400 Years of the Telescope

My long walks on Sunday induced long sleep on Monday, with the result that by the time I reached Florence, our Galileo had already been selected by Kris and the crew--about eight showed up, just the sort of number we needed. I went to the internet shop and then walked to the museum of science, where I discovered to my horror that I no longer had my glasses, my beautiful, progressive glasses that I had just shelled out big bucks for. I hoofed it back to the internet shop, then to the loggia at the main piazza; in both places helpful and sympathetic people said with regret that they had no glasses. Fearful of the outcome, I tried my last hope--the museum itself, where it turned out that indeed they had them. This made lunch a lot better--it was already pretty fine, since the cafeteria in the Uffizi center makes American ones look pretty punk; furthermore, as our pleasant contact person from th museum--Karen, a Canadian formerly an archaeologist, later trained in museum work--pointed out, mentioning the museum gets you a discount. We adjourned to the museum for a bit more negotiating, and then, leaving Kris's wife Ella and Michel Mayor's wife Francoise to stroll downtown, took taxis to the hotel for our gear and then up to the hilltop where the main observatory building looks out over the Tuscan hills. A couple of enjoyable hours on the roof followed, with Michel performing brilliantly--I suppose he is even better in French--and then we repacked, called two more taxis (may I say with pride that I did this in Italian) and relaxed at the hotel before taking a long but downhill walk to a seafood restaurant in the Piazza Santa Spiritu. I had to leave before coffee time to hoof it back to the train station; caught the 9:57 and was in Pisa by 11:15--but there, confused by the nighttime bus situation, got off too soon and walked another good chunk, to my chagrin, though it did provide the chance to see thousands of young university students (termtime is just beginning) on the Arno riverfront, lounging in front of the bars, smoking, drinking, arguing, discussing, and generally scaring the older generation who dream of a young population eager to learn and to succeed.
Tomorrow we hope to film Michel at Galileo's tomb in the Santa Croce church--if we can use our Vatican Observatory clout to get permission in a hurry--and at the museum in the afternoon. Wednesday will be Galileo's house, though we have a problem with time that Kris hopes to work into a better situation through negotiation with Franco Pacini, the former director of the observatory and our key contact. With luck all will fall into place and we'll have had three good filming days. Certainly the weather couldn't be better, and the excellent food adds to the feeling that life is to be lived.