EUROPE - Part 5

ITALY

We sailed from Greece to Italy on a ferry.  Now, I know what you're thinking....a ferry?  Yes.  And it was more like a cruise liner, if you ask me.  The boat was HUGE, the room was nice (except for the itty bitty shower curtain w/ only 2 hooks), the air was cool on the top deck, the food was good (for cafeteria food, anyway...well, except for the price).  What more could you ask for?

Well, what is a "field trip" with a group of 45 without a little bit of misfortune?  Well...the next morning, we got a very strange wake up call!  At 8:30 am, I was woken by the captain making the announcement to "Abandon Ship".  Now, this was heard in THREE languages (Greek, Italian, & English). It was VERY loud. And, it was repeated three times that EVERY passenger needed to cooperate.  I ask Steven what we were supposed to do, and we had no clue!  We meet up w/ some other ladies from the trip, decide we should probably go to the top deck to jump overboard if necessary (isn't that what you'd think it meant to abandon ship???), and we met a man working on the ferry at the staircase.  We ask him where we were supposed to go for the emergency drill, and he said "you can go anywhere you want".  That was NOT helpful. at. all.  Needless to say, we went to the top deck only to see we were the only ones w/ crazy bed-hair, and our pjs on.  Everyone else was eating breakfast, reading books, and swimming in the pool as if nothing had happened.  The funniest part of it all came at breakfast, when we learned that 10 of our group had to stand in a corner with life jackets on for 30 minutes. They, too, were the ONLY ones mandated to do so.  People passed by left and right...and they tried to remove their jackets, and were yelled at quickly.  At least I didn't have to do that!!!  ha!

Pics from the ferry:

This is a view from the top deck:

This is a pic of the one meal we ate, before getting off in Italy.  It was pasta....so good!  You can see that Steven & I got the same dish. All together, for 2 pastas, 2 rolls, & 2 waters....it was $35.  Not so cheap.

This is a picture of one of the areas in the middle deck.  There were 3-4 of them. There was a snack bar at one end, tables in the middle, and in this particular room, there was also a mini stage where bands performed the night before.

AND...dun dun dun dun...

This is what we see as soon as we step off the ferry-

Welcome to ITALY!  It was definitely different from Greek architecture! 

I have to say, Italy was my favorite country we visited this summer.  The atmosphere seemed perfect. The people were very polite.  I no longer felt completely lost when it came to understanding the language.  Spanish & Italian are VERY similar, so it was easy to understand them & talk to them (even though occasionally we'd be conversing in two languages, really), and they understood English very well, too.

We stayed in a small town outside of Florence. It was a very nice hotel, and the food was excellent! The night life in this small resort town was nice.  We ventured out, and saw all sorts of people walking about, and dining on the patios. There were lots of expensive shops, so we could tell that this was "the place to be" in the summer time.

Here are a few pics of the little town we stayed in:

This was a cute little sign, to point the way to Florence (Firenze, in Italian):

I told you, we went out at night, so here are a few night shots (even got one of Steven in the rain):

And...the next morning, when the rain had stopped, this is the view from our hotel balcony:

So...the first day in Italy (on a Sunday), we went to Pisa.  Yes, we went to see the leaning tower! But there was SO MUCH more to see.  There is an entire plaza, and the tower is only part of the beauty of this place.  There is a baptistery (the largest in the world), a cemetery, and a huge cathedral. Of course, we got to visit all of these sites.  Normally, the cemetery is closed to visitors.  BUT, we visited on a Sunday, and couldn't really walk around the cathedral...we could only peek in the back of the church. So, they allowed us to go into the cemetery that day.

And just to warn you...pictures will never be able to do this place justice.  It is simply amazing!

This is the view of the square when we first arrived.  The sun was shining bright. You can see a bit of the baptistery (to the left of the photo), the cathedral in the middle (can't miss it), and the tower to the right, tucked in behind the church)

Okay, so I forgot to flip this pic (oops), but this is how it looked as we exited.  This is a beautiful pic...just turn your head sideways a bit to experience it (sorry, again!).

Here's the cemetery. There are coffins (real ones) to the right, and they were on the left as well.  The entire cemetery is a rectangle w/ a garden in the middle. And...did you notice the floor? Yes, people are buried underneath the walkway!  gross...we walked on dead people!  And on the walls are murals that are slowly being restored.

This is the baptistery. Like I said earlier, this is the largest in the world. We went inside and they have people come every hour to demonstrate the acoustics. It was amazing...they sang simple chords, and we stood in awe just listening.  You can see the cemetery in the background, and the church sits across the courtyard (to the right, in the pic).  This is a pic of what it looks like inside the baptistery, from the top. Towards the top, you can see the chair and pulpit (to the left) where the preacher stands, and where they make a sermon before/after the baptism.  The round structure toward the bottom is where you are baptized.  They still baptize today in here.  In the middle of the baptism font stands John the Baptist.

This is me, doing the silly pose that everyone does...holding up the tower. ENJOY!  Yes...it is heavy!  ha!

This is a shot of the tower, as we walked past it.  So beautiful. Sorry...it's turned the wrong way, again.  Yes, you can go inside it and climb to the top, for $20/person.  But, they only allow 30 people up, every 30 minutes.  That means you have to make it to the top and back down again in half an hour...and if you think about it, that is over 1,000 stairs to climb in 30 min.  NO...we did not decide to go in the tower.  Whew!

These were some of the vendors waiting to make a sell, outside of the square.

This is a pic of the vendor where we ate our lunch.  I ate a hot dog smothered in ketchup and mayo...GROSS!  Steven ate a chicken sandwich. The variety of beverages was amazing!

And last, but not least...us, about ready to leave one of the most fascinating places in Italy. Here, it was overcast for a bit. It sprinkled while we were there, but all in all...it was perfect for touring this plaza!!!

Up next....Florence