The leaning tower

So - Pisa. How wonderful to be there! We arrived by Ryan Air (we got to sit together and everything! Not bad for not much) and caught a bus into the city - not very far at all. Then, we wandered on foot until we could find our Alberge. Called Hotel Serena, is was absolutely hilarious. We walked into to the home of plastic flowers. Rang the bell, heard rustling from several floors up, and an old man's voice: Qui'en? Qui'en? And he leaned over and beckoned us up flights of stairs. We went, and then he shuffled from a flat, across the landing and signed us to follow, creaked open the door to an old room, with marble floors (cracked), a creaky bed, an un-openable wardrobe, and marble-topped furniture with the tops askew. Hmm. We shut (and locked) the door, and then fell about laughing. It was too funny. But - hey, it was 1*. The toilet incidentally, was in a long room, which had a door at one end, the shower (which dripped -I mean as the shower), which you walked through, a sink, and then the loo... Oh my!

Anyway, we camp, so oh well, right? And, we weren't really there for the room. So we wandered. Oh, it was lovely. We roamed the city at dusk, and our first glimpse of the tower was as we sauntered down a windy, non-touristy road... and there, at the end of it, seven stories of leaning marble. (apparently the tilt is over four metres now!). It was beautiful. Andrew was also very amused by a leaning tree... (photos to come!).

The tower is magnificent - and the Duomo is immense, and spectacularly carved. And, then was the scene of a distress for me - and now I'll share it with you. It is FREE to enter - so we did - and we were herded like sheep behind a rope to gaze through the dome - whilst at the front, a service took place - out of our hearing, with perhaps ten men, people jostling with one another to take video, and photos. The whole thing hurt my brain. Better than york? Worse? Free meant visible, but not reverence... The expense of the dome pointed people to what?

As you can imagine (by now) we also ate our way through the city - a wonderful meal of bread, tomato, mozarella salad, pizza, wild-boar and polenta, followed by a brioche with granita... cafe. Breakfast, sweet rice cakes, grande cafe, lunch, penne pasta with amaticiana sauce, foccace and parma, insalate... cappacino, Ah, the bliss...

And - the whole time, no phone.

Wonderful. And now, to work...