Day trippin'

Woke up this morning hoping to do some daybreak shots of a basilica across the Arno that I noticed when jogging a few days ago. The early morning sun illuminated it, and even cast its reflection in the still waters.

But, the front desk said rain when I asked for a forecast the previous day.

Maybe I'll sleep late, I thought.

The alarm went off bright and early, and I checked through the slats of the shutters and the light looked pretty even. Overcast, I thought, and headed back to sleep.

When I finally woke up around 7:30, I took another peek. Hey, that's a shaft of sunlight!

Great. Slept right through the good light.

Got dressed quickly and hurried up the river, but it just wasn't right. Took a few shots, but it just wasn't there.

Oh, well. We got ready and roamed the city anyway, with the goal of the day a bus trip to Pisa.

The previous tour by bus was the fateful rainy day trip. It really didn't allow for much walking around, and what little we did was pretty soggy.

So I was leery of the trip to Pisa.

We enjoyed revisiting many of the sites that we've enjoyed the past few days, sitting among centuries-old sculptures and watching the many flavors of people float past. Had a nice lunch and made our way to the meeting point for our trip to Pisa.

We all met, headed for the bus station just like the schedule said. Only, the bus left five minutes before we got there.

What?

Turns out our tour was at 2, not 2:30.

Great. What are we going to do now?

Well, the train station is a block away from the bus station. Round trip to Pisa is about 10 Euro if you go second class.

Andiamo! If I actually spelled that right . . .

We hopped a train that took us to Pisa, and actually took a slightly different route than the trip to Cinque Terre. We passed small towns that looked so peaceful and inviting, that I had to find them on the map I purchased today. I want to remember where they were for a future trip . . .

In about an hour we arrived in Pisa. We found a map and set out on foot for the Leaning Tower and basilica.

It was an impressive scene. Thousands of people trying to hold up the tower - or at least be photographed pretending they were. It was pretty neat to see the architecture and lounge around in the shade of the basilica.

The grounds were nicley manicured, and we watched the polizia aggressively blow their whistles to encourage people to stay off the grass. A few of us made out way to the baptistry, which is separate from the duomo and according to travel guru Rick Steves offers a much more impressive view of the area.

We bought our tickets, and off we went. Not before I photographed a priest on a bike, though.

Inside the baptistry was breathtaking. The cupola had to have been 10 to 15 stories tall at its highest point. A confining staircase wound through the wall to lead you to the second level, giving a great view of the duomo with the tower sticking its head out from behind the basilica.

While we were admiring the view, we heard what sounded like several monks chanting. We went to the upper railing to find them, but only found a tour guide chanting a single note.

Apparently, the cupola creates echoes that add several "voices" - not to mention octaves - to a single person's voice. It was incredible as she gave a short performance.

The city of Pisa was not large and didn't have as many attractions, but we enjoyed winding our way through it nonetheless. Having enjoyed the duomo and tower, we headed back to the train station but got called into a trattoria by a waiter trying to drum up business.

It worked.

We had a great meal, with pizza, seafood and even some more wild boar for me. I was happy.

On the train ride back, we decided this was much, much better than the bus tour. We got to go at our own leisure, took our time, had a great meal and enjoyed each other's company.

We should do this more often.