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February 22, 2008
Off for a weekend alone!
I'm off to Pisa and Lucca for a couple of days on my own!
This idea of traveling on the weekends was something I never pulled off when I taught here in 2003. I was too tired at the end of each week and too stressed about the possibility of needing to be handy in case something happened. The two worst things that happened all term - at least that anyone ever called me about on an emergency, Saturday basis - were: someone got locked out of his apartment and didn't have his landlord's number on his cell phone; some students got back to Rome from an excursion after the busses switched from the regular to the night schedule and couldn't afford a taxi back to their relatively inaccessible apartment, so I had to run over to the station and loan them some cash. Nevertheless, I was ready at all times to do my best to avert a Midnight Express scenario. I guess I have an overly-active imagination, especially for someone without children of his own.
So I never got out of town that year except on group trips. Not that I really minded - Rome is a city for exploration, and I'm still far from having seen everything I know I want to see, let alone all the things I run across by happy serendipity. And having Rome to myself on weekends was as good as going away.
This year, though, I have a colleague to share the worries - yay, Nick! He's on duty this weekend.
And, we've recently had a pep talk about travel in Italy from a William Smith Alum - Nicole Franchini, WS '81 - who has lived in Italy for over 20 years and writes travel books.
So, with those two encouragements, I decided to at least get out of town and go somewhere (1) that I teach a lot and (2) have never been. Pisa and Lucca won! I still would like to go to Milan, where I've never seen Sant'Ambrogio. I've been to Venice, but there's a huge exhibition of Roman and Barbarian stuff - I'd link to the page but it's egregious flash and takes over your screen - here's a review.
Oh well - I'll have some pictures on Sunday!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at February 22, 2008 6:58 AM