La Città e i fossi
This morning we went to work at the Liceo Scientifico "Francesco Cecioni" with our correspondents, Marina Marino and her students. We were warmly received by her school's principal or "Dirigente", Sig. De Puri, and accompanied her students to one of their language labs, where we got working on the project blog, at http://sauvonsthepianeta.blogspot.com/
We had a little trouble at first, navigating around the school's network, since it was all displayed in Italian, but with the help of Marina's students we managed to locate a shared network space where we could recover the photos we'd taken the day before, and by half past ten there were five new posts on the blog, and several more waiting to be completed.
After a brief reception in the school library, we went on to the Livorno town hall. There, one of the mayor's assistants told us about the history of the city and showed us around the luxurious palace that serves as the town hall. There were many reminders of Livorno's past, with exiles from many countries around Europe establishing communities there after the city sprung up from a little fishing village and began serving as the main commercial port for Pisa. We learned that Livorno was a very open place with churches from many different faiths, welcoming people who'd had to leave their homeland over religious grounds, wars and other conflicts. There were many medieval "stemma" or coats of arms set around the ceiling, from military orders and noble families to trade guilds like the Masons.
Students were happy to have a few free hours to visit the city center over lunch, and then we all boarded a "barca" with a very informative guide to tour the "fossi" or canals of Livorno. We cruised past fortresses, naval shipyards, and several teams of rowers training for an upcoming competition. We even passed under the central plaza, the "Piazza della Repubblica", that had been built on pilings over one of the main canals.
After than, students again had some free time to walk around and do some shopping, and then we returned, tired but happy, to our hotel. For some, it was straight to bed, while others chatted and giggled in their rooms or listened to music and drank energy drinks until midnight. How they could sleep, after ten or twenty doses of caffeine in those energy drinks, I'll never know!
Philip Benz, Livorno, 15 March 2010
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