And another thing...

After the Ponte Vecchio I walked along the Arno, the sun was blazing hot (it was just noon by now) but I was feeling no pain (well, maybe a twinge or two) - Florence had worked its magic on me. So I kept going. I had one of those "ah-ha" moments when I came out from under a kind of arcade and looked back toward the Ponte Vecchio. I had read about how one of the Medicis had wanted a covered walkway from his home in the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river so that he could walk to work at the Palazzo Vecchio without mixing with the great unwashed. He commissioned one of the big name architects to build this for him. I had read about this more than once but couldn't quite picture it and then I realized I had just walked out from under it. I looked up and saw the enclosed second storey and the light dawned. Isn't it great what a liberal arts education will do for you! This walkway thing would be comparable to the President of MIT deciding he wanted to walk over to Mass General without ever crossing through traffic.

I walked past the Museo di Storio della Scienza where in Galileo's telescope as well as the bones of his right middle finger are on display. There's a message there somewhere. Getting a little weary by this time I kept going to the Piazza dei Cavalieggri and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale. It is easy to see why it suffered so badly from the flood in 1966. By this time though I was afraid if I stopped I wouldn't be able to keep going so I kept on to Santa Croce where I paused to rest the feet which by this time were throbbing. The story gets less interesting from here. I was hungry and tired so I looked at the map and plotted the most direct route back to the hotel. I realized that the Duomo was about half-way between me and my hotel so I stopped for some pizza in a little place on the back side of the cathedral. With the pizza I ordered a liter of aqua minerale gazzatto - now I know how big a liter really is. I'm still drinking from that bottle and I know why the waiter seemed surprised. Feeling somewhat restored I staggered on and made it back to the room in time to clean up and change for the opening sessions of the conference which was to start at 3:00 pm (or 15:00 hrs.). So now I've shared the fun part of the day and I'm signing off for the night. Tomorrow I'll tell you a little about the conference and the wonderful evening I had tonight eating at the home of a new friend and her husband in a wonderful place about half-way up the road to Fiesole. Somebody pinch me. Tomorrow is the end of the conference and in the afternoon I'll be running around trying to see a lot more before my feet really do fall off. And then home. So stay tuned for more.