Cake and Leftover Pisa

November 10th was the occasion of Kendall becoming a teenager!  For his thirteenth birthday, his Gram and Gramp treated us with a trip to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, to see his trombone teacher perform:

Kendall, who is nearly 13 in this picture.

 

Andrea is standing in the middle toward the back.

On the day of his birthday, we splurged for a cake from the Sugar and Spice bakery across town as well as hazelnut gelato from Vivaldi Gelateria:

Wonderfully, some friends of his sent a package from the States (thanks, all!):

 

After too much partying:

To celebrate more, we took a weekend trip to Pisa to take in more of the sights there; it gave Adam his first chance to see Pisa, and there was something special in store.

The sign welcoming you to Pisa....

...is almost as busy as the Keith Haring mural they have there!

We stopped in to a "sweets fair" that was held that weekend:

And then went to Palazzo Blu, a "palace of art and culture" in Pisa on the banks of the Arno.  They had recently opened an exhibition of Andy Warhol's art!

Even though people routinely take photographs inside museums here, we just can't bring ourselves to do it (at least, not often!).  But the exhibition of Warhol's work was fantastic, including the Brillo boxes, the soup cans, ten Marilyns, and ten Mao Tse Tungs as well as many Jackie paintings rarely exhibited.

There were a few pictures at the end of the exhibition, though, that were created in workshops.  I felt "safe" taking a picutre of this:

Following the exhibit, we walked along the Arno and took in some of Pisa's other sights.

Sign seen downtown -- community Wi-Pi!

Approaching the tower complex from the city --
an interesting view!

How old?

For those who don't know, the famous "leaning tower" is actually the campanile, or free-standing bell tower for the Pisa Duomo.  It really is remarkable to see it.  The tower "bends" as it goes up, since it had already started leaning before it was finished.  If you were to straighten it's base up and down, it would be crooked at the top!

The Pisa Baptistry

Once again -- how old?

The Pisa Duomo

Then it was back across the Arno to take the train home.

Oh, yeah -- and we saw this really strange car while we were walking around.  Kendall's expression just screams "Mom and Dad are making me do this," right?  Guess he doesn't want this car for a gift.

Again -- how old?