Wednesday 6 Nov 2019

We woke to a thunderstorm in Florence and a lot of rain.

After a slow start I took one more photo of our amazing view from villa “On Top of the World” and then we set off for Le Spezia, our next destination, which is near the more familiar Cinque Terre.

Beautiful Firenze

Rob had planned the route so that we could visit Pisa on the way and see “Le Torre de Pisa”

Only about an hour from Florence, we had lots of rain on the way and once we arrived and parked it was apparent from the swollen and fast flowing Arno River, that Pisa had received a lot of rain the last few days.

The famous Tower of Pisa!

Of course we had to do the corny photo too! Mine turned out best. 🙂

The Tower of Pisa is actually the bell tower of the Cathedral and along with the Duomo and the Camposata comprise the area that make up the field of miracles as it is so called.

The Cathedral is dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta.

It really is an extraordinary sight, even for the beautiful Architecture but the tower has quite a lean to it.

Even more apparent when you get up close is how much it’s leaning! My next shot tries to show this but you may have to zoom in. On the left side of the pano shot there are one and a half blocks, on the right side, four and a half! Each block is about 50cm high so by my reckoning that’s 1.5 metres variation!

Walking back to the car we pass through Piazza Vittorio Emmanuel II which has a state of The first King of Italy, Vittorio Emmanuel, and another lovely arty sculpture.

Vittorio Emmanuel

Back in the car and heading to Le Spezia which is on the Coast we have storms chasing the mountains on our left all the way.

The next photo shows a mountain that is shaped like a caldera and as we got closer the sun broke through and a beautiful rainbow appeared.

We arrived Le Spezia around 5pm and after meeting our host Gianna and settling into our apartment for the next five days, the rain had cleared and we were able to have a walk through town. It’s a lovely place and we can’t wait to explore Le Spezia further and visit/hike Cinque Terre.