In the morning, we planned to meet BDan at the hotel and walk down to the Musee Galileo. Sadly, BDan planned to meet us at the Musee Galileo, but we sorted it out after only a moderate amount of comedy, and had an hour or two to walk around the museum. Lunch was at Trattoria Za Za (thanks for the recommendation, Jere7my!), and then back to the hotel to meet our bus.
interior courtyard at our hotel (il Guelfo Bianco) |
an interior ceiling in our hotel |
sewing machine table in the hallway of our hotel |
even our bathroom walls were decorative |
another view of the interior courtyard |
I met Bill in the lobby, and we grabbed breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I had an amazing cappuchino with incredibly fresh milk. |
some sort of street festival by the Duomo – the streets were mobbed |
what are these hooks for? |
ah, to hang poles from (of course) |
the Arno river |
Bill and Scott looking at the Arno; we saw chains of padlocks in lieu of graffiti in a number of places |
bank of the Arno |
the Ponte Vecchio, a Medieval bridge which still has buildings along it |
rowers on the Arno |
the closest i got to the Uffizi |
panorama along the Arno, including the Ponte Vecchio |
the oddly-positioned tower we noticed yesterday from the Duomo appears to be under construction |
statue near the Galileo Museum |
in the Galileo Museum, an astrolabe with many snakes |
a two-way painting: the canvas surface is three-dimensional with triangular folds; one image is painted on the bottom surface of the folds, and one on the top |
you go to war with the magnifying glass you have |
a perpetual calendar of sorts |
a very pointy astrolabe |
celestial spheres |
these globes were amazing, but didn't photograph well without flash |
constellations |
i've forgotten the story of this map, but am sharing it anyway because it's cool |
this one too |
also this one; i should have taken better notes |
i got my thumb in this shot (down the barrel of a telescope) |
this is the museum where Galileo's finger is kept (this is Galileo's finger) |
case in which Galileo's finger is kept — it's interesting to think about relics of science |
have an inclined plane, leave an inclined plane |
a lot of things are in the museum because they're pretty |
the little white card says 'no, seriously, don't touch this' |
another gadget that's too pretty not to share |
a jar for collecting static electricity |
a disc for collecting static electricity |
more electrical gadgetry |
telescopes again, from the outside this time |
i liked this detail we passed while walking back to the hotel |
we meet David and Tom back at the hotel |
tasty calamari at Trattoria Za Za |
prosciutto and melon at Trattoria Za Za (the first of several over the course of the week). I didn't photograph my own lunch, which was ravioli in truffle sauce, and was excellent |
musicians near Trattoria Za Za |
Bill, David, and Scott, after lunch |
Joe is certainly not in this picture; i'm not sure what i was thinking |
Our bus picked us up promptly at 14:00, and drove us to Sansepolcro, where we checked into the first hotel of the tour itself, a four-room place cheerfully renovated by the proprietress who met us. (David and Tom stayed at a different hotel down the street.) We had a couple of hours before meeting Giovanni and getting our bikes, so we wandered around Sansepolcro, stopping in a church and looking at the town walls. We met Giovanni and spent a long time outfitting our bikes and swapping parts around, before heading back to the hotel to look at routes and eat a late dinner at the hotel restaurant.
Driving alongside the river as we leave Florence |
First views of Italian countryside |
Italian countryside, with a bridge |
It's important to know where we are |
We are on a bus |
...in a tunnel |
Tom and David on the bus |
more views from the bus |
more views from the bus |
still heading the right way! |
more views from the bus |
from our hotel window in Sansepolcro |
another hotel window shot |
inside the cathedral in Sansepolcro |
information tag for the previous photo |
inside the cathedral in Sansepolcro |
inside the cathedral |
town walls |
more town walls |
stone and brick |
steps, not for bicycling |
outside the town walls |
stone behind a building facade |
roofs and walls |
commemorative Sansepolcro manhole cover |
Evidence that this really is a bicycle trip! |
dinner at Locande del Giglio in Sansepolcro |
dessert |