Cycling in Italy

I bought a bike in Italy. It is a 12 speed (2 front 6 rear) road bike. The guy I bought it from worked at a small shop on the Oltrarno, and he spoke little to no english. It made for fun communication fun! He said the year on the bike was 1980. The frame is aluminum, which is substantially lighter than the steel bike I have back home. When I was looking for a bike to acquire here, I had two things in mind:
1) Allow for exploration of the Toscana countryside around Firenze. Most bikes in the city are made for use in the city, which isn't ideal for what I want, so when I found this road bike, it was perfect. Although I do look slightly silly riding on Florence's bumpy stone streets with a bike with racing geometry...
2) Not get stolen. One of the KSU people I met here bought a Bianchi city bike and it was stolen overnight. That horrible fact had me paranoid that I was wasting my money, if it were to be stolen. This bike worked because of the golden-brown color, slight rust, worn saddle, tires, and bar grips. Despite the different style than the typical city bike, this is relatively inconspicuous on a large bike rack. Plus there are security cameras near the rack I park it at, and the chain lock's weight feels like it is at least half the weight of the frame itself. And for extra insurance, I named the bike "Il Ladro" which translated to "The Thief".

Florence is a fantastic city for pedestrians. Everything one could ever need and more is easily within walking distance. But on bike, I always follow vehicular traffic patterns, just out of common sense. And in Firenze, the traffic patterns make absolutely no sense! When streets were adapted for car use, whoever designed the one way traffic flow system, deserves a good spanking. On Friday, for example, I wanted to go north of town. No entry on the northbound road. I turn west a block, and my only option off that road is to go south. So then I pick up another westbound road. See another road. Southbound. Then when I finally turn north, it arbitrarily stops and redirects us in some other direction. It just doesn't make sense at all...
Thankfully once I make it out of the city, Italy offers some of the best and most beautiful roads imaginable!

My goal on Friday was to find an ancient Roman amphitheatre my studio professor mentioned in class. The problem was, it's location in the town of Fiesole, on top of a mountain. Halfway to the top was this statue of a road cyclist, pointing in the direction up the mountain, as if encouraging me to keep going. I had to stop and pose for a photo... As I was posing a car pulled on to the side of the road where the statue was. An old Italian guy got out. (spoke no english of course.) We exchanged "Ciao"s. And the "Non parlo italiano..." Asked if I spoke it a little bit (using hand motions.) I replied "eh.. Si!" He first asked if I was German, then American. "Si, United States. Io da Firenze. Studio a quattro mesi. Architecttura." We made remarks about my bike "bici da corsa", riding up the hill, to Fiesole to see the Roman amphitheatre.  I think he told me how far it was. Then he explained he actually pulled over to find his dog. "Il cane, woof woof!" (there was a dog barking near the area. I said goodbye to the fellow, then continued on my way.

Here I finally arrived at Fiesole, but I wasn't sure exactly where the amphitheatre was. But I saw a sign for a church up a stone alley, and I figured it would have a good view of Firenze.

As I approached the top, I saw some familiar faces, these lovely people from studio! They were there day trippin' at Fiesole (by bus) and I just happened to cross paths with them on my biking adventure!

I rode up all the way from that city behind me!

the view from the top was incredible. Florence in the valley, surrounded my the countryside of vineyards and villas, surrounded by mountains, the low winter sun hanging just above. The elevation difference between here and Florence is 900 ft, or in yinzer, abaht double the height of Mt. Warshington.

This photo looks back down the stone path to Fiesole.

A little bit further up was a Franciscan church. Quite small. Someone was playing the organ when we walked in. Off to the side was this cloister that led to a museum which included Asian, Egyptian, and Christian artifacts.

Back down at the view, below us was this really strange statue.

This was the path to the amphitheatre and ruins. Unfortunately the whole thing closed down at 2pm. I was holding the camera over the railing.

Although the ride up was difficult, I was rewarded by the ride down. The air was moving so fast around my glasses, making my eyes water. Riding down a mountain took significant concentration and attention to detail. I felt like any mistake could lead to a big ouchy kamowchie. But it was certainly a thrill, rushing downhill like a rollercoaster past picturesque Italian scenery.

The above image is a graffiti filled tunnel that goes under a busy boulevard on the north side of Florence.

The next day, Saturday, I committed a mortal sin, and left the memory card in my computer... I guess I'll talk a bit anyways. I rode south into the sun, with a goal of finding a castle-like monastery in the town of Galluzzo. I found it but couldn't get inside. So I rode around, and went up another mountain. This one was a bit farther away from the city and not quite as high. But the ride up was still "fun", the view still incredible, and the ride down was more FUN! Back in the town, I had to go around the block due to one way streets. And that was where the game called "Give Walt a bike in a foreign country" gets fun. I took a wrong turn and got lost. The path took me through some really beautiful country roads, and I had only a sense of direction to get home. After zigzaggeting the Tuscan back roads for about half an hour or so, the Arno river appeared, in a spot right near the city.

Successful two rides in two days!

