Apart from kids tooting horns at 1:00 it was a quiet night. It's a slow drive back through town and into Rapello to refuel, where we are served by a very cheerful pump attendant.
We're having another Autostrada drive today to Pisa. Snoopy says 2 hrs 14 min by toll, but 5 hrs 36 min if we twist along the coast and through the towns.
The journey starts with lots more tunnels through towering mountains. Away to the north we can see quite a few still covered in snow. Gradually the mountains change from sharp peak to softer, rounded ranges and we gently descend into a wide valley with a rocky river alongside the road.
We use a motorway MoHo service point although the water filler is very slow, then have an easy ride into Pisa. Toll fee €14.10 for 78 miles.
The first parking on our list doesn't look that good so we reroute to the official aire, which is monitored with a fee. So be it. The office is closed until 16:00 so we park and go into town, about a 30 minute walk without a single signpost to one of the world's most famous landmarks. As we turn into one street we can see the outline of the cathedral, and to one side, the top of the tower, leaning as promised.
We weave around the anti-terrorist barriers and through the city walls into the Campo dei Miracoli [field of miracles], and there is the famous faulty phallus in all its glory. Never mind all the photos we've seen before, the extent of its lean is really quite startling. The base sinks deep into the ground on one side and the whole structiure is only prevented from falling over by successive tourists striking the pose of leaning in to hold it up.
While people of every nationality mill around peacefully, armed guards standing at the base are a reminder of the precautions necessay in current times.
Afternoon sun and blue sky really makes the colours and shadows of the structure stand out. The tower, started in 1173, began to lean even as it was being built and the fifth level is actually wedge sectioned to try and correct it. Today it is nearly 18ft off vertical. One day it may well become a famous pile of rubble, though for now one of the wonders of the world lives up to its billing. But whadda mistaka da maka!
The tower was intended to be the bell tower for the baptistry, started in the 1060s Similar in style to the one in Florence the coloured marble glows in the sunshine. The facade features colourful friezes and massive bronze doors with Biblical scenes cast in relief. Notices advertise tickets for admission but, knowing their consideration for wheelchairs, we saunter up the ramp and are invited in free of charge.
Inside there are the usual columns and decorated ceilings, but along the side walls is a series of massive [12ft or 15ft square] paintings by some of the grand masters. The alter has a huge mosaic of Christ in Majesty and a bronze, marble and glass tomb with dried corpse [we don't know whose]. Everything is highly decorated with marble and carving, but none of the almost crude 'bling' we saw in Spanish cathedrals.
We cross the path to the Duomo, apperently very plain inside but look closely and there is a lot of fine detailing in the stonework.
Visitors are still holding the tower up with their flat hands when we leave the Campo and head for the river. On the way we pass some of Pisa's universities and outside one a graduation party is underway. Mortarboards protect the graduates' heads from flying prosecco corks and everyone seems happy.
By the river it is typically Tuscan; green and ochre plasterwork, shutters, big doors and leaded glass.
Turning into Borgo Stretto it goes quieter. Arcades hide little shops, leatherwork, Sherlock Holmes Pipe Shop, wine tasting and the famous Salza cake shop, giving Pisans their sugar fixes since 1898
Our shopping for the day is less glamourous - a dash around an enormous Carrefour on the way back to the aire. The warden is in his office and tells us Blue Badge holders have the first night free and second half price.
Back in the van Ali cooks pasta, pesto and garlic bread.
Absolutely top day!