Day 7 - Pisa

As we were walking down to the restaurant the next morning, we ran in to Nana.  Although she spoke little English, we conveyed to her that we wanted to take her with us.  She laughed, hugged, and kissed each of us on both cheeks. The restaurant was very busy as it was the Saturday before Easter and many people had arrived the night before for the holiday weekend. We said goodbye to Monica and Elena, got our chocolate croissants and made the long trek up the hill  back to our car in the parking lot outside of town.  Once again, Beth cried.

From Manarola we drove to Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower, where we climbed 294 tilting narrow steps (2-way traffic, no less) to the pinnacle.  Again Donna had to chant "Happy Cake" to get herself to the top, and--just for fun-- the rest of us joined in.  Mary convinced Brenda and Donna to spit off of the tower with her.  This was quite a challenge since we did it over a 7 foot high fence, not realizing at this point that we weren't at the very top.  Beth (being the only city-raised gal?) refused to spit.  The rest of us farm-grown girls think it's really  because she never learned how.  We might have to teach her that skill before leaving Italy.

Beth decided she had seen enough and started back down, not realizing that we weren't at the very top.  The rest of us trekked our way up.  When we arrived at the peak, Mary said, "Oh!  THIS is where the kids and I spit off before! I THOUGHT it was easier."

We also toured the Cathedral with its humongous bronze doors.  We were impressed by the ornate golden mosaic of Christ over the alter.  There is a patron Saint Ranieri mummified here in a glass casket.  We discovered that this was the church where Galileo became curious about a swinging bronze incense burner and discovered the motion of a pendulum.

We also visited the Baptistry, where a man came in to sing and demonstrate the building's phenomenal acoustics.  He would sing a note, then another, and another... which would reverberate throughout the round, acoustically-perfect interior to make a chord.  The people during medieval times would baptize by submersion and baptize babies in baptismal fonts.

We ate pizza for lunch and then continued on to Tuscany, B & B Art  in San Casciano Val de Pesa.  We opted to buy cheese and crackers for dinner at the local store and drank a bottle of wine...again.  We had intentions to go to bed earlier, but got to solving all of the world's problems and reminiscing about the good old days.   Time flies when we're having fun.