Pietrasanta

Strangely enough I did not actually make the school trip for Pietra Santa but some of the pictures were so amazing of the people who worked on mosaics and sculptures that I had to include some…so…here they are.

Pisa

Italy would not have been a completed trip without exploring Pisa. Here is the world’s famous “Leaning Tower of Pisa” of which there were plenty of photos taken. The first time I came to Pisa was the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school (that would have been 2000, if I’m remembering correctly). I think that I was more impressed this time around than last. Perhaps, you learn to appreciate some things more with a little more age. God knows what I’ll think 50 years from now. We had the unique experience of exploring the baptistery where every half hour they show off the acoustics by having a single person sing a few notes, which with the effects of echo and acoustical proportion, gave the affect of making the one man sound like a choir.

(Left: I prevent the tower from toppling over; Below: The Baptistery, Sierra and I and Sierra)

Apuane Alps/ Marble Slabs of Michelangelo

This was the first occasion that we had to see the Alps on this trip, and they were really impressive. The trip commenced with us all going to explore a vast cave system that went some 2000m deep into one of the mountains. Full of stalagmites and stalactites the caves also had a river system running through it that has slowly been evaporating over the last 60 or so years since its discovery. The really cool thing about this was to see the layered effect that the slow evaporation of water has had on the cave walls. After leaving the caves we explored a local mountain town and had an amazing meal prepared for us.

The Apuane Alps that we were exploring are most famously known for being the Alps where Michelangelo discovered the marble that he believed to be best suited for the sculptures he would create. Legend has it that he would go up to the rock beds feel them with his hands and then press his ear up to them. Something about the rocks that he was searching for would speak to him and those that did went on to become some of the most magnificent pieces of art the world has seen. The quarries continue to be the largest in the world and could easily supply just that. We had the fortunate opportunity to explore an abandoned one before returning to Lido.

(Above: The Entrance; Right: A small friend;

Below: Looking down at the massive cutouts of Marble)

Lido di Camiore

Ok, while in Lido (for three weeks) we had a number of adventures. Firstly, we started the task of getting to know the Italian Language for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. That went over pretty well and actually everyone seemed to enjoy their teachers. Clearly, we had a lot of free time.

We spent that free time mostly hanging out on the beach, playing volleyball, a lot of Ping Pong and getting to know each other. I roomed with Giuseppe (Joe) Garibaldi and AJ. Joe is also my roommate here in Florence. I ended up with a single room, with two beds in it and Sierra was crammed into a little tiny room, so, she was, in everything but title, the other roommate. This was at the Hotel Colombo. Breakfast and Dinner were provided but rapidly got worse and worse. So we went out to dinner more and more.

There were several things that the school organized for us including a number of trips that will be mentioned in the subsidiary blogs, some wine tastings, and a concert (a really good cover band). We went out to a lot of the local bars and clubs, including but not limited to Sgt. Pepper's and Seven Apples (those were really the best). Sierra and I had a few adventures going to the other local towns, south was Viareggio (good shopping for her) and north was Ft. Marmi. We also rented bikes for the last 3 days of our stay and explored, further south, and discovered a really cool marina. There were really unbelievable yachts and you were actually able to see some the really enormous ones being built.

London

Ok, in an attempt to catch-up with myself I'm going to try and briefly recap the trip until the current point. This is the millennium bridge in London. We left the US on Thurs, Sept. 16th and arrived here at 8 in the morning. We traveled around London seeing the sights and taking what we could in that day. We stayed up for some odd 30 hrs, exhausting!

After having a very deep sleep, we started another eventful day. We traveled around to Piccadilly Circus, did a little shopping at Oxford Circus, got ripped off attempting to purchase tickets for Wicked, but it all worked out because we ended up having incredible seats (the ones we thought we were paying for but didn't). And ran into Chris Brown the musician, just to fall asleep for a short while and get going yet again. Our hotel was conviently located right next too the tower of London and this bridge.
We left London on the 19th of August for Lido di Camiore, just south of Forte di Marmi (a sort of South Beach of Italy). The trek was not fun to get there…tired from jet lag and trying to pack-in all that we could in London we woke-up to go to Heathrow airport at 3am for a flight at 7 to Rome. From there we took a 6hr. bus ride to this beach town. All in all we had about 11hrs of uncomfortable travel. Then the next morning we woke-up by 7am to start school. It was strenuous but it sort of helped us to just acclimate quickly. (Benj took this picture for you it was a sweet restaurant).

[I thought this picture summized London the best!]

Firenze

I'm here in Firenze (Florence), Italia and beginning a blog so that I can facilitate my friends and families ability to keep up-to-date with the ongoings of my life. Well here's to blogging...I hope that you all enjoy the entries to come.

Pablo