After a quick lunch in an Autogrille (in Italy, this time! We crossed the border into another country and also into chaos . . . It took us a minute to figure out how Italians want us to order things [order, pay, hand a ticket to a lady, wait for your tray, and seat yourself--or stand at a hightop] and we brought noise and confusion to this little Autogrille. But we got fed! And then back on the road!
The road led to Pisa and her leaning tower! Kinda! We got a little lost in Pisa, as our bus doesn't fit through the arches of the bridge everyone else was taking, and Roberto's (the driver) GPS had different info than Paola's GPS had, so we went round and round a ton of round-abouts, looking for a way to get into the Pisa bell tower area. You know that movie? National Lampoon? European Vacation? Yeah. It went like that. "Look, kids, the leaning tower! . . . . Look, kids, the leaning tower!" Ah, well. The missed turns just elevated the excitement for the visit once we finally got to the right area.
Pisa's bell tower leans. For real. The kids were, surprisingly, a little surprised that it does--but we learned that it leans because it was built on a sandy foundation (huh. Isn't there a rule somewhere about building on sandy ground? Seems like I've heard that before . . . ), and it stood only two stories high for almost a century, and then engineers "fixed" it by building the next layers with tall heights on one side, to even it up, bu then it leaned even more, so now it actually has a bit of a banana shape. But no worries! The tower will stand this way for another hundred years, at least, in its new supports. The kids had a great time taking their pictures, holding up the tower--I myself have a pic of my mom holding it up with ONE FINGER. Other kids did cheerleader-style towers, some laid down and held it up with their feet . . . . Our children are imaginative, for sure--I'm sure you've seen their social media with fresh posts. :-) No time to go into the cathedral nearby with Galileo's experimental pendulum, as we lost some time and had to head on to Florence.
The road to Florence is scenic, too, and I found myself looking at all the abandoned castles with an eye toward fixing them up and living like royalty in Italy, but I'm not sure how I'll teach from my new turrets . . . . And then we arrived in Florence--Firenze! We had time to throw our suitcases down and walk to dinner at a pizzaria. We got to choose from four different kinds of pizza: margherita; ham, artichoke, olive, and mushroom; cheese and spicy sausage; or ham and mushroom. At my table, we ordered one of each to have a little tasting, and, of course, they were all heavenly--thin crust, savory toppings, the best cheeses in Italy, and a quick wait staff. They also gave us a caprese starter and an ice cream cake to finish. Yummmm . . . .
And now off to bed, as we leave at the first light for two museums and a church--we'll be visiting the David tomorow! Buona notte!
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| The Leaning Tower of Pisa |
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| PIZZA!!! |
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