Friday was our second day in Pisa. After Yorgos set up cots for us, we crashed and slept until 11. We got up and got ready and said goodbye to Yorgos and headed back out to the Campo dei Miracoli. The night before, on the way home, I had bought a Kathy Reichs book, and so Vaune and I went back to the field and laid in the sun by the Battistero for at least an hour or two, Vaune listening to her iPod and me reading.
After that we followed a walk in our guide book and walked around Pisa.
All the statues in Pisa seemed to have a certain air of sauciness
We went back and got more gelato.
We also got stopped by an interviewer on the street with a microphone and a video camera. She asked if I spoke Italian, and when I told her (in Italian) that I was American, she took that as a yes, and asked me, "Sei inamorata?" Meaning, "Are you in love?" When I answered yes she seemed very surprised and then babbled something I didn't understand, which I told her in an odd mix of Italian and Spanish. After that we crossed the river and checked out a tiny church called Santa Maria della Spina (Saint Mary of the Thorn) which is apparently really well-known as an example of Gothic architecture in Europe.
Me kissing a face on the side of the church
We kept walking and discovered a long street of shops, where apparently everything in Italy was on sale just like everything in France.
We tried on hats
We went into almost every shop and even found a shop called Roberta 121.
The Arno at night
After shopping, we went back to the apartment and found Yorgos' flatmate Francesco had returned, and we had been joined by a Scottish couchsurfer named Jamie. Yorgos looked exhausted and asked if we could just order pizza for dinner. Could we! So we did, which in Italy means that everyone gets their own pizza. And the pizzas are pretty gigantic. So we all squeezed around the dinner table and ate our pizzas and drank wine (as well as cinnamon and chocolate liqueur) and had good conversation. We made fun of some of the phrases in our guidebook ("Shall we get a room?" "Do you believe in aliens?" "What is that funny smell?") and had a really fun evening. We decided that "Prendiamo una camera?" can be a response to anything:
"I have a fever."
"Shall we get a room?"
"What is that funny smell?"
"Shall we get a room?"
"Please don't touch me."
"Shall we get a room?"
Francesco
We finished it off by putting on "Suspiria," a really cracked-out Dario Argento film from the 70s. We fell asleep to its creepy soundtrack of what sounds like a dying old woman croaking, "La la la la..."
At 4 AM, Yorgos came to wake up Jamie, who had a 6 AM flight. Vaune and I woke up for about ten seconds then fell back asleep. We finally got out of bed around noon, courtesy of Yorgos and Francesco's blackout blinds that make it seem like night all day. We finished off our pizza for breakfast, Vaune did the dishes, and we sneakily left 20E hiding in their kitchen (they hadn't let us pay for any food for our stay). We waited around until they got up and we said goodbye. We threatened to take Janis (the cat) away with us, but she chose to stay. So we made sure we had everything, and hugged and cheek-kissed Yorgos and Francesco goodbye and headed for the train station. Old pros by now, we knew not to pay for the bus. We felt so Italian. We got off at Pisa Centrale, and got our tickets at the self-service machine and ran outside to catch our train (it was leaving in ten minutes). Of course, the Pisa to Florence train leaves about every fifteen minutes, so the ticket is really general and can be used for six hours after you validate it, so if we'd missed the train, we could have just gotten on the next one. But we didn't miss it, we hopped on it and away we went. There were very few people on the train and it was a pleasant ride, even if my iPod battery was dead. I read my Kathy Reichs book and stared out the window.
Excited to go to Florence, but sad to leave Yorgos and Francesco (and, little did we know, the sunny weather) behind
When we got to Florence, Vaune's friend's old roommate came and picked us up at the train station. We went back to her apartment and just kind of relaxed for a bit. Then we went to the grocery store. Vaune and I bought the ingredients for what we are now calling a "Yorgos Salad," although we got bufala instead of plain fresh mozzarella - it is fresh mozzarella made from wild buffalo milk. And it is delicious. So we came back and made the salad. It was lettuce and corn and tomatoes and mozzarella like Yorgos made it, but we added basil. It was delicious. We had dinner with Sara and her flatmate and then sat around for a bit before going back to Sara's room and continuing to chill out. We even learned a new pickup line: "Vuoi vedere la mia collezion de farfalle?" It means, "Do you want to see my butterfly collection?" and legally, in Italy, if you say yes to that question, you have legally consented to sex. Scary. Now I know. Eventually we got ready for bed and I crashed in moments. Sara let me sleep in her bed while she slept on a mattress pad. She claims the mattress pad alone is probably more comfortable than the bed, but still. Vaune slept in her sleeping bag on the floor.
