Pisa

The flights weren't that bad...I had said that I was going to try and sleep on the long flight to avoid jet lag but that didn't so much happen. Turns out that the couple in front of us were in the mood for chit chat and drinking the free in flight wine. I happily joined them for most of the flight, while Mindy snoozed a bit and then rejoined us. This was my number one mistake. Our layover in Paris for about 4 hours was excruciating. I wanted to sleep, but felt horrible! I think that I got about an hour of sleep in a very uncomfortable green chair, and then about that much more on the flight to Pisa. Both of us feeling not well at all, and tired to boot, we still stayed active until about 8:30 pm when we'd both had enough.

Pisa...finally in Italy and it's raining, windy, and cold! A bit overwhelmed as we stepped out of the airport, we weren't really sure where we needed to go. So back in we went to speak with the bus ticket people. They hooked us up with a ticket to Piazza D. Manin, which is right next to Piazza dei Miracoli, where the Leaning Tower is. While it is kind of cool, it is not the most impressive thing in that area. To me, the Duomo and Baptistery far outshine it.
Inside the Cathedral, there are many wonderful works of art. As we walked up the center aisle, I couldn't help but exclaim "Wow, I drew that in college!" I had no idea that the lectern I had done a charcoal drawing of was in this church.

Also quite impressive was the main altar. Gold leaf on the paintings was going to be something that we saw a lot of in the coming days, all in churches...
After having found a hotel (the only hostel in Pisa was closed), and seen the main sights, we decided that we should both try to eat something. Off to a quaint little cafe, we had a small pizza and I had an Italian beer. The wind had died down so we decided to sit down out front and chill out a bit.
After dinner, it was to bed for us by 9, although, I had a hard time falling asleep. Go figure, I'm exhausted and can't sleep! The next morning we would be heading to Florence by train. We had had eight hours in Pisa, and that was enough.