the trip cooled rapidly and we had several rainy days. Birding was not too bad and a number of migrants were moving through the area. Unfortunately, conditions were not good for reptiles or butterflies so I only have a few photos of these in this post.

I am not a fan of cities but Florence was really special. It would have to be one of the most interesting cities that I have ever visited. Florence was the birthplace of the renaissance and there were amazing sculptures, medieval buildings and spectacular old churches everywhere in the city.

This is the famous Duomo of Florence. The building was constructed from white, red and green marble and it would have to be the most ornate building that I have ever seen.

Ponte Vecchio, the only medieval bridge in the city to survive WWII.

I visited this garden a couple of times and saw a few interesting animals. Birds included Chaffinch, Serin, Goldfinch, Nuthatch, Green Woodpeckers, Robin, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Goldcrest and Blackbirds.

I found a number of wall lizards in the gardens including this gorgeous animal. I suppose that these are all Italian Wall Lizards (Podarcis sicula) but will need to rely on others for confirmation.

There were a few weedy areas along the old walls near the gardens and these produced a few butterflies including:

Small Coppers (Lycaena phlaeus)

Geranium Bronze (Cacyreus marshalli)

Cleopatra (Gonepteryx cleopatra). This was a male and it had lovely patches of orange on the upper wings.

Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae)

My wife and I also visited Fiseole in the hills above Florence. This was just a short bus ride from the city centre. This area was higher in elevation and cold. We walked around here ...

... and found what I think to be another juvenile Western Whip Snake (Hierophis viridiflavus) basking in a sheltered gully.

We went wine tasting in the Chianti region between Florence and Siena:

The food in Florence was excellent. We stayed near the Mercato Centrale and often bought fresh pastas that we cooked in our apartment.

Florence had many of these gelatarias. These were superb so it was necessary to do lots of walking everyday.

... I will add more tomorrow night

 

[Protectyaaaneck]

<<<Anxiously awaiting the pics of Cinque Terre. It's one of my favorite places I've ever been to. Did you happen to stay in Cinque Terre? How is it now after the terrible flooding that took place? I know Vernazza and Monterosso were hit pretty hard by the flash floods. Nice pics of Firenze. The Duomo is quite a sight, isn't it?

 

[moloch]

Assisi and Spello

Thanks. We flew from Rome on the day of the floods in Tuscany. It was so sad to see what happened to Vernazza in particular. I will have photos of Cinque Terre in the next post.


We split our visit to Florence with a trip down to Canara where we stayed for several nights. Canara is located about 10km from Assisi and 8km from Spello. We walked to and from both so that we could eat more gelatos! Most of walk passed through agricultural land with a few patches of scrub along the creeks. Birds were numerous in these fields and we saw Crested Larks, Stonechats, Black Redstarts (migrants), Goldfinch, Serin, Starlings, Hooded Crows, Magpie, Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Robin and the usual confusing Acrocephalus warblers. Mt. Subiaso separated Assisi and Spello with Assisi to the north (left) and Spello to the right.

... Cathedral in the distance. In Italy, these are a frequent sight.

Assisi is a long and narrow city situated on a hill. The city was walled and much of the wall was still intact.

Cathedral built in honour of St. Francis. We of course saw many Franciscan friars.

City scenes:

There was a fortress within the walls of the city. Here are a couple of shots along with a view of the surrounding countryside from the fortress. The fortress turned out to be a good place for butterflies. I think that lizards would have been common if the weather had been a little warmer.

Interesting police car. The laneways were narrow so this was the right size for many of the roads.

A spa for nuns?

It was cool to cold during our visit and we only saw a few lizards. Here was one of these, another Italian Wall Lizard:

Spello was also beautiful and also old. People have lived here for centuries and there were Roman ruins in parts of the town. We just loved the rock buildings and laneways.

Butterflies were numerous when the sun was out. Wall Browns (Lasiommata megera) were one of the most common. I encountered them out in the plowed fields as well as in towns. The following individual was sheltering between rocks of the fortress walls.

Small Heath (Coenonypha pamphilus)

Common Blues (Polyommatus icarus):

Chalk-hill Blue (Lysandra coridon) with Small Copper and Common Blue:

Lang's Short-tailed Blue (Leptotes pirithus).

Mallow Skippers (Carcharodus alceae)

Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)

Large White (Pieris brassicae)

Here are a few flower shots from the weedy fields near Cannara.

From Assisi, we visited Perugia one day. We were lucky to be there when there was a chocolate festival underway. Perugia is the home to chocolate factories and there were row after row of exhibitions in the centre of town. We slowly ate our way around and tried all forms of chocolate from white to dark, hot chocolate and chocolate flavoured liquors. It was great!

... Cinque Terre is next