Conquering the Tower

If you haven't seen the blog about the castles, you really need to go to Monica's blog to check it out. This is all about Pisa.
When I was growing up, Pisa was quintessentially Italy. I don't know how or why those two items became linked in my mind, but they did. When we were in Italy in 2001, one of my most anticipated events was going to Pisa. I knew the Tower had been under renovations to correct the 'lean', but it was suppose to open that year,(and I had thought I had seen that it would be open in summer). When we arrived in Pisa, to my great disappointment, the tower was still closed to the public. We could, and did, walk around it and take tons of pictures, but I couldn't climb the tower. This time around, I wanted to be sure to go back to Pisa, as the tower was now open. Monica was amenable to that idea, so off we went. We decided to take the scenic route, well it was both scenic and an amazingly complicated route. The state roads, as opposed to the Autostrada, are not toll roads, this makes them smaller and they go through the more rural areas. Our route from Reggio Emilia to Pisa took about four hours- about twice as long as it took going back on the Autostrada- and it was mountain driving for at least three of those hours. I am not talking about Coquihalla type mountain passes, I am talkng about a slightly larger than one lane track (although it was paved) that switchbacked up and down mountains for three hours. Intense, and yet Monica claimed it was fun - I'm just glad I was in the passenger's seat. We did see some beautiful mountain views, pictures just don't do it full justice.
Well we finally arrived in Pisa, and the Campo dei Miracoli- the Duomo, Bell Tower, Baptistry, and the Camposanto (a fancy cemetary really)- is just beautiful. We stood in line at about 4:00 pm to buy tickets for the museums and entry into the various parts of the Campo dei Miracolui, and of course for me to climb the tower. My entry time for the tower was not until 7:20 pm. A lot of tourists in that little town want to climb that famous tower.
We toured through all the other buildings, and in one museum they have many Sinopie - the premilinary drawings done on the walls before the artists would paint the frescos on the fresh plaster. These were found during restoration of the Camposanto, and they are incredible, some artists had been so intricate in their sketches, and others were much more just outlines. What a sight it must have been to see all the frescos on the walls at the time ( they were done in the 1300's) Finally my time had arrived. I lined up and handed in my ticket to a bored looking Italian guy. I wonder if they get tired of all the enthusiastic tourists -ah well. The steps are narrow, steep and very worn. How many hundreds of thousands of feet have trod those stairs, Galileo Galilei was one of those multitude, as this was the tower from which he performed his experiments about gravity. There are around 290 steps so I definitely had my workout for the day. At the very top there is a spectacular 360 degree view of Pisa, of which there really is so much more than just the few blocks we explored. After our allotted time, the guards kept telling us we needed to go down, as the next group was on their way up. It was worth the climb! For supper Monica and I just found a neighbourhood cafe and had a very good meal of pasta, steak, salad, dessert, and wine. (Gotta love the Tourist Menu!) We walked back to our car as the buses were no longer running and then we drove home - on the Autrostrada - mountain driving is definitely a daytime venture. What a fabulous day.