We've finally managed to feel settled enough to go exploring a bit. Andy had to go to Pisa University to look at an installation of their hardware so the boys and I tagged along. We had to set out pretty early as we were told that it would take three hours to drive there from Milan. They were right is was three hours. The problem was when we got there. We had brought a map that Andy had downloaded from MapQuest but it just wasn't up to helping up much. We ended up going round and round several times. The problem wasn't so much that we didn't know where we were.
It was more that the one way streets just had us completely confused! So it took us another hour to find the hotel and even then we had to park a street over and walk back to the hotel. By this time it was time for Andy to be at the University so I dropped him off. Then having discovered that we'd left the boys shoes (they had started the trip in the PJs) in Milan I went to a supermarket we had passed and brought them shoes.
So far so good.
I then managed to get myself completely lost (I thought I was on the other side of the river!) and took another hour getting back to the hotel only to find myself again one street over.
After an hour getting over the frustrations of driving in Pisa I steeled myself to try to get onto the right street where we could park for the rest of the time for 2 Euros (It had cost 2 Euros for one and a half hours in the other park).
Again I had a very interesting one hour tour of Pisa while the boys and I attempted four different circuits until we ended up going the right way down the hotels street. On the first circuit I ended up on some very narrow streets wondering if the car would actually get through. At this stage we actually got our first glimpse of the tower so the boys felt that it might be worth it. Once we'd parked the car I was extremely pleased that we didn't have to touch it again except to negotiate our way out of Pisa!!!
Our hotel room was great! The hotel was only five minutes from the tower in the oldest district in Pisa. We were saying to the boys that the hotel might have been 1000 years old. We had no way of checking but the guide book we found in the lobby said the the Santa Maria district (the hotel was on Via Santa Maria) was the oldest district and 1000 years ago it had been well established and other areas had then been developed. The ceiling had this amazing painted design that gave it a 3-D effect even though we think(?) it was actually flat.
The whole hotel was really old and run down. It was just great it really felt as though you were there. The room was enormous half the room was taken up with a double and two single beds the rest was sparsely furnished with a table two writing desk (one with, with world cup soccer on, a much needed TV - at least the boys thought so) multiple wardrobes, a writing bureau, and a sink. The bathroom was just across the hall and was modern oasis in the midst of rundown antiquity.
After a much needed sit down after all that confusing driving the boys and I went out and explored the place. It was great walking down the narrow street and finding the leaning tower doing it's leaning thing. As Andy says if it wasn't for the fact that it was so famous we probably would have looked at the tower and done a rather bored, "Oh, a leaning tower" - having been here for two months we're getting a bit passé about old buildings and ruins. The fact that it was so famous somehow made all the difference. To actually be there was just great.
It is really well kept and we've been really lucky to come when we did. I was talking to a friend here who visited it a while back when it was still surrounded by all it's "got to fix this tower without fixing it so that it's straight" project going on around it. She said it was somewhat disappointing as not only could you not climb it you couldn't even see it properly because of all the scaffolding etc. Now though it and the neighbouring duomo and baptistery are all pristinely clean while still managing to look suitably old.
We checked out the price for climbing it on Saturday when Andy could come with us and discovered that it was 15 Euros each The price was the same for children who had to be over eight so the boys just sneaked in. So it cost us 60 Euros to climb up it. I suppose they have to get their repair money back somehow but if it wasn't for the fact the it is THE Leaning Tower of Pisa we never would have paid that much. We decided to put the pain of as long as possible and brought the tickets the next day. The boys contented themselves with spending their pocket money on buying miniature towers which were a much more sensible price.
Having been there seen that and taken the obligatory photo of the boys holding up the tower, by no means an easy task with two hot and tired children, we then proceeded to take a leisurely walk back past all the old stalls and into an adjacent pizza where the guide book said were some interesting buildings. The building really were rather amazing and I even managed to talk to rather tired children into going into the church which happened to be called Saint Stephen. The inside of the church was amazing. I've somehow managed to be in Italy for two months without looking inside any of their amazing churches so it was quite an eye-opener. The ceiling was amazing gold leaf surrounding frescoes. (Unfortunately it was too dark in the church for our camera.)
We were given an English guidebook to the place so we were able to read about what we were seeing. Michael took exception to one bit which said that the knights of Saint Stephen had been victorious over the Turks. He had read somewhere that they had been captured and made slaves. Of course, if they had fought each other for a long time his version may have been right but in the end they may have been victorious. I'll have to look it up sometime.
All in all it was rather an interesting time delving into all the narrow streets but the boys were very pleased to get back to the hotel to find dad hadn't taken as long at the university as expected and was there to great us. They had a great time telling dad about everything they had seen.
