Pushing Pisa

Spanish Steps and Trinita di Morti

On Wednesday, we were introduced to our site for our studio project, which should be an university. It is on Via Trinitatis, which doesn't still exist by that name, but portions of the road still exist. It starts near Castel Sant'Angelo and ends at the Spanish Steps. We walked up all of the steps and were able to see some nice views of the entire city of Rome. We also were able to take a drink from the fountain at the bottom of the plaza. According to Allan, the water running through that fountain is the same water that ran through the Roman aqueducts two thousand years ago. Some of those aqueducts still exist today. The water did taste pretty pure.

As much as the Spanish Steps and the rest of the site are interesting to look at, our site for studio is pretty challenging. It should produce some cool projects though, especially since our site is in Rome.


This weekend Rachel and I went to Pisa in Italy's region of Tuscany. We left on Friday around 10am and arrived at about 2pm. We stayed in a hostel right on the main shopping street, Corso Italia. The hostel was pretty quaint, and I enjoyed my stay there, given I really had no idea what to expect from a hostel. The staff seemed friendly enough and the accommodations were nice. We also had 300-year-old glass windows in the room we were staying in, which I thought was pretty interesting. Rachel and I spent a lot of the day shopping and stopped for gelato at La Borsa Gelateria, one of the larger gelato places in Pisa. Pisa in general is a fairly small Italian town, and is an interesting juxtaposition to Rome. Corso Italia seemed to have most of the activity, and other streets seemed sleepy and almost a little creepy at night.

Knocking down the Leaning Tower of Pisa

On Saturday, we went to the Field of Miracles (Campo dei Miracoli) where the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Duomo Cathedral are in the town of Pisa. We did the typical tourist photos in front of the Tower, and then proceeded to be amused at watching everyone make poses out of context. We walked along the tourist carts and ended up buying Pisa mugs. They leaned and were shaped like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Good use of six euros if you ask me. I also bought one of the Harry Potter books and the City of Glass in Italian. I'm interested to see how Italian and English translations differ in fiction books (as both books were originally written in English). That, and they were just really cool and I love books.

We also went inside the Duomo Cathedral. It was gorgeous inside, and the striped arches reminded me of Cordoba. Tuscany has its own branch of architecture, and Pisa is even more unique still. The inner nave had gold leaf on the ceiling, and all of the arches were striped with a light pink and white marble. The cathedral also had magnificent original paintings on all of the walls, and had a transept that was dedicated to prayers to Catholic saints. The cathedral also had small stained glass windows that cast pretty colored light on to all surfaces of the cathedral. The scale of the cathedral cannot even be read in pictures. The columns themselves are huge in comparison to a person, and the height of the nave is even more large. Cathedrals are really spectacular structures and I can't wait to see more in other countries.

Nave of Duomo Cathedral

The Duomo Cathedral truly does seem like an ephemeral place. The light shines through the clerestory and subtly shines into the space. Its truly majestic, and it was truly worth the ticket to see it.

After the cathedral, we eventually got more gelato. We went to another gelato place where you could have one, two, or three flavors in one. I chose three flavors with mango, melon, and dark chocolate (mango, melone, e cioccolato fondente). It was delicious and very rich and creamy. The mango and chocolate combination was a great one.
When we went to dinner, I tried gnocchi con burro e salvia. I still have no idea what salvia is other than the drug, but the dish was good either way. I've never had gnocchi and had no idea they were made of potatoes. During our dinner, we found out that there is a train strike in Italy starting at 9pm and ending at 9pm Sunday. Our returning train was scheduled for 7:45am Sunday morning, and we started worrying. We ran to the train station in Pisa, Pisa Centrale Stazione, and they said it may still be running. We decided to sleep and hope for the best. Our train was running, but it was the only one running out of any of the trains that were scheduled. Our train ended up being delayed because of other people who missed their train, but we still got home much earlier than we thought we would. Train strikes and union strikes seem pretty regular here in Italy, and it really makes me wonder what state their government and economy are in, and how often this could affect traveling in the future.

I also noticed in Pisa how they seemed to be having some kind of government protest or problem. All over the walls they had phrases like "Pisa e basta," "solo Pisa," "Livorno merda," and "fascisti" in graffiti. I still don't know what the issue between Pisa and Livorno (a bordering city) is, but there must be something going on. It seems that Italian government is hanging by a thread. We witnessed a politician giving a speech and a protest while we were in Pisa as well. It was pretty crazy that we saw all of that in one weekend in one Italian town.

That's about all for now. We start another week of classes this week, and this weekend we will be at Oktoberfest. It should be a great week. Ciao for now.