Our Trip Blog

The Events of Friday, March 25, 2011

                The early morning sunlight shone through my golden curtain and made the room looked like it was on fire. I turned and noticed that Lindsey was also awake. We stayed in our beds for a while, drinking in the morning. Eventually, Mom officially woke us up and set us on the path of our day. Lindsey started showering while everybody else made their beds and had their quiet times. All the girls circled through the shower before we were called to breakfast. After a breakfast of European cereal, we packed lunch, grabbed our jackets and headed out the door.

                The remainder of the morning was spent driving to Pisa, navigating through the streets, catching glimpses of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We found a spot in a free parking lot and, leaving our lunch behind, headed to the Field of Miracles, home of the Leaning Tower, the Duomo (or cathedral) and the Baptistery. First we decided to visit the Duomo. While the usual admission costs two Euros per person, we noticed people just walking in, so we walked in just behind them. We found the inside packed and some sort of procession or parade happening. There were loud drums, colorful flags and tons of people pointing up at something and dressed like they were living in medieval times. Soon the procession left the building, but we continued to tour around the cathedral until we had seen the entire interior. We especially loved the elaborate Judgment Day fresco and the pulpit covered with intricately carved stone illustrating stories of Jesus’ life.

                Leaving the cathedral, we admired the huge bronze doors made by Bonnano Pisano which displays 24 different scenes from the life of Jesus. We enjoyed a bit of detective work as we tried to discern what Biblical story was being depicted. We then decided it was time for lunch and sent Dad and Lindsey back to the car to get the cooler while the rest of us first went to the information center and then to find a place to sit on the nice green grass. At the information center we were greeted by a cheerful, “Happy New Year”. In answer to our confused looks, the attendant explained. It turned out that the celebration in the church was all about celebrating the new year, welcoming in 2012. He gave us a piece of paper about the celebration and explained it to us as best as he could. It turned out that the celebration was for the Pisa New Year. The paper explained that, “In the Roman Empire times, the year started on the first of May…After the fall of Rome, many Italian cities drew up different units of weights and measures… and each city created its own calendar, often returning to coincide with the start of an event or Spring Feast. Pisa decided to correspond their New Year with the Annunciation of Christ:  nine months before the 25^th of December.” Eventually, upon the unification of Italy, the Pisans had to follow the regular calendar, but they still celebrate March 25^th with a holiday. It turns out that we had walked in just at noon, when a ray of sunlight penetrated a round window of the Duomo and hit a marble egg high on a column, thus explaining why everyone was pointing. The attendant also tried to answer Mom’s question:  “What were those boards with things sticking out of them that dressed up people were carrying in addition to carrying helmets?” He explained that the boards were not for feet, they were handles. During festivals in June, the Pisans play many medieval games. One of these games happens on a bridge in the middle of the city. On team, from one part of the city, is on one side of the bridge, the other, representing another part of the city, is on the other side. They attach these boards to a cart, pushing the cart across the bridge against the other team, and whoever gets their cart across the bridge first wins. It is sort of like a reverse game of tug-of-war. It seems that once again we had stumbled upon an interesting adventure.

                Filled with this knowledge we found a nice place on the grass with some sun and some shade, so that we could choose whether we would enjoy our lunch in shade or sun. Soon Daddy and Lindsey arrived with the cooler, but we decided to move somewhere else where it was not so blustery. We ended up on the steps of the back side of the church facing the Tower of Pisa. After a delicious lunch, we took pictures of the Leaning Tower, us with the Leaning Tower, us holding up the Leaning Tower and so on and so on. When we had finally taken all the pictures our cameras could handle, we headed back to the car. After loading up, we drove to a little town called Fiesole. On the way, we stopped to buy some much needed groceries. This process, still slowed by our poor knowledge of Italian, took over an hour. When we drove away, the car was filled with pasta, milk, bread, and other groceries in addition to the delicious aroma of strawberries.

                Soon we were speeding towards Fiesole. In this little town, just outside Florence, there was a terrace which supposedly provides beautiful views of Florence and the sunset. After driving through Florence and along some crazy sharp climbing switchbacks, we reached the terrace just around sunset, parked our car and hiked up a steep hill. The view was breathtaking and the sunset was, as our guide book had said, beautiful despite some rain clouds. We took some pictures and then went back down the hill before driving home. When we reached home, we took care of the groceries. Then the dinner preparations began, making curly cue pasta with pickled vegetables, a salad that Ben was very proud of (he said he would remember it for the rest of his life) and fresh baguettes with salted margarine (when we first came, the only butter we had was butter without salt and I found it bland and flavorless.) During this whole process, there was an ongoing phone text communication with our landlady because the heat was not working. Daddy had tried calling but could not make himself understood due to the poor connection and the language barrier. She sent an electrician and after dinner we found the heat working again, much to Mommy’s delight (she had been trying to dry our laundry since there are no clothes dryers in Italy). We spent the night doing laundry and getting ready for bed. When it was finally time to go to bed, I fell asleep in my very warm and comfortable beds in our heated apartment in the suburbs of Florence.