Pisa and the British Invasion of Florence

 Sam came back to Florence! Granted, it was with an ETS class, but I treasure every moment, and it's like seeing the city in a new light every time I'm with him! Here's what happened:

Thursday Sam got into Pisa at 8, and the original plan was for me to meet him at the hotel his class was staying at at 9:30 (by the time they got to Florence, and got situated, this seemed like a reasonable time). Haha well after a few delays and traffic and the class's stop at the Leaning Tower in Pisa, I got to their hotel on a 10:45 bus (the buses come once an hour after 9:30, so that had to be planned meticulously), arriving at the hotel around 11:15, right when they were walking in the door to check in. Va bene. I took Sam and his best friend from abroad Erick near the Duomo to get some food, and we ended up hanging around one of the bars/cafes/clubs (it's like a mix of all three, the going out places here serve multi-functional purposes) for a little just for something to do. We ended up running into a group of SUF students who knew Erick (small world!) so the group of us enjoyed the evening until late (dare I tell you?--3am) and instead of taking a cab home I crashed on the floor of the boys hotel room--seriously. Think Palm Springs back in the day when our family would go and Jackie/Tori would make a bed out of the cushions haha. I told Sam I'd leave early so I could get home (I didn't tell Anna I'd be sleeping out, otherwise it wouldn't have been a big deal) and slipped away at 7am--woof, brutal. But it was sunny with a few clouds, and I was glad the SUL class would have a sunny day to explore the city.

Wrong.

I went back to bed as soon as I got home and got a restful 2 hours of sleep (made all the difference in the world) and after preparing myself to conquer the day, headed out to meet the class at the Medici Chapels at San Lorenzo. And it was pouring rain. And continued to rain all weekend. Relentlessly. I didn't mind, obviously, but when I met up the with the class Erick said to Sam that I'd never fit in as an Italian, I was a) too happy b) too colorful (I was wearing my trench coat and a red scarf, that's not that colorful!) and c) too blonde-curly-haired.

I followed the class along the rest of the day, and Forbes, the professor of the class who Sam had introduced me to Thursday night at the hotel, overheard me "teaching" Sam about the Medici's and ended up having me speak my piece at every monument we went to thereafter. I was kicking myself for being such a know-it-all. But Sam said he's never been more proud! After the Medici Chapels the class broke for lunch and we went to a favorite sandwich place of mine where we saw three Italian women with wine that was steaming. I had no idea that they served mulled wine here, so Sam, Erick,

Buonanno's Cathedral doors in Pisa

and I tried this "hot wine" and while it certainly wasnt the same as mulled wine with the spices and such, it was a warm pick me up after splashing around Florence. Kinda warms you up from the inside out. Interesting!

The class proceeded with a look inside San Lorenzo, a trip to the Duomo, and ended in the Baptistery where I accompanied them and got in free thanks to the generosity of Forbes and SUL (my museum pass only covers certain entrance fees, the Baptistery and most churches are not included) so I earned my keep by talking about the great mosaics of the Baptistery for the class, and I think I'm really lucky. The SUL kids who are art history majors/in art history classes (I talked to a few who were) sure, they'd have class at the National Gallery, but they don't get to study their stuff in the original context like I get to. Mom, you said in a previous email that maybe I was actually going to remember something from this semester of schooling. I absolutely agree, it not only helps to have that interactive learning where I'm on site for most of my classes, but even in the classroom, I can easily go into the city and apply what I learned to the things around me. They're like constant reminders, so how could I forget? I guess my point is that I was really easy to talk about the things Forbes was nudging my way, and I really enjoyed talking about them!

