Day 5 Firenze

Ciao Tutti!!

Another beautiful day in Italy, today we left Rome for the birthplace of the renaissance, Firenze. The trip took three hours and the bus traveled north on autostrada A1. The landscape and vistas were truly amazing, rolling hills and small mountains, tunnels cutting through the landscape, roads weaving in and out of the hills, and the fast trains traveling along side. The bus made one stop on the autostrada, "freeway" like in the states similar to the Illinois tollway there are rest stops with food, beverage, and toilets on top of the autostrada. The driver aloted for a 25 minute break in which we all enjoyed some Italian rest stop fare,**(note, not entirely different from other Italian lunch cuisine, pizza, and a variety of sandwiches, espresso, and salads which were a surprise). After inhaling an espresso the bus left and we all read the readings for today's presentation. The presentation today was done by Lindsey and Kitrick. Their research focused on comparing the cultures of baseball and soccer. Aspects of player trade, league structure and the behavior of fans were discussed. The project stimulated disscussion and topics concerning, the behavior of fans and league organization.

After the presentation the group was looking forward to touring the city and seeing the birth place of the renaissance. Bud and I will be doing our project on professional cycling, and originally there was the interest to incorporate a commuter aspect into the project. When we arrived in Rome Bud and I were disappointed to see that there were hardly any cyclists. Rome is an extremely busy city, a bicycle rider would not make it a day there without being pushed off the street by either a moped or a car. The Vespa's and cars rule ROME!!!. Florence is in the center of Italy, further north than Rome and right in the middle of the country. It was refreshing when the bus arrived in Florence and we were able to see a copious increase in cyclists, there are even bike lanes. Bud originally wanted to organize a bike tour of a city, we all wanted to see all of the important monuments and churches in Firenze. The hotel desk gave us the name of a bike shop that rented bikes by the hour, (www.florencebybike.it). For eight euro the 13 of us were able to see the majority of the city!! Here are the sights that we biked to and around: Giardino della Fortezza, the American Consulate, Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo (statue of David, AMAZING VIEW of the whole city), Capella Pazi (dinner), Galleria degli Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio (bumped into Dr. Buysse, and listned to some nighttime opera), Piazza della Signoria, Ratto delle Sambine, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Flore (Piazza del Duomo, and Piazza della Repubblica.

Personally I am truly impressed with Firenze, and seem to be enjoying it more than Rome even though we have been here for less than a day.
The bike tour was a steal for the price and we were able to cover more ground. Tonights dinner was amzing, everyone seemed to order a great dish. Italian nights are exquisite, not too hot not too cool and all of the monuments are lit up. Bumping in to Dr. Buysse was a plesent suprise, we saw Dr. Buysse at the outdoor opera performance. In addition the bike tour was a great intro into the professional cylcing research project that Bud and I will be doing on Thursday. The project will include a trip to a bike manufacturer, called Pinarello, and a disscussion about professional cycling. I would like to extend a shout OUT to our counterparts in Rome, Austin and Emily. We miss you and hope that the conference goes well, call anytime. Tomorrow we are heading to the International Football Center COVERCIANO ( the location where the World Cup Team trains).

Ciao

Bene Elias
Sport Management