The Global Guy

I decided to take a day trip out of Florence to see the leaning tower of Pisa and the walled town of Lucca. The Italian train system is usually extremely efficient and it makes taking these type of quick trips a pleasure. However, I didn’t realize that every so often the workers tend to go on strike and totally stop the system for a day or so! So, my quick day trip ended up being a quick trip to Pisa and an overnight stop at Lucca. Pisa is a modern small university town that if it wasn’t for the famous tower really wouldn’t be much of a stop at all. However, the town really makes a big deal of the tower! It’s about a 15 minute walk from the train station, and when you see it for the first time it’s really special. One of my favorite things about Italy is the abundance of famous landmarks that I’ve been told about all my life. Seeing one of these in person really makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something by finally getting here.

After spending a couple of hours at Pisa, I hit the train again for Lucca. This town’s claim to fame is that it is the only Tuscan town to still have its original city walls. The city itself has outgrown the walls of course, but the are still there with proper gates that traffic and pedestrians still have to go thru to get to the historical area. It was here that I found out about the train strike, when I ran into all the transportation workers in the area protesting in the city center. They were waving signs and placards and seemed to be having a great time. It had more of the feel of a holiday type occasion rather than a highly charged labor dispute. 24 hours after the strike began, most trains were running late, but at least they were running. I was ready to head to Venice after another night in Florence to catch a connecting train.

The Tuscan region is fantastic. I’d heard that one of the things that you had to do was to take a bike ride around the area, so I hooked up with a local biking company. I was the only backpacker, which was kind of interesting. Two of the people on the trip were from the DC area, and it turns out that one of them will be in Warrenton for Christmas at the same time that I’ll be there.

Anyway, we spent the day cycling around the hills, checking out olive groves and vineyards. We stopped for a while in the town of Fiesole and then had lunch at a local vineyard. The scenery was so beautiful, and the green is a nice contrast to the dusty dryness of Africa.

After the bike ride, I was feeling pretty energetic so I topped off the day by climbing the 463 steps to the top of the main cathedral in Florence. Tomorrow I’m planning on getting an early train to Pisa and then on to Lucca.

Getting here took longer than I thought it would…I missed the train by about 3 minutes, and had to wait for the next one. That one ended up being about an hour late, so I finally arrived in Florence about 3.5 hours later than I had expected. Luckily I found a GREAT hostel, and had time to go out and see Michaelangelo’s David. I had honestly thought about skipping this, but I am so glad I didn’t. I had no idea of the actual size of this sculpture. Every picture I have seen doesn’t do anything to show the scale of the statue. I figured that it would be about life size, or maybe a little larger….WRONG! This thing is about 3 times life size, and up on a pedestal that adds another 10 feet or so to its size. They’ve just started a restoration project to clean it, but they’re doing it in full view. That’s the way art should be saved!

One of my favorite things to do in this town is to wander around after the sun goes down. In the narrow winding streets, you really get the feeling that this is a true medieval town, and that you could be 600 years in the past. Of course even that can get old after a while, so I headed across the river to see some of the shops and outdoor art. After a while I found a building that looked amazingly familiar…it turns out that it was the setting for a scene in "Hannibal" where Hannibal Lechter kills an Italian cop by hanging him out of a window. Kinda cool!