Pisa

Sublimely ridiculous.
That pretty much is how I'd describe the leaning tower and it's surrounding environment - I spent a good while just sitting on the grass watching it. And the people posing around it. Briliant.
There is something about that tower that I love. I'm not sure whether it's the fact people continued to build it taller despite it leaning, tried to correct it and inevitably made it lean in the opposite direction and then topped it all off with a tilted 'hat' at the top to balance it up or perhaps it's the habit that Italians seem to have of beginning a project with one material in one style and finishing with something completely different... but it's great.

Then I visited the Duomo and Baptistry which are next door. I wasn't that impressed until I listened to the commentry - and I would put money on it being Sybil from Fawlty Towers or one of the Python girls reading a rough interpretation of the Italian description very quickly. And just so you'd realise when it was over, she finished with a 'end of description'. What more could you ask for.

Anyway, I'm off to wander around the town a little bit more.

Florence, Firenze, it's all the same thing...

*just a note if anyone is struggling because the blog page is in Italian, which happened to my mum... go to the homepage (www.blogger.com), look at the bottom of the page and click on 'lingua' - then you can change the language to whatever your heart desires*

Well, a quick list of the museums\galleries\churches\stuff I've been to in the last two days...
1. The San Lorenzo Church - has a few tombs designed by Donatello (it's also where he was buried), a painting by Fillipo Lippi, a painting which is an exact replica of the sky on July 4 in 16-something and where I was yelled at by a curator for leaning on the marble railing to look at the exact replica of the sky on July 4.
2. The Bibliotecca next to San Lorenzo - designed by Michelangelo, it has the coolest staircase ever. I want a library in my house just like it. There was also an exhibition which displayed medieval manuscripts (the highly decorated ones) with various fantasy images like dragons or griffins which was pretty cool.
3. The Leonardo Museum - not worth the €5 euro although if I wasn't convinced that the man was pretty damn smart I am now. And he was obsessed with war machinery.
4. The Bargello Museum - home to some of the greatest statues in the world, with a room dedicated to both Michelangelo and Donatello. My favourite was Michelangelo's earlier David statue, which was the first nude 'done' since the Roman classical era and looks like a transvestite. If I could have taken a photo, I would have.
5. The Historical Science Museum - two levels of science equipment from around the 14th century onwards, including Galileo's finger (yes, his actual middle finger from his right hand). Was much more interesting than it sounds - a gallery on sundials, on chemistry, on mechanical devices... ok, I'm a nerd. And one gallery which made me glad to be a 21st century woman - the surgical obstetrics waxworks. Eeewww.
6. Piazza Spangoli - basically an outdoor museum which statues dotted around everywhere, including a replica of the more famous 'David' (the one that doesn't look gay) - the original is now safely indoors. I did take a photo of this one but I can't get them onto the computer at this stage. Will keep you posted when I do.
7. Ponte Vechio - the only bridge the Nazi's didn't raze during WW2 and full of goldsmiths.

I was planning to visit the Uffitzi today but there are staff meetings, tour groups... plan to go on Sunday instead. So am really enjoying Florence.
Oh, and the coolest clock at the Science musuem - a ball came down a spiral and when it got to the bottom, it was thrown back up into the air and the clock reset itself. Pretty damn cool. Almost as cool as the one which wrote a set phrase every day (the clock movement moved a mechanical hand attached to a nib and inkpot.)

Firenze

Finally made it to Florence - I left the hostel at 10:15 and got to Florence at roughly 7pm without much waiting around so it was definately a travel day. Spent the whole time on the train eating chips, biscuts, other stuff... and missing my iriver who is sadly out of battery and guess who forgot the charger while packing hungover in the UK??? (Give you a clue, Taryn was there :oP)

Not much to write really as a result...

Oh wait - I met this girl called Rosalba on the bus to Amalfi so on Tuesday night I went to Ravello and met her. She ended up having to work late so she invited me around for dinner which was really nice of her. Talked a bit about Italian politics, made fun of George Bush, and then I wandered back to the bus station to find that all the buses had stopped for the night. So I ended up paying 25 euro to get a taxi to Amalfi! D'oh.

Yeah, am off to stand in queues for hours on end. And, like me, perhaps it's time to let maths2 go. Good luck with the next tour all you travelling showpeople.

Le Scale d'Amalfi - The Stairs of Amalfi

I heard about this hostel from the guys at 6 small rooms in Napoli (see last posts) and it sounded pretty promising so I decided to stay for a few nights. I spent one night in Ischia (which I loved but more later) and then caught the ferry to Napoli, bus to Salerno and another to Amalfi. Luckily I met a local who works in the art gallery in Ravello (nearby) and she was catching the same bus so I chatted to her for the whole hour and a half trip... it was pretty amazing road, it's very very narrow, very very windy and it's right along the edge of the coast. At one point, the bus had to reverse back up the road because there just isn't enough room for cars to pass each other at the corners.
Eventually we got to Amalfi, caught ANOTHER bus to the hostel and then the fun bit. Walking up 296 stairs with my backpack. Luckily, I'm a fairly sensible woman and only packed what I actually need (as opposed to what I may want) so I made it ok(ish). Another girl staying here had a pack that weighed 23kg plus another backpack weighing 8kg. Crazy.

Today we went to the beach - an extra 746 stairs. So that's (ooh, pressure for the maths girl) 1042 stairs one way. Which we had to climb back up again. I think the words 'a lot of stairs' don't really give justice to it. Ooof.

Ischia was gorgeous - full of germans, all the signage was in german. But at night I went to a restaraunt overlooking the ocean, ate magharita pizza while the sun set and had a grande birra (a pint). Then, to top it off, the hotel just to the left of us and a little below had a fireworks display that lasted for about 6 minutes. Sitting there, drinking my beer, watching a ocean sunset and then fireworks... pretty damn good.

They also have a garden on Ischia belonging to the composer William Wallace which was stunning. It even had banksias. They also have a Victorian lilly, which opens in the morning as a female to catch bugs and then shuts its petals and reopens the next day as a male. Pretty damn cool as well. The only bad thing about it was that it must have been the mating season for the frogs because every single pond had frogs madly going at it. It was bordering on pornographic.

So now I'm off to Ravello tommorrow to meet the local girl for lunch and help her with her English. Then I head up to Florence, which from all accounts is like a giant gallery and pretty impressive, so I'm looking forward to it.

Hope you're all happy and healthy.