I hope I don't get sued by the ancestors of Dickens, but this choice of name of a show on Pisa was perfect. Since 1995 I had stayed away from visiting Pisa, I decided to do an overnight to see the famous Leaning Tower. When we arrived we were quite taken by the charming nature of the city, it's lovely streets, beautiful river, and most of all its warm and friendly people. Staying in the grand Hotel Royal Victoria we got to meet and interview the owner, Nicola Piegaja, and then had a lovely dinner at La Pergoletta, and got to meet its charming owner, Valentina. I just viewed the show in full and except for having to trim the beginning and the end (which I have yet to do), it is a nice presentation. There is a lot of hesitation on my part at the beginning as I was viewing a screen that had the tool bar for videos on the bottom that did not go away as it usually does. At first I didn't quite know what to do. And then undaunted I excused myself in mid sentence and fixed the problem - quite a departure from the early days, 9 months ago when a comparable situation would have thrown me for a loop. Although Ellen indicated that the sound was a bit poor on such an extended video, in a room with poor acoustics, and our smallish camera, I found the audio quite acceptable. Nicola was quite informative and interesting as he talked about the history of the hotel, and his illustrious family. The Hotel Royal Victoria is very, very special, hundreds of years old and in his family for several generations. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who wanted a special hotel experience in Pisa, complete with history, charm, and comfort, oh and very good prices. Try to select the front rooms with balconies on the Arno River. The Campo dei Miracoli, containing the famous Campanille, Cathedral, and Baptistery, along with a centuries old cemetery by the name of Camposanto form the basis of a remarkable sightseeing experience, but if you visit Pisa, make sure to visit the area surrounding the famous Campo, including the ost charming little church I ever saw, the Church of Santa maria della Spina, right on the river.
On my book front, after several days of constantly finding errors and changes, I finally signed off on the book about the show named, Alan's Italy: The Birth of a Television Show. It will go to publication and be out on the market soon. My other book, much longer, and detailed about my 20 trips to Italy, named Alan's Italy: My Personal Journey has yet to be copyedited, and will take a few more months. I begin my teaching at Saugerties Lifespring, a continuing ed program up here, in about 3 1/2 weeks and have recently been told that 29 students have already signed up with possibly more to come. This will be my first chance to teach a class since May 2010 at my former college, where I taught math. Really looking forward to the human contact after 9 months now of speaking into a camera. Also my teaching at the New Paltz College Program has been confirmed as an eight week course. The Saugerties is only 6 weeks. Other than that I am quite bored, ha ha.
Next week on my show, number 35 I am back with Franc Palaia who will be presenting stunning and interesting photos of Rome. Then next week after will be Ric Herst talking about the Museum of the Duomo in Florence and then a few weeks later the Marino Marini Museum also in Florence. Ric and I worked for 2 hrs this past week on both shows, rearranging photos so that they made sense to his presentation.
Until then buona notte e buona fortuna.
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