Day Four – Pisa

Mmmm.. Pizzaaa…

Early start today for the morning trip to Pisa. The port we were in was incredibly ugly so there wasn’t much to see on the 30 minute drive there.. Other than a huuuuge American army base. Apparently Pisa used to be on the coast but they diverted so much water away its now 30minutes inland. Parked up about 15 minutes walk from the main Pisa square, we were warned by the tour guide about gypsies in pisa, and there were people trying to sell knock offs, but a simple no and they left us alone.

The main square in Pisa was just breath taking. Ranks alongside Venice as a place that is exactly how you’d hope it to be. It was too sunny to see the camera screen, so I have no idea what I was taking photos of. The guide was very good and explained a lot about the main buildings and the history of the place, then took us to the tower for our organized walk to the very very top!

They only allow 30 people at a time into the tower because it’s a bit of a squeeze! You walk around the inside initially, but because on one side of the tower it’s tilting to you left, and on the other your right it feels like the tower is swaying as you walk! The first section was fine, ending up at the bells in the tower, then it was walking round the edge of the tower on the outside, followed by a spiral staircase that was a foot wide up to the very top. It wasn’t actually that high, but hearing about how close it was to collapse a few years ago and your mind telling you it’s swaying made it a bit scary!

Spent the afternoon round the pool and napping. Had a terribly serious conversation about politics over dinner followed by a ‘welcome back party’ for return cruisers with free crap booze and a truly terrible band! Apparenly the new oasis of the seas launches next week almost twice the size of this boat and if it docked next to the statue of liberty it would need two statues to reach it’s top deck!

The show tonight was a magic act, and it was something you’d expect to see ok Blackpool prom. The main guy seemed to be more interested in posing than performing.. It was pretty cringeworthy.