My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.
October 16th 2010 Made it to Florence...about a 3 hour train ride through Pisa from Cinque Terre. Unfortunately we made a choice to skip the leaning tower and move onward to find our hotel. We also had a 2pm reservation to see the Michelangelo statue of David. We accomplished more than I had anticipated but still luckily didn't feel rushed. Our hotel is literally next to the Duomo. We found a great pizzeria and a n
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Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI establis... ... read more 
