PART XIII: FIRENZE (FLORENCE) (8/28 - 8/29)

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Stepping off the train in Firenze was pretty daunting what with the incredible numbers of tourists and the hustle and bustle of the crazy Italian vespa and taxi drivers that barely fits in the cramped one lane streets of the city. Luckily I had made this little map of the sites I planned on seeing and was able to walk straight to my hostel to book my room for the night. 

I then headed to the Uffizi a short distance away and found the line to be about two hours long. Not what I was in the mood for. I therefore headed out on a walking tour of the city, which brought me to many neat sites in the core of this incredibly walkable city.

My first view of the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge covered in gold, jewelry, and watch shops that spans the Fiume Arno right next to the Uffizi. I'm pretty sure Liam took the exact same picture for his blog when he visited Firenze.

The Piazza Uffizi surrounded by the museum of the same name. The museum would have to wait until tomorrow.

I decided to check out the Galileo Museum, which turned out to be extremely interesting. Housed on three floors was a collection antique scientific instruments from the 1400s to the 1800s. These included astrolabes, clocks, globes, thermometers, early electrical devices, hundreds of little machines for demonstrating physical phenomena, and much more.

Here is a huge globe of about six feet in diameter for exploring orbits and why certain celestial bodies appear where they do in the sky.

A pair of globes shows star formations (left) and the Earth (right).

Gorgeous woodwork was employed to build these devices for demonstrating the physics controlling falling objects.

 

These glass objects were used as thermometers, beakers, distilleries, and many other parts of experimental applications.

You can never have too many telescopes or a telescope too long.

I was most impressed at this museum by the incredible craftsmanship that went into making this instruments. There were no cheap plastic beakers or calipers of less than exquisite quality. It seemed most of the tools were designed by scientists and crafted by distinguished craftsmen who specialized in making scientific tools or else these men were scientists themselves.

The museum also had a temporary exhibition telling the story of the evolution of the bicycle, which as you can guess was especially interesting for me.

The "Bone-shaker"

An early handbrake system.

This room held a collection of bicycles that were produced for specific tradesmen and so they were outfitted with the essentials of each trade: firman (on left), salt seller (on right), dairy man, post man, painter, photographer, carpenter, cooper, and knife grinder. This last one was my favorite because you could undo the chain and hook an alternate chain from the crank to a small grindwheel mounted between the knees.

The last cool thing I saw in the museum was this curved mirror surrounded by a cube of Xs which created the same globe of orbits int he resulting mirror image.

A line of about one hundred scooters and motorcycles is no surprising sight in Firenze or any larger Italian town.

A tower just across the tower and a little east of the Galileo Museum.

After climbing through the Boboli Gardens I ended up on a terrace, which afforded this view of the city including the dominating presence of the Duomo (Cathedral) di Firenze.

Not the only reproduction of the David I saw although I never saw the original.

I found this intricate and beautiful church at the top of the hill as well. This is where I really started to get an idea of the amount of effort that was put into the design and construction of these spiritual places in the cities where a lot of money made it possible.

Just check out the painted ceiling...amazing!

A couple examples of the many hilarious painted road signs I saw throughout the city.

After leaving the Boboli Gardens I found this sculpture mounted on top of the 16th-century Fort di Belvedere. 

I had a nice guy take my picture from on top of the fort looking North toward the city but realized after we lined up for the shot that the sun was directly in my eyes...

Saw a few of these little guys around the city. Some even smaller too.

Classic Florentine parking job. Gotta take it where you find it.

A water fountain like others around the city. The store just to the left of this fountain was one of a number of produce shops from which I bought fresh nectarines and plums as I walked the city.

I hadn't seen a chess shop before and this one seemed incredibly nice.

You just don't see streets that cut through buildings like you do in these European cities. Or is it that the building was built over the road?

A nice morning view of the Ponte Vecchio from the opposite side right before I went to the Uffizi. 

I was one of the first people into the Uffizi this morning and my first exposure to what it's all about was stepping into this ridiculously long hallway full of busts and sculptures. There was an identical hallway on the other side of the piazza as well. The Uffizi is primarily the collection of the Medici family. I can't imagine how rich they must have been to have collected and commissioned as much art work as they did.

The face of the Duomo is really an incredible feat of art and architecture in the name of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately the line was extremely long and I had to catch a train so I just had time to walk around its enormous circumference.

The Gates of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti face the front of the Duomo,

One of many cool bits of graffiti I saw around the city. This one was on the walls of the scaffolding that covered the eastern wall of the Duomo as they restored or fixed it. 

Firenze, you treated me very well but I must return to Coldigioco!

PART XII: RETURNING FROM FURLO (8/24)

Today we drove back from the Furlo Gorge, which we visited during the first week here, after a morning of collecting data in the field. Last night we stayed in a cheap hotel because Furlo is about a two hour drive from Coldigioco and we had a lot of work to do in just two days in the field. The highlight of this excursion was definitely the dinner we had at the hotel last night. For a cheap hotel they really spoiled us with linguine in a truffle sauce with sliced fresh truffles on top (my first truffles ever!), pork with a wonderful gravy, frittata with truffles, and salad. At the end of the meal our host gave Sandro a bottle of some sort of banana liqueur that he passed down the table to let us try as well. An incredible meal and a couple glasses of wine makes any hot and sweaty day in the field seem like the distant past. I should elaborate on the truffles as it turned out to be an interesting story that Sandro told us on our drive back from Furlo. The town of Aqualagna, just a ten minute drive southwest of Furlo, is a huge center truffle hunting and truffle cultivating, though being a small town. They have a market every year after the harvest of their most expensive truffles, the black and white, which draws foodies, chefs, and rich folks from around the world each year. We were eating summer truffles, the cheapest and most abundant truffle in the region though still wonderful to eat!

This is the first actually good beer I've had in Europe. Italians love wine above anything and while their attempts to make beer have turned out fairly popular, they also remain light, bland, and cheap. Peroni is the most widely seen Italian beer while Birra Moretti and Nastra Azzurro are a close second and third. These are very similar to a cheap American lager like PBR or Miller. This beer, brewed at an Italian microbrewery in the style of an American pale ale, was actually tasty and full-bodied. A wonderful relief to sip at the caffe in Furlo as we waited for our classmates to finish up in the field.

I feel like a view like this is just a staple of this blog but every time we pass through another gorge of the Apennines or achieve a mountain top vista, I am reminded of how beautiful this place is and how lucky I am to be here. This gorge is very near the town of Piobbico.

This sign sits by the road as you enter the small town of Piobbico, the international home of the "uglies." It's a bit of a long story but basically ever since the romantic period in the 1800s, Club dei Brutti has existed here in Piobbico in opposition to the trends in fashion and body shape that have defined especially the image of a "perfect" woman over the years. At some point about a century ago, the club began hosting a Festival of the Uglies in order to elect its president and celebrate ugliness. Their motto is "ugliness is virtue, beauty is slavery."

And an enormous moon awaited us upon our return to Coldigioco.

PART XI: ASSISI (8/20)

Today we took a day trip to Assisi, a wonderful little town that you might recognize as being the home of St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan brotherhood of Catholic monks. A three hour train got us to the train station about four kilometers outside of the old city.

Assisi from afar as we walked from the train station.

 

 All of the streets through Assisi looked like these above although some were even narrower. The streets were incredibly crowded with buildings and were incredibly fun to explore. The entire city seemed a bit like it was clinging to the hillside and only stayed up because there was a building below every building to build on top of.

This spiral staircase was ridiculous. It probably went about 40 or 50 meters from top to bottom.