ITALIAN CITY TOURS

For the last week Flat Hawkster has been flying around Italy and visiting three cities: Pisa, Florence and Milan. His first stop was Pisa which is famous for its leaning tower.  This cathedral bell tower was built in stages over 344 year beginning in 1173.  It actually began to tilt or lean during construction because the ground was too soft on one side to properly hold the weight of the buidling. The building was never "straightened" but was stabilized a few times over the past 200 years to make sure that it did not fall over.   It is actually quite the sight to see and looks as though it may topple over.  This is also the sight where a famous scientist, Galileo,  completed some of his tests on gravity.  He dropped two cannon balls of different sizes and discovered....?  What did he discover?  Answer at the bottom.

Here is the leaning tower of Pisa situated beside the cathedral.  You can
see Flat Hawkster trying to correct things below but with no luck.

The time in Pisa was brief before a short train ride to Florence, which is a cultural centre for Italy.  Historically, Florence has showcased the work of countless Italian artists such as Da Vinci,  Michelangelo and Botticelli.   They have all created works that are world famous and Flat Hawkster was really keen to discover more about Da Vinci who was a writer, inventor, scientist, engineer, mathematician, musician, architect, geologist, anatomist and so much more.  He's probably most famous for his painting, The Mona Lisa,  but Flat Hawkster wanted to learn more about his countless designs for inventions.   Fortunately there was a museum that built some models based on his designs and they were pretty cool. Did you know that in the late 1400's Da Vinci created designs for the following:  airplanes, gliders, tanks, helicopters, robots, musical instruments, hydraulic pumps and so much more.  Amazing.

This is the view of Florence from the Michelangelo's Piazza park which is
sits high above the city.

These are replicas of the Mona Lisa.   Did you hear that they recently found
n older edition of the Mona Lisa by Da Vinci that features a younger version of
the woman in the portrait?  No one knows who this woman was.

These two models were created based on sketches produced by Da Vinci.  The
machine above was designed to be pulled by horses through the battlefield.
The "scithes" would be spinning as it moved.  Scary.  The model below is of
a "tank" design that required a number of men inside who would "crank"
the large wheels and fire the cannons.   

Milan is the largest of these three Italian cities. It is one of the major business centres for Italy and a fashion capital for the world. The city is the largest in Italy and has over 5 million people.  Flat Hawkster began by visiting the Duomo (large church) at the heart of the tourist area.  The church was huge and there was a free tour that even allowed him to walk on the church's roof! 

Up on the roof.

This was the view of the public square from the roof.  In the picture below
you can get a closer look of an NBA on the street promotion that was taking
place.   It featured a number of activities but focussed mainly on a 3x3 tournament.
Flat Hawkster thought that the Hawthorne Hawks teams would have done well!

                                                           Flat Hawkster came across this street performer who was 

balancing a glass ball as he moved around.  It was pretty cool!

ANSWER:  Galileo found that regardless of the size,  items will fall to the ground at the same rate of speed if they are shaped similarly.  The cannon balls landed at the same time after Galileo dropped them.