On Saturday we made our way to Pisa after a two and a half hour drive at 7:00 in the morning. Yes, quite early. Thankfully I was able to sleep on the bus, so it wasn't a very painful trip. I guess the scenery wasn't so bad, either. Ha! Kidding! Breathtaking as usual. The mountains are amazing; and on the way back from Pisa, there was a gorgeous rainbow stretching out across the sky and over the top of the peaks and valleys. The rainbow was greeted with squeals of delight [as all of our company was female,] and many clicks and shutterings of lenses documenting the large expanding arch. I broke out my tiny point-n-shoot as well, and took a few frames of the sight.
When we arrived in Pisa, we left the buses and trooped to the nearest washroom, disgruntled to find there was an entrance fee for the toilets. Rude! Obviously not very pleased with this discovery, but with nothing else to do we payed the fee anyway and and soon there after took another shuttle bus to actually get to the sight we were meant to see. On the shuttle, I notice that the city of Pisa was surprisingly industrial looking and bit more unpleasant than many of the other cities we have visited. It was also quite dirty. However, it seems that the filthier the city, the better the graffiti. So I was cool with that, yo.
Once at the piazza in which the cathedral, baptistry, and the [leaning] bell tower were located, we stopped for a quick history lesson with our Renaissance professor and then headed inside the cathedral where we perused around for a quick ten minutes before whisking off to the baptistry. Inside of the cathedral was gorgeous, and it was really cool to see the pulpit of the cathedral because it is a very important and monumental work of art in the history of the Renaissance, and I had just read about the structure in our history book, so it was awesome to be able to view the pulpit in person. The pulpit is sculpted marble and has the most intricate designs engraved in the precious stone, and the stories behind the artwork and its master are fascinating to an art major, but I won't bore with the specifics. You're very welcome.
The baptistry is small circular structure, but also just as beautiful as the large cathedral. When stepping inside of the building it was loud with conversation, but soon a sharp "sshhh" went through the air, and instantly all was still. The sudden silence was a bit of a shock, and to make it even more alarming, a security guard rose to the top of the altar area. Wondering what was happening, my inquiry was immediately answered by the soft tickle of melodic tones floating through the space and out of the mouth of...guess who? The security guard! He sang aloud to the ceiling, and his song was echoed back to him and all of the audience. It was such a majestic sight and sound combination that it actually made goosebumps rise along the back of my neck and sent chills down my spine. It lasted only around a minute or two, but after he was done, an polite applause rippled through the crowd and then all proceeded to exit the baptistry. I think that was my favorite part of the whole trip, and I probably could have gone back home to Cortona without ever seeing the leaning tower up close, leaving completely satisfied because of that quick, intimate moment.
When gathering back up as a group after the baptistry, all the students discussed the scene with enthusiasm. Gwen and I were agreeing with one another about how much we enjoyed the performance, and were interrupted by one of the Canadian students in our group, who was obviously confused by the whole scene, as she asked, "Where was the guy singing back to him? Was he at the top of the tower?" Gwen and I just started laughing really hard and I just gave her sympathetic eyes as I said, "Oh, Canada." Gwen and I shared another burst of hysterics after my comment. Tee-hee!
Arriving at the famous Tower of Pisa, we gathered ourselves neatly into a group so we could listen to a quick lecture on the history of the tower, presented by a few of our classmates. Each student must give a presentation on the history of some famous work of art at some point during the semester, and my group is scheduled to present in about two weeks. I'm not sure what we must research yet, but I'll inform as to when and what I must review, and whether my group does successfully or not. Anyway, the presentation went well, and we discovered that the tower has actually been leaning since it was first built, due to an unsteady foundation of sand, silt, and some other soft ground material. Thankfully, a third attempt to stabilize the tower was successful after two obvious failures, and the tower should - hopefully - be stable and standing for another 200 years. Hooray!
Afterwards, Anna, Elise, Gwen, Olivia, Tracey, and I, all chose poses to interact with the tower so we could take typical touristy Tower of Pisa pictures. I chose to pretend to be making the tower lean by blowing a kiss to the tower. So cute! We then went to the nearest gelato cafe and at 10:30 in the morning, proceeded to buy cups of espresso along with cones of ice cream. It was so exciting to finally have some gelato after a long withdrawl period, as the ONLY gelato cafe in Cortona is currently closed and won't be open for another two weeks! Gasp! How are we to survive?! Good question. So this was an extra special treat to be able to splurge on gelato, even if it was before noon.
We left Pisa before lunchtime and proceeded to make our way to a small town, Lucca, since it was on the way to our journey back to Cortona. Strolling the streets of Lucca was pleasant and rewarding; I finally found a black purse to replace my broken black Fossil bag, and the purse was on sale! Score. It's really cute and matches my red coat - perfect! We spent much time in Lucca, and found another gelato caffe that was fancy on the inside and out, and had even more fancy treats to enjoy. Anna and Olivia shared a huge bowl of hazelnut gelato that was swimming in the middle of melted molten chocolate, Tracey enjoyed a small glass of chocolate ginsinc, and I devoured an elegant concoction of gelato swimming in pools of espresso. It was soooo delicious! My two favorites - gelato and coffee. Perfect. My second gelato of the day! Can it possibly get any sweeter?
The trip home was enjoyable as Tracey and I shared a seat and a long conversation that lasted most of the trip. I really enjoy Tracey's company, and I am really excited that I was able to finally get to know her after a long time of just knowing her name and face at U of I. Once arriving in Cortona, I had a pleasant skype with my Mom as well as Josh, and then headed out into the night with all the girls. We had a really great time, as usual.
Today was full of paper making and wood press cutting. Olivia and I decided to collaborate and made our own flower petal cotton pulp into multiple sheets of different sized and shaped paper. We had a great time making the pulp together, and the paper turned out beautifully. Hopefully the sheets should be dry by sometime tomorrow. Next time we plan on making cotton pulp with moss. So excited!! We cleaned the studio afterwards and had a great conversation - that always seems to be a constant with me and Olivia. She is such a happy and honest person, and I'm really glad that I was able to make another U of I friend that I didn't know well, and turned it into a great friendship.
So schweepy! Time for bed. Tomorrow, Cortona is holding a festival for some sort of local holiday, and I think that we all plan on going down the mountain and into town to see what kind of celebration is happening. Will keep informed! Good night, ya'll :o)
0 comments:
Post a Comment