Pisa

The sosta (aire) was a carpark with a section just for motorhomes €12 without electricity. Pisa has a nice square around it’s cathedral and this area was heaving with tourists even in April. Since I was last here they have stopped you walking around each gallery on the way up the tower. it was €18 to go up the tower and given John doesn’t like heights and there was a four hour wait, by which time it would have been dark, and I have done it before we didn’t part with yet more money. We did look around the baptistery and the cemetery. The soil in the cemetery is supposed to be so acidic that it rots a corpse in 24 hours. From Pisa we also cycled to Torre del Lago, a nice cycle ride of 27k each way. Torre del Lago was for some time the home of Giacomo Puccini who died in 1924. On his death his son converted one room of his father house into a chapel where Giacomo and his wife are buried. Later his son and wife where interred in the tomb as well. The rest of the house was made a museum leaving it as it was in his Giacomo’s day so you get to see the piano and desk that all those famous opera’s were written on, along with some very scruffy draft manuscripts. I thoroughly enjoyed the museum. Torre del Lago has a large open air theatre where in summer they perform all Puccini’s operas. Alas it is not summer so no opera to see. Even if you don’t like opera I’m sure you will know some of his tunes.