Tuscany takes on the South of France!
...Italy.
So I took up Anna-Maria's offer to visit down near Pisa in Tuscany. Using the super cheap and super simple (a bus goes straight from Lille to the front door of the airport) Charleroi airport in Belgium I headed on down bearing gifts from Lucia from the north of France. Anna and her husband Nick live in a small town nearby called Vicopisano nearby Pisa. He is Dutch/Italian she is French/Italian and they speak english, italian, dutch and french fluently. Ridiculous. They both work as language teachers and Nick also heads up a bagpipe troup and is a Scottish aficionado (kilts kilts kilts), he wears a bowler hat. They are part of the english group in Pisa and they study with many nigerians so they are now learning nigerian pidgeon, things like 'You face be fine'=you're looking good.
Tuscany vs the south of France:
Basically Tuscany is really similar to the south of France. Differences: they speak italian, cheese/coffee/pasta/ham, green shutters, more robberies, a bit dirtier, warmer, bad trains, etc. The italians are fun they love to cook and eat and sing and tell jokes and I keep noting with Lucia that italian is more similar to english than french is. Sometimes the french wont understand an expression in english but she will because they phrase it the same way in italian. So Tuesday I had the whole day to myself, Anna dropped me at the big train station in Pontedera (a kinda scary industrial town) and I headed out to Firenze.
Florence THE italian town. I got a 2 minute italian coaching on how to be polite in italian and I was off! I finally got into town with just a slight altercation on the train which included a man forcibly being thrown off the train for not having a ticket I chatted with some brothers and sisters at the cart outside the train station and made it into town for a morning tour. It was a town run by the medici and there is history in every stone in that city. Its a leather and jewelry town where ferragamo got started as well as the author of Pinnochio who knew? The families that lived there would fight with each other and if they would capture someones house they would chop the top off of it, you can see where these towers were rebuilt at the top, of course the medicis' towers are the tallest in town. Its actually a rather small (chic) town and of course after the tour and seeing the statue of David and the churches and the towers I went out on my search for pizza and gelato. I went here and it was sooo good, two words: rose/almond. I tried to find places where they didn't speak english (and the lines were long) so I guessed my flavors and I chose wisely, yum. I climbed up onto the wall along the bank of the river argo in front of the Ponte Vecchio caught some rays and enjoyed my gelato. Later in the afternoon I hiked my way up the Piazza di Michalangelo which overlooks Florence, gosh its gorgeous. The afternoon light was perfect and there was a couple of musicians playing at the top I enjoyed another moment under the Tuscan sun, but I needed to catch my train, I speed walked to the other side of town and hopped on. That night we feasted on pannenkoeken complete with dutch carosel music courtesy of Nick.
Wednesday was a service day and by service I mean joining in on Anna's studies. So many people want to study its amazing. Many people come to help out the group there in beautiful Tuscany so the group is made up of Scots, Americans, English, italians, Africans from all over, and others. That night we chilled with a nice bottle of wine and the broadcast.
Thursday was finally our day in Pisa. So you might be interested to know that Pisa is actually a more lively city than Florence; both are huge tourist towns but Pisa also is the home of several univeristies. All in all although Florence is goregeous, its a bit cold and dirty and i got the feeling that if the tourists suddenly dissapeared no one lived there. So Pisa, Pisa also has some beautiful archetecture and it used to be a port town (I had no idea). Anna had a doctors appt in town so I spent the morning strolling around town getting some espresso and gelato once again climbing up onto the wall embankment along the river leaning up against a light post napping in the sun. There are some nice markets and stores to check out in Pisa and if you get a little ways away from the leaning tower it gets much less touristy and cheaper, there are also a botanical gardens and museums to check out as well. Once Anna and I met up again of course it was on like donkey kong to take some thoughtfully planned photos with the leaning tower. Interestingly enough the buildings surrounding the tower, which is on the same property as an old italian abbey, and other buildings in town are also leaning. Remember I said it was an old port town? Water, sandy soil, marble buildings? We finished our day by buying 8 pounds worth of parmesan cheese to take back (parma is nearby) and biscotti and other goodies. I got to go to the meeting that night with everyone, after we went on a scouting mission for chichina (basically a chick pea paste pizza) started watching Enchanted and went to bed.
