We were very excited today about being in the front seat on the bus! We've been rotating seats, and it's our turn today to be in the front seat behind our driver, Jean-Claude. We had our breakfast at 7am... the "usual" of cold cuts, hard boiled eggs, cold cereal, and coffee. They had the red orange juice as well, which just looks a little strange to me still!
We boarded our bus at 7:30am to drive to Pisa.
Chiara pointed out a sign for Pinocchio Park, in Montecatini. The author of Pinocchio was born there, and they have a little children's park named after Pinocchio. We arrived in Pisa at 8:30am, and took a little "Tschu-Tschu" or "trenino" (choo-choo train) to the Piazza del duorno, also called Piazza del miracolo (Square of Miracles).
There was a cathedral in the center of the square, and the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was actually built to be the belfry for the cathedral.
The Tower construction began in the late 1100's, but wasn't finished until the 1400's. Four years after it was completed, it started showing signs of damage and began leaning. It was closed to people for 10 years, and reopened again in 2000. A lot of work has been done to stabilize it and make it safe.
It's possible to go up to the top, but we were satisfied just to admire the outside.
We had about an hour and a half of free time in Pisa, so we decided to get some more of the delicious Italian Cappuccino and we had a pastry with ricotta cheese inside. The pastry was scrumptious, and only .80 Euros!
We sat in the shade for a bit, and used the "toilets" for the low price of .30 euros. We walked back to our "trenino" at 10:15am, and rode back to our beloved air conditioned bus. We had another beautiful, sunny day. The temperature was only 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit) at 10:30am.
We got to Lugano at 3:30pm, and had 1 and 1/2 hours of free time. Bryan and I walked around part of Lake Lugano on the very nice promenade.
We saw many beautiful flowers, pigeons, and several swans.
Switzerland is very clean, and everything looked well maintained. 
We saw this tight-rope walker practicing in the park. 
At 5:00pm, we reboarded our bus to drive to our Hotel Hirschen, in Lucerne. It was very interesting to learn that Lugano and the region it is in speaks Italian. Lucerne speaks German, and other parts of Switzerland speak French. Chiara said that most, if not all residents of Switzerland can speak all three languages!
There was a cathedral in the center of the square, and the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was actually built to be the belfry for the cathedral.
The Tower construction began in the late 1100's, but wasn't finished until the 1400's. Four years after it was completed, it started showing signs of damage and began leaning. It was closed to people for 10 years, and reopened again in 2000. A lot of work has been done to stabilize it and make it safe.
It's possible to go up to the top, but we were satisfied just to admire the outside.
We had about an hour and a half of free time in Pisa, so we decided to get some more of the delicious Italian Cappuccino and we had a pastry with ricotta cheese inside. The pastry was scrumptious, and only .80 Euros!
We sat in the shade for a bit, and used the "toilets" for the low price of .30 euros. We walked back to our "trenino" at 10:15am, and rode back to our beloved air conditioned bus. We had another beautiful, sunny day. The temperature was only 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit) at 10:30am.
We boarded our bus and drove about two hours to a rest stop near Parma to have our lunch. On the way, we passed the Barilla pasta factory. Chiara said it's the best pasta brand in Italy. We also drove by the Carrera Marble caves, the same ones where Michelangelo would go to get his white marble for his sculptures.
We had tortellini and penne pasta for lunch. We then began our drive to Switzerland to Lugano, on Lake Lugano.
We got to Lugano at 3:30pm, and had 1 and 1/2 hours of free time. Bryan and I walked around part of Lake Lugano on the very nice promenade.
We saw many beautiful flowers, pigeons, and several swans.
Switzerland is very clean, and everything looked well maintained. 
We saw this tight-rope walker practicing in the park. 
At 5:00pm, we reboarded our bus to drive to our Hotel Hirschen, in Lucerne. It was very interesting to learn that Lugano and the region it is in speaks Italian. Lucerne speaks German, and other parts of Switzerland speak French. Chiara said that most, if not all residents of Switzerland can speak all three languages!We ran into some traffic on our way, and ended up arriving at our hotel around 7:45pm. we drove through a tunnel on the way that was 17km long!
Dinner was included at Hotel Hirschen. We've learned that when Chiara says that a hotel is "characteristic" of the area, it's probably going to be without air conditioning! The room was small, but clean, and we could open the windows to get a breeze. Our dinner was soup, fettuccine with creamy chicken sauce, squash, and turnips. Dessert was some delicious ice cream cake.
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