Again the sun was shining as we woke up in La Spezia, in the Ligurian area of Italy between Genoa and Pisa. What a surprise we had when the phone rang just after breakfast and it was Norma and Bernard, two very dear friends of ours from Bolton who we meet regularly in Tenerife. They are on another P&O ship, the Arcadia, which has docked right behind ours!! We met up with them and their friends just outside the port for coffee. As we had a trip booked for the afternoon we spent just an hour with them but it was lovely to catch up with all their news. We had a quick walk around La Spezia admiring the shops built under the arched walkway and lots of lovely rose gardens before returning to the ship for a quick lunch.
Early afternoon we left for a ship's tour to Pisa. Our guide Carla gave us a lots of information as we drove along the A12(!),through Tuscany to Pisa. We passed the Tuscan Alps which are mountains from where they take marble, which has led to many marble factories in the area and gives a great deal of employment to local people.
Carla gave us a lot of information about Pisa, we learnt that the Leaning Tower was started in the 1100s but, realising it was not straight, they gave up after three stories. A hundred years later someone else built on two more stories but then gave up. In all it took 300 years to complete, but had a lean of 5 degrees. In 1990 they realised it was leaning 6 degrees so closed the tower for 11 years whilst they shored it up a bit, back to 5 degrees and made it safe. The Tower was actually built as the bell tower to the Cathedral next door and there are seven bells at the top of the tower. We also learnt that Pinnochio was made from pine wood from this area and the pine nuts from those trees, and wonderful basil that grows here, make this the home of pesto.
We had pre booked our visit to walk up the 251 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a long way up but the views from the top were magnificent. Then we had to walk down again! We took the usual photos of us each 'holding up' the Tower, made a quick visit to the Cathedral and then it was time to do the one hour return trip back to our ship. What a sad reflection of our times to again see lots of army men with their guns patrolling the area with heavily armoured vehicles around the Leaning Tower.
The sun was still shining when we had our hot tub, followed by another lovely dinner accompanied by a bottle of Italian Rose. This was followed by a visit to the Footlights Theatre to see the ships company perform Killer Queen, a brilliant, slick song and dance routine, tribute to Queen.
A wonderful day, a wonderful visit to one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World, and the sun shone all day.
