Pisa

8 April 2008: We left Levanto in the morning, originally for another overnight vineyard stay just south of Cinque Terre and the town of La Spezia. The weather was a bit drizzly and a lot less of a drive than we thought. As we climbed up, the street where the vineyard was twisted around and got smaller. I wasn’t sure what we could do there for the day with the weather like it was, and Sean mentioned the area wasn’t what he expected. So we decided to make more tracks and proceed to our next destination, Pisa. On the way into Pisa, I saw some signs leading to a Green Farm, so we detoured. Right in the farm’s parking lot were electrical and water hook-ups for RVs. It would have been a great alternative to the winery stay, but the farm appeared to be closed (for the season?).

Arriving in Pisa, it was not what I expected – a bit dumpy and industrial. But maybe we entered into it from the wrong side of town, I’m not sure. We still had the afternoon left, so we proceeded toward the leaning tower of Pisa. As we entered the square where it was, we were overwhelmed by a huge row of souvenir and trinket stands. I gave in and got a few… I was expecting a crumbling tower. But it was fully made of marble, just leaning to one side. There were a couple other buildings to see, and we did find a nice shopping street to browse around and have a drink. Later, we had dinner at some touristy restaurant that was nothing to talk about, but was open early enough to fill our stomachs. Overall, I see no reason to ever visit Pisa again. But at least we got to see the tower.