Florence

Today four of us took a train to Florence and wandered around. Near the end of my trip we visited the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, a big cathedral.


Chris, Bart, and Peter near the cathedral


Giotto's bell tower



Cathedral entrance


River view in Florence


A bridge


A church in Florence


Art in Pisa


Political graffiti in Pisa. I was told this is the outside of a building where a political club meets.

Pisa's Cathedral Square

Yesterday the whole class took a walk and visited the cathedral square in Pisa. We got there around sunset.


Tower and cathedral


The Baptistery

Campus and restaurant

The campus of CNR, across the street from where my room is. This is where my classrooms are.

From left to right: Bart from India/Berkeley, Etan, Chiara from the University of Bologna, and Dag from Norway. Dag served in the Norwegian cavalry, studied philosophy, and is now working with schizophrenics. Etan suggested that Socrates, a brave soldier, was maybe a fictional character dreamed up by Plato or someone else. Absurd! I really doubt this is true.

Pisa

I'm in Pisa now. It's 11:30 pm. I got here around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m., I think. I flew from JFK to Rome and then jumped on a transfer flight to Pisa. My Alitalia flight was delayed around two hours in New York, so it was a drag. I learned from two people here that Alitalia has a reputation for being late.

I met a young German au pair on my ride to JFK. She had taken care of two girls in Seymour and flew back to see one of them for their high-school graduation. On the flight from Rome to Pisa I sat next to a young red-haired woman from Moscow, an ESL teacher who was flying to Pisa to meet her boyfriend. He is an electrician.

After I settled in here at my room near CNR I took a walk. Italy is very pretty with all of its old houses, mountains, and strange trees. It sometimes feels magical here. I'll try to upload pictures later.