The Duomo and the Christmas Tree

The Florence Duomo is one of those building that makes you have an instant intake of breath. A “wow” moment, if you will, and (at least for me) not just the first time you see it. It’s not only breathtakingly lovely with its variety of colored stone, marble, and statues, but also just massive. Seeing a giant Christmas tree alongside it, which it dwarfed (even though in this photo the tree is partially holding its own—due to my lack of a sufficiently wide-angled lens to even come close to capturing much of the Duomo), only emphasized the massivity:

*Note: We were on pre-tirement, and now we’re back. Want the full story? Start the pre-tirement journey here. Want to go backwards? Read the last pre-tired post here and scroll back. Or, just keep coming back for pretty Italy pictures.

The Biggest Christmas Tree in the World

Is in Gubbio, which happens to be not far from our own Niccone Valley. And, it stays up until January, so we went to see it (on the way home from Assisi, which I’ll have more about later). To get there, especially when coming up from the south (Assisi is south of Gubbio) you have to wind around a number of winding roads, which hide it from view for a while, until BAM! there it is, a gigantic Christmas tree hovering over the lights of Gubbio. These pics don’t do it justice (I’d need a steadier hand and a better camera or lens to even come close), but you can see in the first how it seems to almost float over Gubbio (Gubbio is nearer city than town, though not huge):

The Gubbio Christmas tree has been up since 1981, and uses 450 light bulbs and 12 kilometers of wire—pretty massive—all laid out to a height of 350 meters on the hilltop above the town. This second pic isn’t better or much different than the above, but gives a slightly closer view:

Here’s to stretching Christmas out for a few more days, too.

Panettone is Italian for Christmas—Just Ask Rory

Panettone is the traditional Italian Christmas dessert cake, historically often made with raisins or nuts and with a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it reputation. Now, it’s available in a host of flavors and designs and with numerous fillings and such, and available from many different brands as well as available around the world (or there-abouts). I’d actually never picked one up in Seattle (and neither had Nat), but we figured that since we were here we should do as the Italians. If nothing else (or if it was too dry) I figured that I could soak it in liqueur and it’d be delightful (liqueur has healing powers, after all). When picking it out, I went for a snazzy model, one in a star shape, with little star candies on it and a thin band of cream and one of chocolate running through the cake. It looked reasonable lovely:

However, we made a, well, not fatal to us, but fatal to the panettone error: we left it on the edge of the kitchen table when we were away from the kitchen. Rory doesn’t usually get on the table, even when the stray kilo of cheese is left there. However, the holiday lure of the panettone was too much, which meant that only one member of the family had more than a nibble, as after Rory got to it not much was left:

Ah well, we’ll have to try again next year. And anyway, Rory needed some holiday cheer.