View of the Pisa Duomo from the Baptistery

After a stop at their hotel to change into try shoes (did I mention it rained all day? You'd think these London kids would be used to it/own a pair of boots. Every single one of them had sneakers! Big thanks to Gram, the boots she got me at the end of the semester last year have been my life saver! They're adorable and waterproof without being rainboots!) Anyway, we headed to Villa Rossa where Forbes kind of MCed a discussion among SUF professors and/or local Florentines and his class. This was an event where he'd told his students to tell us, the SUF students, to come and participate. Except none of the questions he asked applied to us, or were directed at us. I'd invited as many friends as were in town (there was a Paris trip this weekend hosted by the school much like this Florence trip for the SUL kids where it was optional and you had to pay for it--Hannah went) and Sarah and Cynthia came. But regardless they served an AMAZING apperativo after with crostini and bread and FRESH olive oil (the harvest was last week!) and cheese and olives and Chianti wine and it was just delicious! We tried to formulate a plan for dinner for the group after, but realized a group of 22+ people was a big extreme to descend upon a restaurant without a reservation, so we broke off and Liz and I took a group of 8 SUL students to our favorite local student cheap great variety place, Il Gato e Il Volpe. Everyone was more than content, but really full from our apperativo (I'd told them--my vote was to skip a sitdown dinner and grab a slice of pizza or something...) so Sam and I were the smart ones who split gnocci! Especially since Italians don't believe in doggy bags...sorry Abby.

Pisa Baptistery Pulpit

That night we were all filled to the brim with food and tired, so I headed home around 11:15 because I had a field study trip the next morning and had to get up early early early. Sam said he crashed as soon as I left. Anyway, so Pisa/Lucca was on my agenda for Saturday, and after a brutal 6:40 wake up call and my tendency to run late, I made it out the door with my breakfast in one hand and key in the other (I knew when I returned Anna was going to be mad I didn't wake her up to make me breakfast, but first of all I refuse to disturb the woman's sleep for something so selfish, and second of all I was late myself). But everything was fine and within two minutes of being on the coach bus for the trip I was asleep.

In Pisa we checked out the main complex, the Cathedral, the Baptistery, and of course, their bell tower, or the Leaning Tower. I took one of those adorable touristy photos of me holding up the Leaning Tower--yeah just wait til it goes up, it's precious! Anyway, we learned about why its leaning, and then went to the Baptistery, which is much plainer than ours, but has an important pulpit we learned about in Black Death, and then at 11, a monk came in and called out notes--he didn't sing, but he called out different notes. And based on the acoustics in the Baptistery and the timing of his note-calling, it sounded like there was a whole choir in there!!! That was really really cool, something the Pisans have on the Florentines. All Florence's baptistery's good

Pisa Baptistery from the second story

for is shiny gold stuff. We spent some time in the Cathedral which also has an important pulpit and some important bronze doors, and then were told we might not do the second part of the day trip because of the crummy weather. Well my heart skipped a beat because that meant I'd get to go back to Florence and join in on the SUL tours! After that idea was put in our heads, an idea which 90% of the group was in favor of, the leaders said, just kidding, we're going to Lucca at least for lunch. Well ok. I mean, we were out and about anyway, when else was I going to get a chance to see Lucca?

We were dropped off within the city walls of Lucca, every fourth person was handed a map, and told, ok, you have two hours for lunch. When you're done, we'll let you know if we're going back to Florence or walking around the city on a walking tour. Sarah, Cynthia, and this new guy John (who reminds me of Bob Saget from his Full House days) and I meandered around this Medieval city with its twists and turns around markets and

Pisa Cathedral Pulpit and Interior

such--it's a very pretty and very quaint little town, I really enjoyed it--until we popped into a cafe to grab some lunch. We reconvened at the meeting point, tired, full, and ready to get on the bus to take a nap, when the field study leader of the day said, well the weathers holding out, we're going to stay for another hour and a half and go on a walking tour of the city, but it was optional. Most of the kids didn't go, but Sarah, Cynthia, Bob Saget aka John and I figured why not, and I ended up being really glad we went! We went to three different churches, one of which has the un-decayed body of Santa Zita (Saint Elizabeth, we think), which was really cool and really weird at the same time! People were taking pictures, I felt like that was kind of sacreligious...but wasn't sure. She looked a little worse for wear...kind of mummified...but it was pretty cool nonetheless. We finished at the Lucca City walls, which are now preserved as a park/running path/biking path and enhances the city's beauty. The walls were kind of a joke back in the day, since Lucca was a peacefully little city with the big fat squat walls. But now they're really very lovely.

