She says: This morning, we docked in Livorno, Italy's gateway to Florence and Pisa. With Matt's aversion to museums and the fact that Florence is at least two hours away, we decided to save Michaelangelo's David and the works by the rest of the Ninja Turtles for a future visit.

We hadn't heard great things about the city of Pisa, but wanted to see the Leaning Tower, so hopped the shuttle bus, a city bus, then ran to board the train. All in all, the 20 k into Pisa took us about an hour and a half. We regretted not simply booking a tour guide.

However, once we arrived to Pisa Centrale, good ol' Rick Steves kicked us into high gear. We did a one hour walking your through Pisa using my Kindle and were pleasantly surprised at the town. Rick never steers you wrong.

As has become a pattern this trip, we walked, sweated, drank nearly our weight in water and have not yet needed to stop to use the washroom. It's an interesting exercise regimen.

We stopped and powered up halfway to the Leaning Tower and Field of Miracles at a Rick-ommended gelato shop. Oh. My. Gelato. It was the best gelato/ice cream/sherbet I've ever eaten. Bar none. I had green apple, pineapple and cherry and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Matt had cookies, chocolate and strachiatelli and in huge praise, declared it superior to Ben & Jerry's. We are going to try to find our way back on that route so we can get another "coppa" before we head back.

Our walk through Pisa was charming, with interesting architecture, a bridge that (apparently) resembles Venice, an awesome Keith Haring mural and a really grumpy street violinist.

We finally reached the Field of Miracles and the Leaning Tower, as well as the throngs of tourists and accompanying booths of crap. After our lovely, peaceful walk, it felt like a little much. We wanted to climb the eight story tower, but there was a four hour wait. Instead we wandered and took photos of the other tourists lined up along fences (the grass on the field of miracles is carefully guarded for done reason) as they did their best to hold up the perpetually leaning tower.

We also visited the Baptistery, which has incredible acoustics, as demonstrated by the security guards every half hour. We gathered to hear one sing a few notes that then harmonized with her other notes. It was mesmerizing. At the end, Matt, needing his moment in the spotlight, sung "Grazie".

We just spent an entire delicious lunch on our respective devices (again). This is the problem with having wifi sporadically, we spend almost all of our meals off the ship silently tapping away at our phones. It's very romantic.