Pisa and friends from the South

My apologies for the long time between posts.... things have gotten hectic. 

Wednesday 8/11/11

Karen wanted to take me to see the leaning tower of Pisa. Now that the time came; we got up, headed to the train station, and took a 20 minute ride to the west coast of Italy. I didnt notice anything very captivating in Pisa. Dennis had jokingly told me earlier that the Pisa tower was a third the height of the Duomo bell tower in Florence. So I was not expecting to see anything particularly amazing from a size standpoint. 

When I looked it up on Wikipedia however I found that it is much closer to two thirds; 183 feet. I remember climbing a tower crane that was that tall... and then my heart lunged into my throat for about 5 minutes... So I started to get more excited. I also found out for the first time that the Leaning tower isnt just some tower, it was the bell tower for the cathedral there. Construction started in.. 1173, no big deal.. I also found out that no one really knows when Pisa was founded, but they do know it was founded by the Romans back in 180 B.C., so it is at least 2191 years old. We got to Pisa, found the right bus, and drove across the city. I remember looking out of the bus at a wall with the spire of a dome sticking out above it. We all got out and walked through an arch in the wall, and there it was staring me in the face.

I found it very fascinating. The way it leans just draws you attention. I feel kind of bad for the cathedral, because I didn't see anyone paying any attention to it. I looked at if for a few moments before my attention was sucked back over to the tower. However, I did notice something. I guess you notice more when you have done some construction, lets just say I'm not surprised the leaning tower leaned. When things don't look quite right, that is usually because they aren't.

Moving back over to the leaning tower... 

When you stand under the lean and look back up at it, it is actually quite impressive. I was mesmerized. For 15 euro you could go up in the tower, but that was more than it took for a round trip from Florence. So, with my budget in mind I passed on that one. It's one more thing that I can save for someone special anyways. :) After we left Pisa we went to Livorno to try and eat some seafood.. I found that it was pretty much a port city with venetian design. Turned out none of the restaurants serve food until 7pm and it was only 3:30, so we checked out some of the HUGE cruise ships in port, took some pictures, watched some fishermen, and headed back to Florence. When we got back we ate at a nice Argentinean restaurant and called it a day.

Oh, I saw an amazing photo opportunity. Tourists are so funny to me. Everyone wants to hold up the tower... and walk on the grass... 

Saturday

We have been planning on hosting some of our friends from Naples. The pastor from the Church in Caserta and his family along with some of the youth from the Camp are coming to stay with us for a few nights. I believe that some of them have never been to Florence, so it will be fun and interesting to show some of the Italians their own country. I have to start reading up on all of the things that they are going to want to see so I can tell them the facts again. Two of the girls from the camp showed up today. Dennis went and met them in a piazza near the apartment, and we invited them over for lunch. They rented an apartment very near to ours, so it was easy to show them where it was.

Sunday 8/14/11

Having these bikes has really been a blessing when you have nothing to do. You can always just hop on a bike and take a ride. The city of Florence is very hospitable to bikes with lanes all over the place. When we are all riding the bikes we have to find creative ways to all stay together to get to wherever it may. Either some ride and some walk, or we all ride... if you know what I mean. On a number of occasions I have taken matters into my own hands to get places and jumped on the back of Dennis' bike and stood on the rack that sits on top of his back tire. With both Dennis and I on the bike the rims sit a little closer to the street, but we get around just fine. We attract stares too, but thats never hard to do when you have Dennis with you.

*Sometime in the last week*

A customary greeting for Italians, is to kiss both cheeks when you show up... at least that is what Italians from Napoli like to do. Alessia Crispo from camp came to the apartment this evening, and so I went up to greet her and started to do the whole cheek kiss thing. I realized that I was going to the wrong cheek and just sort of froze in place; completely forgetting which cheek I was supposed to go for first. She bobbed her head left and right in one of those awkward, “we almost kissed, but don't acknowledge that it happened even though everyone saw it” moments. Seems like it happens to me all the time around here..

There are 8 of them up from Napoli. 5 of them are staying with us in the apartment, and 3 have gone in together on another apartment. Two of the girls came up 2 days before any of the others, so we have been entertaining for just under a week I think. The apartment that they rented is about a 5 minute walk away from us but still in the historical downtown of Florence. We have had a wonderful time with them. The first day that we had them all here we walked them all around Florence. I really didn't take any pictures, I just took Joubert's video camera and started filming. I put together a little home video but its in English, so only a few of them can watch it and understand what I am saying. I had a good time making it though. We took them to see all the big tourist spots save the statue of David. There are so many fakes around here that I don't know if the feel the desire to. We stayed out walking around for quite a while getting gelato, and watching street performers, walking through the old city. I like to imagine what it would have looked like 1000 years ago, what people would be wearing. I like to think that they all wore those tights with the puffy leg ...things. Who knows. Anyways, we walked around Florence that night.

Wednesday 8/17/11

Today was a pool day. It is so hot around here right now so everyone liked the idea of going to the pool. I filled my backpack with my camera, the video camera, towel, and my mp3 player. Most of us had to walk to the bus station and take the bus to the pool, and 3 of us rode bikes. We had a great time. There is something about sweating profusely, then jumping into a nice refreshing pool that makes me feel like... I dont know what it makes me feel like other than good. For those who don't like talking about bodily fluids I apologize, but I like to lay in the sun with my music until I can see a drop of sweat running down my nose (which only takes maybe 4 minutes), then run and dive into the pool.. We had all kinds of Jumping contests. I took pictures, so I cant say that I am in any of them, but I had a good time. There are those moments where Dennis calls you over to the edge of the pool to “ask you a question”... Dennis is one of those people that you have to spend some time with before you know what is really happening. He can keep his composure through seemingly endless jokes. You go to the edge of the pool to see what he wants, and he grabs both of your feet so that you cant walk away and works it so that you eventually end up in the water... or everyone decides to have a nice little competition to see who can jump the furthest out into the water, and Dennis walks by and pushes you in on the count of 1 of 3. ...or when you are laying in the sun with your eyes closed he dumps a bottle of water on you... all of these things Dennis loves. If I leave you with only that, I feel that I am painting a poor and one-sided picture of Dennis, so I will also say that it is all in good fun, and he is actually one of the people in my life that I feel I can confide in. Though he is like a big child, he is an encourager, and someone that always makes you smile. When we were finished at the pool, Dennis and Karen took Angela and Tony up to Fiesole for dinner with Alan Earheart and his wife. Alan works for Georgetown University up on the hill overlooking Florence. The others and I went to the Duomo. They wanted to get up into the top to see the view, so finally I had someone to go with. It was a beautiful day; perfect for a view. We climbed the four hundred and sixty something steps up to the top. 

For anyone who is mildly claustrophobic I don't know that this would be an amazing experience for them. I remember looking at some of the modifications that they have done to the building for tourism, thinking, “How on earth did they get a full sheet of Plexiglass up here?! What a nightmare.” the corridors are not wide enough for two people. If you have to pass someone, then you need to turn sideways and shimmy past each other. I think I am the only one in my family that can just walk upright through most of the corridors. In the case of an evacuation... your finished. Your not getting out of there; its is pre-safety codes. However, I was intrigued by the masonry and the overall composition of the structure itself. I am thinking since they chopped down all the trees in Tuscany to build scaffolding for the dome; they figured they had some space to build all the other stuff. And when I say stuff I mean beautiful Florentine buildings. The view is really amazing and I think well worth the climb.