Let me start by saying that the weather continues to be perfect. Today was another sunny day with a high in the mid-70’s. We woke up early - too early for a vacation - at 6:00 a.m. We had breakfast delivered to the room again. I think I’ll eat upstairs tomorrow morning. I’m really getting tired of the same old breakfast from room service. Anyway, we met our traveling party (including Richard, Lauren and her parents) in the theater at 7:30 a.m. and then boarded the bus for Pisa and Florence. It took about an hour to get to Pisa. The scenery was incredible. We saw what appeared to be snow on the mountain tops, which turned out to be marble. It was amazing to see all the marble factories along the side of the road. I guess this is where most of the Italian marble comes from. One type of marble in particular from this area is called Carada marble (I think). It was really quite impressive.
We arrived in Pisa around 9:15 a.m. Our tour guide, Daniel, allowed us 50 minutes to take pics and explore the Field of Miracles, including the Baptistery, the Duomo and, of course, the Leaning Tower. Unfortunately we didn’t get to use the tickets that I had purchased online since our reserved time slot was at 11:30 a.m. and we had to leave at 10:15 a.m., but overall Pisa was underwhelming. Been there, done that, bought a magnet, took pictures, checked that box. Now on to Florence…
Getting to Florence took another hour-and-a-half, but it was a nice drive through beautiful Tuscany and home of the Chianti grape. Our driver dropped us off at Santa Croce at noon where we enjoyed a delicioso lunch - tomato and basil pizza (Sonya) and calzone (Jeff). Afterward we spent time strolling through Florence. We shopped along Ponte Vocchio (a medieval bridge built in 1335), took pics of the Duomo and enjoyed gelato at a local café while catching up on our emails and social media. After buying a few souvenirs, we met back up with our group around 3:45 p.m. and started on our two-hour journey back to the ship.
We arrived back at port just in time for dinner. The crowd was scarce tonight. I think it was a long day for everyone. Dinner was not as enjoyable tonight. Sonya had a very good Italian style salad (tomato, parmesan cheese and pesto) and Jeff had an appetizer of fried rice and mushroom balls with tomato paste. The main courses were tiger shrimp (Sonya) and pork loin wrapped in pruchietto (Jeff). My favorite part of the meal was the tiramisu that I had for dessert. The best thing about dinner though was when Sonya was showing Tiffany a picture of a door on the Duomo and she asked if we believed in Jesus. Sonya told her that we do. Tiffany mentioned that she has a hard time understanding the Bible. Sonya suggested that she start in the New Testament instead of the Old Testament, maybe the book of Matthew. God is so cool!
After dinner, we caught another show - Saturday Night Fever the Musical. It was a lot better than I expected. The acting, dancing and singing were outstanding. Now it’s off to bed for a good night’s sleep. We have another full day tomorrow - this time in Rome. So ciao’ for now!
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