June 19:

Found this on the front of a restaurant entrance near my hotel.

June 18:

Checked out a wax museum just down the road from the Pitti Palace.

June 18:

Visited an art school, and got to see a student art show.

June 17:

Just checking out the Bargello

June 17:

Just climbed over 400 steps, the view was worth it.

June 16:

Checking out the local graffiti with a couple friends.

June 14:

Got to my hotel at the Palazzo Ruspoli. I love my room, and the view of the Santa Maria del Fiore is amazing!

In one week I will leave for Lisbon, meet my cousins Jameson Wetmore and Emma Frow, noted synthetic biology researcher, and my Uncle French and Aunt Mary Lu to go to Belem!

Then I’ll find my students at the airport and the generous Claudia Figueiredo will collect my students and me and take us to Sao Luis where I have never been.

There we will be lodged with Marta de Menezes and Luis Graca at Cultivamos Cultura to study biology and art and life in Portugal. Surfing anyone?

Marta’s syllabus will have me snuggling with The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche this weekend in order to understand how medium prepares the way for favorable growth.