Off to Pisa and our ship

If you have never been to Pisa, well I will show you here EVERYTHING that you need to see. The day began with all our luggage packed and put on the bus, then off to Pisa for a short 1-2 hour tour. I found out that tour guides, the ones that travel with you on your bus are not allowed to do city tours in Italy. There are local guides that you must use. These guides are trained and schooled and tested then they serve an apprenticeship and ONLY THEN they are allowed to guide groups. The tour guide we had in Pisa was, how shall I say this, overly proud of his city. There is only one thing people come to Pisa for, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He spent over an hour with us looking at the baptistery (which you will notice I don't have a picture posted here showing it, though I do have ONE, I mean standing in front of it for 30 minutes I had to do SOMETHING!) Well a few of us ditched him as we left the Church to get our pictures and find a place to sit and have something to drink. It was very hot in Italy this year...VERY HOT! So as not to bore you with words like our tour guide here is PISA!

This is from the gate into the church area of Pisa, the only reason people come to Pisa...see...the TOWER!


As you enter the inner courtyard you see the church and the tower. This past year it was officially declared that all the work done to stop the tower from leaning has worked. They have stopped the leaning and it is holding at the 17º that it currently leans.



This is from the back of the church. A good view the tower and you will see that they are still doing renovation on the tower.

From Pisa we got back on the bus and went off to Venice to board our ship. We did not stop in Venice, though we did stop at a diner to eat. they used to be called "Pevese's" but have been bought out by another company. Besides being overly crowed with minimal offerings, it was ok. We then arrived at our ship and boarded. Within a few hours (2 at most) we set sail. the ship leaves Venice by going right past San Marco Square. This is an unusual site to be on top deck and seeing Venice pass you by BELOW! It was GREAT!






And this one I couldn't crop...or I should say WOULDN'T crop. It is so fantastic as you can see the whole island as well as some of the smaller ones in the background.



From here we set sail for Bari, Italy. But that will be another post. Hope you enjoy!