Sunday, June 17, 2012

Travel Adventure to Pisa - Part 1

Well, we did it!!! We put our faith in our trusty GPS, and headed to Pisa on our own! Something we should have done a lot earlier, and a lot more often. I guess we'll know for our continuing adventures in Germany, right? No more bus trips!!!! We can do this! Thomas programmed our trip and found us secured parking practically right across the street! Starting when we want, doing what we want, coming home when we want - no more waiting, waiting, waiting on other people or boring tour guides - yay!!! You will probably want to click on the photos to enlarge them; there's lots to see!

So here we are in Pisa!
Gate into the Piazza Del Duomo
As you can see, it was a gorgeous day!
Map
The Baptistry
The reason many of these were separate buildings from the churches, was because unbaptized persons were not allowed into the church, even babies! Once baptized, you could enter.

There were TONS of souvenir vendors lined up here.

Thomas & Bella

Duomo and the Bell Tower (aka The Leaning Tower!)

Bella holding up the tower...sort of, lol!

Thomas doing a better job of it!

Catching it???

One of the museums

The tower is just so cool!!!

Eastern side of the Duomo

Cute Snoopy shirt!

Fontana Dei Putti
From this angle, it looks straight!

Southern View

 Photos on the Duomo restoration:
St. Ranieri Door
Patron Saint of Pisa
The only original door to survive the fire of 1595.
One of my favorite shots of the day!

Ahhh some shade! It was pretty HOT!

Bella with her lemon gelato!

My sweeties!

Camposanto Monumentale
Provides proper burial grounds for the tombs that had previously been set against the Cathedral grounds or adjacent areas. Only the most prominent Pisans are buried here.

A quick shot into the Camposanto.
We didn't have tickets for this, but I got one shot in!

Etruscan lion

Main Door
Incredible carved marble!

 Tiled mosaics
Lots more to see in Part 2!!
Inside the Duomo!!!

11 comments:

Cassie said...

You've really gotten to see and do so much by living over there, Jeannie! These pictures are amazing, and I sort of feel like I'm living vicariously through you since we'll probably never leave Ft. Benning ;)

Rita said...

It had to be so much more fun to just travel on your own and be able to come and go as you pleased and spend time where you wanted and for however long you wanted--hurray! Yes, that's the way you should see Germany!! ;) Great pictures!

Unknown said...

such awesome architecture! and did Bella get the cute snoopy shirt? Love how she is catching the tower. LOL pretty funny!

AliceKay said...

I agree...awesome architecture. So amazing what was built long before modern construction equipment was ever invented. You have lots of fantastic shots in this group.

Shoshi said...

Thank you so much for our wonderful virtual tour of Pisa, Jeannie! I thoroughly enjoyed it! One tends to think Pisa = Leaning Tower, but there's so much more! What beautiful architecture everywhere, and it was great seeing little Bella enjoying herself so much! What a brilliant trip!

Thanks for your comment - yes, there's always something with computers, isn't there. I'm happy to say that with your comment, I have now caught up with my comment backlog, and comments are now visible again on Firefox, so let's hope things go on smoothly now, at least for a while!!

Shoshi

Heatherlyn said...

So gorgeous! You took so many pictures and I love them all! The artistic detail on the buildings is amazing and I'm so glad you shared so many pictures of it. I'm also so glad you have discovered that you can do these trips without a bus tour. That will make them so much more less stressful!! :)

joe tacoma said...

The doors!

Jen said...

gorgeous pictures! looks like you all had blast. Love Thomas' hat! I live in Green Bay and it's always cool to see Packer apparel around the globe. :)

Jenny

peggy aplSEEDS said...

lovely pictures, i have been to Pisa and have those holding up the tower pics so it's nice to remember through your post. thanks for sharing!

fairy thoughts said...

I see you went ot pisa after my handyman (husband) straightened it ... see my post this week on WOYWW #11
janet

Intense Guy said...

Ah.. I got to read these in order! Disregard my previous comment (in part 2)!

Looks like you had an awesome trip.