Friday 10th August. Pisa

Having kept guard all night, Rich woke early and after slamming the doors a few times I too was awake!

We got sorted, literally carrying a sleeping Amelie from back to front seat and made an early dash for Pisa to avoid the queues. We arrived before 8am, even MacDonalds wasn’t open yet for a morning latte!

We managed to wander around in peace while the street traders set up & even drove the van up for a photo in front of the tower. It was amazing to see how much it is leaning- that sounds ridiculous but no picture captures just how wonky it is.

We got tickets (no queue!) for the 9am tour, could've chosen 8;30 but had to give Rich time to park the van again and pick up the lattes from MacD’s.

Going into the tower may have cost a lot (kids are full price & no under 8’s allowed. Good job Amelie was already 8?!!!) but it was fascinating.

Its like going into a fun house at the fair, you walk in and stagger to one side, sitting opposite the door is a tripod (looks like its at an angle but actually perfectly vertical just not 90⁰ to the floor) which holds the surveyors kit which keeps an eye on the angle of the tower.

There is also a plumb line which runs from the centre of the top and comes down to the side of the entrance area. The centre of the tower is completely hollow with a stairwell going around the outside.

After a quick talk we made our way up the stairs, stone steps worn down by the thousands of visitors over the years, who march up and down each day.  There are no windows out only a few arrow slots which makes the whole thing very disorientating as you go up there is only one area where you go outside before the final climb to the top.

The views from the top are spectacular, but the lean is more evident up here and as I kept one hand on the inner wall to steady myself I noticed how smooth the stone was under foot; obviously I was not the only one to walk this way!

You can sit in the centre with the bells (one for each note of the scale) which is far more relaxing, the bells are beautiful but incredibly loud when they start to ring!!

The walk back down was more strange, you could really feel when the steps levelled out then steeper as you made your way around and down.  Finally back on solid (flat) ground, we felt as though we’d been on a boat, took a awhile to get our sea legs back to normal.

We collected our bags (almost forgot them!) & off we set again, by now it was crowded with people trying to sell you all kinds of tat!

From Pisa it was another long drive to lake Como but we decided to get it done, it was 10:30 when we left Pisa so we had a whole day and could look forward to a whole week of relaxation, chilling in lake Como!