June 21, 2007 – Pisa/Florence

Leaning at the Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa Santa Croce in Florence The Duomo in Florence City of Florence from Michelangelo Plaza Today was a travel day. It didn’t start out well. We went down to breakfast and had a great time and then got on the bus. About an hour into the trip, we realized that we were missing a bag. We had left it under the table at the hotel. It had our travel kit in it, but not much of importance. We told our tour guide and he called the hotel. They found it and are holding it for us until we go back to Rome on the final day. At least we know it is safe. So now I must borrow make up, toothpaste, etc. The worst part of it was my birth control was in that bag. How stupid could we be! We stopped in Pisa and saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I was shocked at how much it is actually leaning. Our tour guide, Franco, suggested that we could tell from far away, however, you could tell standing right next to it. What we were surprised about, however, is that it is not just the tower in Pisa. There is a beautiful church and baptistery in Pisa. If it were not for them, the tower would not be quite so beautiful. We then drove to Florence through the region of Tuscany. We saw many, many vineyards, but were surprised that they were not as big as we had imagined. I thought we would see vineyards for as far as the eye could see. But it is not so. They are very small. At least the ones we’ve seen. When we got into Florence, we went for a walk to Santa Croce, a church where many famous people are buried. It is gorgeous. We tried to get something to eat – it was 6:00 pm but no one was opened. They don’t open the restaurants until 7:00. The busiest time for dinner is 9:00. So we found a snack bar since we hadn’t eaten since 6:30 that morning and were all very hungry. Dad took us to the Duomo, his favorite building in all of Italy. You could not believe how huge this place is. It’s pink, green and white marble, symbolizing hope, faith and fidelity, three major Christian foundations. The doors were humongous, and were bronze. They were quite tarnished, however, they had just cleaned on the baptistery and it was sparkling gold in color. Breathtaking. And the dome was fabulous. The first one in history. My dad just stood there and cried as he saw it again. I was so glad that I got to see it with him. Chris and I took off on our own and saw a couple of old buildings, wandered the crooked streets and found our way to Piazza Signora, which is where the old Senate used to meet. Out in front is the replica of the statue “David” sitting exactly in the place the original David used to sit. He was pretty, but nothing breathtaking. We joined my family there and walked down to the River Arno to see the Ponte Vecchio. The bridge itself didn’t seem too impressive just looking at it, however, we walked down to cross it and it is full of shops on both sides. There was a man singing and playing his guitar, so we listened to him and watched the sun set over the river. Chris and I continued walking along the other side of the river and were enjoying the scenery. We had purchased a few cosmetic items that we were missing from a 1 Euro store so I was swinging the bag along side me. I had my fingers woven through the handle to have a better grasp on the bag. Suddenly, my whole arm jerked as someone had grabbed the bag and tried to take off running. I had a really good grasp on the bag and was not letting go. We had our 2 Nalgene bottles in it and I had started to swing it at the young man. Chris had reared his hand back and was ready to punch the kid. Suddenly, we heard laughter and realized that Dan had tried to be ornery. He succeeded and was very lucky he didn’t get clobbered. I was shaking so badly and Chris’ face was so intense for nearly 20 minutes afterwards. We joined my siblings and we took a hike up to the top of a hill that overlooked the city. It was getting dark and it was an absolutely gorgeous view. We enjoyed it for quite a while before going back to our rooms.