We arrived in Pisa last night around 9:30. Every road may lead to Rome, but they
certainly don’t all lead to Pisa. We
made the mistake of relying on our phone for directions but for some reason we
were not getting service. Without a map
we were lucky to arrive at all. The
bungalow at the campsite (Torre Pendente) was a lot more spacious than the one
at our last campsite (Antipolis). Not
sure how they crammed 3 bedrooms in but they did. They also provided toilet paper and linens
which was not the case at Antipolis. I
knew this ahead of time so I hauled sheets and toilet paper with us for 6000
miles to accommodate. Something that
both France and Italy have been lacking in in their public bathrooms are toilet
seats. When we went to Monaco they had a
toilet seat but only in the handicap restroom.
We were so excited about it we all stood in line to use it. It took 3 times longer but was well worth the
wait.
We were able to walk to the leaning tower from our
campground this morning. In the square,
there is a baptistery, cathedral and then of course the tower. It’s amazing how these buildings just sit in
the middle of an otherwise pretty unremarkable city. Unremarkable if you live in it that is. We actually enjoyed looking at the city from the
top of the tower. There seem to be
almost as many cathedrals as there are chapels in Utah. And the orange roofs are cool but only
because we are not Italians. If you are
an Italian you don’t know any different so I’m sure they are taken for granted.
It was fun to go up into the tower. We had a guide that gave us background info
about the tower but it took me a long time to figure out that she wasn’t
speaking Italian. As hard as I tried, I
couldn’t understand what she was saying but I’m sure it was something
good. After she was done talking we got
to climb the 267 stairs to the top. That
information is accredited to Brooklyn who never goes up any set of stairs without
counting them. We noticed that the
marble stairs that spiraled up were worn down on the right when you were on one
side and on the left when you were on the other. On our drive to Pisa yesterday we went by
some marble mines and marble conveyer belts and stacks and stacks of marble blocks. Guess we know where those worn down stairs
came from.
The top of the tower
The view from the top
The last few stairs to the top
The Cathedral
Freaky dead saint in a coffin with a window
This painting is over 800 years old
The wall fortress of pisa
The baptistry
I realized the other day that I only had 5 more doses of my
medication left so after we left the cathedral and tower we walked into a
pharmacy and I asked them if they had it there.
They did and they handed it to me without a subscription for about half
the price that I can get it for in the states.
Now that’s a convenience that I think I might just trade my toilet seats
for. Then we stopped at our 3rd
Carrefour of the trip to pick up something for lunch. Italy’s Carrefours provide bags unlike France’s. We got our favorite cylindrical econo-cookies
and some fresh out of the oven pizza. I
asked for 6 pieces but they said they could only sell 3 at a time. Whatever.
They were big so I just had them cut them in half. Hah! I
got my 6 pieces. In your face Italian
Carrefour.
We are now heading to Rome and are prepared to do whatever
they are doing.
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