Sighting of the elusive freezilius dihydrogen oxide in Italy

Oh glorious day! In more ways than one. Highs near 70. Clear skies, a slight breeze, what else could make this day perfect?

ICE IN MY WATER!!

Oh glorious day.

Jim and I headed out for lunch today and somehow ended up at Piazza Michelangelo. We meant to go to the pizza place near the apartment, but just kept walking. Piazza Michelangelo (which you might remember from an earlier post) has great view of Florence. We just stood and admired the view and I soaked up some warmth. There is a little cafe on one of the terraces and we decided to have lunch there instead.

We were expecting horrendously expensive prices, but they weren’t that bad. My sandwich was 4 euro and Jim’s pasta was 7 euro. They really gouge you with the drinks though. Espresso was 3 euro (you can get it for 0.90 euro at any bar), water was 2.50 euro for 33 cl (330 mL ~ 1.5 cup). But the best part about the water: it came with a glass with three ice cubes. Oh glorious day!

The gelato was also horribly expensive (7 euro - get real!!) so we left and tried some at another stand up on Piazza Michelangelo. Five euros for one small and one medium - not a bad price if it were actually gelato. It was more like ice cream. What’s the difference you ask? Gelato is usually made from whole milk, while ice cream is made with cream. (I had to look it up, don’t worry.)

We had the most AMAZING gelato last weekend. Don’t remember where, might be able to find it again, might not. I had mango flavored gelato. (For those of you who don’t know, I ADORE mangoes.) Eating that gelato was like eating a fresh mango, but without the strings getting stuck in your teeth. Heavenly.

That is the same day that it snowed in Florence. Yup, you read that right. It snowed. I almost cried.

That’s all for now. It a double bonus today! Two posts for one. Working on more posts - with pictures!

Nurseries make me homesick…

And NO, not the kind that you are thinking of!

We went to Lucca yesterday, a small town northeast of Pisa. It was a 1.5 hour train ride to get there. The weather was GORGEOUS, highs in the upper sixties and not a cloud in the sky. Quite a difference from every other train ride we have taken so far!

On the train ride down, we passed plant nursery after plant nursery. (See I told you it wasn’t that kind of nursery!) There were rows of plants outside, just waiting. While we were in Lucca, there was a plant fair going on. Thankfully you had to pay an entry fee, so we walked along outside. If it had been free, I would have somehow convinced myself that our tiny, basically windowless little apartment could support a few spring plants!

The trees are starting to bud out and flower and the early plants like irises and the azaleas are in full bloom right now. The weather is doing that weird spring thing that the forecasters hate. One day 65F feels warm, the next day cold. It could rain or it could snow and no one would be surprised.

About this time in MI, I start getting itchy palms, wondering if spring is ever going to show up. I start visiting Home Depot and Van Atta’s, just looking at the flowers, wondering, wondering, wondering if I can put a few out now or do I do the smart thing and wait some more. I’m usually already outside everyday for a few minutes, walking around the yard, checking out the damage that winter (and the deer) have wrought on the yard. Have the crocuses starting peeking out of the ground yet?

I didn’t pull the gladioli bulbs this year. Because we would be gone, they wouldn’t get back in the ground come spring. However they are in a bed under the air vent of the hot water heater. Hopefully this kept the ground just warm enough for them to survive. It would be nice to come back in late June to a flower bed full of plants, getting ready to bloom!

Ah well, less than 90 days until my flight back. Not that I’m counting, really. I’ve just had to wait until less than 90 days before my flight to pick my seats on the airplane. Northwest (crappy airline that it is) has been keeping a running total for me!

Buses in Florence

Remember all my stories about the buses? Well, I got some more. The Friday before Easter I was heading into the lab and the bus all of sudden slowed down. We all look up and what do we see out the window but this:

I actually walked back after getting off the bus to take this picture. There were ATAF people all around, waiting for the tow truck or whatever you need to get buses out of ditches. I bet I even know what driver had this little accident. There is one who likes to aim for all of the potholes on this road, honestly.

Riding the bus into the lab today, a similar thing happened. All of sudden, we slowed down and had to move over a lane. Apparently, one of the buses sideswiped a car and took the side mirrors off the car. The two drivers were on the side of the road, waiting for the police or insurance people I guess. No picture of that, I had the camera but couldn’t get it out in time.

Then, when we got onto the campus in Sesto Fiorentino, I’m watching out the window, trying to memorize some vocabulary words when we pass a guy on a horse. I guess he got tired of riding the bus. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried people.

The Canada of Italy, Part II

So a quick note before returning to San Gimignano - It rained all day yesterday. The rain let up in the afternoon so I went for a walk. The apartment is small and I had a little bit of cabin fever. I was expecting it to be quiet and no one around, it being Easter and all. I couldn’t believe how many people were out! And in the city center, about 60% of the shops were open. It was a change from Okemos. Today is a holiday in Italy - Easter Monday - but I have a feeling that all of the shops are going to be open and it’ll be business as usual where we are.

