July 13, 2011 -- Today we were off to Pisa by train. Francesco and I spent the morning working on one of his telescopes and fooling around with one of his computers. The challenge is make his "wireless connection" work -- but we did succeed.

At around noon, we boarded a train for Pisa. It takes about an hour and a quarter. Once there, we found the Tourist Information Desk and got a map of the city. It was about a 35 minute walk to the Tower and Duomo area of the city. The construction took place over a period of 177 years and began in 1173! It's a beautiful structure made mostly of white marble. It is the bell tower for the Cathedral which is located nearby.

Pisa is a beautiful city with lots of nice shops and restaurants. The river Arno runs prominently through the center of town -- and it was busy with boat traffic and other forms of commerce.

On our way back to the train station, Linda and I stopped at a cyber cafe for a quick fix of email and Facebook. We also found a delightful falafel shop and enjoyed a bit of lunch. Tomorrow we "may" go to Sienna or Montealcino. In a couple of days we'll be off to Florence, Venice and points north -- but that's a blog entry for another day.....

More to come..