Tuesday, Day 7 – La Spezia / Pisa

This was our first port where the passengers tendered – for cruise novices, this means that the ship docked out in the bay and there were smaller boats that picked up passengers from the ship and took us into the port. Disney recommended that we allow 45 minutes in total to queue, board the tenders and then motor over to the port. It did take a while, which makes a longish day even longer…

So, being new to La Spezia and not having a concept about the distances, we asked the folks from the ship whether we could walk to Avis or if we needed a cab. They recommended a cab, so we hopped in. About 8 blocks and 10 Euros later we had learned our first lesson (or were reminded) – ALWAYS ask the taxi drive for a price or make sure they’re using a meter, and that they don’t have a minimum…

We had a nice mid-size car, Jim got to do the driving. And we saw our first (and only) rain of the trip! It was gray and overcast at La Spezia, then it was POURING on the Autostrada (is that the Spanish or Italian word for highway?). Again we relied on our Rick Steve’s book, supplemented by the driving map from the rental car. We made it to Pisa in decent time, though the traffic on the local roads was very slow due to some traffic signals. We parked in a lot just outside of the town walls and walked about 4 blocks into the main square, referred to as the Field of Miracles. We purchased tickets to climb the tower on-line, www.opapisa.it. We had tickets for 5, though Dad and Nan had decided to make the trip to Florence so they didn’t join us. With had a bit of an adventure selling our extra tickets to an Italian couple, but with the two hour wait from purchase of tickets on-site until you were scheduled to climb, the deal worked out for the both of us.

At Pisa, we ran into the Disney photographers (remember, they were at Pompeii, too).
They were obliging all the cruisers who wanted their pictures taken “holding up the tower.” We couldn’t resist, of course! Also, what we heard about the shopping was also true – lots of touristy shops with Tower replicas, leaning coffee mugs, snow globes, etc. We indulged, of course!

We also bought tickets to the Duomo and Babtistery, stopping in briefly while we were waiting for our climb time. After the Vatican and St. Peters, it was “ho hum…” The highlight was the acoustics in the Babtistery. The tour book claimed that with the echoing from the domed ceiling, the priests were able to sing harmony for themselves. Ann had to try and it worked!!!

The Tower climb was 294 steps, well worn, curling around the circle of the tower. Only 30 people can climb, every 20 minutes. There is a first tier balcony – after you ascend to this level, they feed you out to the balcony and let a group descend – very well coordinated, I must say. Then you make it to the top, which has two levels. The very very top tier is a bit scary – it’s hard to describe, but it’s basically the top/roof of the tower, with concentric circles of decreasing radius, creating s series of steps toward the center of the tower.
But the guard rail was a height appropriate for the bottom/outside step – so as you climbed up, if you had tripped, it would have been easy for your center of gravity to be over the top of that guard rail – Jamie was scared and Jim, who is normally afraid of heights was being quite brave (see picture). Ann scooted up the steps on her butt! We sat, took some deep breaths and lots of pictures, then we were all relieved to head down to the “main” balcony at the top that had nice bars and railings and even a mesh-like protection up to about Jim’s waist.

After doing the whole Tower thing, it was time for lunch. We picked another Rick Steve’s recommendation – La Buca. We sat out on their patio, nestled in an area between some buildings. Nice atmosphere, lots of umbrellas/canopies, etc. Ann had a fabulous pesto pasta as a starter, Jim had the lasagna and then we shared a pizza. Jamie had plain noodles again (the safe choice). But she liked the sauce on top of Jim’s lasagna so much, we had to order her a side of sauce… Then after more shopping (and ice cream), plus seeing multiple Disney groups on their way into Pisa, it was time to move on. We visited a local grocery store right near our parking lot – WOW we scored there! We bought a huge 2 Liter bottle of Italian wine for 2 Euros! How can you pass that up! And much better than Gallo (I think!??! I haven’t had Gallo in years!) Plus some bottled water to take back to the ship…

For our drive home, we were taking the scenic, beach route. We knew we wanted to stop, we just didn’t know where. We exited the Autostrada and headed toward Viareggio along the local roads – think of rural farm roads... We saw a hitchhiker on the side of the road – it was this Amazon woman in a skimpy top and shorts. Ann pointed her out, trying to make a comment about her attire that Jim would understand but would go over Jamie’s head. Then at a driveway about ¼ mile down the road, there was a woman out in her driveway, closing her gate. Then about another ½ mile down the road, there was a woman reading a book in a recliner. Ann keeps chattering about these people on the side of the road – wondering why the heck they’re out there. After he couldn’t take it any more, Jim exclaims… “Ann, sometimes you’re so naïve! Those are working women!!!” After my jaw drops and I realize of course that’s exactly what they are, I start laughing so hard I’m crying. Yes, sometimes I can be pretty oblivious!!!! I really wanted to go back and take a picture, but by the time I stopped laughing and crying, we were too far down the road…

We got to Viareggio, and got lost trying to find their equivalent of the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). Finally we found the right road and it was miles and miles of beach places with umbrellas and chairs that you can rent for the day. Bars, restaurants, shopping, places where you can rent a closet/cabana and store your swim gear for the summer… We picked a random place and stopped, walked up and down the beach then had our beer and ice cream before heading back to La Spezia.

From Avis, this time we walked back to tender (versus an overpriced cab). La Spezia seems like a nice town. We walked down a nice pedestrian shopping street, it was a busy time of the afternoon/early evening so the town had a lively feeling… There are parks along the water front, and the walk was quite pleasant. We were on one of the last tenders back to the ship, arriving well after our dinner seating at 6:30 pm (dinners in these ports were delayed 30 minutes from their regular start time to accommodate the long excursions). Though it was after 7pm, we decided to take a chance on dinner in the dining room since we had been disappointed with Topsiders the night before. We dumped our bags in the cabin and headed straight to dinner in our shorts and our wonderful servers were able to accommodate us! Thank you!!!

We hit the theatre for a “re-run” of Twice Charmed – we had seen this show on our previous cruise and it was still fun… Then off to bed, looking forward to our big day in the South of France tomorrow!