OK - back to the pictures!

After we came down off the fortress, we “wandered” around the city streets for a bit. OK, OK. I was lost and couldn’t figure out where we were. But that’s OK. We saw some fun stuff.

One of the thing that I noticed about San Gimignano was that the sidewalks were clean! We saw people walking dogs, but there weren’t the landmines that we always see in Florence. I figured out why:

There were boxes all over the city with bags to remind people to clean up their dogs’ crap. Definitely a plus for San Gimignano.

This was another exciting sight that we wanted to see:

I’ll let you decide which one we were going to go and look for. (Hint - it’s the only one in English.) We head to the left down a street that is definitely not one that caters to the casual tourist. We must have walked for a kilometer when we got to the city walls. Not only did we not find WineLand, but I don’t think that we saw ANY of the things listed on the sign. This shouldn’t have surprised us though. The green sign at the bottom translates as “All Directions”. I just don’t get it.

Our luck with wine was not very good on this trip. We were also interested in this one:

The Vernaccia Museum!! (Sign on the bottom.) Vernaccia is a grape that is grown in the San Gimignano region. (Jim tells me that it is the second most widely planted wine grape planted in Tuscany.) It makes a great white wine. We had sampled a couple of bottles before visiting San Gimignano. The sign is so cool! It has grapes in a little temple and everything. This is going to be great!!

Signs in San Gimignano suck. They led us back up to the area with the fortress. We kept walking, and then saw another sign for the museum, pointing us back in the direction in which we came. This happened three times total. A very nice guy with wild, curly hair pointed us in the general direction too. No luck. We gave up and decided to get some lunch.

Just a note here - The only map I had at this point was the one in the tour book. Half of the streets didn’t have names on that map. Not that it really mattered, because the only street names that we posted were for streets that didn’t have names on the map. If a name was given on the map, I couldn’t find it anywhere in real life. As I said, San Gimignano is the Canada of Italy.

We ate lunch outside in the northern part of town, outside of the Church of San Agostino. Very quiet, good pizza. I just took the time to biosynthesize some Vitamin D:

Jim took the chance to ruin my photo: (Enhance he says. )

He he.

You’ve heard me talk about construction here in Italy. Lots of scaffolding goes up, but as far as we can see, work only gets done maybe one day a month. Well, while in San Gimignano, we actually saw some people working.

I know, this is a bad photo, but the woman (blob in black on right) moved before I could take the picture. She was just as amazed as I was. She watched the people on the left working for about ten minutes. This next guy got up close to see what was going on:

** WARNING ** This part has nothing to do with San Gimignano. The building next door to our apartment is being renovated. We’ll see them doing stuff every once in awhile, but for the most part, I think they use the area where they store the bricks for their personal parking spot. Not on the Saturday before Easter. At 7:30AM on Saturday, they started jack hammering. We finally left the apartment to get away from the noise around 10AM and get some grocery shopping done. We came back to the apartment at about 10:30AM and they were done. Why us? ** BACK TO SAN GIMIGNANO **

The streets up in this part of the city were much less touristy. We sat during lunch and watched the people going about their lives:

After lunch, we were heading back down to the bus stop and came across this:

Another sign for the Museum! Before starting the chase, we decided to visit the Duomo or San Gimignano and get the free map from the tourism center. No photos allowed in the cathedral/duomo, but it was over the top. Every inch of the walls were covered with gaudy and not very good frescos.

Refreshed and armed with our visit to the tourism center, we set off for the Wine Museum. And found it.

It was closed. Not just for the day, but closed for good. We had a good laugh/cry. After than disappointment, we decided to get the heck out of town. We bought some Vernaccia (the wine, not the grapes) from a local wine shop. The proprietor only spoke Italian but we understood most of what he was telling us.

So my verdict? Cute town, lots of touristy stuff, worth the price of a bus ticket in March but I don’t think I would want to go when there are more people there. We learned a few life lessons while there - if a sight doesn’t have the entry price listed on the door and you have to go in to find out the cost, it’s going to be expensive and probably not worth it. The other lesson? The bus doesn’t pick you up where it lets you off. (Just so you know if you are every going to visit, the bus stop is over to the left as you are facing the city walls. There is a bus shelter there.)

Last Tuesday (18th of March) we went to Ferrara to visit Jim’s collaborator and set stuff up for him to visit in May. I’ll be posting photos soon!

Buona Pasqua!!

Happy Easter all! The church bells have been ringing on and off all day here. It is crappy, rainy, cold, grey day here. I guess they didn’t get the memo that Easter Sunday is supposed to be a nice, warm, sunny day. So we are stuck inside today, Jim working on a paper, and I am getting caught up on a million and six things that I’ve been putting off.

