Craig's blog

This morning after breakfast we boarded our bus and headed to Pisa.  We were excited to see the leaning tower – I’ve never seen it.  Our bus pulled in to a large parking lot for buses where we loaded a shuttle that takes you to the historic part of town (well, about ½ a mile from the historic part of town).  Then you walk along a street that is covered in vendors sending all sorts of junk – sunglasses, umbrellas, Gucci bags, Rolex watches, etc.  I’ve never seen so many vendors preying on tourists. 

When you finally get to the area where the tower is (it’s called the Field of Miracles) it is incredibly striking.  The leaning tower is really amazing – both beautiful and incredibly odd.  But I was also really amazed by the Cathedral next to it.  It’s huge and it’s hard to imagine how they built these sorts of things in the 11^th century.

We also walked through the historic town and got rained on pretty good during our return walk.  Katie and I got particularly wet since we didn’t have umbrellas. 

We ate at a little sandwich shop where you could order whatever you wanted on focaccia bread (or other breads). 

It was good to see Pisa, but we all agreed that once we’d seen it, we wouldn’t go back as the intense touristy feeling and tons of people make it not much fun.

When we got back the choir rehearsed at the community performing venue where they were going to sing at 6:00.  We relaxed a little then walked over there to watch the concert.  They were excellent again although the audience was less in to it then the other night.  Still it was excellent.  We walked about 100 yards to our restaurant which was much better than the food at the hotel the night before.

I still haven’t found decent wifi so I can’t post pictures.  Hopefully I will soon.

Tomorrow we visit Florence.