“Expecting much gunfire in these caves?”  Not exactly, but I couldn’t help but wish to see some classic dynamite mining.

 

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to crunch time in Italia!  With very few days left, we’re packing it all in and getting oh so little sleep in the process.  For example, today we took a trip to the marble quarry that Michelangelo got his materials from and then to Pisa for the famous tower.

 

Today started with another early expedition, and so we were all ecstatic about it.  For around 1.5 hours we sat on the bus as the beautiful scenery of Tuscany flew by.  It was then that we arrived at Cave Michelangelo, a massive and famous marble company.  Our tour started with their cutting yards where they had massive multi-ton slabs all over the place waiting to be cut into perfect shapes.  It was raining, as it often seems to do these days, so we rushed into their sculpting center.

 

There were sculptures all over the place.  Some of them were originals, others were replicas of famous works, but all of them were phenomenal.  At the time there were a few workers happily working on their projects and packing up some to ship to customers.  The building itself was fairly large and spacious, but they had art in every corner and covering every inch of the place, making it feel quite populated.  Our guide led us around and explained some of the work and the processes they went through.  I would repeat them to you but I’m afraid I’d mess them up and that I’ve forgotten some details since this morning.  Promptly after that, the guide led us into the office where he showed us some of their sculptures locations across the world.  These guys knew what they to say the least.

 

Since it was raining there was doubt that we would be allowed to head up into the quarry on the mountain, but we were given the go-ahead.  We all expected to use some sort of off-road vehicle to get up there, but instead we discovered the bus would be our vehicle.  If we thought the roads were a tight fit before, we were wrong.  The mountain path was as tight as it could be, pushing our bus to the limit.  At point we were doubtful the little bus could continue up the steep incline, but we were proven wrong time and again.  That bus driver deserves an award for that display of skill.

 

Finally we made it to the top and the view was impressive.  Not only were we nearing the peak of the mountain range, but the marble cutting operations were a spectacle on their own.  Layers upon layers of white marble with cutting machines and other vehicles all the way up.  There’s not much I can do to express how impressive it all was.  After a while of observation and some guidance, we hopped back on the bus for a bumpy ride down to get on the way to our next destination.

 

Some amount of time later we arrived at the outskirts of Pisa.  From there we had to get on a bus that would take us right up to the main attractions.  The moment we stepped off of the bus we were berated by salesmen trying to get us to buy watches, sunglasses, and handbags.  We were happy to disappoint them all.  Everyone made it onto the bus and over to the main square that contained a baptistry, a basilica, a graveyard, and the leaning tower itself.  As per usual we received a guide who led us right to the graveyard.  I must say that graveyard is probably the wrong term for what we were in.  It was a spacious structure with a high ceiling and an inner courtyard.  All over the walls were frescoes and in the ground were large, distinct rectangles of marble.  It turns out that the Pisans were burying some of their dead in sarcophagi and others in the ground where they were marked by those large marble slabs.  Each slab had some sort of inscription on it detailing who was there, and there were a ton of inscriptions all over the place.  Pretty creepy…

 

Next came the baptistry.  To be blunt, it was rather empty.  It had two floors but we spent most of the time on the first floor.  At one point an employee came along and gave us a demonstration of the acoustics.  Every note she sung reverberated all over the building, so I’d rate it’s acoustics as super impressive.  Outside the door and across some grass was the basilica.  Its exterior looked like a large basilica and so did its interior.  Compared to Rome’s basilicas, this was rather unimpressive to us, so it’s clear we’ve been spoiled.  We took some time to meander and soon enough it was time to climb the tower.

 

From a distance the tilt doesn’t look like much, but up close it’s very noticeable.  The tower was constructed in a couple of phases spread out by around one hundred years.  It’s actually not completely straight because during the second phase the engineers tried to make it appear more straight by slanting the new floors slightly.  To their dismay, the tower sank more and those efforts were all for naught.  So now the tower has a banana shape to it if you look closely.  For a banana tower, it was an awfully long way to the top, but we bolted up it nonetheless.  Going up and down was a challenge because of the slant.  Some of the steps were easier but most were more difficult to ascend.  At the top there was a fantastic view of Pisa and the nearby mountains.

 

We were only allowed to stay up there a short amount of time so we headed down after a half an hour.  Retracing our steps we hopped back onto the bus and motored on back to Florence to prepare for tomorrow.  Coming up we have our tour of Sienna and a wine tasting in the evening.  It should be a particularly good day for all!  Have a good one everybody!

 

– Chris Apfeld