I always wear all my layers when I ride the train since I don't really have room to pack them, and they were a bit sweltering, but at least it wasn't raining. On our walk to our bnb, we passed the leaning tower of pisa, we were only minutes away from it. The stairs up to our bnb were insane, the last flight was so rickety I was sure we were going to break it with all our things.
I knew when I booked the bnb that it was an attic space with lots of low ceilings so I wasn't surpised by them, but still, it was challenging to navigate without bumping your head. It felt like a hobbit home. Tyler bumped his head several times. I whacked mine getting up too quickly from the couch once and once in a doorway during the night.
We took a moment to settle and freshen up from the train ride and then we went off in search of food. We ended up at L'Ostellino. Tyler had truffle on his sandwich and learned that he did not like truffle. My sandwich was delicious- it had bacon (not crispy) and pears. When we finished our food, we headed over to the Leaning Tower of Pisa for our timed entry. For once, we weren't too early and we only had to wait a few minutes to get into line. And after a short wait we were able to climb to the top. While waiting we read up about it, 3 stories were started and then it took 100 years before they decided to finish it. It was leaning after the first 3 stories (they built it on bad soil) so they tried to fix it as they built the rest, and then they did more fixing later on. The climb was a bit tiring and you could definitely feel the lean as you went up. We got to what we thought was the top and took lots of pictures and then realized we could go up even higher and take even more pictures. There were bells at the top since it was originally going to be a bell tower for the church. These heights always make my legs a little jello like but the views were worth it. Then we headed back down.
Our next stop was into the cathedral of Pisa. Cathedrals are so grand, they make you feel small. And every inch seems to me covered with art.
After the cathedral we went to the Baptistry of San Giovanni. Another big building, and just a small portion in the middle used for baptisms. Tyler made me climb more stairs so he could see the view from above. I didn't appreciate that.
Our next stop was Camposanto. This was basically a cemetery for famous Pisans surrounded by some pretty amazing frescoes. Tyler and I were most intrigued by the one that depicted the judgement and had heaven on the right and hell on the left. In hell, the devil was literally pooping out souls. It was quite interesting how everything was portrayed and quite dark for those that were not judged well.
Then we went to the national museum of San Matteo. At this point I was getting tired and so this museum was probably my least favorite of the day. It really didn't have anything I found too exciting. Tyler probably didn't like it either since he made the alarm go off an engraved door when he pointed at something and was a little too close.
The last place we visited was the Sinopie Museum. This one had skeches of the frescoes. I always like seeing an artist's process.
After buying some souvenirs, we headed back to our bnb for a little break and then ventured out for dinner. The place we tried to go to first (good reviews online) had a sign that said it was full so we ended up at a restaurant nearby it that the bnb host had recommend. It was called Il Campano Trattoria; it was our fancy meal for Pisa. I got spaghetti with meat sauce and a beef stew (first course is a pasta dish and second is a meat dish). I didn't honestly think the spaghetti was anything special but the meat in the beef stew was very tender. It ended up being lot of food but because we have such a sweet tooth, we got dessert too. We both got traditional Tuscany desserts. Mine was a berry custard and his was a cake (but it was more like a hardened custard). They were both delicious.
Then we walked back to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and video called our kids with it in the background (Ben said it looked small). That was a fun way to end the day.
Tuesday we had a lazy morning, slept in, ate some Croissants at Po'sto café and then caught a train to Viareggio. We arrived around noon at Viareggio and immediately walked down to the beach for the carnival. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, and there weren't many people which all added up to nice a day out for me. We strolled the circle of floats and took pictures of them (they are so big, they have to set them out early), we walked down to the beach (Tyrrhenian Sea)and watched the waves and then we grabbed a bite to eat at one of the many street vendors. We got these sandwich things that we weren't really sure what kind of meat was in them but they were pretty good.
After eating we did a little shopping at the various stands (finally got ourselves some cool carnival masks, bought some sunglasses because it was so sunny and I found a fun tuscany coloring book) and soon enough it was time for the parade to begin. We sat down at a curb which I thought would be great so we didn't have to stand the whole time but we ended up not staying in one place. It turns out as the floats got moving, they also stopped a lot. I'm not sure if it was because of functionality issues or because of the crowds constantly weaving in between them. Anyways the first float stayed by us so long that we decided to go walk down to the next one and that was kind of the process. We'd move if they weren't and stop and watch them if they were moving. They really were amazing, so large with so many moving parts. I especially liked the one with the fox fishing for gold and the one where Red Riding Hood tames the wolf. I didn't appreciate all of them though. Italians don't like Trump I guess and they had one where an Native American God was scalping Trump. I don't think that was appropriate, no matter your political standing. They had other Trump ones that weren't very flattering of him but none of those bothered me, not like that one did. Other than that, it was a pretty fun party. The music was loud and thumping, there were dancers in front of and in every float (often surprisingly older people), kids were throwing confetti (I managed to end up with some in my coat) and the floats were really cool to watch.
Once we had seen all the floats, we got a sugar doughnut and cotton candy to snack on (their cotton candy has no flavor, so not very good) and then decided we were done with the noise, so we caught a train back to Pisa.
When we got back we were beat and decided to just hit up McDonald's for dinner- cheap and fast. It is still gross here. They put in "fancy" cheese in my chicken wrap and it was not a good addition. They also sold beer and pastries at Mcdonald's here. I kind of doubt the pastries would be any good but I will forever wonder if that was a wrong assumption.
.heic)
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