Heading away from Florence was sad, as it was a beautiful and fun city. I had heard that Lucca was a nice walled city, so that was the first stop and here I am with my friend Puccini and we are sharing stories about writing operas. He was most impressed with the songs that we wrote for Catholic University's annual Pie Day and he can't wait to see the videos that are posted, especially the Marilyn Monroe song.
Naturally this tower, along with all that are sighted, had to be climbed, and it was enjoyable, especially because of all the detailed drawings along the tower walls of knights killing one another. Back in the 15th Century, building a tower was a sign of wealth, not a necessary security system.
Lucca also has beautiful churches, museums, shops, etc, and it is one of the few towns that is relatively flat.
Next came the ultimate tourist trap - the leaning tower of Pisa. It was cool, though, and climbing to the top was a bit scary with the well-worn marble steps and the very apparent lean of the tower.
Apparently, the builders noticed early on that the bell tower foundation was not level, so they started trying to remedy the problem by aligning the columns in the opposite direction of the lean, in order to make it appear that the tower was not leaning quite so much. They also changed materials, enlisted different engineers, and only recently, used steel cables to improve safety.
I am doing my part to help the Tower just get over its misery.
It was fun at the top of the Tower, except for the screams of the terrified little boy whose parents were forcing him to "enjoy" the view.
After Pisa, the drive to the west coast of Italy along Mediterranean was fine, even though a bit challenging with the different road signs, kilometers, and tiny cars to figure out.
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