The leaning tower of pisa. Day 6

Last night my friends and i got lost. And nothing has been more fun so far. Wondering around we found a Latin American market with all kinds of fun jewelry, beautiful views of the Arno with light reflecting of the water, a park fully equipped with swings, and the most spectacular view of the city. I dont think i got to bed until near two in the morning (again). My poor roomate must think im doing all kinds of crazy stuff, but it does not really matter. Ive mostly mastered the art of sneaking into bed without lights. We have tried to sleep without the heater on for the first couple of nights, but we have both aggreed thats just stupid. Its almost the same feeling as jumping into a frozen lake. You throw off the four layers that youve been fully consumed in all night and the cold...its taken some getting used to. Unfortunetly, again this morning we woke up in the cold, the fist night i was hoping to not have to go threw that again. Except this time, it was also dark. The power had gone out. Dakota wasnt sure what to do, so i jumped up and checked the brakers. All of them were on, so i then checked outside, and they were all on aswell. The odd thing was that the lights in the hall were on, but we were running out of time to get to the bus to go to Pisa.

The bus ride over was beautiful, the views of the country changed soo drastically and so quickly it seemed that this was some kind of made up world that i accidently stepped into. Forests, mountains, fog, wineries, olive trees, everything italian could be seen from the window. It was about a two hour bus ride there, i got on the bus that went to Luca first (a small city famous for their walls). Luca was adorable, much smaller than i thought. There were two cathedrals that really had that old feeling to them. Two things really stuck out to me: the Lippi painting, with its incredibly vibrant colors, and a painting that dates back to 5 A.D. supposedly painted by a man that had actually seen Jesus. Theoretically, it is the only portrait that exsists of Jesus. But you never know how true that is. We got lunch there, and gelato (of course) and then got back on the bus to go to Pisa. Now, it was raining the entire time, so i could only take pictures when i had some kind of cover, or the rain stopped. But once i got to pisa, it was almost like "screw this, i need to take pictures of this". The four monuments, all centered around the cathedral, were the cathedral itself, the bell tower (better known as the leaning tower of pisa), a beautiful marble cemetary and the Baptisry. In all honestly, the Leaning tower itself was rather unspectacular in comaprison to everything else. My first thought was, "wow, its not very tall". I
guess it just looks taller in pictures. But the Catherdral was spectacular. At the time that it was built it was the largest in the world. It was the first one to be built to resemble a cross, and it was the first one to incorperate a full scale dome. All other famous cathedrals, such as the Duomo or snt Peters, were all based on this original design. The ceiling, however, was the most beautiful thing. All gold, the pictures do not do it justice. Yet, my favorite thing of the day was the Baptistry. It was specfically designed to create an echo, and a women there gave an example, chanting for a couple of minutes. It was absouletly phenominal. The trip concluded at that point, and we all got on the bus to head home.

Well, once i got home the power was still out. This sucks, and it was friday night too, which meant that AIFS wasnt even in the office. This meant there was a good chance we may have to live without power for the weekend (not a horrible idea, considering i had been used to comeing home in the cold and dark anyways) but still not something i was excited about. So i went to see what i could do. I was walking the streets, trying to figure out where i could go to find AIFS when i walked into one of the AIFS leaders: Phillipa. She came over to look at it, and then called around and got the landlord to show up. He very quickly flipped a braker located six feet of the groun downstairs that gave my apartment power (italian electricty...) and i had power back. He was very nice, and very young, so i expect that he was likely the son of the actual owner.

That night, to cap it off, i went out with friends to diner, and then walked the streets at night talking. It was a fantastic day.