These messages are from a series of e-mails written after our vacation to Paris and Italy, in the summer of 2002. The events recounted in this internet diary occurred on Saturday, June 29.
--Jim McQueen
When we awoke in Florence that Saturday morning, we discovered a couple of cats on the rooftop next to our balcony. They were cute, so I took a photo of them, and started getting ready for the day's touring. A few minutes later the kids got excited, "There's another cat!", so I got my camera out and took a photo of all three. (50% cuter that just two, right?) I was putting the camera when a fourth showed up, so I got a picture with him in it -- and then the fifth cat -- and finally the sixth. They were all identically colored, and they weren't so cute now that the novelty had worn off.
We had a breakfast (with good coffee) in the hotel, then walked the block back to the train station and caught the 9:30 train to Pisa. We didn't need reservations for this one, and most of the passengers were tourists and school kids.
The train arrived in Pisa at 10:30. We spent a few minutes in the station making sure we understood the return schedule, and examining the town map out front. The options for getting to the Leaning Tower were to take a bus, or to walk. The guide book had claimed the walk was 15 minutes, though the sign at the train station put it at 25 minutes. But the route seemed direct, and we were more in a mood to stroll through town, rather than learn how to use an Italian bus.
The path lay straight down the town's main shopping street, so the 25 minute walk took more like an hour. Nancy had realized that the best sort of clothes for our trip were long skirts, so she and Susan were on the lookout for those. Eventually we crossed a river in the center of Pisa, and soon after that we caught a glimpse of the Leaning Tower, over some rooftops.
The tower is really a separate bell tower for a Catholic cathedral, and they're both in a big grassy piazza, along with a mausoleum and large domed baptistery. There were lots of tourists, but the area was big enough that it didn't feel crowded. We looked around to see where to get tickets to climb the tower, and finally found a slow-moving line. After queuing a while, it seemed like there were other places to get tickets, so I left Nancy in line while I went searching. In the tower's museum I learned that tours were allowed up every few minutes on a schedule, and they were currently selling tickets for 3:00 that afternoon -- it was about noon. We hadn't planned on staying in Pisa that long, so I decided not to buy tickets, and returned to get Nancy out of her line. I met her in the courtyard coming the other way, carrying tickets for the 3:10 PM tour.
So we killed half an afternoon in Pisa. There was a line of booths selling tourist trinkets along one side of the piazza, that was good for a few minutes. We looked around the museum gift shop, but didn't feel like buying admissions to the museum exhibits. We looked at the old city wall nearby. I found a large high-tech steel abutment hidden between centuries-old outbuildings. Just a couple of years ago the tower was closed to the public, with steel cables to the abutment trying to keep the thing from finally falling over, while they figured out how to stabilize it.
After a while, we set off looking for lunch. The places right on the piazza felt too touristy, so we walked a different route back in to the city. It was a hot, thirsty day, and a little bit of anti-American graffiti made us wonder if we should be straying away from the crowds. But Susan found a pleasant-looking café, and we had a very nice lunch in the cool shade of trees in a small town square.
Love,
Jim
When our allotted time came to climb the Leaning Tower, a bored guard led us to the small gate in the fence around the tower and threw it open. A couple dozen of us found our way to the entrance to the tower, which had only one destination -- a long spiral stairway up. Susan wisely sat it out, in the shade of the cathedral.
The stairs were actually fun to climb. As they wound around the leaning interior, the pitch of the steps on one side would be steeper, then the other would be almost level, albeit with the step surfaces tilted away from you. There were a couple of landings and a few tiny windows, but not much rest until the seventh of the nine levels. At that point, the stairs let out onto a sort of balcony, and we could wander around about a quarter of the tower, breathing heavily amid the marble columns.
More stairs led to the eighth level, which had another round balcony and a flat space in the center of the tower. Bells were hung in arches in the round wall of the final level. A tiny spiral stone staircase led up the last landing. Halfway up to the top, the tight spiral became almost straight, assuming the curve of the tower as it climbed over the arches. The passageway was so narrow that my shoulders rubbed both sides. For centuries visitors have climbed on exactly the same parts of the stone steps, and now their surfaces are worn down to the shape of an old metal tractor seat.
The top of the tower is a ring with a walkway about five feet wide, and a clear view from sea to mountains. The solid stone tower was as solid as any castle, but the slope of the top made everyone keep in close contact with the handrails.
We waved down to Susan, and took her picture as she took ours.
Love,
Jim
P.S. If these photos of the Leaning Tower aren't enough, the keepers recently did an exhaustive project to document the condition of tower. They have 6400 photos online at:
http://torre.duomo.pisa.it/towersgallery/index_eng.html
After our turn in the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we walked back through town to the train station, stopping along the way for gelatto (ice cream had become a regular event since Paris.) We had no problem taking the 4:30 train back to Florence.
We had looked through our various guide books for dinner recommendations, and settled on a place that mentioned pasta with truffles -- I wanted to know how they tasted. The guy at the hotel desk made reservations for us at Buca San Giovanni, and gave us directions.
As we began walking, the city's nightlife was beginning. There were pedestrians clogging the streets, and cafés spilling out onto the sidewalks. It took us a little time to find our restaurant, even though we had a map with it's location. When we discovered it, it was one of a couple of restaurants in a tiny square tucked among the narrow streets. There was no sign, not even an address number on the building, but when I told them our name they had our reservation.
I had fettuccini with truffles -- good, but not strongly flavored. I had located more truffle taste at home, in some truffle butter from the gourmet grocery store. Scott ordered fried rabbit, and ate it all. Nancy ordered ravioli stuffed with bleu cheese, which we all marveled over -- the best pasta we found in Italy. (She enjoys stuffed pasta, apparently that's completely different from stringy pasta.)
We weren't the messy eaters that the photo would have you believe. As an appetizer, they served us a basket of fresh bread, and gave each of us a thick slice of paté, laid right on the paper tablecloth. This is a restaurant we'll return to, next time we're in Florence.
After dinner, Susan led us a couple of blocks to the city center, to see the famous statue of David. The large piazza was filled that Saturday night for a public concert. As a small orchestra played, we made our way to one side of the piazza, where sculpture was on display in an arcade. Nancy wanted a photo of us in front of one statue (I looked it up later -- Cellini's "Perseus Holding Up the Head of Medusa".) I teased Nancy that she wanted a photo of the statue's naked butt, and just as she was ready to take the picture, the boys and I turned our butts to the camera too. The statue of David is in the picture also, and beyond that is the Palazzo Vecchio at the heart of Florence. (If you read the book or saw the movie about Hannibal Lector, the front of that building was the location of one of his more grotesque acts.)
Nobody was murdered that night though, and we walked onto the Pont Vecchio, a famous and picturesque bridge over the river Arno. We walked back to our hotel past crowds circled around street performers, and by 11:00 we were letting the kids watch "Jackass" on MTV Europe.
Love,
Jim