Spanish Steps

Why does everything in Italy have to be under construction? Check out the scaffolding at the top of the steps. Everywhere there are renovations and restorations. They really know how to protect their heritage spots. Hmmm. Can we say the same thing about our country. Oh-oh.

We left our tripod at the hotel. Imagine that. We lugged it along only to leave it at our hotel everytime. I guess next time, it's 'stay in Manila' for our tripods. And yes, we also brought along a mini-tripod which we also leave behind each time. So that explains the extended arm photographs. You can't trust the gypsies around these parts. They'll run away with your camera!

I'm getting pretty good at this!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

At the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Barbara and I left our flat in Florence and took a 1 hour train ride to Pisa. The Italian at our hotel gave us a 'local' route in order to avoid the 'tourist' stop at Pisa. By taking this route we were able to arrive much closer to Pisa thereby avoiding the 1.6 km walk along the tourist traps. The train stop was definitely oblivious. It was in the middle of nowhere! Imagine our fright when we stepped out of our train cabin smack in the middle of unmarked warehouses. It took us a good five minutes to get our bearings. Taking a deep breath and our (gulp) slim chances, we walked towards what looked like an exit. We then saw a couple of locals and asked for directions. We were relieved to find out that the leaning tower of Pisa was just a couple of blocks away. Whew!


The tower was amazing. Not quite the way I remembered it to be. We immediately approached the tower and took 'support' photos. As you can see, we were both a bit off with our shots. Anyway, that little bit of help from us should keep the tower upright for the next hundred years.

Three Coins in the Fountain

June 2006
Italy, Trevi Fountain
It took Barbs and I around 60 minutes walk around sites in the city, to get to Trevi Fountain. We decided to do a walking day trip around the city of Rome. That was a real ordeal. Barbara was ~ three months pregnant at that time.
Sixteen years ago, in 1990, I went on an Insight tour to Europe. The Trevi Fountain was under repair and was bone dry. It's a good thing that we were finally able to properly throw three coins into the fountain. Back then, I threw three coins into the dry fountain ... facing forward. How wrong was that?
We hope to return to this spot very soon!