Just a walk through the neighborhood

My Fitbit said we had already trekked about 100,000 steps in Florence, we puttered around this morning.  But by afternoon, the urge hit to take a walk through our neighborhood of Oltrarno. We followed a loop recommended by Rick Steeves, just enjoying the scenery and gelato. Here are a few pics:

I came, I saw, I stopped

Graffiti art

Well-appreciated view

Hotel bicycles

Old terra-cotta doorway figures

The gelato dilemma: So many choices

Cecile's gelato del giorno

Have phone, will text

Living high

Clay art in front of a shoe store

Galileo and the bird of superior wisdom

I was one of those weird science-class geeks in junior high school.  You know, the guy with messy hair, half-untucked shirt and a hand that flies up every time the science teacher asks a question about the Periodic Table.

Galileo

Monday, however, I started to wonder if I had actually snoozed through all my science classes and three seasons of the Discovery Channel. It just took a trip to the Galileo Museum.

You remember Galileo -- the guy who invented the telescope, figured out the Earth orbits the Sun (not vice versa) and got into trouble with the Church for saying so.

That was good enough for a place in history, but it is as incomplete as saying Edison invented the light bulb.  Galileo Galilie was a knowledge engine of epic proportions who explained everything from the structure of the solar system to the characteristics of mass to why tides go in and out.

The Museo Galileo (also called The History of Science Museum) has been in Florence since 1927, but the various collections of scientific artifacts have been in town since Cosimo Medici began picking up gadgets in the late 1300s.

Galileo's models

What sets these early science fair exhibits apart from modern museums is that Galileo and his peers had to explain basic science to a doubting public.  Not just explain, but demonstrate in obvious, slap-up-the-side of the head specifics.

So Galileo spent much of his 77 years designing models that showed how the world works in simple terms. "Models" is a poor descriptive. These are beautiful pieces of art that could earn their own places in sculpture museums.

Galileo's final commentary

With polished pieces of wood, he redefined our understanding of nature. With a hollow wooden tube and two pieces of glass, he redefined our understanding of the cosmos. But consider this: Galileo's telescope was about 30x power -- the same as many binoculars.  With it, though, he saw the craters of the moon, counted the moons of Jupiter and found Saturn had rings. Either the crisp night air was much clearer in 17th century Florence or the man had the eyes of an eagle.

One thing my 8th grade science teacher did tell me was that Galileo was not very popular with the powers that be. The Inquisition threatened him with torture if he insisted that the Earth moves around the sun. He gave in and recanted. Popular legend, however, says that has he left the courtroom he turned and said "And yet it moves."

Maybe. That would seem to be a quick passport to the rack. But he did get in the last word -- or at least the last gesture. When he died, has acolytes cut off his middle finger and preserved it. Today it sits prominently in a glass case, surrounded by his persuasive models, flipping off the doubters of his world and ours.

Under the Tuscan Sunday

Today we did what one is supposed to do on a Tuscan Sunday. We rested.

It undoubtedly had something to do with jet lag and the near absence of sleep for two days as we traveled. But it felt like a glorious celebration of vacation.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

We rose near noon, had crusty bread, salami and eggs for breakfast. We puttered with the clothes and travel gear we had hastily put away the day before, then went for a leisurely stroll through Oltrano -- the area of Florence "beyond the river Arno." At one time it was the equivalent to the other side of the tracks, but it has never been the same since the Medici built their palace across the bridge from central Florence.

A tether ring

Our apartment is here, behind a set of great wooden doors flush with the curb. I get a guilty thrill when I unlock the door to a building that other tourists are admiring. But more of that later.  This afternoon was a walk through the many streets, dodging motor scooters and taking in as much of the atmosphere as the brain allows.

Our door

There were many small but delightful finds, such as a marble plaque memorializing Elizabeth Barret Browning or the tether rings set into the stone walls.  Each of these has its own face -- the work not of a sculptor, but of a blacksmith. Functional art for a function that no longer exists.

We walked by the Medici's Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, but decided to wait until we have an entire day to enjoy them. Which way? To the Ponte Roma (the gate in the old city wall that led to Rome), of course. But that decision called for gelato (following a more substantial pizza and a corneto sandwich).

The perspective mastery of Masaccio

Nearby was the Basilica di Santa Maria del Carmine. This is the launching point for 3-D (my current academic focus). Masaccio completed a series of frescos in the 1420s that astounded the art critics of the day. Initially he painted a large scene (top) that was the first known use of realistic shadows in natural perspective. The lighting in the painting was as if it came from the large window over the altar.

