David, Duomos and Domers

Originally written on Mar 7 2010

I’m sitting in the Pisa airport right now absolutely relishing the fact that we are an hour and a half early for our flight.  Even though we got a little lost on the drive back to the airport, we still arrived with plenty of time to ‘prendo una macchiato,’ walk through duty-free shops (my favorite) and catch a quick cat nap at the gate.  Mmm, what a contrast to our frantic sprint through Stansted only last Thursday!

Tuscany has absolutely flown by…I can’t believe that in only an hour we’ll be on a flight to Barcelona, the next leg of our adventure!  Saturday night the boys cooked us some delicious spaghetti carbonara while they let the ladies shower…what keepers.  Dinner was heavenly (duh) and after we finished up Enrica’s daughter Claudia and her boyfriend Lucca came over for some vino and conversation!  About five to seven years older than us, they spoke English about as well as we spoke Italian, so there was a lot of hybrid mixing of the languages, asking Peter and Lucca to translate words as we scribbled all over sheets of paper and napkins.  Lots of laughter and two bottles of Lucchesi (Lucca region) wine later, we had two wonderful new Italian friends! 

Yesterday we got up really early, about 7:15, to get ready to go to Florence for the day.  Peter drove us in our lovely Fiat, which we have named Figaro or “Figgy” for short, to Lucca; we caught a 1.5 hour train to Firenze that dropped us right in the heart of the city.  Being the good Catholic schoolchildren we are, Mass was first on our order of priorities, and churches are one thing Firenze is not short on!  We went to 10:30 Mass at the stunning-beautiful-breathtaking-indescribable Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, colloquially known as Il Duomo.  From the outside it’s like spumoni, all green, red and white marble with statues and intricate carving, so I was surprised by the relative austerity and simplicity of the interior…

…until we got under the famous Duomo, constructed by Brunelleschi.  Suffice it to say I was breathless for all of Mass and left the Duomo with a crick in my neck that lasted for hours.

Lunch was next on our agenda and we absolutely dominated some amazing Italian pizza…I had “salsicci e carducci,” or sausage-and-onion.  Delicious...

Yesterday was the Italian Festival of Women so Coleen, Kate and I got free admission to L’Accademia de Bell’Arti, which is home to Michelangelo’s famous statue of David.  We saw some beautiful Renaissance-era religious iconography and then turned into a long hall filled with unfinished Michelangelo sculptures…it was insane to see his works-in-progress and realize just what it takes to create a sculpture of that magnitude.  Best of all was the sight of The David at the end of the hallway in the center of a light-filled atrium.  Words can’t describe.  The veins in his hand, the knuckles on his toes and fingers, the hollows of his neck and planes of his musculature…it is the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen in my life.  I’m pretty sure we spent about twenty minutes just looking, and I came back twice more in the course of our time at the museum.  It’s easily the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. 

After L’accademia, we shopped the famous Florentine market scene and, between the five of us, left with: a Venetian carnival mask (Kate), an Italian silk tie (Charlie), two Italian soccer scarves (Peter), a watercolor print of the Florentine cityscape (me) and major postcard-age (Coleen).  We strolled down to the Ponte Vecchio in the sunshine, shopping a bit along the way at the artisan craftsmen’s shops.  Ponte Vecchio was beautiful but everything was WAY out of our price range…still, fun to look. 

By this time, we were all pretty tired and getting crabby, but I was determined to get to the top of the Piazzale di Michelangelo to see the view of the Florentine skyline that everybody I’ve talked to has raved about.  Sadly, the rest of my group wasn’t too crazy about the idea of walking a mile to climb a huge hill and freeze our butts off looking at a view…but I’m thankful to say they humored me, albeit crankily, and we headed out to la Piazzale.  It was a miserable climb…cold but hot, uneven stairs, etc, but the views along the way and the gelato we bought at the top more than made up for it.  And then there was the benefit of the view…

After enjoying the gelato and view (and meeting some Notre Dame connections through a SMC transfer student!), we headed back down the Piazzale and walked back to the train station.  Tired, cold and ready for a break, we settled in for the two-hour train ride home and completely passed out…then drove around for a while looking for a restaurant until we stumbled upon Il Gattino Bianca, or “The Little White Cat,” where we enjoyed a completely authentic, traditional three-course Italian meal.  Oh, Dio mio, words can’t describe, which is the theme of this trip…it was delicious.  Highlights were Charlie eating boar meat, Peter’s filleta with truffle oil, and the amazing stuffed calamari Kate and I had…not to mention the to-die-for tiramisu we shared for dessert! 

Then it was laundry time, where the misadventures of Team Tuscalonis (our team name, so bad-ass, right?!) to continue…the washing machine was broken and spewed water all over the bathroom, so Kate, Coleen and I did the laundry by hand.  I have such a deeper appreciation for the travails of pioneers. J  After some chianti and conversation, we collapsed into bed before getting up at 5:30am to say “Arrivederci” to Tuscany!

More updates to come from Barcelona!