Sienna, Lucca, Pisa
Still in Tuscany (one of the Italian regions, or states), we moved onto Sienna. Sienna was another hilly Italian town filled with beautiful churches. Sienna's most famous resident would have been St. Catherine of Sienna. She is credited with getting the Popes to come back to Rome, from France where they had been living for almost 80 years.
Some work was going on at the Church, but that did not detract from its beauty.
Note the gold at the top!
After touring Sienna we overnighted at a hotel in Lucca, a small town between Sienna and Pisa. At the hotel, John said Mass for those who could attend.
John promised to keep his homilies under 7 minutes, and he obliged us for the most part.
The following day, Saturday, March 29, we departed Lucca and went to Pisa. If it wasn't for the famous tower, there would not be any reason to visit Pisa. When we first arrived we got a taste of the "gypsies" as our tour guide called them. Fake watches, hand bags and artwork were everywhere, and the police did little to stop it. Occasionally they would sweep through the area, the sellers would scatter, but they would return within minutes.
I have to admit that I did not realize that there was more than just the Leaning Tower there. The buildings that surround it are pretty astounding. We tried to get inside them, but given the time limitations of the tour, the earliest we could get into the Duomo was almost two hours.
The Baptistry and Basilica are impressive buildings. Oh yeah, the tower is in the back.
We were given a tour of the Basilica, which of course was impressive. We had time to wander the area and were able to take some nice pictures. The weather started to warm up, and it cooperated throughout the rest of out trip. A week before, the weather in Italy had been terrible, with rain and cold.
Martha and Walter look so small in comparison to the tower. If you look at the top layers of the tower, you can see that they lean a different angle than the rest. There was some effort to correct the error in the tower, but it was unsuccessful.
On to Florence.....