Arcetri, 1928 – 1932

Abstract

Early in 1928, a short time after receiving my doctorate at the University of Bologna, I was offered a position of assistant at the Physics Institute of the University of Florence. The Institute rose among olive trees, on the hill of Arcetri, a short distance from the villa where Galileo had spent the last years of his life as a political exile. The chair of physics was held by Professor Antonio Garbasso (Fig. 1) who, in earlier years, had done some creditable scientific work. But the first world war and the events of the post-war period had diverted his interests toward politics. He was now a senator and the mayor of Florence. However he still went to Arcetri three times a week to deliver his lectures and he still had a strong desire to see the Institute, which he had built, become an important center of research.