Tuscany- Pisa and Lucca

Were you starting to wonder if I was ever coming back?  I got out of the blogging grove and needed some motivation and these vacation pictures did the trick!

Wednesday we visited Tuscany, Italy.  We had another private tour set up for this day so once we met our guides, we were off!

We had about an hour drive to Pisa, our first stop.  The drive was so beautiful!  It was a gorgeous day and seeing the Italian countrywide was so neat!  These pictures are all from inside the van, so not the best quality, but it gives you an idea of what we saw.



The inside of our van.











We got to Pisa and made our way to the leaning tower.



You can see the city's cathedral here.  The leaning tower is the bell tower for the cathedral.







We walked around the side of it and from this view you can't tell how much it leans.



There were crowds all around the tower, so even though this shot doesn't show just how much the tower leans, it was a great place to take some pictures.















I completely forgot what this was (Steve do you remember?).  I am pretty sure this is where people are buried, but I don't really remember.





This is the baptistery.  People could not enter the church without being baptized so they built this baptistery so people could go and be baptized and then go into the church.



It was so beautiful inside.  You are not allowed to speak inside so it was quiet and serene.





After we had been there a while, this lady came and started making this beautiful noise that echoed throughout the building.  I just happened to be taking pictures and quickly switched my camera to movie mode to capture this video. You may need to turn the sound up, but it is amazing and definitely worth listening to.



The historical, city calls of Pisa are so neat.





Here is the cathedral.



I had to include this picture so you could see all of the people holding their hands out trying to "hold" the tower up.  People were doing this everywhere.





The inside of the cathedral.









We walked around the other side of the tower and took more pictures.













Next we went to Palazzo della Carovana, which is a palace in Knights Square.



Then we drove through the Tuscan countryside.  It was so neat!  Again these are all from inside the van, but I got to sit in front so they are pretty good.







We were going to an olive oil farm to learn how olive oil is made and do an olive oil tasting.  The first place we went to is also a winery.













These are the olive trees.  You can see small little green bulbs growing on limbs.  Those are the olives.



Here is a better view.







On the left are the grape trees and the olive trees are on the right.







We learned about the current method of making olive oil, but for some reason I didn't take any pictures.   This is the ancient way to make olive oil.  They would put the olives inside this and then use a donkey to turn it and crush the olives.



Then they pressed it with this.



Next we got to taste two types of olive oil.  Both were extra virgin, but I don't remember the differences.









They were both really good.

Next we did a wine tasting.







The guy on the far right is the one who gave us our tour and did the tasting.



We then went to another winery that was close by to have lunch and a wine tasting and tour.



Our view for lunch.



Our meal was SO good!  The pasta was amazing!





We also had wine with lunch.



The view from the other side.



Next we went on a tour of the winery.















We left the winery and drove to Lucca.   Lucca is surrounded by walls and even a mote.







Inside the walls.



We went to a church inside the walls.





Inside the church are roman ruins.



This is a checkpoint where you enter and leave the walls.  It used to be maned by military, but is now open to drive and walk freely through.





Another picture of the walls and mote.



Some views from our drive back to port.







Here we are that night at dinner.



We really enjoyed our day in Tuscany!  One thing that was really unexpected though was the heat!  It was SOOOOOO hot this day and the heat really took a toll on us.  Numerous people told us that the week before it was cold and they were currently having a heat wave.  It felt like we were back in Houston!  I felt bad for the people who live there as most people do not have central air because it is so expensive.   Can you imagine 90 degree weather and no central AC?  I can't!  Our driver said they sleep naked, with no sheets and fans.   The weather in France was absolutely perfect, but we shocked by the hot, hot weather at our three ports in Italy.