26

I woke up at 6:10 am, got a shower, got dressed, made a caffè, grabbed a water, got the itinerary, and skipped off to Piazza Indipendenza to meet the class at the bus. We rolled out at 7:15 and made our way toward Pisa. I dozed off a few times, read the historical introductions that Helen provided us with, and with only an hour of driving, we arrived. The bus parked about 10 minutes away from the Cathedral so we all walked.

We arrived to the Piazza dei Miracoli which includes the Cathedral, Baptistery, Campanile, Camposanto and the Museo dell'Opera del duomo.



1. Cathedral: The cathedral was amazingly immense. It's monumentality reflects its the glory of the maritime republic of Pisa, with the largest Romanesque monument in Tuscany. Inside the Cathedral is the pulpit of Giovanni Pisano. When Helen had gone over this in class, I was in awe of the craftsmanship and spectacular detail of the pulpit. Giovanni carved figures out of marble in almost complete round, leaving much depth and dramatic scenes in every angle. Giovanni was the pupil of his father Nicola and this piece, he declared, set him above his father and was his true masterpiece. Because his father had broken ground with his portrayal of a nude male, Giovanni created and successfully revealed a nude female within a church.

2. Baptistery: The baptistery was very nice. The acoustical sound within it was incredible. A woman sang and the echo of his voice carried for a few seconds after she finished. Therefore, every note was overlapped and expanded which created a beautiful combination of sounds. Also, within the baptistery was Nicola's pulpit. This pulpit was created in 1260 and Giovanni, his son helped with some of the parts. Nicola's pulpit was also the first to ever use a male nude. The baptistery is also interesting in that from the outside it has a dome shape, but on the inside there is a cone within the dome.

3. The Campanile: or better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The first three stories that were completed had caused the soil to sink, leaving the tower angled. The next architect, who added the remaining floors, counterbalanced the tower, yet left the original lean. Therefore, the tower actually has a bent look to it because the top of the tower is actually perpendicular to the ground. It cost 15 euro to climb the tower, which I immediately paid. The climb was nice, it was difficult and fun because you could feel the lean. Once on top, the view was breathtaking. You could see for miles in every direction.

4. The Camposanto: the camposanto is a gothic cemetary which has a large collection of sarcophagi, which inspried Nicola Pisano. The camposanto was bomed accidentally causing a fire that melted steel on many of the frescos. Some were restored though, and were magnificent in scale and detail.

5. The Museo dell'Opera del Dumo: The museo included a lot of art from the cathedral and other buildings and allows people to view them. It also includes models of the different buildlings which allows you to view all the intricacies of each.

After lunch, we traveled to the second stop of the day: Lucca. The walk to get in began by going through the old wall that used to contain the city. Helen told us that you can walk, run, or bike on top of the wall, which is probably 30 feet tall, and that there have been cases of severe injury and death from people not paying attention while up there. I didn't go up there.



Lucca is a very beautiful city and contains many cathedrals and monuments. One that stands out to me is the tom of Saint Zia (a local saint who lived in the middle ages). It is located in S. Frediano. The story goes that she was trying to sneak bread to beggars under her apron. When stopped by authorities that demanded she reveal what she was carrying, she told them flowers. When she opened her apron, flowers spilled out in place of the bread that she was carrying.

I also tried a local doughnut type creation popular in Lucca called Frati. We checked out a lot of different places such as: the Gothic Cathedral, S. Giovanni and Reparata (which has floors from the 1st century, early christian, medieval, and gothic periods). S. Michele, and finally concluded it all with local St. Zita cake (vegetable cake: it looks as if its topped with spinach and beans, but truly and honestly tasted very good).

We left Lucca at 7:30 and finally stopped at San Marco at 8:30 pm. I walked home, exhausted. When I arrived home, a second wind hit me and I felt inspired to try and make Alfredo sauce from scratch. With dinner, I had pineapple and a glass of water.



After dinner, I checked emails and relaxed for a while. Although my nose was running all day, my throat felt a lot better. I took some nyquil and went to bed.