Villa Argentieri Pisa

... river! It was pretty cool. We discovered that this church was built in the 14th century to house a thorn from Christ’s crown. Kind of interesting.

Crossing the river at Ponte di Mezzo, we sluggishly walked onward to Piazza dei Miracoli, where Pisa’s massive cathedral, baptistry, and famous Leaning Tower all are. The piazza itself is one of the loveliest we’ve seen – sprawling green lawns, teeming with ...

... mais apres presque 900 ans, elle est toujours la. dans le meme espace, il y a la cathedrale et un autre batiment , tous ca, en marbre blanc. En dehors de cette attraction, pise possede encore une bonne partie de ces fortification. si non, c'est une ville etudiante, avec 3 universites,donc il y a quand meme pas mal de vie

... kitchen.I went down later that eveing to chat to the people staying there and marvel at the double bed inthe kitchen.

Really quiet in the off saeason with a lot of places noteven bothering to open or open reduced hours.

Was sitting outside the only bar in RioMaggore and Jess who I shared a dorm room with in Salzburg walked past. Turns out she's staying in the same dodgy room as me again!

Was lucky there was a bunch of good people ...

... and I had a wonderful 50th. Everyone sang to me in the small restaurant. Thank you everyone for following us and keeping us close with your wonderful comments. To sign off I will say that.....
"There is nowhere like Home".
Love Mick and Lisa

I have resolved to try and keep this blog more up-to-date.
So much has happened since late July that i wont even start writing it down, but to summarise our drive as follows:
Arcachon
Bordeaux
Flo rac (Ardeche)
Montpellier where the family ...

... the sun set behind the bridge and trees. The setting was just unsettling, it was honestly unbeleiveable to me that I'm here in Florence, in Italy, doing what many people told me I would never do or unable to accomplish on my own. It's a strange mix of emotions, I'm kind of unsure as to whether or not this is all real myself, and I feel, on one hand I've been here for so long, and on the other, that I just arrived yesterday and am yet still so vunerable and ...

... the bottle of wine I had purchased earlier, probably just as well else I'd have drunk it all! I didn't make a note of their names so have forgotten, of course, but they and the couple they were touring around with were very friendly indeed.


The weekend held little cycling pleasure for me with a continuation of the built up coast, lined with the pre mentioned sun loungers. One of the more memorable events on Saturday was the painfully difficult diversion ...

... je 2 uur wachten, want er mogen maar 50 mensen tegelijk op.. Grappig.. Uiteindelijk dus vooral in het zonnetje gezeten, gekeken naar mensen die hun hond uitlieten, en toen de toeristenwinkeltjes en -cafés bewonderd. Twee straten verder, en er is opeens geen kip meer te bekennen, terwijl Pisa nog wel íetsje meer te bieden heeft dan een Toren: een leuk plein met oude gebouwen, goedkoop en lekker ijs, een schattig kerkje langs de rivier, een mooi park, en een luidruchtige ...

Hey, I'm in Pisa. Seeing the leaning tower was great. It is such a weird feeling to see all of these 'postcard' sights in person. It's like you're living in a photograph. I was truly disappointed, however, to discover that the tower description sign has absolutely nothing about the geotechnics. All they talk about are the 3 construction phases and all of the work done to repair and prevent the weathering of the facade. What kind of BS is that? It is the LEANING tower because of ...

... much done to stabilize the tower, but for the sake of tourism, the city did not want the edifice to actually be straightened. The tower was closed during the entire decade of the 90's so that stabilization work could be done on it and it was moved slightly back to the angle of its lean from the early 1800's. After the reconstruction work was done, the tower was deemed to be safe from collapse for another 300 years. Just think about ...