Tuscany 2009 - part 2

Tuscany 2009 - part 2

Postby Mario Schweiger » Tue May 19, 2009 5:00 pm

Tuesday in the morning we drove to Pisa.

Beside looking for herps we are also interested in some culture.
And in Italy you may have some look to famous and/or nice places nearly everywhere.

Although we reached the town at about 9:00 a.m., hundreds of tourists have been in the center of Pisa too.

Pisa is the town of Galileo Galilei, the famous physician, who carried out his first experiments on the gravity on the Leaning Tower
on the Piazza dei Miracoli.

The most famous spot in Pisa is the "Campo dei Miracoli" with the cathedral, the Baptistery and the Campanile of the dome, the famous Leaning Tower.

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But you may not have only a look to the buildings,
on the Piazza Dei Miracoli you have the opportunity to visit
many members of the Tuscan herpetofauna.

Just look at the front side of the cathedral, and here, especially at the bronze-doors.
The cathedral was built in 1063 to 1118. The church burned in 1595, so the bronze doors are facsimiles of the original ones. Beside christian motives they show plants and animals of the region.
On herps you may find tortoises, frogs, salamanders and lizards, but NO snake.
The design is so detailed, you even may name the species.

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Also a look inside the cathedral should be a must!

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In the afternoon we went south to the Grosseto area.
The coastal hills are about 350 to 450 metres high, completely overgrown by Macchia and/or pine/oak forests.
On most places it is very hard to find a way through.
So we went up the fire and/or electric aisles.
There are many sunny spots inside the Macchia and forests, but unreachable for men.
But most of the herps use the edges of the aisles for sunbathing and hunting prey.
So there you may find most of them.

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On a hillside with a small lake we had a stop.

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It was terrible hot, although it was about 5:30 p.m.
Only one tortoise could have been found, partly digged in under a Cistus bush.
No snake and only a very few lizards.

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At the edge of the water hundreds, no, thousands of fresh metamorphed Bufo bufo were sitting in the shallow water.
And everywhere around the lake. It was very hard, not to step on them!

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When coming back to the car, a - about 80 cms long - Hierophis viridiflavus run into the dense Macchia.

For the next days we had our "Bed & Breakfast" in Castiglione della Pescaia.
After dinner, in the dark, Moorish Geckos, Tarentola mauritanica were sitting nearly on every house.

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..... will be continued. Go to part 3

Mario
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Please visit also my personal Herp-site vipersgarden.at
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Re: Tuscany 2009 - part 2

Postby Vlad Cioflec » Wed May 20, 2009 6:31 am

Great post, as allways! Loved that siculus.
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