A Weekend in the 15th century

Rome has a notorious bus, and it's called the N6. It's the only bus you can take to and from the Monte Mario neighborhood after midnight and before 6am, and it is notorious because it seems to run on a schedule completely unknown and without reason (even more so than the typical Rome buses). My friends and I have had late nights where we've waited over an hour for this one bus to show up, regardless of the schedule that says it is supposed to run every 20 minutes. So, it was a very good start to our weekend trip on Friday when, the moment we arrived at the N6 stop (at five am in order to catch an early train) the bus immediately pulled up.

It was, in fact, a good omen for our trip to the Tuscany region of Italy, where we visited the towns of Siena, Pisa, and Florence. I was particularly grateful that with all the train hopping we did to get from place to place, the trains were always right on time, and we didn't get lost anywhere along the way!

We started by going from Rome to Siena, about a two hour train trip, and because we left so ridiculously early, we arrived in Siena around 9am. I really liked the little town of Siena, which used to be a big rival of Florence in the medieval times. It was a very quaint little town; Near the center it has a large public square known as "Il Campo" where people just hang around and relax and traffic is not allowed.

We visited Siena's Duomo, a huge 13th century Gothic cathedral heaped with art. Inside the striped interior we saw a Michelangelo statue of St. Paul, Bernini sculptures, work by Donatello, and the Piccolomini Library, which was a fascinating little room filled with cases of these intricately decorated music scores and enclosed by walls painted with surprisingly vivid frescoes. After the duomo, we toured the city some more, stopping in some more churches and just wandering the streets to get a feel for the town. We also got pizza.

The Duomo and its six-story striped bell tower

Bella Siena

We hopped back on the train a few hours later and headed to Pisa, where our main goal was, of course, to see the Leaning Tower. The city itself was pretty nice, there were a lot of university students roaming around, and we did a little window shopping while making our way from the train station to the "Field of Miracles" - the name for the campus where the tower, the duomo, and its baptistry stands.

And it's very miraculous

We saw the leaning tower (which really does look quite precarious). Apparently three different architects worked on it over time, each one trying to add height to the tower in a way that would help angle it right-side up, with the final one plopping a belfry on top in the 14th century and calling it complete. Since that time all sorts of work has been done to help stabilize the tower and decrease its signature lean.

Is it just me, or does that look crooked to you?

While the tower is cool to see in person, I also enjoyed the site of the tourists around the tower - all attempting to "hold it up."

A behind-the-scenes look

We of course took our share of touristy photos as well, so I guess I shouldn't make fun.

 After Pisa, we headed to Florence, our main and final destination. We arrived in the evening, found our hostel, found our dinner, and went out to explore the city a little, though we really only stayed in the touristy, well-populated areas since we weren't familiar with Florence yet. We also made a Chinese friend who was staying at the hostel and I talked with him a lot because, coincidentally, he went to the Beijing university where I will be living next semester! He told me he liked it but he thought it was small (it's about the size of Loyola Chicago). He also gave me some tips on public transportation, and taught us all how to play the Chinese version of the card game "BS."

The next morning, we got up bright and early and ready to take on Florence. We started by going to the Accademia, the art gallery where they have Michelangelo's larger-than-life statue of David, as well as many other exciting art works. Next, we went to the duomo where we climbed the 463 steps to the top of Brunelleschi's dome for a marvelous view of the city:

Florence was the center of the Italian Renaissance, so it's just bursting with history and art. It's very different from Rome, where you see a lot of baroque art and churches; Florence is all about the Renaissance. While we toured the rest of the sites around the duomo - Giotto's tower, the baptistry, the crypt, the museum, and the inside of the duomo itself - we were surrounded by all sorts of remnants of the period. I've probably said this about Rome, but it really gives you a remarkable perspective of the history. If only we could have field trips like this in history classes at home...

The art is just mixed in with everything else in the city

But sometimes it's easy to feel as if you've just stepped into the Renaissance

Later that evening, we explored the city more, browsing the hundreds of stalls where all kinds of leather goods were sold, and walked down to Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge, which has, in one form or another, spanned that part of the Arno river since the Roman times. We also wandered up to to the Piazza Michelangelo in the evening which, though we had to climb up a large hill to get to, had a great view of the city from afar.

Ponte Vecchio

We saved the Uffizi Gallery, the home of the greatest collection of Italian painting, for Sunday morning when we knew the lines would be smaller. Since we got there early, we skipped the lines completely and were able to spend a good three hours browsing the gallery. I saw artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael (so basically, all the ninja turtles) and of course the famous Botticelli paintings among many, many others. When you exit the gallery, there is a
courtyard full of statues of famous Renaissance characters such as Galileo, Lorenzo Medici, Machiavelli, Donatello leading right up to the river where you can catch more great views.

We got on our train back to JForce shortly afterward, this time heading straight for Rome, and arrived back to our home in Rome in time for dinner (and, unfortunately, homework). But I'm not complaining too much considering this is how I spend my weekends....