Pisa starts with "P"

What happens when you drive 12 kids in two mini vans to Pisa? Well, let's just say it was a day sponsored by the letter "P"!

One of the things we find foreign here in Europe is that grown men who have cause to relieve themselves do so on the side of the road whenever the need hits! No attempt is made to disguise what's occurring. They just pull over, stand next to the vehicle and well...water the landscape. It's one aspect of the culture that we aren't so anxious to embrace. So when we received a distress call via walkie talkie from the other van, we pulled off at the first exit. Unable to find a bathroom, the three little boys who were in danger of explosion, settled for a precipice. The kids did not think I was funny when I pointed out that now they could always remember they peed on the way to Pisa...I still think it's funny.

Another half hour or so down the road, one of these same boys (whose name, incidentally begins with "P") is in desperate straights for a potty. Again, we pull off the exit and this time find some kind of gym complex to come to the rescue!

Arriving in Pisa 3 hours later (after a GPS re-route), we quickly eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pretzels in the Parking garage and head to the piazza at the top of the stairs...only to be re-routed, as we realize there are 9 other people who haven't used the potty for a pretty long time. As luck would have it, the women's bathroom is locked (worker accidentally pocketed the key after work the day before), so it takes about 30 minutes to potty all the people.

Pisa bell tower clock

Finally, we are heading toward the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa! The town is lovely and filled with the typical Italian shops. Lots of pizza, pasta, gelato and pastries peer at us from the shop windows. The kids point at everything and we stop in one shop to look-with-our-eyes-and-not-our-hands -- which still results in a lot of touching. Apparently our children have eyes on the ends of their fingers?

Our first view of the tower is breathtaking. We're looking at the back, but it's really beautiful and the lean is substantial. We have several leaning towers in Ferrara, and I definitely wouldn't want to occupy property under the lean, if you know what I mean, but the leaning tower is even more precariously situated. I was reading that they realized it was leaning during the first phase of construction and having been working to correct the situation ever since. I can't imagine the anguish of spending so much time or cash on a project that is in danger of toppling over! Then on the flip side, if it weren't leaning, Pisa most likely wouldn't still be on a the map!

Self explanatory

We enjoyed jostling with the tourists in the roped off lawn area to get the perfect holding-up-the tower or knocking-down-the-tower tourist shot, but with the sun at that particular angle, it was hard to see what we were photographing until we looked at our photos at home that night.

I'm slowly beginning to connect the history we're learning with what we're seeing and had an "aha" moment when I read that the church looks different from many in Italy because it's Byzantine. Pisa, along with Genoa and Venice, rose to fame and wealth during the Middle Ages because of their trade with the Byzantine Empire. Pisans were anxious to please their business partners and retain their protection against larger city states.

Byzantine era mosaic on the exterior of the Pisan Baslilica 

We toured and photographed the interior of the basilica, but passed on the rest of the attractions because our little people were wearing down and we still had a pretty long hike back to the parking area. There was one funny moment when R. and I approached the ticket desk to pick up our free pass to visit the basilica. A very bored woman asked how many people we needed the ticket for, to which I replied, "16 -- 12 kids and 4 adults." Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the mention of 12 kids! I'm thinking maybe we need to have some school shirts printed up for when we tourist with lots of kids?

Note St. Mark's lion stepping on what looks like a deer

Neither little girl were impressed with
the replica lamp found in the Pisa basilica
where Galileo put together his theory about pendulum movement. 

The ceiling was replaced with the one pictured
here after the fire of 1595.

Here's an extreme close up of the ceiling.
Got ceiling? This place does.

The central fresco...
can you see the sword of justice?

Can you see it now?

Another memorable moment was when Rosa took one look at the glass case containing the mummified remains of St Ranieri, Pisa's patron saint, wearing a hair robe, and announced that it was Snow White. St. Ranieri actually has a pretty unusual history. He began is career as the equivalent of a rock star, gave up his fame to go into business and spent the rest of his life giving away his money as a monk! We didn't look at the baptistry, but supposedly it has acoustics good enough that you can sing harmony with yourself! Perhaps on another trip?

The kids did well on the hike back and were rewarded with Pisan gelato! After a quick time check, we realized we wouldn't make it back home before about 8 p.m. and had better procure food to fill the tummies before the drive! We ate pizza at a little restaurant on a side street in the true Italian fashion -- outside at little tables with umbrellas.

Hygiene and some hand sanitizer makes everyone happy.

It was one of the surreal moments -- everything you ever imagined Italy to be, although slightly less romantic with 4 tables and 12 vociferous children...after a while we started to hear music from a neighboring piazza and hiked that direction on our way to the parking area. It was strange to see/hear Nirvana in the middle of an Italian piazza!

After another half hour potty stop at the one-seated free public restroom, and we were on our way! The drive home was particularly peaceful after the little girls in the back of our van feel asleep. It was literally like turning off a loud movie when they dropped off! They have such a great time together, giggling and playing. I was impressed with how well all the kids did with that much driving and hiking. What a great day and great memories we'll have of our day in Pisa, sponsored by the letter "p."