Florence et al.

Kevin and I got up early the next morning and our hostess was nice enough to cook us an "american" egg and bacon breakfast. They were way too nice.



Then we hit up Pisa which doesn't really have much going for it other than the Field of Miracles where the Cathedral, Baptistry, and world famous falling over bell tower all sit. Most images of Pisa just include the tower but I think the whole field is really beautiful. After laughing at all of the silly Japanese tourists attempting to prevent the Tower from falling over we got the urge and took some cheezy pictures when no one was looking. For the sake of alliteration, I even coughed up 1.50 euro to photodocument me feasting on a piece of Pisa pizza in front of the leaning tower. If the internet was a little better I would be able to upload it.



After Pisa, we planned to go to Volterra, a small hill town that has an interesting Etruscan history to it. In order to get there we took a train to Pontederra and then a bus to Volterra. The train/bus schedules didn't quite match up and so we had to wait in Pontederra for about an hour and a half. After being there for 5 minutes, I decided that God likely used this city as inspiration for purgatory. Optimistic we walked around looking for an old part of the city, a church perhaps or something but no. There is nothing but random shops that seemed to sell decorations in your house that were left over from the 1980s, the world's most boring river/canal/resivoir thing, and some wierd colorful paper maché art randomly stuck in the middle of a traffic circle. NEVER go to Pontederra, your brain will eat itself in boredom. Trust me, I've never had a more mind-numbing hour in my life.



The drive to Volterra alone was worth the trip, we drove through small Tuscan villages, by large villas, and there were always hills in the distance topped with tiny towns and skylined with bell towers. The city itself was also really quaint, it reminded me of an Italian, less touristy Rothenberg. We walked around for a few hours and explored the tiny city with stunning views of the surrounding countryside. Other than that, there is really not much in Volterra. It was cute but small and a little unexciting but I'm glad we went nonethelss.



We got back to Florence that evening and met up with the other group at our hostel, an old convent. It was one of my more memorable hostelling experiences since we were in a 22 person dorm room. During the night I would have my own private concert of a symphony including sounds from around the world.



The next day we decided to stay in Florence. This included waiting in line for 2 hours at the Uffizi Museum because Betsy refused to pay the 3 euro reservation fee, walking around the city, having a religious experience at the Accedemia when looking at Michelangelo's the David, and making friends with the gelato man after purchasing our 3rd gelato at the same locale, "Grom" within a timespan of 2 hours. We took the fact that it was all organic to mean it was actually healthy for you. Then I wanted to take a picture in front of the fake David in front of the Ufizzi because I feel I resemble him, kind of. This was a mistake on my part because it opened a can of worms of everyone else trying to imitate every statue in Florence (there is a lot). Posing as Muses, Hermes, and famous Florentines is all fun but I felt it got a little out of control when they started reenacting a statue of a centuar (Betsy as the horse-ass) and especially the statue of the rape of the Sabine women. Apparently the Italian police felt the same way.



After another moving evening concert, this time including a commentary in Portugese, we moved to our new lodgings (it was way cheaper to stay in two places in Florence...claims Betsy) to a room for just the 6 of us more in the heart of the city. We then all parted ways and Anthony went to Rome in an attempt to see the entire city in a few hours where we think he contracted ebola or something (explained later), Betsy, Julie, and Monika went to Pisa, and Kevin and I went to Lucca. We really enjoyed Lucca a lot, the nice weather that day also really helped; it was sunny for most of the afternoon. Lucca is nestled in a valley and has this neat rennaissance town wall that is now a raised bike path/park around the old part of the city. It also has some neat buildings such as a unique circle of structure that is just houses built into an old Roman amphitheater and an old mechant family's tower with a garden on top including large oak trees. It was also in Lucca that we came across Henry, the pidgeon who almost was, or who was then wasn't or maybe the most pathetic thing I have seen in my life. Here is his story: After visiting the cathedral, we heard a small squeaking sound and discovered a juvinle pidgeon freaking out around the door. We started to try to feed it bread because we had some and it stupidly ran away from. But other pidgeons came flying in and eating the bread, and then Henry would see them eating then try to take the bread from their mouths. The whole thing was hilariously pathetic. We kept throwing bread at Henry and he would run away until the othe pigeons ate it. I think he figured it out after a while. We taught Henry how to eat bread. We had a bond. Well we turn away, satisfied about helping a poor dirty pigeon learn to live in such a cold, dark, hurtful world. Two minutes later a car drove by and we hear a squash sound and some people gasping. There, was Henry squished into the pavement. He had a wing half-raised as if a waving goodbye to us. We then felt like it was then probably a good time to leave Lucca.



The next day, we made it to Siena, which was probably my favorite city of the trip, even though we had the worst weather. In this city there are 17 different neighborhoods and each has its own mascot as well as colors and a coat of arms. The mascots are fairly normal such as eagle, panther, dragon ect. But they also have some strange ones such as snail, shell, goose, and she-wolf. My favorite was catepillar. Every neighborhood also has its own fountain or well as well as a church. There is competition between the neighborhoods since every summer there is a horse race in the center of town where each neighborhood submitts a rider and horse and the winner gets bragging rights for the next year. Well we spent most of the day walking around the city and looking at the signs on the buildings to figure out what neighborhood we were in and trying to find their fountain. Conversations usually went like "Ooooh look! We're now in giraffe!" And then we would discuss how giraffe could totally beat forest by eating all the leaves but forest has a rhino on the crest which could totally beat out any giraffe. It escilated and got a little rediculous when we were in unicorn and we found what we believed was a unicorn grotto which then resulted in some people having a unicorn fight. I guess this is what we do... Many college students go to Europe to get sloshed, we go to have unicorn fights in Siena.



The next day we had to head back to Innsbruck but before, we had a very long night ahead of us. We had an early train the next morning and we had a late night to bed, mostly because of an improptu shadow show before we went to bed, dont ask. At about 2 am, I wake up to Anthony cursing and trying to leave the room to use the rest room. When he came back, he was just lying in bed making noises which he later called "dramatic breathing." After about an hour of this and me being unable to sleep I turn over, annoyed, and ask him if anything was wrong. He kind of mindlessly mumbles nonsense but I figured he had a bad case of food poisoning. Not knowing what to do, I just put the trash can near his bed for him to boot in and try to sleep. Well with the dramatic breathing all night and the hasty trips to the bathroom sleep didnt happen. The alarm rings and I realize we have to somehow get Anthony to the train station in this state. He was still making trips to the bathroom enjoying his last few meals in reverse. With an hour before our train left, we packed up all of his stuff, and wait for a lull in the action. It didnt come until about 30 minutes before the train left. We grab him, throw clothes on him and drag him on the 15 minute walk through Florence to the train station in pouring rain. Somehow we made it minutes before the train left, and we throw him in his reserved compartment full of Italians who have no idea how much fun their ride with Anthony will be for the next seven hours, luckily I was not among them. Since he is still alive, we figure he didn't have ebola.



Monika and I decided to stop in Verona for a few hours on our way back to Innsbruck. I'm glad I went, it was a very beautiful city but I was exhausted and kind of wanted to get back to IBK. Monika loved the city, she also had a little more energy since she slept through the exciting events of the night before. It was a little exciting when we almost missed our train coming back to Innsbruck.



We finally got back to Innsbruck and everyone who had gone home to America was already back and we spent the rest of the evening catching up and it was good to see everyone again.