Oldies On Tour

Up early walked the dogs, I did not want anyone in the office to see we had two dogs, we are paying nearly 40 Euros a night, which is scandalous, so don’t want to pay anymore, we will be moving as soon as we have completed Pisa. The big plus is we can walk from here to see the sights.

Cathedral and Tower at Pisa

We left about 9.30a.m walked through a tunnel under the railway line, past all the stalls selling their souvenirs, and into the walled Piazza Dei Miracoli.  The Piazza’s expansive green lawns provide an urban carpet on which Europe’s most extraordinary concentration of Romanesque buildings – in the form of Cathedral, Baptistry and Tower – are arranged. Two million visitors, every year mean that crowds are the norm.

We visited the Cathedral, this was first started to be built

Pisa Cathedral

in 1063, and continued until the 13^th century. The elliptical dome, the first of its kind in Europe dates from 1380.  The buildings striking cladding of alternating bands of green and cream marble became the blueprint for churches throughout Tuscany. The wooden ceiling decorated with 24-carat gold is a legacy from the period of Medici rule of the City.

The Tower was started in 1173, and then ground to a halt a decade later, when the first three tiers were observed to be tilting. In 1272 work started again, with artisans and masons attempting to bolster the foundations but failing miserably.  Despite this, they keep going, compensating for the lean by gradually building straight up from the lower storeys and creating a subtle curve.

Over the centuries the tower has tilted an extra 1mm each year. By 1993 it was 4.47m out of plumb, more than five degrees from the vertical.  The most recent solution saw steel braces slung around the third storey that were then joined to steel cables attached to neighbouring buildings. This held the tower in place as engineers began gingerly removing soil from below the northern foundations. After

Stairwell going down

some 70 tonnes of earth had been extracted from the Northern side, the tower sank to its 18^th century level and, in the process, rectified the lean by 43.8m.  Experts believe this will guarantee the tower’s future (and a fat tourist income) for the next three centuries.

As there are 300 steps inside, Geoff has declined going up, (he is also not feeling well) if you suffer from giddiness

View from top

(which he does) or have heart problems, they say do not go up.

I bought the tickets, and it was very well organised, they only let 40 people in at a time, and on the ticket is the time

View from the top

you can go in. So I went alone, I had no trouble with the steps, but it was very claustrophobic, especially when people started coming down and you had to pass each other.   I walked all around, and you had fantastic views from the top, we were then shown more steps, which were very narrow, and even more claustrophobic, (Geoff would have hated this) when we

Bell Tower

arrived at the top there were six huge bells, and several small ones, I felt wobbly at this point, so had a quick look around, and climbed down again.  Glad I did it, but do not feel the need to do it again. I joined Geoff for a drink, and

Part of the University of Pisa

we then took a horse and cart ride around Pisa itself, which was very good, with the guide pointing out the points of interest on route.  We couldn’t always understand her, but we nodded in agreement.

Narrow streets of Pisa

Next onto the Baptistry which was completed in the 14^thcentury, there was a beautiful hexagonal pulpit, with amazing carvings on, and whilst we

Baptistry

were there a custodian demonstrated the double dome’s remarkable acoustics and echo effects.

Midday and we have seen enough of Pisa, so we headed back to the campsite, had a quick lunch, and managed to slip out just before the start of another day. (2pm)

We went looking for another site, but just couldn’t find one suitable, although we have this year’s Aries book, it seems it is totally out of date, we worked our way further and further away from Pisa but the only ones available were 40 Euros, and we decided we could not afford to stay there waiting for Jane to arrive.

Eventually we ended up in Sarzana, which is near La Spezia, a delightful site, which is

Peace and quiet

almost empty, on a riverbank.

We put the ground sheet down, plugged into the electricity, and then went to do our emails, three campari spritz later, we left the bar, but at least Geoff is far more relaxed, and forgotten how bad his back is! We had an early night, after we had played a few games of crib.

………..And that was just in the streets outside the Museum!

The Entrance

Yes we are in Maranello, the Mecca for Formula One Grand Prix Racing and the home of Ferrari. I say Mecca as Ferrari is the only team in F1 to have been racing since the inception of the world Championship back in 1950. Many teams have come and gone, some have gone and come back, but Ferrari is still challenging for the “titles”.
Though the museum attracts Motor Racing addicts from around the globe and naturally the main emphasis is on their motor racing heritage and achievements in all the various categories and formulas: This museum also traces the Ferrari History back to 1947 when Enzo Ferrari broke away from Alfa Romeo to set up his own factory in Maranello. His ambition was to contest the new F1 world championships commencing in 1950.

