THE LEANING TOWN OF PISA!

Hiya Andy..glad you're keeping the country going...we're paying service tax here ya know!! hehe...awww...love ya too!!!! (Answered your comments by the way!) xxx ps GO DOCKERS!

Okies..back to business....

Well...can you believe, just after we blogged, we got the train..and went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa...in Piazza Dei Miracoli and here we are back at the train station in Florence.

It tell ya....

The reason why we're back at the station is cos..it's the BEST train station you've ever seen! It has everything!!! Has...food that is cheap (that's why we can stick to our 100 a day budget Andy)..ie McDonalds.....and Pizza Hut type places! And fresh food restaurants too...we had our dinner tonight for 14 Euro and that included a bottle of wine.

Last night, in the town, we had dinner of Lasagna and salad...(Greg, lasagna, me salad) and water...for 30 Euro. Talk about a rip off! Florence has hopped on the tourist bandwagon and charge the earth.

But! Not the train station here..and they have internet for 3 euro per hour.

Even 3 star hotels are charging 175 Euro for a double. We managed to get one for 60 Euro for a double, no shower and toilet (down the hall) which is ok with us. It's really clean, and pretty, and the pot plants are fed well. They also have tourist information books for us to borrow! hehe (steal) Nah..we'll put them back!

Anyway..about Pisa.

We caught the train from here, 5.20 Euro each one way, so we got the return for 20 Euro...got accosted by the station cop because we didn't validate..umwah... and headed off..took an hour and a half by slow train, which was ok, cos we ate lunch on the train (take away salad and bread from..you guessed it, the Florence Train Station!)Firenze to the locals by the way.!

And...what a subdued town..

It is a university town, i know, but it was like a weird slow subdued scholar town..ruly and truly! All dressed in black, with books, on bicyles...dunno...was very universitish whatever that means!

Then...just beyond the sign that had Suzie's last name on it...(I took a pic Suzie for ya!)there it was...leaning out of sight..at us..winking....haha

Looked so weird!

It really did.

Yet, i knew it was the LEANING TOWER OF PIZA!

It was built by an Italian designer Bononnos, who took shortcuts in the foundations...in the early 12thC. He only built the first 3 tiers before it started leaning..and the next century someone else decided to build another 3 tiers..before it was finished about a century later! He built the seven bells that reproduce the notes of the scale!

AND it leans.....a lot....

In the early 1990s a British Engineer got in on the act and tried to secure it..well he did actually..and now it's back to the orignial lean..of the 1838 angle. The Italians don't focus too much on what the British did, preferring to concentrate on their own designers over the centuries!

It's weird tho..as we were looking up at the Tower...we noticed everything else seemed crooked...the building next to it...the building across the road..and as we ventured back to the train station even the CLOCK looked crooked. No kidding...the town is bent...or the designers of the time were..shhh..but that's what it looked like...

But that's a bit harsh. Cos Gallileo actually spent time working on gravity at the top of the Tower of Pisa to rectify the problem..and that's actually when he came up with all his theories on gravity. So praps that's it...

It's it an incredible thing...that Bonannos' greatest design..or the most popular...was his greatest disaster..and yet, became..the most famous!!!! Now that's a connundrum for ya.

So what a day...we saw the town...that leaned...with the tower that leaned...the leaning town of Pisa...!!!!

Oh yeah..........on the way out of the place...we came across this little stall.....(one of the many...the place is hooked on grabbing tourists money so there are stalls, beggars, buskers...EVERYWHERE!) and in that stall...there were the most delicious things...

They were a bit like Portugal's (Bellem's) famous tarts...but this time, there were little bitesize pankcake tart things...which had white chocolate smothered over the top..and one one end.. apple and cinnomon and on the other..cherries...

Sounds rich..

But OHLALA..they were delicious!