Day 61 (5/21/11)

Today a few of us decided to do some quick traveling to try and see some sights on what might be our last weekend to do so, so we woke up bright and early to catch a train out to Pisa and later back to Florence. The train ride was pretty fantastic, between napping, working on postcards, and enjoying the beautiful landscape outside, it was very relaxing! We stopped at a ton of different places and cities on our way out, and I really enjoyed looking at how the areas we were in varied so dramatically. We also saw a ton of dense hill towns, which were especially cool since we were riding through mostly wide-open farmland. Finally we had arrived in Pisa, and after a quick stop at a café, it was time to go to the Piazza del Duomo!
The city is quite odd and somewhat refreshing: the buildings are a hodgepodge of random shapes and sizes and even though this is tourism central, it’s a pretty calm area. We walked through a pretty nice circular space with curved buildings surrounding a large roundabout before heading down an awesome street towards the river. The banks of the river are framed by a great collection of different colored buildings, and following it around the curve is pretty great. We came to a very small church called Santa Maria della Spina, a fine example of Gothic architecture. It seemed like someone dropped it next to the river accidentally and forgot about it; the way in which it sits directly on the edge of the street so only three sides are accessible is an oddity, and the lack of its own courtyard or piazza reflects its odd site. However, the ornament of this building makes up for its other oddities: the extreme detail of the statues making up the majority of the decoration give the edge a fantastic three dimensional quality that takes a bit of observation to register. It cost money to get in and we had heard that the outside is all you really need to see (and three euro for a church with a floor plan as big as our apartment seemed silly), so we crossed the bridge and continued our mission.
As we walked along the street we finally saw the Duomo poking up above the buildings around us, and combined with the sudden influx of noise and street vendors we knew we had made it. At the end of the street the space suddenly opens up into a fantastic green space with the three main buildings of the Piazza dominating it: the Duomo, the Leaning Tower, and the Baptistery. The space here was pretty amazing, especially the contrast between the green grass, the (blindingly) white buildings, and the very blue sky. We enjoyed finally seeing the lean of the Tower in person, and as it turns out it is much more dramatic than I had thought! We took the typical tourist photos here for a minute before setting off for the ticket office to try to get up on top. Along the way we stopped and looked at the Duomo for a moment, which was oddly placed so that your initial approach from either entrance was to either its side (our approach) or its back (the main entry). It was pretty neat being able to walk completely around the church, since more often than not the backside is hidden in the dense city fabric it sits in.
We were sadly unable to purchase tickets to get on top because the next available time was at one, and our train was fifteen minutes later, so we just got the pass into the Duomo and Baptistery. Since we had a few minutes to kill we came to the far corner to take some more goofy pictures and enjoy the Piazza in a very complete view. One oddity I noticed here was that the more of the Duomo I included in my photos, the less the tower looked like it was leaning. I figured that the addition of something not-leaning would only highlight the angle of the Tower, but it was the opposite! After some self-timing magic for an OHIO picture we set off down the main axis to check out the Duomo. The front façade is pretty bland but interesting because as it gets taller the wall turns into a series of columns supporting each level with wall behind it, which creates a cool dematerialization as it moves towards the sky. The interior was somewhat disappointing, mostly because it was really anything we hadn’t seen before. The lighting was still quite nice and the scale (as always) was impressive, but other than that it was a pretty normal basilica. The roof was a great gold grid that helped highlight the perspective when looking down the central axis. The colors of the space were the highlight of the interior since a ton of the surfaces here were painted including the entire dome as well as a giant painting of Jesus in the apse above the altar. One feature I found interesting was how at the second (technically third or fourth story on a normal building) level the wall punches through the intersection of the transept and the aisle, cutting off this normally fantastic moment. However, the incorporation of columns at this point seems to place a special importance on this moment, rather than deny it due to the small glimpses given of the space beyond it, seeming to act as a teaser to bring you off of the main axis. One final odd moment cam above the altar just below the end of the dome: there was a v-shaped staircase rising up from the corners where the nave and transept meet towards a small door directly under the dome. This is something that I have never seen before, so it was pretty interesting to speculate as to its use.
After exploring the rest of the interior and being disappointed in the touristy atmosphere inside, we exited to walk across the Piazza to the Baptistery. Our first glimpse of the Baptistery made us realize that it, in fact, is also leaning! The exterior is pretty fantastic and the way that each level is articulated slightly differently (plain, columns, heavy ornament, etc.) adds an interesting layering effect to the rounded form. Once inside, however, any interest I had in the building was lost. It was one of the most bland and empty spaces I have been in, and aside from the awesome scale when looking up to the top of the dome, there was nothing happening. We made a quick circle around the bottom level before enjoying the second level (we came up for a view out of one of the windows towards the Duomo, not the Baptistery). I think the roof is the worst part: brick covered up with truly awful yellow stucco that flattens the space and sticks out horribly.
