5/29/09: Day 215: Pisa, Italy

Pisa day. A little more relaxed. We met at 10:00am!

We port in Livorno…one of the more confusing ports as you may recall from other posts. Luckily there was a taxi willing to take us to the train station…apparently a rarity as we discovered on Matt’s birthday. We asked if someone could take us, the guy said “sure” And turned to ask the other drivers if they wanted to take us. They all shook their heads “no.” So the guy we talked to did it.

My dad didn’t think there was much he wanted to see in Pisa so he was in a mind set to take it easy. As we thought, there was plenty for him to photograph. I have been to Pisa three times now but never climbed the tower. I’m glad I saved it. We all bought tickets for the Baptista, the Cathedral, and the tower.

First, the Baptista. I had never been in this before. It looks like a really fancy grain silo from the outside. There were “silencio” signs around everywhere. It was slightly ornate inside but not as fancy as some of the other places. We got up to the top level looking down when someone said something that made all the other employees inside do some major shushing. A lady walked up to the baptism pool in the center and sang a note. It echoed forever. She then sang the note again followed by a lower one and then an even lower one. Because of the length of the echo she was able to sing a three note chord by herself. It was awesome. I got a little bit of video footage from it…remember 5.29.09 and come back to check that entry sometime in late July. By then I should have videos on you tube and I’ll link it here.

Next the cathedral, which I’ve been in before, but my pics are all on the hard drive I dropped so I took more. Then the tower. The climb was great and we saw Ric down below.

One of the best little parts came at the end. We stopped for food and Deanna had a little wine. My parents walked the shops right by the tower and Deanna and I walked around. A LOT of people who go to the tower pretend like they are holding the tower up with their hand…you know, by lining up the shot. So, they are just standing out there with their hands in the air. I told Deanna to start high-fiving them and I’d take pictures. The first couple of times she basically snuck up on people and shouted “HIGH FIVE!” This after all of our passengers are told to beware of pickpockets. She scared a couple guys. Once I told her to calm down and be cooler about it we got some good shots and gave a lot of people some stories for their vacations.