At tea time we set off down to the tower for dad to get his first look. He was suitably impressed and we had another bit of a walk around until the boys informed us that it was definitely tea time. We stopped and looked at a couple of menus up by the outdoor tables of the restaurants down the street and were nudged into choosing one by the matra de touting for customers. The boys were particularly impressed that it had good English tucker on the menu.
The place was swarming with tourists which might have been off putting for some people but after two months of occasionally running into people who speak a bit of English it was great from our point of view to be around people who spoke English and be able to order English food. After the meal the boys got their second gelato of the day.
On the way back the light was just right. It was coming on sunset and the buildings looked just how I'd always pictured Italy. Sort of run down in an otherworldy sort of way. We had a great time with the boys running ahead and coming back for hugs. Since being in Italy and seeing people hugging and kissing a lot they've decided that it's OK for mum and dad to hug and kiss them. It's really rather charming.
We were all rather tired after our long day so we decided to call it a night. I found "The Horse Whisperer" in the lobby and started in on it. Despite being put off by the movie the book was rather well written although the first half was definitely superior the the rest of it. There's something rather nice about one star hotels. You wouldn't find an old copy of an English book in a grander hotel. But, in a backpackers with international visitors who can't carry too much luggage it wouldn't be that unusual.
The next day we were up reasonably early. Dad went off with the boys to find some bread for breakfast while I tried out the shower. I had thought the shower was rather wide but it wasn't till I got in it and just about got burned a couple of time that I realised that the extra width was for jumping quickly to one side instead to avoid getting burnt! Like everything in Italy it was a matter of knowing where to shop. Andy came back empty handed from his first venture out only to find on his second attempt that the shop was only just round the corner - if only he'd gone the right way. Typical Italy.
The trip up the tower was definitely worth the effort. Even for 'friady cats like me. It was really strange walking up the spiral staircase with it tilting in different directions depending on where you were in the tower. Once at the top I definitely didn't feel comfortable on the downward slope side! All and all though it was rather fun.
After going up the tower we went through the duomo. This time it was Andy's turn to be impressed. The inside was even more ornate than Saint Stephen's. We were very fortunate that there was a guide there talking to his group in English. He was really rather funny with a camp sort of French/Italian accent. So we actually learnt quite a lot about the place. Aparantely there had been a fire, due to the heating system, which burnt most of the original frescoe. Also I learnt the difference between a duomo, cathedral and a bascilica. A duomo is the main church in a town, a cathedral is usually also a duomo (as in this case) but all has a "catedal" which is the archbishops chair and a bascilica is what the christians called their churches before the Romans allowed them to have churches. A duomo is usually made up of three bascilicas, one down the middle and two on each side forming a latin cross. He also told us that the gallery was built for women to sit in. Because they had no souls they couldn't sit in the church proper. I wonder when we aquired souls?
After all this "monument looking" we then wandered back to a rock hound display that we'd seen being set up the evening before. It would have been a rock hounds dream. The boys had never seen such a collection of fossils and rock in various states of 'tyding up'. I was really rather impressed myself. I haven't really taken much interest in such things before. However, we are now the proud owners of a small stone that has been cut in half to show the amazing amethyst crystals inside it and a slabe of something that looks a bit like slate with fish fossils on it. It has a rather modern art look about it.
After all this the boys had definitely had enough of Pisa so we headed back to our car and took a rather circuitous route (lack of a good map problems again) out of the city and along the main road (not the motorway) back the way we'd zipped past on the motor way on the way to Pisa. There was one bit of zigzag road in over the pass down from the Po valley that Andy particulary wanted to drive on. However, the road along the coast definitely could have been missed out. It took us at least a hour of stop start driving for us to get anywhere.
It pretty soon became obvious why the motorway had been put in. Once we got out of that though and into relatively bare country it really was worth leaving the motorway. It felt a lot like driving in New Zealand. Except of course we had to remember that we were on the wrong side of the road! We even found this great little "International Pizza Restaurant" just after going over the pass. We had a great pizza meal there. The boys even got to see the pizza cooking by the fire inside the pizza oven.
We decided that we'd definitely had enough of driving in the real Italy and headed back to the motorway at the next connection. We had to go way down through the village of Berceto as the motorway tunnels through all this wonderful country and is at a much lower level.
All and all it was a great couple of days but we were definitely glad to be back home with Sunday to recover. It's just great that home happens to be so close to all these wonderful possibilites of places to visit. I'll update you about our next "excursion".
Bye for now.
Comments