Day 13

Today was Pisa and pizza day! First we walked to the train station and jumped on a train for Pisa. It took just over an hour and when we got there we took a ten minute bus ride to the Leaning Tower. When you first walk in the gate the view is fantastic of the buildings in the courtyard. There are literally hundreds of people striking poses pretending to hold up the bell tower.

We lined up for our time to enter, got a quick intro to the bell tower, then ascended the spiral staircase. It was an interesting sensation to climb a staircase that constantly was shifting the direction in which you were forced to lean. At the top there were beautiful views of the

baptistry and cathedral. Plus they still had some of the old bells there. We only had a thirty minute window to see the tower, so afterwords we went into the cathedral. Like all the churches here, it was artistically designed and decorated. We grabbed some lunch then strolled through the streets back to the train station to head back to Florence. One funny story was when I found a geocache that happened to be a manhole cover. I had to take a picture of it but there was a man standing on it. So I asked him to move, and he looked at me strangely as I snapped a picture. He must've thought I was crazy taking a picture of a manhole cover when everyone else is taking pics of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

After we freshened up, we headed out to our meeting spot where we would be taking a pizza and gelato cooking class. Yesterday, we received an email saying that we were being upgraded from the class in Florence to the class that takes place in Chianti out in the Tuscan

countryside. Bonus!

It was a hot, sweaty, half-hour drive to the villa where the class was taking place. On the way there, a thunderstorm started. It was so good to smell and to absorb the freshness of the rain. It had been a long time since we had experienced a good rain. It also nicely cooled things off. The views from the hillside villa were spectacular. The pictures don't quite capture the amazingness of the passing storm, the rolling hills, or the perfect sunset.

For the class, we were taught how to make good dough. Not as easy as the chef made it look. We designed our own pizzas and they were delicious. We were also shown how to make fresh gelato and oh my goodness, that was the best gelato we've had yet. So creamy and smooth. The class was a lot of fun and the chef was entertaining.

We had a blast.