We had one of our best weather days so far, and had a great trip into Chianti to visit a winery in a little village called Fonterutoli. The winery has been owned by the Mazzei family since 1435 (the current managers are part of the 24th generation). Here are pictures from the day.

I heard there were some camera problems, so if anyone wants copies of pictures, please let me know. The pictures can also be downloaded by saving images, and the resolution on those pictures should be good enough to print.

Monday we will visit a winery in Chianti, owned by the Mazzei family. We will meet at SMN Stazione, in the usual place at 8:30. The roads in Chianti are not straight for more than a few meters, so if you think you might need some motion sickness medicine, plan ahead. There will be a bit of walking, so comfortable shoes (not flip-flops, sorry) would be a good idea as well.
I have added some links to the wiki for this visit, for the GE trip, and for the vehicle production day. You can find them on the company visit page, and I also put links on the syllabus page.

I have appended a long comment to each of the first three company visits for each class (PSU and UConn). Take a look some time and think about adding some more analysis or comments to each page.
I have also started looking at all the Journals. If you haven’t done much on them yet, remember that six weeks disappears very quickly. What I will (officially) do is have an open class time on Monday June 16 to be in our classroom to talk one-on-one with anyone who wants help with their journal. We will have class at Palazzo Rucellai on June 18. For the Penn State students, Prof. Chelko will be here that week and may want to meet with you on both Monday and Wednesday. He will post something on the class wiki to confirm.

Remember that the Winery Tour on Monday will start at the train station at 8:30. We will have a meeting with the head of the winery in the afternoon, and so we will be back in Florence probably by 6:00.
On Wednesday we will go to Nuovo Pignone in the afternoon and meet at the train station around 1pm. We have a presentation from GE at 2pm, and then a tour of the plant starting around 3:45. The plant is in Florence, and the tour should finish around 5:30, so you’ll be ‘free’ around 6:00.
Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great weekend.

On Wednesday, June 4th, we will meet at the usual place at SMN Train Station at 9:00 (you get to sleep an extra hour and a half!). We will make a short trip to Prato, which we passed when we drove to Pietrasanta and Carrara.
There are two companies there that we will visit, and so half of the UConn students will go to one, the other half to the other (similar for PSU students). Alan will accompany one group, I will go with the other. On the website, there will be comments from each half of the class and some discussion of the differences between the two companies.
The tours should finish by noon, so we will be back in Florence in time for (Italian) lunch.
Next week: Wine and industrial machines.

Fiesole is a small town up a high hill looking out over Florence. The student orientation was held there on our first Saturday, and students got to see the wonderful views of Florence and the Arno River valley. I went up for a quiet day of reading, eating and picture taking. Here are some of the pictures.

On Sunday, many of the students were off to other parts of Italy and Europe (Venice, Rome, Prague among others), but those still in Florence who were trying to visit cities in the area discovered that Italian trains have a habit of going on strike. The strikes are often announced, and last a specified period and I’m not sure what exactly they accomplish. Usually a few trains run so that people are delayed but not completely stranded.
Here are some pictures of the train station in Florence, called Santa Maria Novella, and the many travellers trying to find a way to get to their destinations.

Here are pictures from the trade show, Marmotec. There are large machines for use in the quarries (to cut blocks), and then machines for transforming the blocks into other products. The trade show also has samples of marble from different parts of the world. Pure white marble comes from Carrara, but other colors and qualities are also located in particular parts of the world.

We went from the trade show, Carrara Marmotec, up the mountain to where they excavate large blocks of marble (the small ones are ten tons). This year we went to a different cava than in previous years, and the owner of the site was able to talk with us about their operations. The weather was rainy, so we did not drive to the other quarry, but here are pictures from last year, when we had a bright sunny day.

We visited Barsanti, a family business in Pietrasanta that produces art pieces in marble, bronze and mosaics. Some are done at the direction of artists and others are commissions from customers who want artwork for their buildings (or for cruise ships).

After the visit we stopped and had lunch in Viareggio, which is one of the beaches that is easiest to reach from Florence. It is mostly a boardwalk and you pay to “rent” the place you sit, but we were able to see the Mediterranean and have a relaxing lunch.