Fiesole

Friday 8/26

Dennis and I went to the pool again today. We have exhausted our pool pass, so now if we want to spend the day at the pool we get a little worse of a deal. The time that I have been able to spend with Dennis has really been a blessing. Maybe its just Dennis' character, but sometimes he asks me questions that I would never anticipate. Now that I know Dennis, I know he is very prone to do that. Before we knew it the time was about 4:00 and we had to head back to the apartment and get ready for the Friday night group.

Eniola          Albiola       Oliviah             Mary    

Everyone came over around 7:00. We had Pizza, the staple, then two of the girls brought over some Nigerian style fried rice and chicken.. It was amazing. I feel a little spoiled; the Pizza was crap after I ate their food. We have been watching mostly Pixar movies on fridays. I had no idea which one to show, so I let them decide, the choices were between Wall•E, Toy Story 2, and Tangled; they chose Toy Story 2. They evening was fun, everyone left saying that we need to get together before Dennis and I head down to Naples and then back to the States, so they said we should all go swimming, so we will see what happens.

Saturday 8/27/11

View of Florence from Fiesole

Okay, so today we had Fiesole on the calendar. Fiesole is a city that is really just a suburb of Florence, but if you go back a few thousand years it was, just like all the others, its own city-state that was a rival of ...again, everyone else... It would be like Portland, Milwaukie, and Beaverton all being at war with each other. Only, 

Fiesole sits on a hill that is literally right next to Florence. So I guess it would be more like the West Hills being at war with downtown Portland. So back a few thousand years, they could just look down the hill at their rivals and plan their attacks. We went up and checked out some old Roman, and Etruscan ruins that were discovered back in the early 1900's. They had to stop during the war, then resumed in the 70's. The ruins were pretty cool. We walked up to a Monastery that sits way up at the top of the hill, and then met up with a friend of Dennis' who he has known for a really long time. His name is Alan Earheart. We were supposed to eat dinner at he and his wife's place, but before we ate Dennis really wanted me to see where Alan works. So we went to some place down on the hillside... oh wait. Its the former residence of John D Rockefeller's daughter and her husband which was donated to Georgetown University, and has become a Villa from which students are allowed to come and study. The site that I linked to does not give its view of Florence, but it is basically the same view that I gave you above.

It sits on a 50 degree slope and has an amazing unobstructed view of Florence. Its gardens are absolutely beautiful. It took a beating during WW2 from allied bombing and a few mortars, but let me just say that the Georgetown students have a treasure, and if I were a student, I would be fighting to get over here for a semester. Alan is the director of the facility and gets to spend a lot of time there, only he looks at retaining walls that are failing, and stairways that need to be closed off.. or gardens that are not being cared for correctly. In the end, I guess its still a job. We had a really nice dinner at his place out in the countryside. They have a little country villa that they rent. It sits on the other side of Fiesole from Florence, and is so quiet. Dennis and I went out into the olive/pear/fig orchard and ate some figs. 

Stayin' regular

I think I ate about 6... “Taken either fresh or dried, figs are very good in fighting constipation. This fruit is regarded as a dependable laxative because of its huge cellulose content and its tough skin. The tiny seeds in the fruit have the property of simulating wave-like movements of the intestines. This way, it can facilitate for the quick and easy evacuation of stool and keeps the alimentary canal clean.” Ill just stop there. Dinner was good, then we got a ride back home, and since I was so tired, I just went to sleep. I'm looking forward to serving down in Naples.