it's a pisa a work and an adventurous day!

i'm not sure who gets credit for planning this one, but after spending the couple hours driving last night from pisa to barga, we got up in the morning and drove from barga to pisa! we were in for another long adventurous day!


while we were parking for the tower, we saw a mcdonald's train! i really wanted to ride it. my brother, the vegan, was adamantly against being seen on that train. we think it was a shuttle between a parking lot and the tower.


and there's the tower! and a church in front of it. we did not go inside the church....



the fam in front of the tower.


mom made us take these. only i don't think we really had a very good angle on it... oh well.


my cheesey snapshot... you'll notice mom and andrew are missing... not sure where their dorky photos are!!



some of the stairs inside the tower on the climb up. on the way down my flip flops were awfully noisy so i took them off and went down barefoot. the steps were so smooth!!! they felt cool and nice on my feet.


mom's afraid of heights. and it was quite windy at the top. dad had to help her around and i made her turn for a picture!


mom's only slightly terrified!!


we made it to the top! the climb was weird! some parts were easier than others b/c of the awkward angle, but it wasn't a difficult climb.


at the top. andrew chose not to climb. not sure why... maybe the heights thing.


view from the climb up.


heading up the tower!


and now heading back down. there are several super narrow parts to the climb!

after climbing the tower, we left pisa and drove to lucca. lucca is an old town surrounded by this very big wall which remains completely intact. once there was no longer a military need for protection, it became a pedestrian promenade. it is also the biggest small town closest to barga.


the town of lucca is surrounded by this huge wall - so big that you can easily walk and ride bikes along it! it doesn't even feel like you are on a wall!


a church inside the walls


requisite photo of dad staring at a map... he and andrew are waiting on me and carl to make a purchase...


me and carl in the talia store. we happen to meet talia herself! i had walked by and seen this lovely handbag in a great shade of blue. seeing that it was inexpensive as far as leather goes, i passed by but definitely was still thinking about it. so... carl offered to go in with me and help me negotiate in italian. he apparently said things like "you wouldn't want this little girl to go home without a bag, would you?!" and "they sent me in b/c her dad doesn't think she needs another bag". and with lines like that, he got me the purse for 20 euro cheaper!


carl and i walk victoriously out of the store!!


after making my bag purchase, we decided to take a pathway up to the wall walkway.


family portrait on top of the wall: andrew, tonee, carl, me, dad and mom.


aren't these trees cool looking?! this was a gorgeous street in lucca.


once we left lucca, we made one more stop on our way back to barga: the devil's bridge. it looks super pointy in this pic, but i promise it doesn't even begin to do the bridge justice on how steep it actually is!


on top of the bridge.


so pretty up in tuscany!


heading down the steep bridge. we even saw an insane bike rider going up and down this bridge a couple times.

on our way back to barga, carl asked if anyone wanted to be dropped off for a nap or if anyone wanted to join him - he wanted to drive to san pietro in campo which is actually where the pieroni house had been located. i never knew this until this trip. i'd always heard we were from the small town of barga. apparently, we were from an even smaller town of san pietro in campo. everyone decided that despite being tired, we all wanted to go with carl... and boy am i glad i went! but...that's gunna be a separate post!