Pisa - and our Insight Tour

I am writing this early in the morning of Saturday 13 May, sitting up in bed in our Sorrento hotel. it is a rather sad day for me, because it is my last full day with our tour group. 

Thanks to our brilliant tour leader, who has bonded us together so well with our fun dinners, our celebrations of special events such as birthdays, her wonderful stories of each place we visit, her passion for Italy, and her care and concern and thoughtfulness, we have gelled as a group and had a great time together, making delightful friends along the way. This was an Insight tour, such an appropriate name for all that we have learned about and experienced of Italy.

In my view, travelling overland with an excellent tour company that has planned so many great days for you, including meeting local guides who have such a passion for and an intensive knowledge of their city or town and a great sense of humour, and spending two weeks together with such an outstanding tour leader and friendly people from different countries who are interested in where they are and the stories behind it and not just there to shop, is the best possible way to travel.  

As with my dinner group on the ship, and some Americans I met on the ship when we had breakfast together, some of us have talked at length about Donald Trump and our concerns about his style of leadership, the decisions he has been making, and other world issues. It has been really great to have that level of conversation over dinner and in the bus. 

But today I also want to show you my photos of Pisa and that well-known leaning tower. It was raining the whole time we were there, but that did not dampen our interest and enjoyment at all. Outside the wall surrounding the old city, were many stalls set up to cater for tourists. But inside the wall we were blown away by the tower and the two other beautiful edifices next to it. Apparently all the stalls were around the base of the tower, but now the site has been restored to its former glory, with the tower having been cleaned and made safer. Now 40 tourists at a time can climb up in there, but that experience has to be booked well ahead. The other two buildings also have been cleaned, the work on the cathedral still ongoing.  

The beauty of their design, the warmth and soft glow and colours of the marbles used in their construction, and the craftsmanship of the builders and sculptors, has to be seen to be believed. I will let my photos, even though they were taken in the rain, speak for themselves.  

The cathedral with the leaning tower of Pisa behind it.

The leaning tower. The lawns set it off very well.

A close-up of part of the tower.

A small, quirky sculpture on the tower.

The lovely marbles at the base of the tower.

The third edifice on this site, taken as we walked back towards the archway through the wall surrounding the old city. The whole place was packed with tourists.

Some of the wall, with a lion sculpture standing guard, as we saw in many places.

A bird nesting in one of the holes in the wall, which no doubt were originally for archers to ward off enemies.

Leaving the walled old city of Pisa.