1sr Ferrari Race Car 1947

His first racing car, produced in 1947, was the Ferrari 125S, and was also the first car to use their well known logo, “the Prancing Horse” (see below), Enzo was quoted as saying at the time “A promising failure” this was probably the only failure he ever had! Also on display was his first production

1947 production car 166 Aerlux

car, the Ferrari 166 Aerlux.
The first “Grand Prix” that Ferrari won was the Silverstone Grand Prix held on the 14th May, 1951 (driver: Froilán

Ferrari P166 1st Ferrari winner 1951

Ascari’s 1952/53 World Championship winning car

González) and this was followed by the first Driver’s world championship in 1952 (driver: Albert Ascari) and again in ’53 with the same driver. Their winning habits continued, to date they have won (up ‘till this year’s Belgium Grand Prix) 219 Grand Prix races out of the total of 849 (26%) that have been held over the 60 intervening years; not to mention the countless Le Mans, Daytona 500’s and various other formulae wins.
In addition to the largest collection of Ferrari cars in the world (as you would expect!!) there was the “Timossi – Ferrari Arno X1”, this was the Hydroplane built in the 1950’s, powered by the same 4.5litre V12 engine that powered the 375 F1 car that one their first Grand Prix at the Silverstone track in 1951. This boat actually broke the World Speed Record for its class (150.19 MPH) in 1953.
This was a superb visit, for apart from the numerous cars there was very old film footage of by-gone motor racing at various venues. When one watches the Grand Prix of to-day on the TV, we forget where Motor Racing has come from. The horrific accidents that took place causing death and serious injuries to both Drivers and Spectators; this was a regular occurrence at race meetings, totally un-acceptable in to-days climate of health and safety!!!!!!!!!!! A point to demonstrate the changes are the Crash Hats on display from each of the Ferrari world champions spanning 1951 to 2007.

The Classic Ferrari 250 GTO

Like all Museums, there is never enough time to cover everything in depth however I am very glad I had the opportunity to spend several hours just “drooling”!!!
Both sides, and across the road from the museum were business offering Ferrari test drives, tempted yes, but too expensive!!!!! Also, In the background was the Ferrari test track and the sound of V12’s roaring around was something to behold.
Whilst I was “filling my boots” with Ferrari nostalgia, Christine elected to clean up Rosie and take Sooty and Bella on a long walk. I can’t understand how anybody could pass up the opportunity to view so many wonderful cars, oh well it takes all sorts!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bock to Rosie by Mid Day just as it started to rain (again!). When we arrived in Maranello the previous afternoon we were fortunate to meet an official Ferrari Car Park attendant who told how to “manage (break!) The car park rules” and we parked/slept in the actual Ferrari Museum car park overnight, very handy for the visit next day, and it was free!!!!!

Anyway, we left as soon as I returned heading for Florence where we had identified an Italian Aires close to the city centre. We had thought of stopping in Bologna en route as there is history there as well but decided against it, we can’t do everything.
There are two possible routes to Florence from Maranello; Autostrada or conventional road, now I wanted to go conventional but after a discussion we went Autostrada and thank goodness we did as both routes have to traverse the Galvana mountain range which was very high and very steep. To make things worse, it rained cats and dogs all the way up, across the top, and half way down until we suddenly arrived back into sunshine.
Arrived in Florence, fighting our way through typical Italian City
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Traffic where the mighty “rule” and the timid get “left behind”, found our Aires only to find the barrier was down and no-one around to show us what to do or how to get in. After searching to no avail we decided to reverse back out of the entrance (into a busy road!!) and move on towards Pisa only to find for some Italian Car Driver stopped right behind us hooting his horn. Anyway this driver obviously had the necessary zapper as the barrier suddenly lifted so in we went. After circumnavigating the site we decided it was obviously not for us, insufficient room, so back to the exit barrier. We were hoping it would lift, and low and behold it did, so we were on our way again, this time heading to Pisa.
We left Florence for Pisa, (maybe return on our next sortie into Italy), back through the city traffic, onto the Autostrada and “wham”, full stop: Traffic everywhere until the local “fuzz” set up a diversion and we filtered around a “Spaghetti Junction” look-alike, wound our way past a service station that we couldn’t access, juggled to force our way from 5 lanes of traffic into 2 then eventually arriving back at the toll booths we entered the Autostrada through about 2 hours earlier, and had to pay €1.60 for the privilege, huh!!!!!!!!!!! By this time we were both ravenous so we stopped in a service station and enjoyed a Spaghetti Bolognaise waiting for the traffic to subside.
Looking across to the other side of the road, the traffic looked to have cleared as it was moving fast so we were off again. Of course to get to the other side of the duel carriageway, we had to foray back into Florence! Back on the Autostrada and through the toll booths for the second time and wham, wall to wall traffic, again and back to fighting for gaps as before, 5 lanes filtered down into 2!! Still we accomplished that and about 30 minutes later we were flying having past the remnants of an accident where by now the only tell tale were several huge 1 ton rolls of paper parked on the side on the road.

