May 31, 2006 - June 6, 2006
Wednesday was rather uneventful. Dave showed up in Florence in the afternoon. I had class so I met Dave at the bus stop from the airport. From there we walked back to the Stanford Center and dropped off some of his luggage. We then had to scramble to find a hostel for him for that night. Once we had the hostel we went there to drop off the rest of his luggage and check in. We then headed back for the center of the city to have dinner. We had a good dinner at a pizza place called "Yellow", and then walked around until we called it a night.
Thursday morning we got up and went to the Stanford Center to try and decide what we were going to do that day. We had been planning on doing Pisa and Lucca but it was raining and we weren't sure if that would be the best idea. We considered doing museums due to the rain. However, early in the afternoon the rain stopped and we decided to chance it and head to Pisa. It turned out to be a good decision and the rain did not come back that day. We were able to head over to see the "Leaning Tower" and take the classic photo. I was not going to do it, but Dave twisted my arm and I relented.
We spent an hour or two in Pisa and then decided to head to Lucca to see the city walls. We hopped on a train and took the 20 minute ride over to Lucca. There was a little confusion with the train because the board said that it was on track "1 tr. ov.". Of course not knowing what the abbreviation meant, we headed to track 1. However, there were two track 1's. The normal track 1 and the "Tronco Ovest" track 1. Apparently the station has a track that only runs a part of the length of the station and is truncated, which also is track 1. Luckily a nice Italian pointed us in the right direction and we hopped on without mishap.
We got to Lucca late in the afternoon and decided to walk around the walls for a bit and then have dinner in Lucca. The city walls are amazing. They're very wide and very pretty. Lots of people were going for an evening run while we were there. After we checked out the walls we headed into town and had dinner at a small place on a large piazza. Dave and I both had rather good calzone's.
We had the brilliant idea of attempting a trip to Chianti on Friday and trying to visit a vineyard/winery. Unfortunately, this did not turn out as expected. Friday was a national holiday and so just about everything was closed. However, this did not deter us. We still hopped on a train and headed for the only station that had "Chianti" in it's name. This "station" was in a small town in the middle of nowhere. We figured that it must be a wine town so we got off the train and started looking for a winery. Well there were two problems: 1) Everything was closed and 2) This wasn't actually the town that we wanted to be in. The actual town "Castellina" was 12km away up a hill. We decided at this point to cut our losses and head back to Florence.
Saturday morning we woke up early and hopped on a train for Cinque Terre. We went with a few other people and in total we had a group of 6. The first day we checked into out hostel and then decided to do the hike between all 5 of the cities. It took us about 5 or so hours to walk from the first city (Riomaggiore) to the last city (Monterosso al Mare). I didn't think the hike was too difficult. It was tiring at times climbing the stairs, but still quite enjoyable and there were some amazing views of the cities and the ocean. We hiked all the way from the first city to the last, and then everyone decided that they'd rather take the train back than hike. So we jumped on the train and went back to the 4th city, Vernazza. Unfortunately, there wasn't any place to eat at all of the restaurants so we had to wait about 45 minutes for a spot to open up. After we ate we jumped back on the tain to Riomaggiore.
The next day everyone didn't really feel like hiking. They all wanted to head to the beach. Mr. David and I however, wanted to do a little more exploration. We all took a train to Monterosso to begin (which seemed to be the largest city). First we all grabbed some Focaccia for lunch, which was really good. Apparently Focaccia is one of the specialties of that region. There we split up and Dave and I took a look around the city. We were able to go into the Skull Church at this point and I got some pictures. The church is badly in need of restoration so I donated a little bit of money to aid in the effort. After Dave and I had finished exploring we sat down on a bench with some 'granita' (Sicilian slushee) and enjoyed the day. We had originally planned to eat dinner there, but after seeing how touristy, busy and expensive most of the places were, we decided to head back to Florence for dinner.
Monday Dave was pretty much on his own. I had class for the majority of the day and so Dave went about exploring the city on his own. After I finished class, however, Dave and I met up again so that he could come over to my host family's house for dinner. Dave then got to meet my host mother, Antonella, and my host brother Niccolò. After Niccolò met Dave the first thing he mentioned was that he looked like Gesù. They then proceeded to explain how it was most definitely a compliment. I guess Dave just can't get away from that, especially not in Italy.
Dave in Florence on Monday and Tuesday
On Tuesday we decided to go to the Museums of Florence. We started out by heading to the Uffizi, since that seemed to be the most important thing to go see. So we headed to the Uffizi. There was quite a long line, but luckily paying Stanford tuition has its perks. All of us Stanford students have special cards designating us as "Amici degli Uffizi". Dave had borrowed one from another student, and thus we were able to completely bypass the line. After our spectacular entrance, we spent about two hours wandering around the Uffizi. There are some nifty things there, but I'd have to say that my favorite is Botticelli's Primavera. It's kinda funny since a print of it has been hanging above my bed all quarter in my host family's apartment. Maybe that's why I like it, maybe not.
After the Uffizi we decided to head to the Academia. Mr. David decided that he couldn't leave Florence without seeing "Il Davide". I contended that seeing the copy in Piazza Signoria is just as good, if not better, than seeing the original since that is where the statue was supposed to stand. Dave wasn't having any of that, so we headed up toward the Academia. Again we relied on our nifty little cards to bypass the line, however, this time there was a hitch. The lady selling the tickets (different from the guy in charge of the line) didn't buy that Dave was who he claimed to be. Dave's first reaction was to respond in broken English, claiming that he didn't understand. The lady then threatened to call the police, so we quickly paid for the ticket and went in. At least we got the skip the line, eh?
So we quickly went through the Academia and checked out Michaelangelo's slaves and The David. We also stopped to look at the nifty digital David, furnished by the Stanford Graphics Lab. Unfortunately, there isn't much else in the Academia so our visit ended rather quickly. We then decided to go hunting for a leather wallet for Dave. I won't tell that story here, but you can ask Dave or myself. I'm sure you'll get two very different versions. :-)
Dave in Florence on Monday and Tuesday