Day 09 - Europe 2010

Today was Pisa day!  We headed up to the train station after breakfast – there is a little grocery store next door to the hostel where we have been getting our food - and ended up getting there just as a train to Pisa was about to leave!  What timing!  So we hopped on and were in Pisa about an hour later.

Well we were lost for a bit.  We hadn’t planned it out too well and I just assumed I would see the tower from the station and head in that direction.  But I saw no tower.  After we asked for directions, we hopped on a bus and found the place.  No wonder I didn’t see the tower!  It was a lot more short and stout than I thought.  Something about the pictures make it look much taller than it is – not that it’s short but it’s not like ‘Whoa, look at that up in the sky!’

Anyway, the whole place was interesting.  It’s just this little square with a baptistry, a cathedral, and the tower all lined up in a row.  There are tourists swarming the place, walking all over the grass – even though there are signs that say not to – taking their pictures kicking the tower, pushing the tower, holding up the tower.  Come to think of it, I should have gotten a picture of these tourists looking like fools with their silly poses!  Well, after we laughed at them, we became one of them, doing our own stupid poses and walking on the grass.  We got our shots just in time because the police shooed everyone off the grass afterward.

You could go up the tower for a fee of course, but we weren’t really interested.  We basically just wanted to go, see it, and come back to Florence for some more last-minute adventures.  The whole place was a little too touristy anyway.  There were shops lining the street selling all kinds of knick-knacks - Nick did buy an Italy magnet - and for whatever reason there were a mob of African dudes selling things throughout the street.  Who are these African people, why are they here, and why do they have all this stuff – watches and glasses and weird little trinkets?  Anyway, we thought it best to move on.

But then we got really lost.  There are three train stations in Pisa and the one we wanted to get to wasn’t on the map we were given.  So we walked for a while and stopped at three bus stops before figuring out where we needed to be.  Then we were waiting for our bus and it just passed right by our stop, which made me really mad.  I guess you have to flag down your bus otherwise they don’t stop, even if you’re standing there.  Sigh.  So we finally made it to the station but not without a lot of hassle and much later than I was hoping.  We had wanted to get back in time to go to the Science Museum and see Galileo’s telescopes and his finger – gross – but that wasn’t going to happen.  Oh well.

Anyway, we got back around 4:30pm and had to stand in line to make reservations for our train down to Rome the next morning.  It was so hot!!!  We were baking on the train, sweat dripping down our faces, and I was fanning the heck outta myself waiting in line at the station.  Sheesh!  So, on our way back down to the Pitti Palance, our next destination, we grabbed ourselves another gelato to cool off!  I got a fruity one and I definitely liked the chocolatey stuff better.

Yes, we went back to the Pitti Palace to see their main art gallery, the modern art gallery, and the royal apartments.  The most notable items in the art gallery were some busts of Marcus Aurelias, the Roman emperor, which I thought was very cool.  It’s like, wow, that is what he looked like right there!  They also had a big bust of Napoleon, who had actually used the Pitti Palace as a sort of base of operations for a while.  The gallery did have some Rubens but I wasn’t too into them.  There wasn’t much to the royal apartments, unfortunately.  The rooms were lavishly decorated and I enjoyed the different colors in each room – one was all green and another all red and another all blue – but there were really just a few rooms to look at before the tour was over.

Then there was the modern art gallery, which we had to Residenz on through because we were running out of time.  That was fine because I wasn’t too into most of the pieces.  There was really only one piece that I stopped and stared at for a good long while.  It was a huge painting of Pilate presenting Christ to the people.  It was like you were standing on the balcony behind Pilate and Christ, with a few other Roman soldiers around on the balcony, looking out into a sea of people shouting and jeering from below.  It was so powerful, like you were there with Christ being rejected by your own people, or were there with Pilate trying to appease the mob.  It was a moving perspective and the art was very impressive, with incredible textures and colors.  I wanted to take it home with me.  If I can ever find a print of that picture, I will definitely buy it.  OK, I looked it up and it is called Ecce Homo by Antonio Ciseri.

We stopped at our hostel for dinner and then walked right next door to where a little Italian opera was being held.  They had passed out flyers for it at the Pitti Palace and Nick had wanted to go.  They actually gave you a big discount if you were staying at our hostel so that was cool.  It was a very intimate setting, inside a little church with only about 30 people in the audience.  The whole show was performed by a man on the piano and a woman singing.  They did different pieces from different plays, I believe, and sometimes it was just the man doing a piano piece.  Both were very good at what they did.  I was in awe at how the human body can even make those powerful sounds and was impressed with her skill both at singing and conveying expression through her song, her face, and her movements, though my ears did ring a few times at the pitch and the volume.  A good experience overall, however, and fun to do something different.

Then we went for a little walk through the city, which we actually hadn’t done at night yet.  I was surprised at how lit everything was!  It was almost like it was still day!  That was unexpected and very cool.  We went back to see the Duomo, which you could see so well despite it being 11pm!  And there were lots of people out too, kissing in the streets, visiting on the steps, selling things.  It was so alive!  We even saw some guys out telling fortunes, haha!  I wanted to see those sculptures one last time, the ones I had see when I first arrived.  I was just as impressed the second time and I hesitated to leave knowing I may not ever see those sculptures again in my life.  It was a cool way to end our Florence visit though, the same way it had begun, except late at night instead of early in the morning.

We were both so tired.  We came back to the hostel and went straight to bed.

PHOTOS:

A view of the baptistry, the cathedral, and the leaning tower in Pisa.

Nick is so strong!  He is holding it up with his pinky!

I tried a few poses but nothing was working out.  So I just smiled and did a little leaning of my own.

This ins't that noteworthy because there are quite a few Andrea streets around here but I thought I'd get my picture by one.

Gelato time!!

Here is the little Italian opera.  You can see how it is a little church.

And here she is busting it out!

And here is a little bit of Florence at night.  I was sad to leave.  It was such a charming place.