After we finished inside we made a quick lap around the outside edge of the Piazza to see the awesome view back of all three buildings before heading back to the station to catch out train to Florence! After milkshakes at McDonalds we were on our way, flying through some more beautiful countryside. It was an odd feeling having just sprinted through one of the most famous cities in Italy like we were just running an errand, and while it still amazes me that we have the ability to just take a quick trip to places like this, it is a bit unfortunate that we only got to experience it in the most touristy way possible. Anyway, the train was pretty fantastic, mostly because it was air-conditioned (I wrote refrigerated in my notebook because I had forgotten the words to describe the feeling). After a power nap we had arrived in Florence and it was time to continue our mad dash through the sites of Italy.
After walking through some pretty great streets and through some markets we came to the Accadamia, home to Michelangelo’s Prisoner statues and, most importantly, the David. After about an hour wait we were in and finally got to see him. It truly is a fantastic experience, and the craft of the marble is unlike anything I have ever seen. The emotion and implied action expressed by the work is phenomenal, and the space he sits in is great too! I snuck a picture of him but the security guy pounced and gave me a good scolding (but I kept the picture!), so we moved on to enjoy the Prisoner sculptures in a different room. We left soon thereafter to head to the Duomo (it seems like every city has one!), priority number one being a trip to the top! We stood in line for a while waiting to get in, until suddenly people started yelling and we turned around to see my real priority for coming to Florence: the cast of Jersey Shore!!!! Snooki and Sammi walked right past us in line to get to a café, causing quite a commotion among the Americans (a drastic majority) in the area. Once they had gone in we finally got through the line and started the climb.
The trip began with a series of pretty great spiral stairs, only made better by the accompaniment of the musical stylings (singing hymns and ringing a tiny bell) of one very religious and quite possibly homeless man. Once we had made it up to the beginning of the Dome and walked around the inner edge to look at the fantastic paintings, we began the second section of stairs that were quite possibly the most arduous of any I have been on. The stairs themselves were never regular, there were odd edges and corners poking into the space everywhere, and we were slanted along the edge of the dome itself. However, the spaces were pretty fantastic and the many small windows made for some awesome moments. Finally the time came to climb up the dome itself, which involved some of the steepest stairs I have climbed! I was instantly corrected, however, as the next set up to the cupola were so steep that I could stand on one and rest my chin on another without leaning forward! But we finally made it up, and it was so worth it!
The views out (as usual) were unbelievable, and I once again marveled at the incredible density of this city. We saw tons on famous buildings like Santa Croce and San Miniato al Monte, as well as the great river and the train station (slicing into the city like a giant metal splinter). We circled the small platform a few times enjoying the views and observing the awesome moments like when a small green space pops up from within the sea of orange-brown roofs. The edge of this dome is also fantastically steep, looking more like the beginning of the first hill of a rollercoaster than a gentle slope. Once we finished here we started a descent that made our climb up seem like a cakewalk. Thanks to the inclusion of only one staircase, we had to dodge not only the many obstacles of the stairways up, but also the impatient people using them! After a dizzying descent down the spiral staircases, we were back outside and getting in line to see the church itself.
We stopped again to look at Michelangelo’s doors to the Baptistery as well as the fantastic front façade before going inside. As with many churches here, the interior simply could not compete with the exterior. While the scale of the thing is impressive, the emptiness and the lack of good light (too artificial) combined with the swarms of tourists hogging all the good photo spots make it one underwhelming space. One interesting moment was how when you look down the axis you can see a small portion of the exquisite painting on the dome. This moment is the “happy” portion, and we noticed that when you go around the cupola, the majority of the art is made up of horrifying images of torture in Hell. Once we had escaped from this madhouse we stopped at a Lindt store for some chocolate (I got Stracciatella and Strawberry Panna Cotta!) before setting off for a gelato place that Lisa recommended.
We ended up coming to the piazza in front of Santa Croce where we got to enjoy the space without the structure for the concert that was being set up last time before finding (for the third time) some of our friends who travelled here separately. After enjoying the space for a while we left for gelato, which turned out to be very good (a little pricy though). From there we walked back to a cool market we found with lots of leather goods and returned to the station for our train. On our way my day was completed in excellent fashion: we saw Pauly D, Vinny, and Jwoww of Jersey Shore in a 99-cent store. Finally we came back to the train and returned home with little hassle and a lot of sleep. After another smelly and sauna-like bus ride back home I had a little dinner before dragging myself to bed after our mad dash through Italy!