Tom-Tom did its job and we arrived right outside the camp site as planned about 1800hrs, booked in, parked up and straight out with Sooty and Bella to search for this leaning tower. Our original plan was to probably stop for 3 nights but learnt that their published tariff, €16, was just the starting point, we had to add on; per person, per dog; trailer etc etc., so rather than being ripped off we decided to leave the following day after we had done what we needed to be done in Pisa the following morning.
Back to the Camp site, a quick game of crib, shower and bed, ready for an early start visiting the various sites thenext day.

The Prancing Horse logo was granted to Enzo Ferrari from the family of an Italian Fighter “Ace” killed in the First World War, it always adorned his fighter ‘planes.

Registrar booked, Hotel booked, just need to do invites now, we are, all being well, getting Married on the 7th April 2013 at 4pm, we are so lucky, with Andrew giving us the venue etc., we are both getting so excited.

Having spent a lot of time on internet, we are leaving the camp site near Venice  tomorrow, and heading for the Farari Museum, needless to say Geoff is going on his own!

We have had a lovely time here, especially in Venice, and now looking forward to seeing Piza, we will probably not be on internet for some days, but we will be back.

We have just been chilling out this week, having really lazy days, hence no log, we are staying in Jesolo Di Lido until Monday, then moving on.

We are both very chuffed with all the messages of congratulations, and will let everyone know the date, we are looking at 7th April 2013 in Worcester, but waiting for confirmation.

View from the Ferry

Saturday 25^th August, a day I shall always remember! We had arranged for the dogs to go into kennels overnight, so the lady picked them up from the campsite at 10.00am, off they trotted with not a glance backwards; they obviously enjoyed their stay on Thursday

We did our 25km bike ride to the ferry again, parked, and just

Basillica

made the next boat, so we were in Venice by 11.00am, it was still very crowded, but we decided to do the Basillica di San Marco first. I queued whilst Geoff went and left his bag at left luggage.  I was still queuing when he returned, but apparently he had a ticket which allows us to enter without waiting, so we went to the front, straight in, and well the WOW Factor! Was just amazing, gold domes everywhere, the ceilings were covered with paintings, and surrounded with gold, you have to see it, to believe it.  We took photos (No photos allowed) but they do not really do the place justice.  We slowly walked around, but no amount of words could really describe the place, it was just sheer decadents.

Coffee time, and decide what was next, so we sat down in the square (St.Mark’s) we had been told that coffee was expensive here, but Geoff said it had to be done! One Tea, one coffee, and two pastries 26 Euros, the waiters had white jackets, black waistcoats, black trousers; they must have been sweltering in this heat. We watched the hordes of tourists, taking photos, and just milling around, another first.

Next stop was the Palazzo Ducale, I don’t do history, so needed to get this one out of the way, we queued but not for long, then paid, we asked for concession tickets, she looked at me and said two, which made my day!

Entering through the colonnaded court-yard you will see statues of Mars and Neptune, flanking the giant staircase, built for the dignitaries, climb the golden staircase, where gold leaf is everywhere, the ceilings are decorated with carved picture frames painted with gold, with so many different pictures, depicting different eras of history. They had a room with two huge globes, and maps on the walls showing what the empire used to look like, the accuracy of the maps and charts dated back to the 15^th century, was quite remarkable. We went down into the prison, where the condemned prisoners walked over the covered Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs).  Neither of us is into art, but we were both taken back by the place, difficult to describe, but it is a definite must if you go to Venice.

We were both starving by this point 3pm, so we found a place on one of the little back streets, and had a pleasant glass of wine, and shared one of the best pizzas we have ever had.  We sat next to another couple, (who came from Scotland) who had just done the gondola run, and they had been advised to go to Rialta to get one, so after lunch and an interesting discussion on whether Scotland should leave UK or not, we caught the water bus.

