Today we were on the road before 6:00am, it seems like a common theme is for us to get early starts on travel days. We got on the highway and headed south.
Destination: Pisa
In Pisa we drove around in search of the Leaning Tower, it really shouldn’t be that difficult to find – but it was. The signs were completely useless, traffic was heavy, and buildings were just tall enough to obscure our goal. 45 minutes later we found ourselves directly across the city wall from the Leaning Tower with a convenient parking space. We walked into the city wall and over to the tower, got tickets for entrance 10 minutes later and climbed up into the tower. It is very weird to climb a spiral staircase around a building that is not straight. We knew that we were standing straight but nothing around us reflected that. It was a bigger challenge then we thought it would be. Once you finish climbing around the outside of the tower there are spiral staircases (narrow!) to take you to the top. It’s weird to be standing on the top of an unlevel building with just 36” high railings around the edge. The view from the top was very nice.
The Leaning Tower
Pisa, Italy
The Leaning Jenny
Pisa, Italy
Pisa, Italy
Next Destination: Florence
We continued our drive towards Florence where we had a date with "The David" at 1:00pm. Now The David is located in a museum built basically for the purpose of holding it. Parking was difficult to find, the city was dirty and there were crowds everywhere. We arrived at the museum and had a little bit of a hassle entering, even though we had reserved tickets ahead of time. When we finally got into the gallery pictures were not allowed and people were everywhere. It was super, super crowded. David was there in all his glory. We’re glad that we went, but we wouldn’t go to Florence again.
Tuscan Countryside
Italy
Tuscan Countryside
Italy
Italy
Final Destination: Roma!
We arrived at about 5:00pm to the hotel that we had booked on the Mediterranean Sea. Needless to say it wasn’t what had been pictured on the web. The neighborhood was not the best and the rooms were far from the 3 star rating they had claimed, even for a hotel in another country. We decided that hotel was a mistake and set Kim (Jenny’s sister) on the mission of finding us another place to stay. She came up with a beautiful hotel in the center of Rome, very close to everything (good find!). We moved in, and headed to the airport to return Clio, our car.