It's amazing how much the thing truly leans. Apparently they've gotten it more secure and don't think it will tilt anymore and you can even go up into it if you want to. We elected not to. :)
From Pisa we hopped back onto the train and traveled to the 5th town in the group of towns called Cinque Terre. They are small villages on the Italian coastline and the Mediterranean Sea. They are seriously unbelievably pretty and words really can't describe it. I don't know if our pictures will capture it, but I hope they will at least partly. At some point in our lives David and I want to come back here and spend a vacation in one of the five villages. There is a hiking trail between all five villages, which Tripp has hiked. We didn't hike, we just rode the ferry. :)
Yeah, we dipped our little toes into the Mediterranean Sea. We also filled our pockets with pretty rocks to bring home. :) They're currently in my living room.
We ate dinner on the banks of the Mediterranean and watched the sun start to set. One of the coolest parts of the trip for sure.
On Thursday we headed straight for the Academia to check out Michelangelo's David. There were no pictures inside, but it is such an imposing structure. I think I stared at it even longer this time than last time. Another cool part of the museum were unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo that were intended for the tomb of a Pope, but never finished. The cool part was that we saw the replica that was finished by some of Michelangelo's students in the Peter in Chains church in Rome.
After lunch it was time for our tour of Tuscany! We went to the region called Chianti and got to tour a 12th century castle that the family still lives in and produces wine and olive oil. We also got to go down and check out their private collection. Their oldest bottles of wine were 6 from 1904. As a sidenote, the bus ride was terrible for me. I was so carsick up on those winding roads, but when we got there it did pass on.
Sadly, Friday was our last day and we finished up with a bang. We got up and headed straight to the Duomo to climb up all those stairs straight to the top. Tripp had a torn ACL, I was 15 and half weeks pregnant and Mom is afraid of heights, but dog-gone-it nothing was keeping us from the top. Parts were EXTREMELY narrow and made you feel super closed in, but it was well-worth it.
On Friday we finished up some souvenir shopping (some of us had more shopping to do than others:) ), and hit the high points of Florence again. We also got to see the massive Piti Palace, which at one time was a privately owned residence.
And so ends the Italy posts. Seriously, I have so many more pictures than I posted and who knows if I really even posted the very best ones, but I realize y'all don't really feel like scrolling through 600 pictures. To my parents...thank you for taking us all on a trip of a lifetime. It is something we will NEVER forget and the memories together are priceless and forever in my memory. You all are the blessings of my life and I can't wait to bring another little member into such a loving, caring, thoughtful, exciting, giving, God-fearing and up-for-anything family.
Mom, Dad, where are we going for your 35th? :)
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