Photo: Leaning Tower of Pisa
Mar 17, 1979 A beautiful day to view the Tower as well as other architectural sights. Pisa was a big tourist destination. I departed at 11 AM and almost forgot my toilet kit and passport. It was 55 miles to Florence on a mostly flat road. I found the Florence Hostel, washed clothes, and hung them outside to dry.
Photo: Statues including copy of David, Florence
Mar 18, 1979 I went to a couple of art museums. Much of it was priceless art treasures from the Renaissance Period. I ve been through so many museums in the last weeks that after hour of concentration, the Old Masters all start to look the same. I met a pair of bikers traveling from Sicily to London.
Photo: Florence tile rooftops
Photo: Statue of David, Florence
Mar 19, 1979 I walked the street markets with 2 west coast US students, Jodi and Jennie, attending separate European universities. We each ran into people we had seen or met elsewhere. I saw a French Canadien I had met in Aix en Provence. He joked that the postcard of the statue of a fat man was the David after eating too much spaghetti.
Mar 20, 1979 I had my hostel breakfast with two Singapore students. They are the only people I have met who know what an actuary is. I went to see the David , then left for Arezzo.
Outside of small towns police would sometimes stop me and ask me my business. I answered the obvious, tourist . Enroute today, I spent 90 minutes in a bar waiting for the rain to stop.
After 55 miles I reached the picturesque old town of Arezzo. The low budget hostel, despite an appealing setting overlooking a square, was the worst I have stayed in. Typical was toilet paper , squares of torn up newspaper stuck on a nail on the wall.
Map of South France & Italy
