Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Following a good breakfast with superb cappuccinos, we decided to spend the day in Pisa and Lucca. The drive to Pisa took us two hours and we were really glad we made the effort to visit the leaning tower. We were quite surprised at the severe angle of the lean, the bright whiteness of the outside and the height of the tower. We bought a ticket to walk up to the top of the tower but we had to come back at 6.00 pm to do this so we made our way to a restaurant nearby and had the usual bruschetta and pasta meal. At 6.00 pm, we returned to the tower and made our way inside. This was where the lean is most pronounced and it is actually quite difficult to walk inside with the sloping floor. It felt like we had had too much to drink at lunchtime.
We climbed the stairs to the top of the tower and were impressed with the views of Pisa and the surrounding countryside. We also got to see the tower bells up close. Once we were back on level ground, we went inside the adjacent cathedral. The size of the church interior and the artwork lining the walls was striking.
After our stop in Pisa, we made our way to Lucca, home of the world's finest olive oil and one of the best preserved walled towns in Italy with its maze of cobblestoned side streets. We sat down at an outside cafe for dinner - bread with delicious olive oil, bruschetta and leek and sausage pasta. We followed this up with some tasty stracciatella gelato. We picked up a bottle of olive oil to remember our visit when we get home and soon realized that home was closer than we thought. As we were leaving the town, we recognized Martin Jones, a teacher from Mulgrave, sitting at an outdoor cafe. We stopped to say a surprising small world hi before heading to our car for the long drive back to Siena. We got back at midnight and decided we would skip breakfast in the morning.