MrFrancyPants: Italy: Round 2

We recently had a 5 day break from school, which gave us the opportunity to make a return trip to Italy. Last time, we went to Rome. This time, we went to Pisa, Florence, and Venice. Here's a breakdown of the trip.

Pisa

We stayed a night in Brussels because that was the easiest airport to fly out of. We had a early morning flight to Pisa. Last time we flew RyanAir, I didn't get a picture inside the plane. It's crazy how many advertisements there are, which is why their flights are so cheap. You can see ads on the back of each seat as well as on each overhead compartment. What you cannot see in this picture are the flight attendants going up and down the aisle for the entire flight, trying to sell different products. You also cannot see the almost constant advertising through the speaker system. Luckily these were easily ignored with headphones and a book.

Let's be honest, there's only one thing in Pisa. We were only there for a couple of hours before we got on the train to Florence.

A monument to poor architecture.

This pose was very popular at the tower. I'm not sure what it signifies..

But I figured it was important to partake of this cultural pose.

Look at how creative I can be.

Front entrance of the tower.

Not sure what this is.

More creative people.

In Rome, we ate by the Colosseum. And now we get to eat by the leaning tower of Pisa. Cool stuff.

A creative attempt at getting my money.

Story Time

In Pisa, around the tower (where all the tourists are), there are very many salesmen. Most of them are selling "authentic" watches or "authentic" RayBans. I like cheap sunglasses, so I decided to talk to one. Because I learned in Rome how aggressive these sales people are, I let him know first off that I probably would not buy anything. First, I asked him how much the sunglasses were. He said, "Don't worry about that, which ones do you like?" Obviously he wants me to get attached to a pair. I tell him "The red ones", so he hands me a black pair. I pointed to the red pair, and he handed them to me. I put them on and stood there awkwardly because there was no mirror. Now I revisited my old question. This is were things got interesting.

Me: How much?

Him: 20 euros

Me: Sorry, that's too expensive. I'm just looking for a cheap pair of sunglasses.

Him: How much do you want to pay?

Me: I doubt you will agree to my price.

Him: How much? 15 euros.

Me: That's still too much. I'd pay 5 euros.

Him: 10 euros.

Me: Sorry, that's too expensive. I don't really need any sunglasses right now.

Him: OK 5 euros.

Me: [reaching for my wallet] I just want to clarify that the price we agreed upon was 5 euros. (All I had was a ten, and I wanted to make sure I'd get my change)

Him: Yes, 5 euros.

Me: OK. (now we do the exchange. I give him 10, he gives me 5)

Him: Do you have 2 more euros?

Me: What?

Him: 7 euros.

Me: No. We agreed upon 5 euros. Remember?

Him: OK, OK, 5 euros. (and the he faded into the distance).

I'm sure he still made quite a profit. I wonder how many people actually pay the asking price for things like this.

But wait there's more

While we were standing around, eating gelato, another sunglasses salesman approaches us. He showed us his merch, and I showed him that I had just purchased a pair from another guy. He said "those are nice, how much did you pay? 20?" I told him I paid 5 and he looked very surprised. I'm sure that hurt his chances of getting anyone around to pay any more than that, and yet he remained. He asked my friends what color they liked, and they let him know they were not interested, and still he remained. He asked again, which ones they like. I tried to help him out. "Come on guys, he just wants to know which ones you like." Even with me on his side, he didn't make the sale.

Now that you know these guys mean business...

Heath and Ethan each wanted a fake authentic watch, and Christina wanted one as a gift for someone back home. So they started speaking to a watch salesman. I think he signaled the beacon for the Cult of Salesmen, because they started flocking toward us. It felt like the zombie apocalypse. A sea of salesmen, just closing in on us, like the walls were closing in on the crew in Star Wars. OK, really there were about 5 total, but it was still pretty ridiculous.

Ethan is the most hilarious negotiator of all time. Here's a quick summary of his conversation with the salesman.

Ethan: How much for this watch?

Salesman: 30 euros.

E: 30 euros?! Woah! no, no, no. I'll pay ten.

S: 25.

E: No, that's WAY to much. Ten.

S: ok ok, 15 euros.

E: TEN

S: ok, ten.

The full conversation was more interesting, but I'm working with what I can remember a week later.

Boy... That escalated quickly.

Florence

No aggressive salesmen in Florence, but we were able to have a good time in spite of that. Here are some pics, and I'll identify what I can.

We saw a cool sport where women wrestle and throw a soccer around.

We heard good things about the Florintine T-bone steak, so we had to try it. it was 700g, which I think is somewhere between 1-1.5 pounds. I ate the whole thing.

I got to see the original David statue. It was the first time I've truly been amazed by art. This is just a replica in the original location of the statue.

Based on my knowledge of Clash of the Titans (the original, not that crappy remake), I assume this is Perseus holding the head of Medusa. The irony is that they are both a statue. It just seems wrong to make a statue of Medusa.

We basically saw the tower in the distance and walked toward it. Don't know the official name, but it lead us to a great plaza full of statues.

The side of an extremely large Cathedral.

Same cathedral

Front of said cathedral

The fleur de lys. I've seen it represent many things throughout my life, and I had no idea, until going to Florence, that it originated there. I'm pretty sure the carving I saw in the Academia was the original, but I'm not 100% sure. This one is at a Hard Rock Cafe, where photography is allowed.

Venice

Venice is very pretty, but much like Bruges, there isn't much to do. It's absolutely worth visiting, but it would be difficult to spend more than a few days there and not get bored. It was very cool to be in a big city and not see a single car. You can either walk or travel by boat. We wouldn't take to kindly to those options in Memphis or Atlanta, but it seems to work for them in Venice.

At about this point I realized I didn't have a picture of myself yet for the weekend. Here you go, Parents.

These mask shops were everywhere. Now I'm ready for a masquerade. Also, didn't realize until after I took the pic that people were taking wedding photos in the other room.

Gondola Ride! Everyone was ready for this picture.

The Capitol building

The Courthouse. At least if you're on trial, you get a nice view.

We went to a da Vinci museum. This museum focused on his inventions, rather than his art. As a mechanical engineering student, it was a very cool opportunity.

This hammering device is awesome, I had to take a video as well.

This shows how adding pulleys reduces the required lifting force. It may be hard to see in the picture, but each one has more pulleys than the one before it.