Thursday, June 23, 2011

The City of the Leaning Tower

Pisa 6-21-11
So, that whole crud thing, yeah, it got worse overnight. I woke up in the middle of the night with killer pain in my throat. So bad, in fact, that it invaded my dreams before waking me up. I usually only get sick once or twice a year at most, and I love that my body chose the time that I’m in Europe to use one of its sick turns. It is NOT fun being sick thousands of miles away from home (and my momma). You know, no matter how old you get, you mom is always the first thing you want when you get sick.  
After a trip to a pharmacy near our hotel in Florence, I loaded up on some medicine that I’m hoping will do the trick. We will see. We left Florence around 11am and headed to Pisa so see that famous leaning tower. At first we were going to attempt to take backroads, but that didn’t end up working out well. What we were able to see of the Italian countryside was very lovely! It seemed that every house had their own garden and vineyard. What a way to live, eh? I wonder if the Italians even realize how beautiful their surroundings are, or is it just..normal...to them? 
Pisa was relatively close to Florence, so we got there pretty quickly. It was a quick tour stop for us, because there is only one thing to see in Pisa really, and I hope you know already know what it is. If not, then here is a hint. It leans, and is a tower. The tower itself was pretty nifty, and we spent a few minutes taking the traditional cheesy leaning tower photos; you know the ones....where you look like you are either holding the tower up or pushing it over. It was quite hilarious to see everyone holding their arms in awkward positions all over the square. So, once we were done with that, we decided we didn’t feel like paying to go inside the tower (EVERYTHING costs money over here...good grief I don’t think I will ever complain again about how we do things in the states. At least we don’t have to pay to use the toilet!). We walked back to our car, making a short stop for some gelato (which felt great on my sore throat) and then headed for our hotel in the city of Lucca. 
Once we got to our hotel in Lucca, we realized that we had to wait a few hours for check in, so we got our bathing suits and towels and hit the beach!  The water was freezing cold, so I didn’t spend much time in it, but it was wonderful to lay out and nap and do nothing for a few hours. The beach in Italy was gorgeous. In the background were mountains. So, I was able to look at snow capped mountains while laying out under the hot sun at the beach. Such a neat thing! We don’t get that very many places if any in the U.S. We stayed at the beach for probably two hours or so, and then headed back to our hotel to check in. After checking in and lugging our suitcases up a flight of stairs, we set out to get some dinner.  This was no easy task...apparently everything in this little town closes around 8pm, so everything was closed! We finally found a little Turkish kebab restaurant and decided to take a break from Italian food and try this place. It was actually really good! The kebab was make from some sort of shaved meat, I got mine in  pita bread, as a sandwich, and they had several toppings and sauces you could put on it as well. The meat was very fresh; they shaved it right off of a huge hunk of meat that was slow cooking in a weird vertical grill thing. It was a lot of food; I couldn’t finish it all. Back at the hotel we chilled and watched a few shows that Iva had downloaded on her laptop, including Big Bang Theory and Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana. Don’t judge us for liking Disney shows. Now, time for sleep. I’m hoping that this sore throat will go away tomorrow, because it is really beginning to get ANNOYING! 
Tomorrow, arrivaderchi Italia, bonjour Monaco and France! 

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