lean it does!

Our last full day in Florence was a full day out of Florence! We caught the train to Lucca, on to Pisa and back to Florence - and with dinner thrown in - about 13 hours out of the apartment with all the travel/walking/sightseeing time added in. Everyone has crashed out - well except me who is enjoying the quiet and catching up on blipping and the eldest who is engaging in some sort of social media thing with a wry smile on her face!

Anyway I digress! Lucca was a place we considered staying at instead of Florence (when we were warned of the crowds in August- which actually have been perfectly fine!). But we struggled to find suitable accommodation and there is no public pool within the town so we decided it was to be a day visit. And it was great. An absolutely beautiful town, full of character and architectural delights, all wrapped up by a 4 km fortified wall that you can stroll along. However in the fashion that our holiday seems to take - we ran out of time for that - as there was morning tea to be had (well coffee and pastries) and then we needed to fit in lunch before our train...travel dominated by fuelling is the way to go with kids! Therefore we just meandered along - checking out the shops, avoiding the churches ("Oh another lovely Madonna and Child painting" said no one in our family) and hanging in the piazzas. It was a delight and even the threat of rain (our first of the holiday!) before the sun broke through didn't damper our enthusiasm for the place. Sienna was particularly pleased as we bought her a long sleeved top (as she was feeling a little chilled at 21 degrees!!!) and it was a true Italian beauty with enough sparkle on it to bring a big amount of joy into her heart!

Then we moved off to Pisa. Getting off at the 'wrong' train stop which actually was the right one in the end meant we came across the 'leaning one' way before we expected to which provided us all with that 'oh my' moment! It is fantastic. We have all seen it in pictures and I have longed to visit it since I was a small girl but it was far more beautiful than I expected. Delicately constructed and blinding white in a beautiful space with other gorgeous buildings complementing it - it really was wonderful.

We spent a good thirty minutes posing with all the others attempting to prop it back up - as much fun taking it to be had was watching everyone stand there with arms in the air trying to capture the iconic image. Harder than it looks actually! Then it was our time to climb it. Unfortunately Sienna was too young and coincidently Steve had to take a conference call for a job we were pitching for at the exactly the same time our reservation was for so I took the older four up the tower. It was brilliant - so much fun climbing and leaning one way and then another with the corresponding hollows in to the marble steps from thousands of footsteps as they too stepped from side to side depending on the tilt.

The views of Pisa and the surrounding hills were engaging as was looking down and seeing the streets below seem crooked and the horizon off kilter. Taking a photo was tricky as you naturally straightened up the horizon and then realised the railing in front was completely off. What a great way to wile away 30 minutes of one's life!

After more time exploring the area, it was time to train it back to Florence where we splashed out for a lovely meal at at sweet trattoria on our street - sitting outside with balmy air caressing our skin and enjoying watching life go by on the street - bliss once again.