Once again we went to the library. Today, while Sarah worked, I went for a walk. I explored the northeastern side of Florence, outside of the historic district. It was a pretty uneventful walk. Here are some pictures of the highlights:
Our broom technology is lightyears ahead of theirs.
They even have pro, or at least semi-pro, baseball in Italy.
This is unfortunately the best view I could get of Stadio Artemio Franchi (originally called the Comunale until it was renamed in 1991), the home of Fiorentina (Florence's top-flight professional soccer team). It has a capacity of 47,282. At the top center of the picture you can see the barricade which probably separates home and away fans.
One of Florence's smaller train stations. We always use the much larger Santa Maria Novella station. I really wish that we had a similar rail system in the states.
A cemetery I passed on the way back to Sarah's school. It was in the middle of a traffic circle.
The smaller two story building is Sarah's library. Her school is farther to the left off screen.
Later in the evening Sarah and I met Dan at a park along the Arno. There was a little refreshment stand that sold all kinds of drinks. We enjoyed the alcoholic variety, as did the hundreds of young Italians that showed up. Apparently it's a little hotspot. It was pretty fun. One really cool thing about it is that it is close to this amazing gate from the original town wall. Actually, it is the only one remaining at its original height. It is massive. If I had my camera I would have taken pictures. Sorry.
--Check that. I just looked on the Italian version of wikipedia. It is called Porta San Niccolo and was built around 1324. Here are two pictures from Italian wikipedia. I am amazed at how tall it is for such an old structure.
Front - from the east
Back - from the west
Wednesday 7/2/08
We got up at a decent time this morning because I had a 10:00 appointment at I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, with Michael Rocke (Librarian and Senior Research Associate for History) and Ilaria Della Monica (Reference Librarian and Archivist). I had to dress up in pants and a button-up shirt, of course, which would be the first time since I got here in this heat. We left the apartment around 9:00 and got to the bus stop near the Duomo around 9:15. I was dripping sweat already. The bus was quite hot too, so the whole ride my face was soaking wet. I'm letting you know in case you were wondering how much Chris Tangeman sweats in a day.
I Tatti is in the hills outside of town to the northeast of Florence. Once we got to our stop we still had a long uphill climb to get to the villa that once belonged to the eminent historian and art critic Bernard Berenson.
I was pretty nervous when I went into Michael Rocke's office. He asked me to describe my experiences and education. So I did. I must have looked guilty of something because I still had sweat dripping down my face. I Tatti has air conditioned areas, slightly air conditioned areas, and non-air conditioned areas. His office was slightly air conditioned but it didn't matter. I was still hot. Luckily my nerves were quickly put at ease when he made it clear that they wanted me to help and he wanted to know what I wanted to work on. The rest of the time I was there I was given a tour of the villa that has become a library and research center and trying to figure out when I'll be able to work. Unfortunately I'm going on a trip next week and they (Michael and Ilaria) are going on long vacations in a couple of weeks. We'll see. I'll be back at 9:00 tomorrow morning.
After that we trekked back down the hill and took the bus back to Sarah's library where, of course, we spent the rest of the afternoon. Sarah had to work at 1:00.
Later, after freshening up at home, we went with Kellin to House of Sizzle where we met Dan and Stephanie. It is a restaurant and bar that has a lot of American food and a hilarious British manager named Francesco. We had burgers and they were delicious. I was happily stuffed for the first time in a while. We went to the bar side for the rest of the evening. Good times and karaoke were had by all.
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