Sunday morning we got up and I tried to take a shower. The water was freezing and the showerhead wasn't attached to the wall, so I pretty much just washed my face and hair. After we had some cereal for breakfast we were good to go. We started out just walking around the old area of Florence (okay, it's all old). Sadly, the sun was gone.
Outfit made of towels!
Vaune is a lush
Vaune is Totally White
Piazza della Repubblica
We stumbled upon an outdoor market (mostly leather, mostly stolen) which has a bronze boar in it (of which there are copies all over the city). Legend has it that if you rub his nose, you'll return to Florence.
I found this whole thing kind of creepy
This saucy lamb hangs out near the market
We found Piazza della Signoria, in front of Palazzo Vecchio. It has a lot of world-class sculptures just kind of sitting there. It's also where Savonarola held the Bonfire of the Vanities, and where he himself was burned to death one year later.
Let me translate, roughly (my Italian has mostly slipped away):
"Here, where Fra Girolamo Savonarola was strung up and burned on May 23rd, 1948 with his colleagues Fra Domenico Buonvicini and Fra Silvestro Maruffi, after four centuries this monument has been placed."
Turn me over, I'm done on that side.
Piazza della Signoria/Palazzo Vecchio (the day was grey so some of these pictures have been replaced with ones that we came back and took when it was sunny):
Vaune and I with "the big white one."
Vaune and I with "Fake David" #1
Slagathor and myself w/ Fake David
The Rape of Polyxena ("rape" in this case and the later one means "kidnapping," rather than its use today), by my new favorite sculptor, Giambologna
Giambologna was known for being able to capture complex images of movement. You can really tell when you walk around the sculptures - they almost look like they are moving.
Hercules beating Nessus
So you get the picture:
Rape of the Sabine Women
Judith and Holofernes
Then we went into the Uffizi and saw lots of famous art. I think the coolest thing was seeing the Birth of Venus. Also, we saw a collection of prints by Chimei Hamada, which were very interesting.
Outside the Uffizi
I thought he was real. Did you? Of course, I have extremely poor eyesight.
After the Uffizi we were starving so we found a caffé and got mozzarella and basil panini. Then it was time for gelato. Gelato never gets old.
After our gelato we walked to the Duomo. We took lots of pictures and went inside the Cathedral. It was really beautiful.
The Gates of Paradise
A woman came up to Vaune and said she was a fashion journalist and said she liked the way Vaune was dressed and asked to take her picture. Afterwards, I of course demaded my own glamour shot of the model.
Under the Duomo
I jumped in front of Vaune's camera
After that we were pretty beat but we went over to the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence. I tried to put a link to Wikipedia for it and then realized that I wasn't satisfied with any online accounts of its history - each of them leaves out something. The story goes like this: Ponte Vecchio was the first bridge in Florence. For a long time it was the only one. It was originally made of wood, and built in 50BC, roughly where the ferry had been that brought people across the river before the bridge was built. It was swept away by several floods, but always rebuilt. The current bridge was built in 1345. The reconstruction was paid for by renting space to shopkeepers on the bridge. Originally the bridge was populated with butchershops and tanners. This was smelly and offensive to the Medici family, however, so they had them thrown out and replaced them with jewelers - the bridge is still full of them. The Medicis also had a passageway built above the bridge so that when they crossed it they would not have to mingle with the common folk. My favorite part of the story, however, is World War II. The Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge in Florence not to be bombed. A German bomber couldn't bear to destroy it, so instead he bombed the buildings on either side to prevent use of the bridge. There is a plaque thanking him on the bridge. There are also a lot of padlocks on the bridge... it is said if lovers lock a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the water, they will be eternally bonded - but now there is a 50 Euro fine because so many locks had to be removed so frequently in order not to damage the structure of the bridge.
Boarded up shops (it was Sunday)
Diamonds are a girl's best friend
After the Ponte Vecchio we looked in some shops and finally headed home to Sara's. She and her roommates took us to a pizzeria and we had pizza and cheesecake ai frutti di bisco. Mmmm. I think frutti di bosco is my favorite thing in Italy.
