Day 3 - Pisa

If you thought the last two posts were long when we were only on the ship, buckle up because today we left the boat to see Pisa and the leaning tower! Our excursion was through Disney so we met in the theatre for an 8:15 departure and shockingly, we were on time!

We boarded the tour bus for the 30 min ride from the port city of Livorno to Pisa. Our guide, Mossimo, led our group from the bus parking area to the old city of Pisa. There were so many tour groups so it was difficult to keep track of which group we were in - especially with a double stroller! Luckily, we all had mini radios and ear pieces so we could hear our guide.

As we walked through the gates of the old city, the views of the tower, church, and baptismal building were spectacular. There is a large wall surrounding the old city so you really can’t see anything until you walk through the gate. The blue sky, green, spacious grassy area and beautiful architecture were breathtaking. We started with the baptismal building. The people of Pisa would be baptized when they were teenagers. They’d come in through the western entrance (because sunset is darkness), be fully submerged in the baptismal pool, and exit via the eastern entrance (sunset is light and they have seen the light of Christ). Every architectural element of the building contained religious elements. Twelve massive, marble pillars surrounded the baptismal pool and held up the dome in the circular building. The detailed carvings of the pulpit included the Christmas story and more.

We moved on to the church learned from our guide that the church was built first and was the largest church in the world when it was built. At one point a larger church was built elsewhere so the people of Pisa added on to it to reclaim the title of largest church. A fire in the 1500s destroyed much of art inside the building so “new” murals were added and are only a few hundred years old.

Lastly we moved on to the main event: the leaning tower. Originally built as four story bell tower, when it began to tilt, the architect was fired without pay and replaced. The next one attempted to fix it by making some of the pillars on the leaning side shorter than the other side. This just gave the tower a slight banana shape without really fixing the problem. As it turns out, the tower is just unfortunately built on two different soil types and the sandy soil can’t hold up the tower. Engineers from around the world have been brought into the stabilize the building to ensure it doesn’t topple and have straightened it by 1 degree which allowed for it to reopen to tours.

The kids did great during the tour. It was not necessarily a kids focused tour but they stayed engaged and enjoyed taking pictures to make it seem as though they were holding up the tower.

We returned to the ship a little after 1 pm, changed into our swimsuits and headed up to Cabana’s restaurant for the lunch buffet. We stopped to see Daisy Duck first who was in a fancy princess outfit. At lunch, the goal was to get the kids to eat something other than Mac and cheese. Liam found a delicious bow tie salmon pasta, Odin ate a salad, tired a mussel and fried rice. Keely and I tried a wide variety of things and were very pleased the chef’s special was a middle eastern spread. We weren’t as successful with other two. We ate outside on the back deck of the boat with great views of the harbor.

It was hot in Pisa and hot even in the shade at lunch so hopping in the pool felt great. We swam and the boys and I did the Aqua Duck ride again and just as Odin and I were exiting the ride, a huge crack of lightening crossed the sky. The pools closed so we grabbed an ice cream cone and headed down to change for dinner. As we were going downstairs, we saw Chip and Dale so the kids went to change and I waited in the very long line. We got pictures and finally remembered our autograph book. I took the kids to see a few more characters and take some other pictures at the various stations.

Dinner was at Royal Palace this evening. Ainsley wore her Anna dress and was once again greeted with a round of applause by the wait staff. Dinner was chaotic however. Whitaker had fallen asleep as we walked around seeing characters so they made a bed of chairs where he slept. Liam inhaled his Mac & cheese again and didn’t feel well so we rushed him back to the room where he rested and watched 101 Dalmatians while we finished dinner. Tonight was Ainsley’s turn to fall asleep at the table. We might be going a little too hard!

After dinner we picked up Liam and went back to the atrium to see Repunzel and a few other characters. Ainsley and I went outside to checkout the sunset and when we walked back in, Ariel walked by. She grabbed Ainsley’s hand and the two of them walked down the hallway of the ship chatting away about life Under the Sea. It was magical. To have special time with just Ariel put a huge smile on Ainsley’s face!

There was no major event tonight so we were able to get the kids to bed a bit earlier. The top bunk has been the desired sleeping spot so we asked our host staff to pull down the top bunk in both rooms tonight. Odin slept in our room and Liam slept in the kids room. Ainsley moved to the bottom bunk and couldn’t be more excited.

As we were looking at the schedule for tomorrow, we noticed the ventriloquist had an adults only show in an adults only lounge. Since the kids were fast asleep, we snuck out and explored a new part of the ship. The show was great and it was nice to have a little time without kids.

Tuesday is an early morning adventure into Rome. Our driver picks us up at 7:30 and then it’s a full day of touring Rome. Who needs sleep anyway? Certainly not the kids!