Forced Perspective and Other Mishaps at Pisa

I will start off by saying this is our 6th semester at KSU. And us architecture students are some of the smartest in the University. (Apologies to those incredibly intelligent people at Kent not in architecture. I mean no offense.) But many of us, including myself were able to load up on Tuesday Thursday classes, leaving Wednesday empty. So last Wednesday, a bunch of us decided to take the train to Pisa.

Pisa is near the coast, but still in the same region (Toscana) as Firenze. So the train ride was relatively quick. Pisa will also be where we catch most of our flights to other places... But we got off the train at the station and followed one main road north, crossed the Arno river (Same river as Firenze). We kept going until we hit these ruins..

Then we headed west and then the main attraction revealed itself!

This one column on the leaning tower is different from all the other standard Corinthian ones. I will interpret it as the architect and the structural engineer freaking out that the tower wasn't staying upright. And the troll in the middle, who caused it all to lean is all like "U mad, bro"

Just a side note. I can confirm that the tower is indeed leaning.

But there was also a cathedral and baptistery!

And that is when we all started doing our duty as a visitor to Pisa, set up silly forced perspective photos with the tower.

Unfortunately people kept getting in my way. I got reallllllyyy angry so in a burst of rage I went and punched the tower. I hit it so hard that the tower is now permanently leaning....

I kept this mini version as a souvenir.

Aaron also had a mini leaning tower to take home.

Megan Theresa, and Pam setting up a photo.

Baptistery, Cathedral, Tower.

Megan got the photo that worked. Between the six people in our group, we probably got most photos with the tower that one can think of.

Keeping it simple. Pushin' it over.

If you note, the cathedral is also getting into the leaning act. On the side, towards the front, it appears the marble stripes are not aligned correctly and skew towards the ground.

Next, we all started climbing on the posts of the chain fence. Forrest in the balancing act.

Can one of us split them?

We decided to go into the baptistery. It was a pretty cool cylindrical space.

Through this stair in the outside wall, we could go up to the second level.

Window view to the town.

The place was fairly big. Everyone looked pretty small on the other side.

We got to hear this twice. A worker here would stand in the middle, and sing notes up into the dome. Reverberation time in here was about 8 seconds. A person could change notes quickly and a chord would ring. The sound was heavenly.

At this point, the batteries in my camera were done. I brought six with me, none were good. I kept swapping them out and scheming a bunch more pictures out of them.

We sat on the side, just to enjoy the inside of the baptistery.

Then we walked over to the cathedral. This is a detail in one of the doors. I particularly enjoyed the 3 dimensionality of it.

Back in architecture history, we were taught 5 aisle plans meant it was important. That was the case here, The clerestory windows on the marble and gold colored roof, made for a beautiful effect.

In the apse half dome was a large image of Christ.

Looking up to the dome. The way these things were painted, to be viewed from below was pretty amazing.

Looking up and back at details in the cathedral.

In the south transept, there was this. A tomb with glass to see the inside. Quite strange...

I forget what it was called, but there was a building to the north of the cathedral, which had along inner courtyard. the hall around, had tombs all over the floor. and statues and other artwork all around.

Buh bye leaning tower!

I noticed this building was also getting into the leaning act, lopsidedly skewed.

I managed to get this picture of the river, right before my camera's batteries were completely done. We stopped at a cheap greasy pizza place. (Gotta have Pizza in Pisa!) Then we made our way back to the train station.

Assisi - The Beautiful City of St.Francis on a Mountain

 The crew is ready for our first train ride! Destination: Assisi, the town of Saint Francis. As the train got more crowded, an italian woman sat next to Forrest. It made for some good conversation with the whole group on the way there.

 A couple of us got up too late t get a good breakfast. And after a 2 hour train ride, we decided in order to make it through the day, we needed to nourish ourselves.

 Along the road in the valley to the mountain, there were some nice modern buildings. The symmetry of this one was interesting to me. (we generally frown upon that in our studio class, unless there is a good reason.)

 In this building, they made no attempt to hide the formwork when they cast those concrete slabs. It gives them quite a nice effect, almost appearing as if those slabs are actually made of wood.

 And we continued to progress towards Assisi.

 The setting of this town on top of the mountain was quite stunning! And it just kept getting more beautiful as we got closer. (this will be a recurring theme)

 That mountain was consistently covered with a little bit of clouds.

 Getting closer!

 "Dude, this is a great spot for a panorama! (there would be better spots to come.)

 FOOTball stadium. Those stands looked pretty nifty.

Basilica of Saint Francis.

 The car road split away from us, and we followed this pedestrian path, that kept getting steeper, the more we climbed.

 The view from the path is amazing. (Would get better.)

 The town would disappear from view due to the trees. And the path got steeper.

We made it to the town!

 Group photo everyone! (that was our band's private coach bus.)

 This town had no shortage of photo-worthy stuff.

 Another theme of the town was framed views. This archway was so prominent that we had to walk through. This is the view out the back side.

 Going UP the hill to see the Basilica Del San Francesco.

 Here is another perfectly framed view.

 I stood here and looked for a minute or two before I snapped this picture. An UPhill piazza leading to the church.

 The repetition on the columns and vaulting was quite effective. We felt so lucky to be here.

 There were a few peep holes through the wall and this is what we saw.

