26 Oct 04:

Five days after arrival, I finally seem to have acclimated to the time zone difference. We are getting up at about 08:30 daily to go to the complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel. This consists of coffee and rolls - good enough! Today we went on a morning excursion to the History of Science museum on the river (the Arno). As our Rick Stevens-authored guidebook remarks, "Enough art, already!". The museum occupies three floors, with individual rooms devoted to a particular topic. In order of room number, these comprise:
  1. Mathematical Instruments: Compasses & Astrolabes
  2. Mathematical Instruments: Quadrants & Calculators
  3. Galileos' Experiments: Inclined plane, Screw, Optical Lenses, Thermometers, Pendulum clock, a Water Lifting Engine, and best of all, Galileo's middle finger in a jar! (more below)
  4. Galileo's Telescopes: The only two surviving telescopes made by the master himself, among others of similar manufacture.
  5. Lenses and Prisms
  6. Celestial and Terrestrial Globes and Armillary Spheres: Including a 10-foot high gold-gilt wooden Armillary Sphere of transcendent opulence.
  7. Microscopes
  8. Thermometers
  9. Meteorology: Barometers and Hygrometers
  10. Reflecting Telescopes
  11. Clocks
  12. Electromagnetism: Including a HUGE Electrostatic Generator and a Leyden jar four feet in height. Don't touch!!
  13. Pneumatic and Hydraulic Pumps
  14. Physics Demonstration Models
  15. Medicine
  16. Pharmacopoeia
  17. Chemistry
  18. Metrology
  19. Document Room: Including a copy of Copernicus' De Revolutionibus with marginal notations in Galileo's own handwriting pointing out corrections necessary before publishing the next edition.
All I can say is, craftsmanship sure has gone downhill since the 16th century! Everything was meticulously and beautifully executed in brass and glass, with exquisite illumination, graduation, and the like. Oh yes, the finger... Turns out Galileo's disciples couldn't bear to part with all of him at his passing, so they kept the middle finger of his right hand to remember him by. The finger is mostly carpal bones, but there does seem to be a little dessicated shredded flesh still hanging on here and there. A most mystical experience!

After the museum tour we stopped into a little hole-in-the wall cafe for a sandwich, after which I set out to find a Telecom Italia Wi-fi hotspot to upload this BLOG (see the entry for 25 October). We first went to an Internet Cafe to ascertain the location of wireless zones in the city. The proprietor cheerfully gave us a list of locations and directions to same. I'll make a long story short - never, never take any advice you get from passersby, or even those one might suppose to have authoritative knowledge, at face value. I plodded from one address to the next with 25 pounds of computer and accessories strapped to my back for 2-½ hours without finding a zone. I finally gave up and returned to the Internet cafe, intending to use their pay-to-play facilities to accomplish the upload, only to find I had left my adapter for the power pack back at the hotel room. So I gave up and went back there - tomorrow is another day.

After dinner, we attended a free concert at a church not 20 meters from our hotel lobby. They have at least one free concert daily, sometimes two. This evening's fare was an a capella choir from Ireland, who performed an amazing variety of music from all over the world. They were spectacularly good, with pitch-perfect intonation, balanced blend, impeccable diction, and precise attack and release. It was one of the most moving experiences I have had lately - the audience agreed and delivered a standing ovation at the end. One of the pieces they performed is one I have had the opportunity to sing, Harris' Bring Us O Lord. In Clara Vocites, we did it better, but the rest of their repertoire was impressively performed.

To sleep, perchance to dream... Lights out about midnight.

Click here to return to the Table of Contents.