Basically italians really are stylish, love food, and are warm and generous. Lucia has really talked up Sicily so this is the next italian adventure in my sights. Thank you Colletti family for showing me that italians are fun!-cough and teaching me how to cook like an italian-
So I took up Anna-Maria's offer to visit down near Pisa in Tuscany. Using the super cheap and super simple (a bus goes straight from Lille to the front door of the airport) Charleroi airport in Belgium I headed on down bearing gifts from Lucia from the north of France. Anna and her husband Nick live in a small town nearby called Vicopisano nearby Pisa. He is Dutch/Italian she is French/Italian and they speak english, italian, dutch and french fluently. Ridiculous. They both work as language teachers and Nick also heads up a bagpipe troup and is a Scottish aficionado (kilts kilts kilts), he wears a bowler hat. They are part of the english group in Pisa and they study with many nigerians so they are now learning nigerian pidgeon, things like 'You face be fine'=you're looking good.
Tuscany vs the south of France:
Basically Tuscany is really similar to the south of France. Differences: they speak italian, cheese/coffee/pasta/ham, green shutters, more robberies, a bit dirtier, warmer, bad trains, etc. The italians are fun they love to cook and eat and sing and tell jokes and I keep noting with Lucia that italian is more similar to english than french is. Sometimes the french wont understand an expression in english but she will because they phrase it the same way in italian. So Tuesday I had the whole day to myself, Anna dropped me at the big train station in Pontedera (a kinda scary industrial town) and I headed out to Firenze.
Florence THE italian town. I got a 2 minute italian coaching on how to be polite in italian and I was off! I finally got into town with just a slight altercation on the train which included a man forcibly being thrown off the train for not having a ticket I chatted with some brothers and sisters at the cart outside the train station and made it into town for a morning tour. It was a town run by the medici and there is history in every stone in that city. Its a leather and jewelry town where ferragamo got started as well as the author of Pinnochio who knew? The families that lived there would fight with each other and if they would capture someones house they would chop the top off of it, you can see where these towers were rebuilt at the top, of course the medicis' towers are the tallest in town. Its actually a rather small (chic) town and of course after the tour and seeing the statue of David and the churches and the towers I went out on my search for pizza and gelato. I went here and it was sooo good, two words: rose/almond. I tried to find places where they didn't speak english (and the lines were long) so I guessed my flavors and I chose wisely, yum. I climbed up onto the wall along the bank of the river argo in front of the Ponte Vecchio caught some rays and enjoyed my gelato. Later in the afternoon I hiked my way up the Piazza di Michalangelo which overlooks Florence, gosh its gorgeous. The afternoon light was perfect and there was a couple of musicians playing at the top I enjoyed another moment under the Tuscan sun, but I needed to catch my train, I speed walked to the other side of town and hopped on. That night we feasted on pannenkoeken complete with dutch carosel music courtesy of Nick.
Wednesday was a service day and by service I mean joining in on Anna's studies. So many people want to study its amazing. Many people come to help out the group there in beautiful Tuscany so the group is made up of Scots, Americans, English, italians, Africans from all over, and others. That night we chilled with a nice bottle of wine and the broadcast.
Thursday was finally our day in Pisa. So you might be interested to know that Pisa is actually a more lively city than Florence; both are huge tourist towns but Pisa also is the home of several univeristies. All in all although Florence is goregeous, its a bit cold and dirty and i got the feeling that if the tourists suddenly dissapeared no one lived there. So Pisa, Pisa also has some beautiful archetecture and it used to be a port town (I had no idea). Anna had a doctors appt in town so I spent the morning strolling around town getting some espresso and gelato once again climbing up onto the wall embankment along the river leaning up against a light post napping in the sun. There are some nice markets and stores to check out in Pisa and if you get a little ways away from the leaning tower it gets much less touristy and cheaper, there are also a botanical gardens and museums to check out as well. Once Anna and I met up again of course it was on like donkey kong to take some thoughtfully planned photos with the leaning tower. Interestingly enough the buildings surrounding the tower, which is on the same property as an old italian abbey, and other buildings in town are also leaning. Remember I said it was an old port town? Water, sandy soil, marble buildings? We finished our day by buying 8 pounds worth of parmesan cheese to take back (parma is nearby) and biscotti and other goodies. I got to go to the meeting that night with everyone, after we went on a scouting mission for chichina (basically a chick pea paste pizza) started watching Enchanted and went to bed.
Basically italians really are stylish, love food, and are warm and generous. Lucia has really talked up Sicily so this is the next italian adventure in my sights. Thank you Colletti family for showing me that italians are fun!-cough and teaching me how to cook like an italian-
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