Leaning Tower of Pisa and a lost teacher, really!
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2010
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32
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Trip End
Jul 02, 2010
Where I stayed
Traveling on the bus from Montecatini to Nice
Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Today we left Montecatini and headed first to Pisa, yes to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a short drive and we woke up to another beautiful sunny warm day. All we did in Pisa was visit the Cathedral, Baptistery, and have our picture taken with the Bell Tower (or better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa). It was a lot of fun to either hold it up or push it over. See pictures. After we had finished around the cathedral we all headed back to the bus. Every time we meet as a group some place our guide does a head count, so while we were still at the church Robert counted all 25 of us, somewhere between the church and the bus we lost one of the adults. We all used the restrooms, got a snack, and then sat on the bus for an hour and a half while Robert tried to find the missing adult. Now the walk to the bus from the church is about five minutes so how could someone get lost you may say well I don't know the answer to that question, because as of this typing Joyce the missing adult has been left behind along with another adult. About an hour after we left Pisa the guide received word that the two adults had found each other and would be taking the train from Pisa to Nice, France. Thank goodness it was no one in our group, the eight of us from BCW have all been where we are suppose to be when we are suppose to be there.
After all of the excitement of losing someone and worrying about what might have happened to them the bus ride, I thought, was going to be pretty anti-climatic but I was wrong in a big way. Our trip today took us through the Italian Alps and it was beautiful. The drive was about six hours total and some of that was because of traffic but the scenery along the way was great. I lost count as to how many tunnels we drove through but it had to be more than 100, some were short little things others were quite long, the Italians and French did not go over the mountains they went through them. Just after we stopped for lunch all of us got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea and it was breath taking. We were quite high up in the mountains so we first got little slivers of views just enough to tease us, but when we finally got a good look everyone on the bus was blown away. The water really is as blue as it looks on television. Then add to that the small little Italian coastal towns terraced up the mountains and WOW it is amazing. I wish the pictures I send could give you a better feel for what it looks like because the pictures just don’t do it justice. We eventually crossed over into France and continued our journey to Nice through the French Alps and they were spectacular too. The closer we came to Nice the closer we got to the Mediterranean Sea and it became even better looking with each mile. We caught a quick view of Monaco from high above during our drive because Nice is about a half hour west of Monaco but more on Monaco tomorrow.
Now before I close I have another batch of strange and unusual facts, tidbits, and things I’ve seen or learned that I didn’t really need to and most of them are related to Italy so before I close the book on Italy once and for all I will share these last few things.
The water faucet with the letter “C” in Italy means hot water not cold so don’t stand there for five minutes after turning the “F” faucet on hoping for hot water. Dahh
To get from Pisa, Italy to Nice, France requires four train changes, yes I know this because of our lost adult. Sam, Danielle, and I had four changes but it was over 36 hours with a nights rest and it was still a tiring experience. Our lost adult had four changes in about nine hours. Yuck.
Italians do not embalm bodies they bury people just the way they die. After they have been buried for ten years the grave is opened and the remains are compacted so more people can be buried. I told you I didn’t want to know every thing I learned.
Italy has a thing about covered shoulders and knees when entering a cathedral but yet all over are huge billboards with naked people on them. In addition women in Rome like to wear the worst fitting bra with the most sparkle under the lowest cut shirt I have ever seen, all this in a country where shoulders and knees have to be covered to enter a church, strange.
The students got our guide so frustrated on the bus that he actually said “ooh la la” I have never heard a guy say that before and I have a feeling I probably won’t again.
Genova, Italy is the last town in the Italian Alps before France so it is high up in the mountains and as we drove thru it we saw palm trees growing. It was different to see palm trees in the mountains that’s for sure.
While we were in Italy we were served veal for dinner. It was very good but once I found out it was veal I just couldn’t eat it anymore, I was having images of little calves frolicking in the pasture, it was just too much for me, but it was good before I knew what it was.
Besides loosing an adult today we also had a few moments when the bus driver thought we also had bus problems. Just before we entered France he had to pull off the road into a truck stop and change one of the filters. Thankfully that solved the problem, but you know we were just having one of those kinds of days and it wouldn’t have surprised any of us if the bus had actually broken down.
The library in Nice looks like a square head, now 1) who came up with that idea and 2) who would fund a project like that, although strange I probably will never forget it.
During our walk through the market area in Nice this evening, I stopped to buy a small watercolor painting and upon hearing me speak the gentleman taking my Euro’s asked me where I was from, I told him the States and he promptly pulled out a map of the US and asked which one. He was really very cute about the whole thing and I kind of thought he would put a little sticky dot on Michigan when I said that was where I was from. He didn’t he just told me he was retired police and sent me on my way.
Final note for tonight, the City of Nice has bikes for rent trying to encourage less traffic. They are at bike stands all over the city, you just walk up and grab one. The first thirty minutes are free and then its like 2 Euro every hour after that, however, the bikes aren’t really working because the people driving cars ignore the bike lanes so the population of Nice is afraid to ride the bikes in fear of their lives on the streets. Kind of funny I thought.
Ok that is it for today and for Italy, tomorrow it is MONACO and then the beach, luv to all, Ann, Sam, and Danielle
