Day 30 Pisa Lucca
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
13
19
Trip End
Jun 23, 2008
Pisa,
Tuscany,
Italy
Monday, June 9, 2008
Tower with trees on top Lucca
. Now it is a 300 year old tradition every hour they shut the doors and someone comes in and plays the "mouth organ" it sounded very cool, Ti got it on video so I'll get that from him so you guys can listen. The tour ended at the famous leaning tower he told us all about it most of which everyone knows, but he did tell us a couple of cool things about it. He told us they should change the name because not only is it leaning but it is also sinking, bending, twisting, and expanding, but that name doesn't quiet roll of the tongue. In person you can see that the tower is shaped like a big banana, it's hard to capture it in a picture sorry so you will just have to take my word for it or go and see it your self. We then did the tourist pictures with the tower we got some good ones. I got a great picture of a Chinese man "holding up the tower" but I took from a different angle so you can see the tower he looks pretty fun. After that Saverio took us around the city until we had to go back to meet the group and head to Lucca. The whole way to Lucca Ti and I used our books to come up with stupid sentences in Italian we had Saverio and the bus driver laughing the whole way to Lucca. We had the same tour guide for Lucca that we did for Pisa, he actually lives in Lucca. Lucca is a small Tuscan town that is surrounded by a wall that has running and bike paths on top of it today. The guide took us to his favorite spot on top of the wall the view was very nice across the open green field
The clock tower Lucca
. Next we walked along the top of the wall until we were looking in toward a beautiful garden behind a large mansion they filmed the movie Portrait of a Woman there. The town during the middle ages had 100 families in charge of the silk production and trade. The town was very wealthy, the only person to ever conquer the city was Napoleon who left his sister in charge of the city and she modernized the city and now there is a square in her honor. The last stop was the main cathedral on the outside near the door carved into the wall was a depiction of the labyrinth which had a ton of meanings but I forgot them. Also the code for the De Vinci code the symbols on the outside had something to do with I couldn't really hear sorry. Inside there was something that was very cool that not a lot of people have hear of. There is a wood carving of Christ on the cross, but this one is different Christ is depicted with dark skin and dark hair a Middle Eastern depiction. It is said to have come from Turkey sometime before the first crusade, there are documents that show that the Pope came to Lucca and blessed the troops that passed by outside the wall with the crucifix next to him. That was the end of the tour and we took our guide's advice to rent a bike and ride around the 3 mile wall that circled the city. The bikes only cost 2.50 euro to rent, well worth the beautiful views and the break from walking every where. The bike ride was very relaxing and it was the first time I had been on a real bike since I was 15
Courtyard of old mansion Lucca
. After the bike ride we stopped and got some gelato, I got coconut, cream, and peach very good. On the bus ride home it started to rain, everyone was pretty tired and most of the bus was napping including my-self. Everyone woke up just as we entered Florence, for the last 10 minutes of the ride Ti was trying to convince us to go to a traditional Japanese noodle restaurant. We finally gave in and went with him to the restaurant I'm not exactly sure what I ordered but I got fried dumplings with it which were very good and the noodles were good as well but I wasn't a fan of the braised pork that was with my noodles. It was a good dinner even though it took us for ever to find it following Ti, he took us the long way he turned what could have been a 5 minute walk into a 20 minute trek in the pouring rain. Following Ti was like following a blind man through the woods. We walked back to the apartment the rain had let up a little bit but my umbrella broke half way home. Back at the locker we watched some South Park episodes. Ti is a BGR leader, BGR is Purdue's freshman welcome week, so he knows a bunch weird little games and he always brakes out a game called top 5 were he will say top 5 then name a category like top 5 south park episodes, that is what brought about the watching of South Park. 
