Italy 2011: Climbing our way through Italia...

Another gorgeous set of days here in Tuscany (Monday and Tuesday)!! We keep commenting that someone must be painting the sky the most beautiful shades of blue each morning and cannot believe our good fortune (fortunato) with the weather during our time here in Italy.

Monday morning we got up (after a little alarm-setting snafu by me...forgot the time change...oops!!) and jumped in our 'Ferrari' ready to travel to Pisa, which is about 2 hours away slightly north and completely on the west side of Italy. I set the GPS and we were off. Leah did a spectacular job of driving and I have taken to calling her 'Mario' (as in Andretti) while she is driving as she has melded into the Italian way of traversing the highways and byways without a problem. My job is basically 'to monitor the GPS' and to double-check it with one of the many mainly useless maps we have of Italy. It is a very difficult thing to find a good map here in Italy, especially for driving, as nothing is labeled and the scale is quite off. In any case, after nearly 2 hours of driving we exited the Autostrada (highway) and began traveling south toward Pisa.

We spotted the Leaning Tower as we approached the north end of Pisa and after a little bit of driving around and trying to get inside the 'wall' that surrounds the city (we couldn't), we found a parking space in a lot (somewhat sketch, but we figured we have full insurance on the car, so oh well...) and walked a little bit to the entrance to the old city. We then 'ran the gauntlet' of vendors selling sunglasses (we were already wearing ours, so clearly were not in need of an additional pair), every manner of 'Pisa' wear and memorabilia (get your Leaning Tower lamps here folks!!) and behold...the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!!

And wow...does it really lean!! So, we bought tickets for 1340 to climb the tower! Because it was a Monday, the crowds were far less voluminous than would be on the weekends, so we were able to actually get tickets on-the-spot, which was great. We also had to check our bags, as they do not allow any bags (only a camera) during the climb, due the narrowness toward the top.

Now I'll admit I was a bit nervous about climbing the tower, because both Leah's and my guide books warned that the spiral nature of the stairs can cause vertigo in some folks. I believe they phrased it something like this...'It is a 10 minute climb (294 stairs) and 5 minutes are typically needed to recover from the vertigo-like feeling created by the winding stair cases and the tilting of the Tower.' Hmm...should be interesting!?!?!

Well, we walked about for a while, did some tchotchke shopping, resisting the temptation to purchase all of the Pisa-gear available. Then it was our time to climb. As we were waiting in line, the previous group was coming out of the leaning front door and many of them we seeking a banister to hold to steady themselves. Let's say my nervousness increased ever-so slightly. But, Leah was super-excited...

Off, we and 38 of our closest friends, went. We started climbing and you can totally feel the tilt of the Tower and the stairs are extremely well-worn with the footsteps of the many who have walked them before. It was difficult to stay in the center of the step due to the lean, so it was easy to see why the indentations/wear-patterns were as they were. I found very quickly that if I looked at the step just ahead of me, rather than trying to look way ahead and up, that I had no vertigo or feelings of weirdness. We climbed for about 5 minutes or so and then were at the 5th 'level' of the Tower and all walked around the edge (railings were provided) in order to allow the traffic above us to descend, as the stairs got a little bit more narrow as we ascended (just a bit!!!).

Once the way was cleared, we all started to head upward again around and around with the steps more notably narrow. We then ended up on the 7th level (I think there were 8 in total), which is 1 below the very top. We had to walk around this level on some elevated steps and got to see the 4 bells located on this level (the Tower was built to be the bell tower for the adjacent church, because it had no tower). Once we walked nearly all the way around this level our final set of stairs were upon us. Now these were of the 'corkscrew' variety and pie-shaped and very narrow. Once we arrived at the top, the payoff was pretty cool...

The Basilica...a view from the top of the Tower

I held my camera parallel to the ground and snapped it. The level below is the 7th level...one before the top. Seems kind of high!?!?

On our way up the stairs...

