Monaco - Pisa & Florence

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” ~ Neale Donald Walsch

There was quite a bit of driving today, but it was broken up by the various stops that we made.  We jumped on the bus and were on our way to Monaco. It was a relatively short drive to the Country of Monaco – which seems to be best known for the fact that Prince Albert I married Grace Kelly.  Add to that the mystique surrounding the expensive casinos and the very high price of real estate.  We were told that a one room studio apartment starts at about 1.2 million Euros.  If you want something with a second bedroom and maybe a view of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, they start at a cool 3.5 million Euros, and go up from there.  Only the very rich can live in Monaco.

The place seems like something out of a movie set.  It’s perched on the cliffs of the Mediterranean Sea and takes up less than two square kilometers (that’s about half the size of Central Park in New York).  I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it is.  The narrow winding streets, the terraced cliff-side homes, and the crystal blue sea.  It’s just stunning.  We saw the church where Prince Albert and Grace Kelly were married (and where both of their grave sites are), as well as a beautiful museum and the Palace where the current King of Monaco lives now (Prince Albert II).  Apparently all of the royal family has lived in this castle for nearly a 1000 years.

Museum in Monaco

Church Where Prince Albert and Grace Kelly Were Married

The Sun Shining Through The Stained Glass Windows onto the Church Floor

Entrance to the Royal Palace in Monaco

The Stunning View of Monaco

Another Angle of Beautiful Monaco

Together in Monaco

We left Monaco and drove a little further (when you leave Monaco, you actually enter France again for a little while until you reach the Italian border) and after a very short time, we were in Italy.  Here again, as we made our way along the Italian Riviera, I was blown away by the amazing beauty of the towns that we passed.  Around each and every corner was another little valley, with housed dotted all along both sides forming a point towards the sea.  I lost count of how many of these we passed; but each one was just as beautiful as the next.

The Stunning Countryside in the French/Italian Riviera

Another Beautiful Italian Town on the Mediterranean 

And Another...

We stopped for a 45-minute lunch break in Italy, the first place we have stopped where neither Laureen or I have ANY sense of the language.  It’s a little unnerving given that we’ve had a slight advantage in all the previous places as we both speak a little Spanish and I had learned some French.  The Rest stop was quite busy – and we jumped in line as quickly as possible so that we could get our order in and get it down – still allowing for some time to go walk around and stretch the legs.  The weather has been simply amazing as it seems we have been chasing the sun (the only day of rain thus far was in Lourdes).

A couple hours further down the road and we arrived at the city of Pisa.  Kassie, our tour director, indicated that Pisa really has nothing else going for it except the leaning tower, that we’ve all seen pictures of.  The tower's tilt began during construction, caused by an inadequate foundation on ground too soft on one side to properly support the structure's weight. The tilt increased in the decades before the structure was completed, and gradually increased until the structure had to be stabilized (and the tilt partially corrected) in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  The thing that struck me the most about the tower, was that it was not the only building on the site.  It’s the bell tower for a Cathedral and a Baptistery building all in close proximity.  In fact, Galileo was baptized in the Baptistery on this location.

The Baptistery on the Pisa Church Site

The Cathedral with the Leaning Tower Behind it

Yep, she's leaning!

Standing at the Base of the Tower

Sun Shining on the Tower - it was a hot day!

Laureen by the Tower with the Church in the Background

Leaning Tower - see the people to the right holding it up?

As we walked up the pathway to the structure, you can see dozens of people all posing like they are holding up the tower.  I took a picture like I was pushing it over (Laureen has that one on her phone and she’s sleeping now so I can’t get it).  There were also a bunch of vendors there hawking their wares.  There are a number of places in this region that are well known for their leather goods – so a few of the ladies have purchased leather satchels/bags.  We grabbed a quick Gelato – which is also a popular and culturally relevant treat in Italy.  There are also quite a few Gypsies who are ally trying to sell you something.  Apparently it’s illegal to buy from them, but the tour guide indicate that she has never seen anyone get fined for doing so.  Oh, one more thing, Kassie had arranged for a train thing to pick us up and bring us back to the bus after the tour.  It was a fun little ride.

Vendors by the Tower Site

Jill & Dennis + Diane & Alf on the last car of the train.

Back on the bus to make our way to Florence.  There was a definite change in the landscape with even more agriculture in the Italian countryside. Even on the hillsides you could see that they had terraced the land and were growing all sorts of things including:  olives, grapes, sunflowers, corn and a few crops that I could not identify.

We also traveled through Carrera, Italy – the place where the famous Carrera Marble comes from.  Not only did we pass the mountains where the marble is mined, we passed a number of places where large marble blocks sat in the yard waiting to be shipped off to the various places the purchase it.   I ran my hand over one of the columns of the Cathedral in Pisa, and it was clearly made from Marble.

Carrera Mountains & Carrera Marble in the Yard of this Factory

We arrived at our hotel at about 7:00 PM, so we had a little time to get to our rooms, wait for our luggage to arrive at our door and then head down for a dinner at the hotel for 7:45 PM.  It was a buffet style and we sat with Paul and Marie.

Tomorrow is a 7:45 AM bags out, 8:40 AM on the bus so that we can get to our arranged time to see the original Michelangelo, “David” sculpture.  Will be an interesting day tomorrow for sure!

Curt & Laureen in Florence, Italy.

PS - sorry for the late publishing of the last two posts - the Internet connection at the last two hotels was very poor.  Tonight, it's much better.