We woke up in Portofino and had breakfast on our terrace. It was such a pretty view out to the Ligurian Sea. We walked around the hotel and explored the pool. The beach area at most hotels won't open until Mid to Late May. Because it's still pretty cold here.
We loaded up the car again and drove about an hour to Pisa. I found an app called Wonders of the World and downloaded the Pisa walking tour. We found a parking spot and walked to the Square of Miracles. This is where the Tower of Pisa is located. There is also a Cathedral, a Baptistry and 2 museums. One is a cemetery. I read somewhere the Cathedral is prettier than the one in Florence. I'll get back to you on my opinion of that.
The square is surrounded by a high wall that you can walk on like soldiers would do. The wall is the reason the tower and the church have been so well protected. The square has never been attacked. The Cathedral is said to have the vase that Jesus used to change water into wine.
The Tower is really pretty in person. It's not quite as tall as I expected but its radius it much larger than it appears. We decided not to climb to the top. The line was also very long. The square overall is very beautiful. I would not skip on seeing this place.
After we toured all the sites, we got back to the car and started our drive to Lucca. The drive was about an hour. We got a little lost trying to find the villa. Once we arrived we met the property manager and she showed us around. The villa is huge. It has 3 floors, 3 kitchens, a secret room, mutiple staircases and a servants floor and it's FREEZING! After a couple of hours we realize the heat is not working. Then we notice there is not any hot water. We call the property manager and she comes back and determines the furnace is not heating the water. The landscape person calls and tries to walk Gabe through fixing it. He isn't able to. So we have to sleep in this huge freezing house. We get all the blankets we can. Andrew slept in front of the fireplace with the fire going. We wake up super early to let the repair people in to fix the heater. Ultimately, we decide to move to another house in Lucca. Gabe gets in touch with the property owners and they get it ready for us quick. What an adventure!Read more