Geoff negotiated with the gondolier, and we stepped aboard, I was sitting in the wrong place, for the balance, so had to change, and once we got comfortable we were off, well it was amazing. We went under Rialta famous bridge, where we were told you kiss, and everything you wish for comes true, at this point Geoff proposed to me, I was just so surprised, he even had a ring, now how romantic is that, he said he would have gone onto his knees, but he had already been told to keep still, so will forgive him for that.  I was speechless, but I did manage to say YES, so party time soon.  We meandered through the waterways, going under tiny bridges, and having to stop when someone wanted to go by, a truly magical experience.

We made several calls to the family, only to find that Andrew already knew, as Geoff had asked him for his approval, (as my Dad was no longer with us). (Old fashioned bugger) whilst having a drink to toast the occasion, when ever that might be, not sure how we are going to fit everything into our busy schedule, but sure we will manage somehow.

We bought two pictures one of the bridges, and one of the routes, just as a reminder of our special day.

Back to Piazza San Marco, where we found a lovely restaurant to finish of the day, we both had fish, and to watch the waiter fillet them was skilful.

St.Mark’s Square at night

We then wondered around the square, by which time it was dark, and it was such a magical place to be, there were three different orchestra’s playing, one would stop another would start, street sellers, and hundreds of people just

Magical Venice

looking around.  I cannot really describe the day, but take it from me; it was one of the best days of my life. We meandered through the streets, found the ferry, and back on the bikes and home, it is funny not having the dogs with us.

Move day, so we left before breakfast, we are heading for Lido di Jesolo, which is a strip of land, with the Adriatic one side, and the Venice Lagoon the other; strangely enough there are no sites in Venice!

Venice

We arrived with minutes to spare to get booked in, before the office closed for two hours, so we were pleased about that, we sorted ourselves out, had some lunch, then went to check where the ferries go from, ready for the morning.  Good job we did as it is a 25km journey, to the end of the peninsular, thought we were never going to get there, anyway we timed it, and so we have a rough idea when to leave tomorrow.

Up early, we are both excited, I had this idea to see if we could find a dog sitter, so

Venice

tongue in cheek went to the office to ask, and to our amazement they do, so we arranged for them to be collected at 10am, the only problem was she had to drop them back at 6pm, so cheekily I asked if they could just put them in our motor-home, and the site owner said he would do it! So we were really chuffed, we were free for the day.

Gondolers on Grand Canal

On to the bikes, straight onto a ferry, and we have finally arrived in Venice, another place well worth the visit, I am pinching myself again, we are so lucky to be doing this.

We walked along the streets towards the Piazza San Marco,(St. Mark’s Square) then we heard that Mark, Paula and

Grand Canal

the girls were delayed, so we decided to catch the water bus, up the Grand Canal to the station, which is about a forty minute ride away, it was amazing, the sites.  Impossible though it seems, Venice is built on 117 small islands connected by 400 bridges over 150 canals, so plenty to see and enjoy.

Ashleigh and Tyla

We met at the station, and they only have two hours with us, so we were trying to decide what was best to do, so we caught another water bus to Piazza San Marco, this time it continued in a big circle, coming down the Canal Della Giudecca, so we saw yet more places. We had prime position at the bow, enough seats to be comfortable, so luck was on our side.

We walked into the Piazza, where you have the Basilica di San Marco, an amazing

St.Mark’s Square

building, we are going back on Saturday, and hopefully we will go inside then, the queues were vast, and we just did not have time. Next door to this is the Palazzo Ducale, we meandered around, down the little side streets, and back into the square, sadly we had to catch the water bus back

St.Mark’s Square

to the train station.  This time it was packed, but we found an ideal spot, to enable Tyla to take the photos, and everyone had a good view of the Grand Canal.

Sadly we said our farewells; we have had such a lovely time with them all, hopefully we will catch up again soon.  The train left and we went to catch the water bus again.  We wondered through the little streets, which was fascinating, we stopped for a drink in one of the squares, and watched everyone going by. We then continued, trying to find where the water bus left from, we saw the gondoliers winding around the tiny canals, with lots of little shops, mainly selling the Venetian glass, ice creams, and tiny restaurants.

To our surprise, we ended up in Piazza San Marco, so we were pleased that we had meandered so far, think we have seen most of the things to be seen, but we will still come back on Saturday for the cultural day, and for a ride on the gondoliers, it is such a lovely place, well worth the second visit.  We have arranged for the dogs to go into overnight kennels, so we can have a leisurely day and evening.