Lucca and Pisa and Monterosso, oh my!

(**Disclaimer...while there was no tap wine, this blog was brought to you by house wine and should prove just as entertaining.)

We woke up this morning in Lucca. Actually, Chris went for a run on the walls and then woke us up around 8:30. Bender may have been moving fast but the rest of us were moving slow (no tap wine headache though! Yay!). Luckily, we were staying at a bed and breakfast and this showed up at our door. 

I could really, really get used to that. (Bender even let me have both espressos, he ran after all!) Our hotel was THE BEST! We were sad to leave, but it was time for our next adventure. We packed up all our stuff and headed out to the train station. (Check out the super cool door!)

Through the streets of Lucca, once again pulling out suitcases over the cobblestones :) The kids were barely awake. It was awesome.

So we got to the train station and I had a cappuccino and we made sure we knew where we were going. Lucca to Pisa is just a short train ride. But, in the meantime, Zoe and I visited the WC and found this.

'Um, WHAT? Zoe and I figured this must be the men's room...surely we made a mistake. Nope. This was the "toilet." Woah. Now, had I not had two espressos and a cappuccino, I may have walked away...let me just say, I'm glad I'm still stretching each week. Zoe was dry heaving and had to leave. Joyful. Did I mention that when we got on the train, there was a regular toilet? Yep.

I survived. Here's proof from the train. We arrived in Pisa and needed someplace to put our luggage while we visited the tower (1mile walk + luggage = unhappy kiddos). Luckily, for a few Euros, the Pisa train station was happy to oblige! 

And the Benderz were off to explore Pisa!

We crossed over the bridge and discovered that the two sides of the city were getting ready to do a giant tug of war tomorrow. It's part of a festival and the winner gets bragging rights. The thing they had to pull was huge and they recruit tons of people to participate...of course, this TOW contest has nothing on the battle between Mrs. Apolinario and Ms. Lyons classes at our fifth grade celebration.

Sshhh. Don't tell anyone, but I was actually more impressed with the Duomo than the Tower of Pisa. Not to be a buzz kill, but after the Eiffel Tower, this Tower seemed kind of puny. It was still super cool, and of course we took lots of pics! I can't wait to match the first one up with the one I took of her and Bender stunting in front of the Eiffel Tower. 

Cathedral di Pisa was gorgeous. We didn't go inside, but the outside was so very imposing. Beautiful!

We had tickets to climb the 250ish stairs to get to the top of the tower. So, there was a line involved...and some selfies with the tower.

Once inside there was a short presentation about the history of the Tower. Chris had already quizzed me on which methods engineers had used to try and fix it, so Zoe and I took another selfie.

Then the long walk up the stairs started. 250 stairs isn't even that many...except they were steep, and worn from use. We had to put on our game faces.

Once we were at the top, Zack and Zoe pretended to crush the people below. Good times.

From the top of the tower!

Then we headed back down. This was actually much trickier and super slippery! Zoe mentioned wanting to slide down on her bottom...and since I've been wearing flip flops since we left Florida, I really wasn't in any position to argue.

Then I took a #gatornationiseverywhere pic. Retweeted. By UF. Five minutes after I posted it. I love social media! Go Gators

Today's first Christmas card contender.

By this time, it was 1:30 and the kiddos were hungry...so we made our way back towards the train station to another Rick Steves recommendation.

Pan & Vino is the type of place that makes 6-8 dishes for lunch and that's that. Normally, that would not be something I'd be excited about, but the waitress was working hard and stuff smelled good, so we went for it.

Hello eggplant parm and yummy meat stuffed ravioli in crazy good sauce. I have no idea what kind of meat, and don't really want to know. It was so good. The kids had spaghetti and sauce that was incredible. We cleaned our plates, and drained our glasses.

And of course it was gelato time.

After lunch, we headed back to the train station and got our bags. We were only in Pisa for 3 hours and it was a totally doable side trip. Next was two more trains...

to get us to...

Talk about stepping off the train into a different world. I'd seen pictures and still wasn't prepared. I told Bender tonight, no pictures I take will do it justice...everyone just needs to come and experience it for themselves!

We have another contender!!

Seriously!?!?

We couldn't actually find our hotel when we arrived in the piazza. So the kids and I hung out with the luggage while Bender went a searching. While he was looking, our host Francesca walked up and asked if we were looking for Il Portico. She led us up some killer stairs that rivaled the Tower to this apartment. 

Yay a washer! We can wash clothes without visiting a laundromat!! 

The kids obviously we're both in good parts in their books. This is the view from our window! So glad we're here two nights!!

We got our suits on and headed to the beach. That heading down did include me falling down those killer stairs once and Zoe falling twice. She totally did it so I wouldn't feel bad. Killer stairs I tell you! No more shoes on those babies...bare feet all the way! We arrived at the beach (300 feet from our hotel) and after some nonsense about charging us 25 Euros to use the private beach, we found a nice spot on the public beach.

The water was C. O. L. D. Like Cayuga in April cold. My Florida kiddos were not so sure, but Bender convinced them.

L and Grandma B, be warned. Craziness is ahead. This is a picture of Zack, Zoe and Bender watching boys doing some simple cliff diving.

And there go Bender and Bender scurrying up the side of the cliff like mountain goats.

Yep. Bender senior. 

And Bender junior. Zoe watched from the sidelines but said she was thinking about it tomorrow.

Of course, she did do this. And many other crazy tricks. In our piazza is a trampoline where for 3 euros you can jump for five minutes. No waiver. No rules . Go for it. I have never in my life seen a man so happy to see someone leave as when Zoe's time was up. She tried back pikes, double fulls and everything else under the sun. We watched kids jump later on...they stayed in the center and did seat drops. 

The kiddos also found a playground.

We walked around the streets near our apartment for a few and took a few pictures...

...bought the necessities (water, wine and Coke),

(Have a Coke with Principe)

...and got dressed for dinner. They clean up nice, huh?

We headed to Via Veniti for dinner. Outside was full, so we were indoors for dinner tonight. Z & Z were silly from the start. And hungry. Which turned to hangry- which Zoe tried to tell me that Mrs Warkentine made up, but I'm pretty sure it's from a Snickers commercial.

This was the first course. Two (2!) kinds of gnocchi- one with pesto sauce, the other with prawns, and crazy good Brie and pear stuffed dumplings. Woah. Swordfish  (steak and plain pasta for the kiddos) for the main course, but I forgot to take a pic. It was done Monterosso style...with capers and olives and tomatoes. So. Much. Yum. 

It was delish, but 2.5 hours is a long time to eat dinner. Thank goodness our kiddos enjoy eating out! We actually had a nice couple from Minnesota/Miami approach us after dinner last night and tell us how impressed they were with our kids. They went so far as to say they were (gasp!) better behaved than their grandchildren. I do not brag on a regular basis about my kids (at least I don't think I do), but they have been amazing. We are paying them in European adventures (and gelato.)

After dinner, this almost 10-year-old, who hopes to earn a 10 someday had to take this pic. Complete with middle/high school pose. Oye. Thanks gym girls (we miss you!)

Gelato in the piazza ended the evening.

Kids are asleep, Bender is asleep, but the piazza outside my open window at 1:30am is still highly entertaining. I'm enjoying it all. It'll all be over way too soon. 

Happy weekend all! 

Ciao from Cinque Terre,

Benderz