Recent Vacation. Upcoming San Diego Appearances. More.

Last week, I did something radical. Well, for me anyway. Maybe for many in these digital days.

I went on vacation. And I didn’t tell anyone online.

No daily Instagrams. No trawling gorgeous spaces for the perfect vacation picture. And especially no smartphone service.

Honest? IT WAS MONUMENTALLY TOUGH.

I didn’t realize how addicted I am to Instagramming my vacation until we got to Pisa. Most people visit the Italian city to see the famous Leaning Tower. Not us. We made the detour to explore the Baptistery of St John.

Look at it. Why wouldn’t we?

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Completed in 1152, Pisa’s Baptistery of St John is Italy’s largest. Acoustically perfect. A true architectural remnant of frozen time. The bottom of the structure highlights Romanesque arches. Note the graceful curves. But the top is Gothic, perhaps among the first appearances of the distinctive pointed arch in the surviving architectural record.

We arrived to no line. Inside, we shared the vast space with perhaps fifteen people.

Same thing with Pisa’s cathedral. Few souls anywhere. Cavernous beauty to ourselves.

Where was everyone? Piled onto sidewalks. Clogging up thoroughfares. TRYING TO SNAP THE PERFECT SHOT OF THEMSELVES PROPPING UP THE LEANING TOWER.

I’m guilty of the same mistaken focus. For a decade, I’ve viewed every experience through a screen first. Maybe that’s the only way I ever really saw so much of the world.

That afternoon in Pisa, I mourned how much I missed.

And a cemetery is the ideal spot for mourning. We wandered to the frescoed structure onsite for some contemplation. The roof looks new because the building was bombed during World War II.

Upon leaving, we decided to stroll around Pisa. Take in some of the other historic sites. We found a hodgepodge of recent architecture. Because of its strategic position, the Allies bombed Pisa to bits during World War II.

In fact, it’s a miracle the Leaning Tower site survived the war.

All sides in the conflict used historic buildings and sacred structures as command centers, hospitals, bunkers, and more to force the enemy to destroy things of true value. They actually hoped the historic significance might add a layer of protection. Think of how much we lost – lives, architecture, our very history – in one war.

Allied leaders were convinced the Germans were using the Leaning Tower as a reconnaissance point. Sandy, swampy terrain extends for miles in every direction, a topographical condition that causes the tower’s lean. But it also made it the ideal spot to watch the enemy, anticipate their next move.

And that’s how an American GI named Leon Weckstein found himself in the soup. Mosquitoes chewed his face and neck. His wet uniform sheathed him in his own vile stew.

He was there to determine whether the Germans were watching enemy activity from the Leaning Tower. And if they were, he was commanded to give the order to bomb it to rubble.

Leon Weckstein witnessed the Tower’s graceful glory through his scope. He was too moved to give the order to fire. The Allies eventually took Pisa, but they never found out whether the Germans were in the Tower.

Sometimes, that’s the wonder of architecture. And of being in the moment.

UPCOMING EVENTS

21 – 25 October 2019 – San Diego
5 November 2019 – Beaufort, South Carolina
13 – 15 November 2019 – Greensboro Tri-Cities North Carolina
Including keynote speaker at Greensboro NC Garden Club!

WHAT I’M READING

Sigh. Read on vacation. I don’t know how to review this much-hyped thriller. Can I say I figured out one of the biggest twists in the third chapter? That literally nothing surprised me? That I was appalled at how the male author treated this mentally ill/alcoholic/drug-addicted woman? She has a therapist. Multiple encounters with police. AND YET NO ONE INTERVENES OR EVEN REALLY NOTICES HER PROBLEMS. Her therapist keeps prescribing pills. Everyone drinks LOADS with her.

I was glad for the last predictable page. Even with Amy Adams in the role, I won’t see the movie.

BEST ONLINE READ THIS WEEK

It’s a long read but worth it. Evan Mandery writes about he traded teaching ethics at Harvard for a spot at Appalachian State University. His goal? To determine whether there’s a way to talk about divisive issues when we do not agree. He chose Appalachia thinking he’d find plenty of disagreement with his own liberal world view. His observations are poignant, timely, and sometimes cringe-worthy. PUT YOUR EYEBALLS ON THIS ONE. SERIOUSLY.

BEST LIFE HACK

Did you know Kobo is partnering with hotels to give guests a portal to great books? Rather than having a free book shelf, Milan’s Viu Hotel provides Kobo e-readers for every guest.

Pretty cool for a vacation, huh?

In case you missed it, Andra started a new fiction series. This post includes all five installments. Come back Monday for the next bit.

To see what else Andra has been writing in series fiction, visit The Aftermath of Death, She Was Venus in Fur, Grief Out of Balance, For the Love of a Gun, Death by Toilet, Biscuits, Gardenias and a Funeral and Everything Dies. She’s also on Medium with a new story HERE.