The stairs...look at the wear on them

At the 1st stopping point...about 5 stories up.

Going toward the top...look at the stairs

Coming out at the top...from the most narrow stairway

We made it to the top!!

Going back down...

It was a pretty cool sight to see, although (as we had been warned) Pisa itself is a bit dumpy, but to be able to climb the Tower was super-fun!! We were taking photos and a couple offered to take a photo of us if we would take a photo of them. They were from Rhode Island. We all remarked at the coolness of this climb and talked about our travels. As we were getting ready to do our descent (we were the last ones in line), we were talking about where we had been/were going and we both commented that after Pisa we were going to Lucca, which is not too far away. So, we said, "See you there," and began our descent.

Surprisingly, coming down was a little more difficult than ascending. The angle of the Tower + the angle of the steps + varying step lengths/depths made it a little more challenging for our balance, etc. So, now I understand why the folks came out looking a little off-kilter. I get it now!!

Well, we again 'ran the gauntlet' of vendors, walked to our car (thankfully it was still there and fully intact) and then we headed off to Lucca. Lucca (pronounced "Luka") is a city in the western part of Tuscany that was for a time occupied by France, specifically Napoleon's sister, Elisa. So, it has both French and Italian influences in its layout and architecture.

We found it with no problem, but with the crappy map from which I was navigating, it was a bit of a struggle to find an 'entrance' to the walled city. Finally, we found an entrance and there was a small parking lot just outside of it with 1 spot available. So, Leah grabbed it, we paid for our ticket, and we were off. We had about 60-90 minutes to explore, as we really didn't want to be driving after dark, so we walked through the wall's entrance and made our way down the main drag. Leah had read about this delicious treat known only in Lucca that is basically a lemony donut, rolled in sugar and either served dipped in Nutella or just plain. It is apparently sold on 'Nelly carts' which are available on market days, of which Monday was a market day. Sadly, we arrived in Lucca too late to find this treat, but instead we got a little gelato to round out the afternoon.

We saw the Cattedrale di San Martino, located in the Piazza San Michele (the proported locale of the donuts) and walked around a bit. Leah heard a funny noise as we were walking and saw some movers shuttling items from a 4th floor apartment to the ground level using...


It's difficult to see, but this 'ladder' is actually a lift that has a flat platform on which items from the home were placed and it was raced up/down for moving. Leah and I both commented on the complete lack of warning to folks below in case something might fall off during transit.

So we walked a little bit and happened upon a pretty cool store filled with great clothes, scarves and purses. :) It's owned by an ex-pat American and his wife and was a great store. We both got a couple of things and then were on our way back to the car to head back to the Castel Monastero. Well, as we were walking, we walked right into our new friends from Rhode Island that we had met at the Leaning Tower. Small world...they were very nice and we had a nice chat and I gave them our map (albeit of limited help) of Lucca, as it did have all of the major attractions...just not so great for navigation.

We hopped back into the car and set off and arrived back at the Castel without incident. A great day!!

So, today (Tuesday) is our last, full day in Tuscany and we had our car ~ the 'Ferrari' ~ until 1p today. So, we headed out for a final day of exploration in Siena. Great part was that it's only 20 minutes away and the GPS did a great job of getting us to our desired parking 'structure.' Not really a structure at all, rather it was located aside, behind, underneath the soccer stadium in Siena and was quite a mish-mash of cars squeezing into really tiny spots. We found our little spot and started walking. Our main goal was to go and see Il Campo, the site of a crazy horse race in Siena every year, and the Duomo, which is a Baroque-style cathedral and very unique/different compared to many of the other churches we have seen in Italy.

Here's some photos from our time in Siena...

Il Campo...the main city square and the Town hall. This is the site of a crazy horse race in August, where the people stand in the center of the scalloped-shaped piazza and the horses and their riders run around the people. Basically, this race has no rules and the winning horse does not actually need a jockey on its back to be declared the winner.