Onward and Westward!

From Florence we continued on to Pisa in our little black Ford Focus, carefully avoiding the expensive Superhighway marked on our map in blue. Despite taking the long way round, the drive was short, but unfortunately once we hit the outskirts of town we began to get lost. A few wrong exits, a few wrong turns, and we were pretty flustered. Finally we got some directions in very broken Italiglish and figured things out. When we arrived in the city, a chilly drizzle had begun to fall, but we piled excitedly out of the car to find The Leaning Tower (or, more correctly,The Tower of Pisa in the Piazza del Duomo) nonetheless.

We had parked the car near the bus station, and decided to seek guidance within. However, the lady behind the counter was less than thrilled to direct us, no maps were available and the Information Center she attempted to send us to was closed. Instead we did some clever manouvering, finding a map posted on a wall, photographing it and using the photo on my camera's screen as a map.

As we walked along the route, we unexpectedly and happily stumbled upon a GIGANTIC Keith Haring wall. Haring is one of my all time favorite artists, so this was nothing short of gasp-worthy for me. I stood in front of it, mouth gaping and entirely flushed with excitement, while the rain started to pour down on us. It was a really significant moment for me; the fact that we just happened to walk down this particular alleyway (it wasn't even a street, it was an alleyway!) and there happened to be a massive Haring mural was pretty flipping epic. After a few minutes appreciation and loads of photos, it was on to the final destination, the tower.

Along the way we encountered a book fair which was surrounded by plywood walls covered with really cool paintings. The book fair itself was inside of an open air market structure, whose vaulted ceilings were supported by wide rectangular columns with a floor and stairs made of grey marble.

After looking at our map and getting a better idea of our intended direction while under that shelter, we began to move on. We walked along the River Arno, encountering the beautiful, elegant and surprisingly tiny Gothic style church of Santa Maria della Spina. This delicate looking and ornate house of worship was originally built in the 1200's but was moved to higher ground to evade a threat of flooding in 1871. (Thanks wiki.)










Next we crossed a bridge over the Arno, and passed by the Orto Botanico de Pisa, which is Europe's oldest University botanical garden. We approached the Piazza del Duomo and saw in front of us the famous Leaning Tower, shrouded in a grey mist. It was unfortunate for my photographic purposes that we arrived in encroaching darkness and a thin drizzle. Most of my photos are fairly grainy and underexposed, as unfortunately I don't have a tripod.

After seeing the tower and taking the requisite silly/cheesy tourist pictures, we were headed back by bus to the place where we parked our car. After momentary panic and subsequent directions from a grandfatherly policeman conveniently situated steps from where we parked, we found the location of the hostel we had booked the previous day so as to avoid the Florence issue of having no place to stay. We checked into our hostel, ready to sleep as long as possible in order to wake up at 5 am the next morning for the journey to Rome.

Florence

Ok, sorry all, but we're going to go back to March now.  I feel like I really should document this Italy trip a bit, in case someone is remotely interested.

Mom, Annika and I journeyed from Venice to Florence in a lovely little rental car, which ironically (despite our predictions that it'd be 1. manual transmission and 2. a Smart Car or a Pugeot) ended up being a very American Ford Fiesta. The journey across Italy from easterly Venezia to westerly Firenze took about 4 hours and cost SEVENTEEN EUROS on the Italian "Superhighway." Which, in my opinion, (corny joke alert!) is highway robbery. However, the drive was straightforward and I think my mom had a pretty good time navigating the Italian roadway.

We arrived in Florence at about 10:30pm, and finding a hotel room turned out to be much more of a hassle than we expected. After we parked the car in an underground car park, we found ourselves walking around the city with our heavy bags for hours and asking for a room at nearly every hotel we passed (many of which had reception on the 3rd floor and no elevators.) At one point desperation set in, and we decided we weren't even concerned about price and were willing to lay down as much money as was necessary just so long as we found a place we could also lay our bags and bodies down.
We ended up, panting and exhausted at around quarter to three in the morning, at the Hotel Argentina, which lucky for us was still a low budget but also very lovely place near the center of town. 

After settling into the room, Mom and I made hitting the pub our first priority. (It had been a very stressful night!) Luckily there was a little spot called Pub il Trip per Tre right around the corner (thank you exasperated-overnight-hotel-clerk for the tip) that turned out to be kind of an 80's hair metal bar. Which was AWESOME. The bar owner, Guiseppe, came over to the table where Mom and I were enjoying our pints of Guiness and offered us free shots! Why? I DON'T KNOW! But it was great. I was drinking Guiness and a free shot in Florence with my rad mom, surrounded by rough old dudes with scraggly long dyed-black hair and leather jackets, and Guns and Roses "Crazy" was playing on the stereo. I'm hard pressed to think of a better scenario.

Next thing I knew, my alarm clock was greeting me, so after about four hours of sleep I sank into a hot bath at about 7:30 in the morning. The significance of the bathtub is this: when you're traveling on a very very small budget, you usually end up in places that have shared bathrooms (ie:hostels) but since this was a hotel (albeit a very, very affordable one) we had our very own bathroom IN OUR ROOM which we hadn't yet experienced and wouldn't again throughout the trip. Obviously I needed to make use of this!

The day in Florence whizzed by, and we made it a plan to leave the city around 4 pm for the short drive to Pisa and in order to get there before dark. 

We headed first to a flea market in a park along the river Arno (kind of a disappointment save the yummy breakfast of olives and cheese we bought from one of the lone food stalls) then took the city's street car back into the center to see the various lovely churches and cathedrals, including Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, Baptistry of Saint John, Santa Maria Novella and Basilica San Lorenzo. 

Santa Maria Novella

The architecture itself was awe inspiring, but when one takes into account that the buildings are made of gorgeous green and pink marble, one's perception of the majesty of such structures immediately skyrockets. The artistry, the beauty, the luxury of the materials, the perfection in execution... it's simply staggering. Interestingly, the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore was dismantled in the late 1500's and it wasn't until the late 1800's that the current facade was designed and completed.

Santa Maria del Fiore

 

Baptistry of St. John

Baptistry of St. John

Unfortunately having only a few daylight hours in the city made it impossible to see very much, and so, regrettably, we missed the Uffizi Gallery (which houses some of the most important Renaissance art in the world,) Ponte Vecchio (the oldest bridge in Florence) and, very sadly, Michelangelo's David.

Train station

Wearing the driving vest... for safety.

Soon after arriving (far too soon, unfortunately,) we left Florence and were on our way to the next destination; Pisa!

Venice

     The quiet waterways, the calm cobbled streets where above your head someones pastel-hued bed sheets sway gently on a clothesline, the narrow corridors that lead you over tiny bridges and past icons of the Virgin Mary to open unexpectedly into ancient courtyards where no soul lingers, where dusky light sweeps over everything.

     The relentlessly gorgeous agedness of it all, the unforgettable, palpable sense of history and humanity humming along without really considering its own implications.

The impossible city refuses to be anything but deeply beautiful.

Today in Leipzig.

Yet another sunny, 40º+ February day in Leipzig. Elli and I must have walked around for about five hours, from Connewitz almost to Plagwitz, to the Zentrum and back to Connewitz. We even ascended to the 30th floor of MDR building. Here's a little of what we saw today.

Oh hey.

German playgrounds blow American ones out of the water, every time.

Raveland? Yeah I lived there for about six months during my junior year of high school.

From 30 stories up...