Lucca, Pisa, Florence

Thanks for the Blog comments and thanks for the emails.  It makes us a little homesick listening to all the happenings from home.

Another busy day, La Spezia, Lucca, Pisa then to the hotel in Florence.  Left La Spezia and arrived at Lucca about 10.  Walked the 4 kilometres around the old city walls then went into the city centre for a coffee.  A very pretty town, clean and catering for tourists.  We should have hired bikes to get around, the city walls were very interesting and we would have covered a lot more territory if we thought of the bikes early….next time maybe.

Pam, on the walls of Lucca

Following Pam along the walls, all trees now - not a cannon in sight.

On to Pisa and of course the Tower of Pisa.  How doesn’t that thing fall over??!!  I have seen pictures in the past but nothing prepared us for how much it actually leans.  We walked to the top of the Baptistry (the domed building at the end -200 steps) and had a great view around the gardens and city.  Of course we also had to climb to the top of the Tower (300 steps).  A very unusual experience, it is only a bell tower, so it is hollow inside with just the stair case to the top.   The stairs circle around between the walls, being on such a lean the stairs are steep on one side and quite easy on the other.  When you walk out it’s like having been on a boat and we were a little unsteady on our feet for a couple of minutes.

Vernon the tourist.

The selfy.

The Baptistery, cathedral and bell tower in the background.  All made of white marble from the hills north of Pisa.  We climbed to the top row of windows of the Baptistery.

Took this photo from the window.

Trying to get the lean.

Vernon at the top of the tower

It really does lean.

The best photo showing the lean.

View of Pisa from the top of the tower.

Pam being the tourist.

Narrow, leaning, dark and slippery - all fun times.

Quite a bit of walking and we were ready for a quiet drink and a little lie down at our motel.  Well……The internet listed the motel as being 8 kilometres outside Florence city centre.  We left the Autostrade about 30 kilometres outside Florence and drove over every rough road and through every olive grove in Tuscany until we finally got to out motel….8 kilometres outside Florence.  Not sure why all that happened.

However – when we located the front gates they were locked, Pam pressed the buzzer and the gates slowly swung open.  We drove down the driveway to a beautiful Tuscan Villa, we parked the car and when we got out and turned towards the front door two men were standing at the door, one about 70 with the biggest black moustache you’ve ever seen, the other was about 50 and held the door open.  We approached and said in a very welcoming manner, ‘ Bonjourno!!’

Neither man changed their expressions, they looked at us as if we were undertakers coming to get their  Mother………we walked closer and one indicated for us to come in, this was a huge room with a desk at one end, the younger man sat behind the desk and pointed for us to sit down.

We sat down and he said, ‘Four nights or five?’  We said, ‘Four’.  He looked at each of us, frowned, got out his rubber and rubbed a day off the largest booking pad I have ever seen.  He then said, ‘Passport?’  I got the passports, he copied the numbers down (very slowly), I signed the form. (This all took about 15 minutes)

His older assistant then indicated us to follow him, we followed him to our room.  Not a word was spoken.

They both then disappeared somewhere into the villa.  Both men looked and acted like they had taken over the villa by force and were holding hostages inside.  The security measures are amazing – considering the villa is high on a hill and the last one on the road (a narrow gravel path).  The back door has a quadruple barrel deadlock!!!  There are three security cameras at the front gate?  The villa is high on a hill but overlooks the Autostrade, the noise is incredible.  I suppose these men choose this place because the noise from the traffic drowns out any machine gun fire…..

Pam thinks it is Hotel California, (all that’s missing is, ‘the warm smell of colitas rising up through the air.’  I thought it was more like Rocky Horror, (all that’s missing is an invitation to, ‘come up to the lab….see what’s on the slab’).  Neither of us think we will get out alive!!!!

Neither man can speak a word of English so we couldn’t ask them for directions to cafes/pubs for dinner, we ended up driving aimlessly around for half an hour and had tea at a service station and watched people fill their cars with petrol – it was so romantic.  Pam is overjoyed, looks like my theory has worked – keep her mind busy and she will get over the flu.  Sure has worked!!!!

Into Florence tomorrow to visit a couple of museums – I think I owe Pam a nice restaurant meal.  Tea tonight (a ham and cheese sandwich on bread baked around the middle of July; a beer and a coke) cost 7 euro.  I think I can do better than that tomorrow.

Pam planning our getaway.....

Vernon - living large and lashing out in Florence!!!