PISA & LUCCA...two different cities in the country side of Tuscany

Today was the day to explore a few new cities so off to the train station we went. We stood in line to purchase reservations to be told that we didn’t need to pay anything with our Euro Rail ticket. First stop was Pisa to see the tower…once there we realized that the tower was leaning…all that way on a train with lousy seats to see a leaning tower. What’s up with that.

Then they wanted 15 Euro to walk up the stairs to the top and the wait was 3 hours to do so. We decided pictures from the ground would do just fine. We only had to pay 13 Euro’s for the Eiffel Tower and it was SO much taller than the leaning tower of Pisa. So we decided to help the tower out by pushing it back up into place…as did many others taking photos today.

The city was much like all the rest here in Italy so far, winding streets with curving buildings to match the street; cute little arches in between buildings for cars to go thru and a few interesting Churches and buildings. It was quite a ways from the train station to the tower when walking.

Next we took the train to Lucca. It was a little different in that There were more trees and a few areas of grass surrounding it and it was enclosed by a wall. I'm amazed that Italy has so many fir trees - you could almost be in OR if you were looking at the hillsides that passed by on the train (and the fir trees).  There were a few Churches and museums there…and a carrousel in the main square. We stopped to ask for directions and that didn’t work, but they sure have lots of magazines with nude women in their magazine stores.

Sure glad the sun was shining. It made for a nice day to explore two cities. We have learned a few things that have come in handy for traveling in Europe. When you need to go to the bathroom really bad find a McDonalds (there’s usually one in each city)…make it a priority to find out where it is as the people taking money are too busy to notice that you didn’t pay for anything and just used the bathroom without purchasing anything. Most restaurants are very stingy about letting you use their bathroom if you don’t purchase at least a drink. We’d come home with a bag full of drinks if we weren’t careful. There are not public bathrooms anywhere here…except in the museums…which you usually have to pay a hefty price for the museum…lol…so that’s a spendy bathroom. Also, remember to have change in your purse because lots of bathrooms have an individual who is there keeping them clean and expect you to tip them, or have a fee for using the bathroom. Also, don’t expect the bathroom to have a toilet seat. Most do not and a few that do loosen the screw so the lid is stuck in the up position. Women…before leaving on a trip work on straddling the toilet at home instead of sitting because you will use those muscles a lot abroad. Also, might want to bring Kleenex because lots of time there is no toilet paper or it’s just like using Dairy Queen napkins.

OK – time for bed…we are going to try again to find the Boboli Gardens tomorrow. We were told by a 17 yr old boy we met on the train how wonderful they were. He was on Spring Break from Germany as a high school Sr. this year. His parents in Mexico pay 3,000 Euro’s for him to live with a family (that feeds him too) so he can go to school there. He plans on going to Harvard – if he decides to study a little harder since he’s getting A- without even studying he told us. He was traveling by himself to Rome and a few other places for a 12 day period. He said his credit card didn’t work in Rome for some reason so he couldn’t eat for a few days because he ran out of money (his parents gave him about 800 Euro’s for the trip. Deeanna had the same trouble with her card today in one of the machines. We are going to try her card again tomorrow in a different banks ATM that her card worked in in the other day. She knows she has the money in her account.

Kyla