A Day Trip to Pisa and Other Places

This weekend went by at the speed of light yet in the moment, it moved like molasses. Steve had us all wake up and ready to go by 7:50 in the morning on Friday the 24 so we might be able to catch the train to Pisa. It would be the last day we would spend with Paula before the students headed to the touristy beach town of Cinque Terre (cheenk-kwah tehr-A) without a professor looming over us. 

During the train ride, I continued to read Ross King's Michelangelo & the Pope's Ceiling. When I was in school, I wanted nothing more than to be able to read a good book. Since my degree called for extensive research papers, I was never afforded the time necessary to read a book for fun. Being on the train was one of the best just because of that little luxury.

When we got off the train in the town of Pisa, we came across a protest or rally about climate change. It's a cause I really support but I got scared when they were chanting in Italian. There's just something spooky about people speaking loudly in a language one doesn't recognize.

So Pisa is a lot more than the bell tower; it includes a cathedral as well as a baptistery.

This is an image from the cathedral. It's a relief sculpture but in the back is a part of the strip decoration which is influenced by Islamic art. I love seeing other cultures influence the art in other cultures. It's awesome! What always gets me is how beautiful the ceilings always are.

This is an image from the baptistery. The eight sides of the font is symbolic of resurrection. We had a really cool experience where a guy who was allowed to sing sang some notes in order to show how acoustic the whole building is.

We also checked out the cemetery which was pretty ruined from the bombings in World War II. We hear that maybe the Brits didn't have very good aim on what things they shouldn't hit? Maybe it's hearsay but it is what I heard. Today, they have old sarcophagi on display. It's really beautiful.

Afterward, I took some pics where I was purposely missing the Leaning Tower of Pisa. So this is a 189-ish foot tall bell tower. It was started in 1173 and construction completed in 1350. Within about five tears, the building started to lean due to a fault in the foundation. Over time, people have tried to correct the leaning, but it was just persistent. At it's peak leaning, it was about 47 centimeters off the vertical. About 15 years ago, they were finally able to get it to stop moving with the help of cement. That's important because what if it just ended up laying on the ground or if it just crumbled?

I volunteered to be in charge of the train tickets so everyone in the group would get to Cinque Terre in one piece. It was definitely more stressful than I anticipated but I masked it by finishing my book on Michelangelo. Without too much trouble, we all made it to our train stop. We called for shuttles and we got taken to our camp. 

Something we weren't expecting was to actually be camping but what can you do? The cabins were pretty nice and it was overall, just fine. But just like Utah, it got pretty cold at night. The best part about the campsite was that they had kittens. 

Saturday morning, we checked out a bunch of towns and saw some incredible picturesque sites. 

After taking enough pictures, we went to the beach where I dedicated the remainder of my day to reading by the Mediterranean Sea. It was an ideal day. I was reading The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland. The writing isn't very good but it was nice just to read. I finished it too!

The rest of the day was kind of rough. There was confusion regarding train tickets and I ended up getting fined. It's okay because I got some ice cream and watched Twilight back at camp in order to recover. There were also cats at the camp which helped. Eating pesto on a pizza in a town where pesto was created didn't hurt either.

By the next morning, I felt okay enough to go back out and when we made it to the town of Vernazza, we saw a cat sitting in a basket as if he were merchandise. This cat hated dogs and his ears went back pretty far whenever he saw one. When I took this picture, he was looking at a dog.

In Vernazza, there were boat rentals and tours available. Since it was about to rain, we opted out of doing that but we absolutely took a handful of pictures.

Before we caught the train, Camille and I went on a little walk and saw some beautiful things. It was just what I needed before I tried to get everyone back to Florence.

When our train showed up, all 20 of us got on and had a "layover" at the La Spezia station which lasted about an hour. We checked the board and saw that our train would show up at Platform 7. A few minutes before our train showed up, I heard an announcement in Italian which sounded very suspicious. Moments later, it repeated again in English. I couldn't believe my ears so I checked the display board again; I ran downstairs and saw that our train was about to leave and it was now at Platform 2. In the .2 seconds it took to run back upstairs to the group I thought quick: I didn't have enough money in my checking account to buy a new train ticket that would take us to Florence and I didn't have enough money to get us all a cab back to Florence so the only option would be to just catch the train. I barked orders and told everyone to run to Platform 2. After I yelled more, people started getting a move. Two girls almost didn't make it. I was just sick to my stomach over the whole ordeal. In an attempt to get over it, my friend Megan and I watched two more Twilight movies. Without any more problems, we safely made it back to Florence where I could only stomach eating french fries for dinner.