theFoords From aFar: The Leaning Tower and relaxing at the Italian Lakes

Pisa

Another early start (7.40 departure) as we headed off to Pisa. Pisa was surprising! Once again we left the bus outside the city and we were ferried to the Leaning Tower (by choo choo train). On arrival there were many street stalls set up wanting our tourist dollars (even some African souvenirs!).

We bought fruit instead of souvenirs

As we turned the corner into the square all of a sudden there it was! It had recently been cleaned (many buildings in Italy have recently been cleaned or are in the process of) and was a crisp white against the blue sky, and it was leaning! The top three levels were built to try and offset and compensate for the lean and you could clearly see the curve in the building.

There is also the largest Baptistry in Italy but we didn’t go in. Many art students were sitting around sketching the white marble cathedral next to it.

The Cathedral

Sorry Nick - we couldn’t think of any other pose in front except the traditional one (and Dad wouldn’t stand on his head).

We had time for a quick coffee and browse through the many, many souvenir stalls before we were due to meet our Momma to get back to the bus.

Genoa

Then we had a huge big drive just in from the Italian coast through Genoa. We passed the marble quarries from where Michelangelo selected his marble for his sculptures. Here the landscape changed from the rolling Tuscan hills to the Italian Alps. We passed through many, many tunnels and along many huge bridges over deep valleys! The way to go over the mountains in Italy is straight through, not winding around them like in Australia! We lost count of how many tunnels we drove through. As we were going through Genoa we saw many apartment blocks housing the millions of citizens that live there. We caught glimpses of the sea side villages from the bridges as they crossed the valleys.

After lunch at the roadside grill we climbed up from Genoa to the Po plain which is the market garden of Italy – fields of rice, wheat, maize and vegetables. Lugano

Then we briefly entered Switzerland, with passports ready, to visit mountain ringed Lugano. It was a pretty little town on the shores of a lake. Here we strolled along the promenade, had a gelato and bought some Swiss chocolate!

Baveno

We finally arrived at our hotel (Hotel Splendid in Baveno) back in Italy at 7pm (a big travelling day). It is a lakeside holiday resort on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

Stresa

The next morning was a lazy morning as we slept till 9am! We had decided not to go on the optional tour to one of the islands. Later on that morning we had planned to go on a cruise on Lake Como to see the villas of the rich and famous but as the weather was raining there we drove to the next village – Stresa. We browsed through the shops (and Liane finally found her Italian handbag) then we had a relaxing lunch with a few glasses of wine.