Travel another way

Travel notes from Joan D., San Jose , California, one of our guests on the Provence tour. After our trip, she went to Italy.

“In Pisa, there is a Cathedral which is enormous, ornate, and constructed of beautiful white marble. Then there’s the Bapistry, another sacred building with a large dome. Not as large as the cathedral but still quite impressive. Both are sitting on a lawn, which looks so strange. I guess I’m used to large churches, museums, government buildings, monuments built on plazas and/or with parking lots. This was very impressive. 

Then of course there is the famous leaning tower, which was originally designed to be a bell tower. It is dwarfed by the other 2 buildings. The chronological (and architecural) history of the tower’s construction is well documented. For 25€ you can climb up inside. All of these buildings, which were constructed with white marble, had very recently been cleaned and were striking. In addition to these 3 buildings there are 2 museums, one of which was until recently a hospital. We were told that Pisa is the oldest city in Italy, and the 2 mile wall around the oldest part of the city is the oldest intact wall of its kind in the world.

While we admired the leaning tower from afar, we spent our €uros on being able to walk around inside of the cathedral. Amazing frescos, sculptures and windows.  The patron saint of Pisa (John Baptiste de_____?) “relics” (body) is on display in a glass tomb. They should have done that with Elvis so there wouldn’t be so much speculation about his whereabouts.  

After a few hours we hopped the bus, completed our tour and railed our way back to Genoa. There we got off at a different station, went shopping for an hour or so and when it started to rain we ducked into a tiny ristorante and had an excellent dinner and chatted with the owner who ‘loved’ the U.S. 

Then we caught the train for 1 stop, caught a bus to the airport and then walked to our hotel. I gotta mention that there were only 4 people on this bus, one being the driver. This MANIAC drove about 70 mph through these narrow city streets, we had to hang on to the bars even though we were seated. Twice on turns my butt slid off the seat despite hanging on. Only my feet being firmly planted kept me from flying across the aisle.  It was like being a stuntman on a chase scene. So tomorrow its arrivederci Genoa and we’re off to Verona.” Ciao Joan