Anyway, we headed back to Florence, I crashed like the narcoleptic I am in moving vehicles, and arrived in Florence early still around 5:45. I headed home, cleaned myself up, and headed out to meet Sam around 6:45. After a major major lack of communication between the two of us (I blame myself, I'm the local, I shouldn't have expected him to give me directions to where he was, I should have designated a meeting point!), I found him with a group of other SUL kids at 8. They were trying to go to this restaurant called Dante on Oltrarno (YAY!!!! MY side of the Arno!!!! SUF kids avoid Oltrarno like the plague for no good reason) that serves free wine for students. They were glad to see me to

Walking along Lucca's wall

have someone who knew where they were going, and to have someone who spoke Italian. Unfortunately, Dante's was packed. And I panicked, I didn't have a back up plan for this area of the city. So we walked along the road and found an osteria a block down with a promising menu and very reasonable prices. It was a GREAT meal!!!!!! I love Oltrarno, it's so much less touristy and has so much to offer, and I loved that the SUL kids didn't know any better that it wasn't the "center" of the city, they were just as content to eat there as anywhere else. In fact, Sam said if he was every to come back to Florence in the future (i.e. with his parents, in future travels), he'd want to stay Oltrarno and see the more Tuscan side of the city, rather than the main attractions. God love him. Everyone at dinner was mad I wasn't with them all day, Sam said every single person in the group, including Forbes, asked him where I was that day and if I'd be joining them later, because it was more enjoyable to listen to me (showoff, in my opinion/talk, in theirs) than to listen to Forbes and his Florentine counterpart. I thought that was very sweet of them, and Sam said he was beaming with pride all afternoon. Awwww. Following dinner, I'd planned to crash at the hotel that night and go with the class to see the David and go to the Uffizi early the next morning, I was ready for bed, but Sam wanted to go out to a club we'd been to when he first came to Florence. It was the first time he and I had some alone time, and we only went out for an hour or two, but we had fun! When we returned, we'd found Erick had ended up going out with a group of SUL boys, and returned even later than we had. But we got a solid night's rest.

Medieval Lucca city wall

After a nice breakfast at the hotel and me pretending I'd just arrived at the hotel that morning when Forbes came to collect the group, we headed to the Academia to check out David, who I actually hadn't seen before. My museum pass got me in for free, and not only that, but I was able to cut the line, so I was ready to go a little before the class was! We spent about a half hour in the Academia with this GIGANTIC statue (I underestimated him---wow, big piece of marble), and then made our way across town to see my favorite gallery of art. A little unimpressed at how Forbes was presenting the information (ok, now I'm being an art snob, I know), and Sam still a little tired, and with the permission for the class to wander the galleries alone, we broke off from the group after moving from

Pisa's Campo Santo--literally "Holy Ground" brought from Jeruselum and planted here

pre-Black Death to early Renaissance art, and took our time to look at images as I pointed out my favorites to Sam. I mean, I go to the Uffizi on rainy Sunday afternoons for hours and hours just to have something to do occasionally, so after Palazzo Vecchio this was home.

When Sam complained of image overload (there's apparently a syndrome for that...) we tried to wait out the rain (nope, just kept raining) and walked along the Arno and locked a padlock on the Padlocks of Love by the Arno (awwwwww). After that he wanted to get some earrings for his mom, but the earrings place that I got the girls' earrings at was closed, so we made out a deal for me to pick them up, after he asked his mom if she still wore earrings (they're going to be in London for Thanksgiving)...anyway, that's just a side story. We strolled along Oltrarno and Sam wanted to try Dante's again, we were seated immediately and he treated me to a lovely fedaccini alfredo lunch (for me) and lasagna (for him) for lunch, which was very much the Italian version of comfort foods after walking around in the rain. The SUL kids had free time until they had to meet at 4:15 to leave for Pisa, but Sam didn't want to go to another museum, and instead we started heading back to the hotel to watch a movie in the lobby or something, but en route stopped at the olive oil festival in Piazza della Repubblica, where we tasted some really interesting oils and cheeses!!! Apparently we weren't the only ones who were looking to warm up at the hotel, and several other SUL kids had camped out out of the rain there.

I walked with Sam to the train station where they we catching a train to Pisa before their flight, and said goodbye and waved and cried (I'm such a baby) until their train pulled out of the station. I headed back home, arranged my schedule and rested for the remainder of the evening, and then joined Anna and Antoinetta for a delicious dinner of minestrone, our favorite chicken and vegetables, fruit, and panna cotta. Hannah walked a little after 10 and Anna warmed up a plate for her. I'm exhausted, and was looking forward to a good night's sleep in what feels like the world's now comfiest bed.

Inside Campo Santo