Wednesday 23rd April.

The Tuscan sun was out in all its glory waking us up early this morning. Pisa was our destination, only a 30 minute drive away. The landscape was scenic and after entering a very long tunnel that cut its way through the mountains we came out with the Leaning Tower visible in the distance. This was dreamlike after only seeing this great wonder on numerous documentaries, travel shows and in history books! We found parking fairly easily, wonder of all wonder’s and then just headed in the direction of the tower. Pisa’s old centre was again enclosed by large imposing walls, so we had to find the right entrance, which didn’t prove too hard as all of a sudden we came upon our first encounter with a huge throng of tourist’s.

Up until now, we had been extremely lucky and hadn’t yet had to share our touring with masses of other tourist’s! We threaded our way through the crowds and came upon a huge open area of neatly manicured lawns, with the Baptistry in the foreground, then the wonderful four- tiered façade of the Duomo and finally the surreal spectacle of the Leaning Tower. This area is known as the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles). We decided on this visit just to explore the Duomo and Tower as we would no doubt be back with our visiting friends in the future.

Once we purchased our surprisingly expensive tickets, we only had a half hour wait to climb the tower. In the meantime we explored the elaborate and impressive interior of one of the finest Pisan-Romanesque buildings in Tuscany, the Duomo. As they say a picture paints a thousand words, so, here are some pictures (He He).

After exiting the Duomo, (Charlotte couldn’t get out of there quick enough, maybe it was the crypt that freaked her out), we locked our belongings up in lockers as the tower is to narrow to drag any belongings with you, except camera’s, and ventured towards the big queue’s. Luckily as we weren’t part of a tour we went straight in before all the other groups!

As we entered into the cold marble interior and started up the steep, warn and off kilter steps, Charlotte kept making sure I wasn’t going to pass out on her due to my claustrophobia. But I was fine in this situation, as I knew there was fresh air to be had; the stairs wrapped around the outside of the tower with views all the way up. After what seemed like a Step Reebok class, we came to a viewing point and walked around the weird tilted edge, took a few pics and proceeded up even narrower steps. With Charlotte calling ‘are you alright Mum?’ making me feel like everyone must think I was considerably unfit or invalid, when she was yet again worried about my claustrophobia!!!

We then came out on the level with the huge bells that add to the leaning pressure on the tower! It was now time for more pictures and then the final climb to the top. Charlotte wouldn’t come any further as she was positive we would fall off, the lean seems quite substantial at the very top…..you feel tipsy like you’ve had a bit too much chardy! A beautiful view was had from the top, over the Baptistry and Duomo, although the wind was quite blustery. On our way down we came across a large group of very noisy and pushy students. I was thankful we had got to enjoy our experience at the top without a huge crowd! After our visit with Pisa’s miracles, Leon wanted to find a tiny village called Bolgheri that was in a book he was reading at the moment called ‘Vroom by the sea’. We came across the picturesque village at the end of a cypress lined avenue with its quaint arched porta (entrance).

As is becoming a habit we arrived at the village right on siesta, and as we walked through the porta the place seemed deserted. The tiny village consisted of only three little streets so we took a look around and discovered the most appealing little restaurants lining a street with pretty views out to the sunny Tuscan hills. This was exactly how we had imagined Tuscany to be and I couldn’t wait to be seated under the flowering creeper that shaded a particularly inviting part of an alfresco restaurant. We sat and had a long, leisurely, typically Italian lunch of grissini (cut up breadsticks) antipasti, primi piatti and secondi and of course a glass of the best red wine we had tasted yet! Leon enjoyed his secondi which consisted of medallions of beef, slowly broiled in a sauce of red wine and balsamic vinegar. He had a hard time keeping Charlotte from pinching the delectable morsels of his plate, despite her tucking into a delicious meal of pasta made especially to entice the bambina!

Before we knew it, the town came alive again as siesta was over and the streetscape had transformed, with the opening of charming stores for us to explore. We bought two bottles of the local wine and upon returning to the car we saved this delightful place to our GPS for future visits.