So, to stave off the cold grey day, how’s about some pictures from a nicer, sunnier day when we went sightseeing? San Gimignano is one of the Tuscan hill towns. It dates from the 13th century or so. Very rustic and pretty, but the guide book that I like, Rick Steves’ Florence and Tuscay, doesn’t have very nice things to say about the authenticity of the town. It does seem to be a popular tourist destination, which is one reason why we decided to go during early March.

San Gimignano is only about 25 miles from Florence, but it takes a 1.5 hour bus trip to get there. Part of the reason is that it took 25 minutes to get out of Florence. The bus leaves from just outside the city center. It has to wind its way through the little narrow streets and narrowly miss pedestrians, cars and motorcycles that are wildly whipping in and out of the traffic. Kind of hair raising.

You have to change buses in Poggibonsi. The bus terminal is at the end of a cul-de-sac with NOTHING around it. There isn’t a sign or an announcement, you just kind of have to know that this is where you get off. (Don’t worry - pictures are coming soon.) I’m kind of a nervous traveller; just ask Jim. I get worried and will check and recheck my tickets a six times in about ten minutes. If it isn’t well marked, I will fret and worry if this is the right place. This was one of those times. (If you are thinking of doing this trip - the correct stop is at the bottom of a big loop. There is a building with a clock on it (the bus/train station). If you are there during high tourist season, just follow everyone else. We kind of did that. We shared the bus with a bunch of German students.) We had to wait around for about 25 minutes until the next bus came to take us to San Gimignano. Thankfully the bus had a sign on it. Much less nervous at this point.

San Gimignano is in the region of Chianti, the famous Italian wine region. I was expecting to drive through rows and rows of grape vines; something like Napa. It was nothing like that though. I think we saw only two or three vineyards. It was very pretty and scenic. But the bus was full of German students on a tour and so I didn’t whip out the camera and start taking pictures. (Remember the whole dork thing.)

But the scenes from the bus stop were very pretty. You can even see some vineyards!

Of course, I had to get some pictures with Jim. A LONG time ago, I took a photography class. A few things have stuck with me and so sometimes I take a long time when composing pictures. This is Jim waiting for me to “Hurry up and take the damn picture”:

I didn’t really like this photo, so I took another one and told him to act like he had a glass of wine:

I like this photo better. Jim took some pictures of me too, but I look stupid and because this is my blog, I’m not going to post them. So there.

We did some picture swapping with another couple:

Look at those blue skies! It was warm enough that I could actually take off my jacket too. WOO HOO!!

So enough of scenery. Boring. The old part of San Gimignano is surrounded by walls:

Obviously not used for defense anymore. The tourists don’t usually bring catapults and ladders. You can kind of get an idea of the height of the walls. The little red dots is the shirt of someone standing about 4 ft from the walls - 20 ft tall or so.

Everything was OK up until this point. However we walked into the old city and all of a sudden, I was in Canada again. I am pretty good with maps and directions. I don’t get lost that often, except in Canada. I can’t find my way around Canada to save my life. I just hand the map over to Jim and enjoy the ride. San Gimignano was almost like that. I couldn’t read the map for about 2 hours. I got us so lost and turned around. I’m surprised that we didn’t end up in Siena with all of the “walking tours” that I took us on.

When you first walk into the city through the old gate (not shown in the picture above, but it is about 1 inch to the right), you see the towers of San Gimignano.

The towers are not part of the city walls. (Which was news to me.) They are in the *middle* of town. Apparently, the towers came first and then the walls. Each of the towers belonged to a different family. Before the walls were built around the city, they were used for protection from marauding armies and brigands. Once the walls were built, they were used when the families started warring on each other.

There are 14 towers left in San Gimignano. There used to be 60 or so. But the plague (plaque? I guess they are both diseases, but only one will kill you.) in the 1340’s wiped out 2/3’s of the population and Florence moved in and took over. They forced the families to tear down most of the walls, just to show that they could.

This was my favorite tower:

If you look at the walls, you can see where the old roofline of the buildings next to it used to be. (Remember that whole dork thing?)

In the first instance of us “walking around”, i.e., Vanessa getting us lost, we walked to the highest point in the town, Rocca di Montestaffoli, an old fortress with a commanding view of the countryside. I guess this was so you could see the armies sneaking up on you. From this point, you could see the towers.

I had a picture of the both of us, taken on the timer, but I looked stupid so I’m not posting them. (Plus Jim thought they were silly.) From here, you could see some of the old walls too.

Jim was excited because you could see some grapes in the distance:

OK, you’ll just have to take our word for it. There were some vineyards out there! But see what I mean about the comparison between Napa and Chianti? You really have to look hard to see the vineyards here.

That’s enough for one day. Tomorrow I’ll post the rest of the pictures from SG. I also have some stuff from Ferrara, and random photos from around Florence. I’d say it’s about a week worth of posts!