STILL LEANING
December 21-22
We are on
the train to Pisa on our way to Lucca to visit our friends Roberto and San
Donato. They are having us to their
place in Lucca for the Christmas Holiday.
A lovely invitation gratefully accepted. Because we have never taken the
train from Rome, we leave early for the Terminal. It is a simple process that I have mentally
turned into getting on the space shuttle.
Because we are early, I am able to check on trains returning from
Florence and how to get to Naples. My
first information clerk is an older woman who claims to speak no Italian. I must reenter the line and wait for the
clerk who does speak English. He
immediately tells me that in fact the other clerk does speak English and just
didn’t want to bother with me. I knew that.
No matter, the clerk gets me sorted out right away. We enter the train portion of the Station to
wait for our track and train. It is
late; I thought Mussolini had taken care of that kind of thing. When the track
is announced there is a general rush for the platform. I join the rush and we move quickly to the
correct place. In my rush to get to our seats, I actually helped push some
other older woman up the stairs by her bottom, which seems to have been
appreciated. When you book an Italian
train, you are given a seat number no matter whether you go First or Second
Class. I think they forgot to tell the
passengers that they all had seats. It
was a guerilla warfare scene with people pushing toward the doors as if there
were only a few seats left. I instantly
became part of the crowd. We got to our
cabin where we took the seats that we had reserved. As we waited a guy in our
car was obviously in the wrong seat, but he seemed not to be moving. There was some conversation, mostly not unpleasant
and finally this old guy went to where he was probably supposed to go in the
first place. The last placeholders arrived.
They were a beautifully dressed elderly Roman couple. He was very dapper with handsome clothes and
she wore some very large diamonds and a mink coat. They had enough luggage to be away for 3
years. It was piled in the corridor and
heavy. The train was old but comfortable.
As to food, bring your lunch at least on Trenitalia. We will take the Eurostar home from Florence
and maybe it will all be different. The
train does go fast and we landed in Pisa late about the same amount of time, as
we were when we left Rome. My learning
curve continues to lengthen. Still that
old problem of not speaking Italian for me. Kim is fantastic at speaking, it’s
just when people answer when we have our problem. Apparently, this is a common issue for all
Italian language students; they speak and then have problems with the
conversational answer. Anyway, Kim
sounds fantastic. I try to listen hard.
Last
night in Rome every street seemed to be having a party. For some reason the weather turned warmer as
the sun went down. Our evening
passagiata was a wonderful circle from our place to the Campo de Fiori and on
around to Piazza Navona and finished with a late viewing of the Pantheon. Piazza Navona is filled with Christmas junk
and crèche items. However, a brief stop
in the Borromini church that faces Bernini’s magnificent 4 rivers fountain made
me look away from the junk and think about the genius of these two architects
who competed to build the most intricate fountains, villas and opulent
churches. It is widely acknowledged that
Bernini has won the popularity contest although the architectural fellows at
the Academy disagree, savoring the classical purity of Borromini. But who
cares? We are the winners. I am hoping that Kim has kept track of all
the churches she has entered. When she
gets to the pearly gates I can only hope that some Catholic monk who is keeping
track of such things has her list. She is the clear winner in the most churches
visited in Rome contest. She must be
close to 100. I wait outside and will go
in if she tells me about something good.
We have
been told that Pisa is just another old Italian town. My first view of the leaning tower proves
that wrong. It is stunning next to the
Duomo and the old baptistry. Even I did
not object going into the delightfully Romanesque church. A fine combination of old and older, it was
started in the 1100’s and only took 250 years to finish. Above the main altar Cimibue’s last work, a
sensational Christ in mosaic beams down to us.
The strength and spirituality of the Italian artists leaves most
onlookers breathless, even me. You are
now able to walk to the top of the tower, but I limit myself to taking pictures
from all angles. I sort of lost it and
may have overdone the pix. Oh well, we
have a delete button. The entire setting
is really well done, lots of grass and open space to view the lean. I am glad
we didn’t miss it.
Packages
are wrapped, we are in an ok place in Pisa, weather cold but fine, and we are
looking forward to the Holiday time.
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