July 06 - Florence and Pisa

It took much longer than it was supposed to for us to get to Pisa--the bus missed a turn, went through heavy roadwork, and then went through the roadwork again on the way back--but it was worth it. We got there too late to meet our tram, but it was really cool to walk through the gate in the wall around the tower and see it, well, just leaning there. (They have cables supporting it about halfway up, though, so it's not just leaning there on its own.) We also visitied the baptistry there, which has a five-second echo.

Unfortunately, since we took so long getting to Pisa, our guided tour of Florence was cut short from two hours to about fifteen minutes, but we sort of devised our own tour, and it worked out very well in the end.

There are new laws in Italy which don't allow tour buses into the center of the city, which didn't seem so great on the long walk in, but which proved very worthwhile when we got there and didn't have to breathe the smog from everyone else's buses. We started our walking tour with the Duomo, which we toured inside and out.

Next, the Galleria dell'Accademia, where our very energetic new tour guide managed to get tickets for the whole group immediately, without having to wait in a long line. Once inside, we got to see Michelangelo's statue of David. "This is so cool--I'm named after him!" said David Meyer.

After lunch, we visited the church of Santa Croche, home to the tombs of people who changed the world forever: Michelangelo, Rossini (composer of William Tell), Galileo (astronomer), Machiavelli (author of The Prince), Dante (The Inferno), and Marconi (inventor of the radio).

We had a really great dinner, spaghetti and--well, a bunch of stuff. It was great.

It's been really hot here--almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit--and it'll probably keep getting hotter the farther south we go. We're all fine, though, and having a great time. There won't be any update tomorrow, since we're getting into Rome so late after our concert in Assisi.

[ June 27 | June 28 | June 29 | June 30 | July 01 | July 02 | July 03 | July 04 | July 05 | July 06 | July 07 | July 08 | July 09 | July 10 | Tour Main Page | CYMO Main Page ]

The Academy Museum

The Duomo in Florence

Pictures!

Dr. Pocock has managed to e-mail some pictures from the trip. Here are just a few to start off:

Changing Planes in Frankfurt	Chambord Chateau
A Long Bus Trip	Amboise Chateau

This page is maintained by Lewis Johnson. For questions or comments please write to lewis_johnson@eee.org