Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 27: Tuesday, November 25, 2025 - Pisa, Italy

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: overcast, mid 50s
-  Steps: Linda: 12,798; Steve: 14,695

On the way back from breakfast at the World Café, we stopped by Guest Services to get some change for restrooms should it be needed. The representative had to open a brand new roll of €1 coins. Low and behold - more owl Euros!

Pisa, the third and last city we were in once before (in 2004).
The excursion began as most usually do: with a bus ride. Our guide was Silvia, and our driver was Andreas.
We began with about a half-hour bus ride with some interesting sights along the way.




Yesterday I finally got a picture of the menu at the golden arches. While I have captured a couple images off gas stations, I hadn't posted them for some reason. Until now. Here in Italy, the gas is about $6.33 per gallon as this €1.699 per liter has to be multiplied by 3.75 to equal a gallon.

Our route had us essentailly pass the town before we circled around to it.



Last time we visited Pisa, we rode a shuttle tram from the parking lot to the Square of Miracles (where the tower, basilica, and bapistry are located) - and the driver was selling his own CD. This time, we got some exercise as we walked from the lot.


The group arrived just outside the north entrance to the Square, and Silvia passed us off onto Michelle, a local guide.
We set off, passed through a gate, and found ourselves approaching the bapistry, with the cemetery and memorial to the left.


Generally I would have presented these in the order they were taken, but at least during the entry walk, I'm putting these together in order by structure.






After walking the sidewalk between the bapistry and basilica, we paused at the end near the ticket office.
We headed to the basilica. There is one pillar toward the right top of the basilica that is a different color. The story is that the pillar was stolen from another structure and installed here for some reason.







After approaching the basilica from the front, we headed around the far side of it, past the cemetary and memorial.


Near the small rear entrance to the prayer area.



Before turning the corner, this stone was pointed out. The image is NOT upside-down. Rather this is how it was installed - primarily because a vast majority of the population couldn't read when the church was built.

And then we came upon the leaning tower. It isn't so obvious from this angle, but trust me, it is...


We kept moving on to what will be the meeting point at the end of our free time - which was adjacent to a combined café and souvenir shop.




We were told that we were to meet back at this spot at 12:15 - about forty-five minutes from that moment - to make our way back to the bus.
The problem with the timing of this afternoon was that it didn't give us very much time on our own - something I don't normally say, especially considering there are moments when we say to each other "We have how much more time before we have to be ready to go?" In this instance, our guide took us to one of the corners of the square - but the ticket office to get into any of the main sites - bapistry, basilica, cemetary and memorial, or tower - and potentially do any shopping, we impacted by the fact that we were starting as far away from either ticket window than we possibly could have. This is important since even the free entries required time stamped tickets. So precious minutes were lost just walking to the ticket office. Fortunately, there was no line and we were able to get an instant ticket to the basilica. This too was important because entry windows were every half hour - if we weren't able to get into the basilica right away, we would have had to wait until noon - and then we would have only had fifteen minutes to visit the basilica AND get back to the meeting spot.
We began our walk to the ticket office and as we approached, I told Linda to catch up and keep going - I'll get the tickets. We got them for immediate entry and continued to the basilica entrance.

























































We didn't have enough time nor a ticket to get to another venue. So we used our remaining time to casually get back to the meeting spot via the leaning tower.
A "thing to do" with the tower - one that we did last time and again this time - is to try to get a picture of someone holding it up to keep it from "falling over". Mmm hmm.
I got Linda doing that - like last time.

Earlier in the visit, I got this one too (though the tower is far enough away that it is out of focus some).

We took a selfie too.

After paying a short visit to the souvenir store and using the facilities, we had a short wait with the group as everyone gathered. There was a courtyard near the meeting spot.

We headed outside the walled town, and the group was handed back off to Silvia.






There was one road - Via Aurelia - that was a long straight road. It was one of the original roads that went to Rome.
Another interesting characteristic of it is that adjacent to the road was a forest of umbrellas shaped trees called Mediterannean Pines. In Italy, pine is pino. The doll known as Pinocchio was made of pine. Also, The unbrella trees were so dense that the floor of the forrest underneath them was lightless - similar to the density of the trees in the Black Forest.


We were back onboard by 2:00 and stopped at the Living Room bar for a coffee on the way to our cabin.

We bode our time for a little, including hanging out in the atrium for some piano music, before it was time for dinner.
The Restaurant, table 53.

Linda had Escargot à La Bourguignonne, Grilled Octopus, and Chocolate Decadence.



I had Norwegian Fiskesuppe, Grilled Octopus, and Tiramisu Eclair.



After dinner, we took our wine to the atrium for some music from the ladies.

Tonight's entertainment was at 8:00, and in the Star Theater. The musical theme was A Night At The Opera (not the Queen album) with renowned guest performers David Righeschi and Alessandra Tanzi. This was not your Bugs Bunny opera either.
We aren't necessarily fans of opera, but we do know a little, and the previous performances have been good enough that we thought we'd give it a try anyway. And it was worth it.




I was able to capture a number of songs from the forty minute performance.

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