 Looking back at the town.

 This was the entrance to the church.

 Here is a detailing of the entrance... Photography was not allowed in the church. But it was actually split into three levels. This entrance led to the middle church. It was so beautiful on the inside. Everything was colored and there were richly powerful paintings everywhere. Some sections were reserved for only prayer or mass. So to see it, I went in and prayed. Halfway down the hall were stairs that led down to another small hall, and the focal point was the tomb of Saint Francis. It was all stone, and more modern lighting techniques made the vaulting in there quite beautiful. The altar of the middle church hall was located directly above Saint Francis' tomb. Above that altar was a wood painted cross from the Byzantine era. If my history is correct, Saint Francis came to Christ and fell in love with the gospel by kneeling and praying before this depiction of Jesus' sacrifice... From there we went into a courtyard behind the church. and from there we were able to access the upper hall. This one had tall gothic ceilings, beautiful stained glass windows, and paintings along the sides that showed the story of Saint Francis.

And here we are outside the church.

A panorama of the way we came in to the place.

Front facade of the church.

Detail view of the rose window

And we continued to climb UP.

We assumed this was the right way to go. But you know what happens when you assume?

You get a view like this!

It almost didn't seem real. We all wished we could fly.

This is our band's album cover.

Having some fun!

When the rooster crows, SPRINT!

As it turns out we were going the wrong way, so we had to turn around. And I noticed these things. Even on a small scale, this town was awesome.

The re-curing theme of great framed views.

Framed views and going UP.

On our path, we saw this.

And this!

And this!

Then we saw this frame. But there wasn't much of a view. and it was more UPhill than the path we were currently on. So we took it.

And we saw this.

Zoomed in.

This was the path we took to the top. We weren't sure if it was right or if we were supposed to be up there. But it was such an adventure.

When that trail ended, we were rewarded with this.

Timo began to sing and I joined in. "When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur, and heat the brook, and feel the gentle. Then sings my soul, My Savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art!"

And I sat down here and did a sketch for about five minutes, because that felt right.

Aaron's face says it all.

We continued UP the hill to the imposing castle on the top.

But didn't forget to look down.

This was the entrance to the interior of the castle.

We first checked out the courtyard in front of that entrance before we went in.

Unfortunately, it cost 8 euro to go in. And we figured we would rather take an alternate album cover for our band.

Arrows come out here.

Yep, the view was amazing.

Same caption as previous photo.

Likewise.

Zoomed out a little bit. Apparently it rained in Firenze this day. All we got were these clouds. It was perfect.

Sunshine doing cool things in the distance. The train station is all the way down there in the valley. We walked all the way here.

We walked around and saw the side of town that Basilica del San Francesco was located.

That church right there.

Now this is the place to take panoramas!

This was the castle, by the way.

There appeared to be a cemetery on the backside of the mountain.

This was the context. Not too bad, eh? Perfect actually.

(But in reality the only real reason I came here was to pose and advertise for "Crochet and Pray the Way for Ray to Pay to Play". Buy a scarf from my mom so my brother can march drum corps this summer.) Thanks for the scarf, Mom!

The castle again.

We took a different way down.

But the town continued to frame some pretty awesome views.

This town was awesome. It felt more genuine than Firenze. There were alot less people there interested in only our euros.

And we found this church! Let me check the name. Umm. Cathedral of San Rufino.

That is where we came from.

This church felt much different than the first gothic one. This one was strongly ordered, with baroque elements in the aisles.

This one was my favorite. One where Christ is brightly lit and exalted in the center.

Here is a close up view. Right here we ran into two people from Minnesota, who would become ordained in May. They were very nice to talk to, and they said they would pray for us.

This was the view down the nave.

San Francesco! Saint Francis!

Then in the town's main Piazza, was this structure, clearly older than everything else. It was originally the temple of Minerva.

We decided to go in.

The inside was quite different. It was a much newer baroque interior.

This church was closed. Work was being done to the interior.

This photo shows the town quite nicely. One way steep UPhill, another steep downhill.

Very interesting lamp. Dragons?

Such a cool way to go down.

Facade of San Pietro.

The interior was about as raw as it gets. All stone.

The altar and the dome.

Look at the light from the rose window, so well projected on the vault.

Here are two examples of the few modern elements in this town. 1) the cars. 2) the sculpture.

The sculpture apparently had this split in it, which was quite cool.

Looking back at San Pietro and Assisi.

The sculpture and Assisi.

And we arrived back at the gate where we entered.

As the sun went down, and the lights turned on, everything got quite pretty.

We walked back this way, went inside again, ran into the two soon-to-be priests from Minnesota, who were preparing for mass there. We were invited to join, but the mass was in Italian we wanted to grab food before we had to catch our train home.

The lighting was amazing. (Hash tag no coffee filter for yinz twitter people.)

There were many nativity models around town. But this one was my favorite.

We made it back here, and ate at this place in the Piazza.

Pizza and sammiches. And cappuccino for the ride home.

The interior of the restaurant.

Assisi had a pretty cool night face as well.

The gate at night.

We took a bus back down to the station. This day could have not been more perfect.