Pisa

Today we left fair Venice for Florence/Tuscany with a stop at Pisa along the way.

Arrivederci Venezia!

We boarded a Trentalia train for Florence.  It took us a few minutes to find out where to change our reservation number for a ticket but then we were on our way with reserved seats in a high speed train.  That is where I completed my blogpost for Venice.  Everyone else was buried in a screen as we rolled through the Italian countryside.

In Florence we needed to change trains to one that did not have assigned seats.  We grabbed some sandwiches on the way.  Ryan was very frustrated that the kids don't take our advice.  We encouraged them to get a ham and cheese that could be made warm but they wanted a packaged ham and cheese sandwich that they decided was gross.  End result - they split our sandwich and we ate their gross one.

Once we got to Pisa we had to find our way to the proper but to get to the tower.  This took a little bit to figure out (how do we know it is the Rosso line?  What side of the street do we need to go in the direction we are going?) and Trevor finally asked if we were actually going to get on ANY bus!  Ha. 

Pisa is a university town on the western coast of Italy and was a maritime republic long ago.  The famous "leaning tower" is the bell tower of the city's cathedral, or duomo.  We arrived at the Piazza del Duomo around 230.  Drew just had to have a gelato and Trevor some water.

The Piazza del Duomo consists of several buildings but we mostly paid attention to the bell tower, the baptistry, and the cathedral.  Construction of the tower began in 1173.  Unfortunately the square was kind of swampy and the foundation was only 3 meters thick and it began to lean after only 3 sections were completed.  The original architect fled (he realized a poor design and execution when he saw it) and the structure sat idle for 100 years when they put the next 3 levels on and built them with one side taller to try to account for the lean.  In 1319 the final floor was completed and the bell tower was built in 1372 - this crap is so old people!!!  There are 7 bells for the 7 notes of the musical scale.  They were to ring at 600 this evening but we weren't there.  From 1990-2001 the tower underwent structural repair with removal of soil from the raised side that diminished the tilt and engineers say that it will stay up for at least 200 years.  There are 296 steps to the top.

Narrow stairs - it got interesting with 2-way traffic.

Stopping for a rest

Trevor wanted a photograph to show how the marble steps were "hollowed" out in the center from so many millions of feet coming up over the years.

View of Pisa from the top

Drew wanted a picture of the stadium

Standing in front of the bells - can't imagine how loud they would be if they rang when you were this close!

After coming down we went to explore the baptistry and the cathedral.  Turns out the baptistry was closing for some sort of ceremony.  We did get to tour the cathedral but no photos allowed.  The kids always ask questions that prompt a discussion about the differences between the Roman Catholic Church and "Christians" as they call them.  That mistake in nomenclature makes me giggle but we have had interesting discussions about confession, dogma, the Pope, the Great Schism, and the Reformation.  I love it!

After we left the cathedral we had to get the obligatory photo where you are "holding up" the leaning tower.  Dad was not a good sport about participating in those photos.

After we finished in Pisa we made our way back to the train station and headed back to Florence.  Our apartment for the next 3 nights in glorious.  It is very close to the main train station and has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.  Bonus is that it has remote-controlled air conditioners in each room that work quite well - no more sweaty nights!  The days are unseasonably hot and our tour guide for Tuesday has asked us to meet 1 hour early because it is so hot.  Our apartment is attached to the Medici Chapel!  Looking at the guest book it is crazy to see that the people who stayed here on June 5th were from Fairview Heights, IL (about 15 minutes from us for those non-St. Louis peeps).  There are also people in the book from Nexa, MO and Collinsville, IL.  What a small world it is.

This is the view of the Medici Chapel from my bedroom window.

The kids were a bear tonight at dinner which was really frustrating to Ryan.  We ate at a little restaurant just outside our apartment.  We started with prosciutto and bufalo mozzarella and then had pasta carbonara and some tortelli (more like ravioli) filled with potatoes and topped with meat sauce.  The kids then split a filet of beef.  The night before at dinner the waiter asked me if it is hard to travel with children.  I told him that, of course it was, but it was so much easier than when they were younger.

I forgot of another tale from our trip as well - from travel day.  Right before we boarded our first airplane Drew went to yank Ryan's earbud out.  Turns out is was the noise cancelling type that you screw into your ear and the bud came out but the plastic tip did not.  I had to run and procure some tweezers and work to get it out prior to take-off.  I've always wanted a pair of tweezers in my purse and now I have some.  Now I need to go and buy some Italian floss because I forgot ours at home...

Tomorrow we go for a car tour of Tuscany!!!