He kept improving on his new form. Shadows and size in the lower fresco fooled the eye into thinking the faces and limbs of the saints actually stood out from the wall. It was dark and hard to photograph, but I want to learn more about this young artist and his colleagues who adorned the chapel. Smart History has an excellent video explaining the significance of Masaccio.

Finally, to home -- by way of the Conad Supermarket.  About the size of a 7-11, but super by urban standards. We are enjoying the ability to explore local foods in our own kitchen.  When we finally made it home, Cecile made a feast of fresh tagliolini pasta with bolgnese sauce and lots of extra mushrooms.  With a side of crusty bread, of course.

Ponte Vecchio

We walked off our meal with an even more leisurely stroll down to the Ponte alle Grazie, the nearest bridge over the Arno to us. A pocket park next to the bridge has a fascinating modern scupture of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence.  We watched the sun go down over the famous Ponte Vecchio and almost reluctantly came home so I could edit photos and write this memory.

Buona notte.  Bed is calling.

Room with a view for we two – the Florence adventure begins.

It’s not really an exotic adventure unless a trip starts with drama. And of course, ours did.

Definitely not Oregon

Let me back up a bit. Cecile and I have wanted to tour Italy since our honeymoon – days short of 42 years ago. Time and money got in the way. For out 30^th anniversary, we finally went to Florence.  But it was Florence, Oregon, which was just a few miles from our Eugene home.

Once I became a professor, I could afford the time during the summer break. But Cecile could not take off as much time as we wanted for a trip. This year, however, Alliance Enterprises gave her a 12-week sabbatical to do what she pleased. And it pleased both her and me to rent an apartment in Florence – Italy this time – for the month of June.

The drama began with a text message from Delta Airlines that the flight comprising the Paris to Florence leg of our trip was cancelled. Then the St. Louis agent said she could not rebook us, as Air France owned that flight and Air France doesn’t like to talk to Delta.

An Air France ticket agent in New York found an alternative flight for us – but routed through Amsterdam and adding 11 hours to the trip.  We were bummed, but still enthused. When we arrived in Paris, a more enterprising agent found a direct flight for us, so long as we would wait around Charles de Gaulle Airport for eight hours. We tried to take a bus to a nearby super mall, but apparently the busses had the same schedule as our original flight.

So wait we did. We browsed every shop, tried sleeping in awkward seats, and read our books (Cecile on a Kindle and me on old original iPad.

Cecile is our navigator

Eventually we made it and were overjoyed to land at the Florence Airport. No ATM, though, and no place to by SIM cards for our phones. But we found a lonely pay phone to call our landlady and caught a cab to our temporary home near the Arno River.

The joyous greeting given us by Dafi Krief made up for all the discomfort the airlines could throw at us. She and her husband are artists – she a potter and he a sculptor. The apartment they own is itself a gallery. It is in a 13^th Century building next to the old city walls in Oltarno – just across the river from the cathedral district. The white walls soar to a ceiling of ancient beams. Original artwork is placed like only an artist could place it.

It is small, but incredible.

Then I discovered that we had left a bag in the taxi. In that bag was my iPad and an older unlocked phone I planned to use, among other things (like my toiletries). Dafi called the cab company several times, to no avail. I wrote a plaintive note to them in English and then in computer-translated Italian. Why worry too much, though? We actually made it to Florence, after all. 

It's more than a store

Not surprisingly, we slept in. We made breakfast from the two eggs left by the previous tenant, then went off in search of a SIM for Cecile’s phone. That took a few hours of wandering and rewandering only to find the phone store closed for siesta. But along the way ate our first gelato, got cash and enjoyed the ambiance. Had a late lunch at our neighborhood restaurant, then back to the phone store for the SIM.

Squash blossoms at Eataly

We went to a nice but rather routine supermarket for our groceries, but later found what may be the ultimate grocer. Eataly is both shopper and chef-friendly (Mario Batali owns the New York version). It combines elegantly displayed foodstuffs with scattered restaurant counters. Where else have you seen squash blossoms in the produce department? I’ll be back (and write more).

So now we are back at the apartment, where Cecile cooked a wonderful pasta that we washed down with a fantastic red wine. It is time now to reflect, recover and ready for another day in Italy.