Day 3 - Pisa

"Bon Jono!", chirped Mr C on the morning after. (That's "Good Day" in Italian, by the way.) We piled into the coach for the Leaning Tower of Pisa which is about 355 km away.

We did not see any windmills along the highway although we did pass many rustic looking farmhouses with pine trees lining the outer parameter. The olive grove reminded me of the movie "A Walk In The Cloud" starring Keanu Reeves.

And the palm trees reminded me of Bette Davis. I never did find out the name of the movie but it was one I watched a long time ago. The movie was a black and white TV rerun and it began with an old lady answering an advertisement put up by Bette Davis for a companion in a lonely farmhouse in the middle of no where. Oh, and no neighbors too.

The interview went well. Bette Davis discovered that the interviewee had some nest egg and no living kin or beneficiary. This was perfect as Bette had her eyes set on the nest egg. She was employed and poisoned every night with trace amounts of poison added into her wine. Soon, the naive companion signed a letter to give Bette the right to manage her affairs. After the companion died, she was buried under the pine trees. The pine trees were Bette's pride and joy and there were several on her property. She planted one tree for each companion she killed.. Her devious scheme was not discovered until a neighbor bought the adjoining land and their dog dug up the bodies. Yup! Gruesome. Still, it was something to chew on along the highway to Pisa.

Pisa is a city in Tuscany. Olive trees were seen almost everywhere. The houses had a rustic look to it which reminded me a great deal of Salzburg.

Now if any of you are familiar with Sierra Games from way back when, you would have heard about the Caesar simulation series. There was Caesar 1 right up to Caesar 4, that I know of. It's really a city building game. Roads and aqueducts featured prominently.

Of course they also came up with Cleopatra, Pharaoh, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom and I've played them all, but really, we're not here to discuss that. Back to the aqueduct, which was the feature affecting the water table of the city, I'd always wanted to see if any existed today. It did. Here's the real thing.

aqueduct

Apparently, you have to pay tax at every city you visited so our first order of the day was to stop by at an obscure office to pay the tax, then head for the parking lot. Buses were not allowed to park in the city, or so we were told. We alighted from the bus and from there, it was a long walk to our destination.

I looked at the baby straddling Ms Workhorse, one of our travelling companion, as she walked tirelessly, back straight, chess out. Looking at her, you cannot help but stop moaning and groaning. (Why yes, I'm guilty of same) You could tell just by looking at her face, that Ms Workhorse is ... well, a workhorse. You could also tell, from her husband's face, that he was no workhorse. The couple was in their early thirties but Ms Workhouse was the one walking around with the 2 year old toddler strapped in a harness to her waist.

A shawl was thrown over her left shoulder although it was a hot day. The baby's face was buried under the shawl so it was a curious sight. I was wondering if the baby was asleep and was about to take a closer look when it suddenly occurred to me that the mother was breastfeeding the baby.

Wow! I just saved me a huge embarrassment.

And there she is!
the free standing bell tower of the
Cathedral of Pisa (picture below)
constructed of white marble

The Cathedral

Piazza dei Miracoli
(Fields of Miracles)

The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex.

1. Duomo di Pisa
2. Baptistery
3. Bell Tower
4. Cemetery : gracefully elongated cloister end, a burial ground with earth reputedly brought back during the crusades from Golgotha, hill where Jesus was crucified.

Souvenir kiosks outside the cathedral complex were manned by Italians, Bangladeshis/Pakistanis and Chinese. Gypsies were everywhere so Mr C was in his element. "Swing your backpacks to the front," he cried. "Watch out for your wallets and passports." "Be alert!"

Some of us "had to go" so we walked into the Mc Donald outlet for a drink just so we could get the "toilet code". Yup! You heard me right. We needed the "toilet code" if we "had to go." Otherwise, we need to pay a princely sum of €1.00 to use public washrooms.

Since we had time to kill, we walked to the nearest supermarket. This was where Ms Throw-Away-Her-Clothes marched in with an empty shopping cart and marched out again with a full load. (Click the link for detail. More about her later.)

There weren't anything else to see in Pisa (we should have bargained for a visit to an olive grove) so we checked into the hotel for another night's rest.