Italy Trip Day 3

It seems that these entries get shorter as I go along.

Here are some shots we took in Siena. John gave us a grand tour of the city center, complete with the Cathedral, the Sant' Agostino Church, and the Palazzo Publico (where they were filming the new James Bond movie). Most of the buildings in Siena are a rusty brown color--which is where the Crayola Crayon with that same color got its name! To top it all off, he led us through the quaint alleyways to his favorite Gelato Shop--two scoops for everyone. Thanks, John, for the wonderful stay--you were a fabulous host, cook, and tour guide!


After leaving Siena, we headed across the Tuscan countryside to the small town of Vinci, where (you may have guessed it) a certain famous, dead guy named Leonardo was born. There was a small, sincere, kid-sized museum that contained many working models of da Vinci's most famous inventions--some favorites were a self-winding clock, weaving machines, wings made of wood and cloth, bridges, and pulley contraptions designed to construct cathedrals.

From Vinci we continued west to Pisa--where we had to make sure for ourselves that the tower truly was leaning. It was. We did, however, see if there was anything we could do to "help".

After having a tasty picnic of Italian bread, cheese, and meat--we hit the road again. Our goal was to find our ferry in Livorno that would take us on an overnight trip south to Sicily--which turned out to be no easy task. Even with our faithful "Navigator", Lisa, it took us a long time (and a lot of driving around some "not-so-friendly-looking" parts of Livorno) to find the right port. In true Italian style, the ferry was running a couple of hours late, and driving onto the ferry (in the midst of semi-trucks, campers, and shuttle drivers) was absolute chaos! But, we finally got parked, packed all six of us into a cramped cabin made for four, passed out the sea-sick medicine, and hit the hay.