The Leaning Tower of Cheesa and the French Riviera

Piazza del Deumo, Pisa

Because the museums were closed in Florence on the one day we were in town, many members of our group resorted to drinking at little cafes and pubs. Needless to say, the next day on the bus we were one sorry looking group, most people were slumped against windows nursing hangovers and catching up on lost sleep. The good news was that our next destination is the darling of European beach towns, Nice. We were all looking forward to some relaxing beach time after 20 days of intensely populated cities and non-stop site seeing.

Our drive to Nice was picturesque as we cruised along the Mediterranean coast. We saw expansive fields with little farmhouses nestled between fence rows of tall, pointy cypress trees. After a few hours of driving we stopped in Tuscany at the ancient town of Pisa  to see for ourselves if the tower really does lean. We parked the bus and walked straight to the Piazza del Duomo where three historic buildings are located; The Baptistery, the Cathedral, and the Cathedral's famous free standing bell tower, more commonly known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Plaza is beautiful with a huge lawn of perfectly manicured grass.

The leaning tower of Pisa!

The tower began leaning before construction was even complete. The leaning is due to an inadequate foundation on ground that is too soft on one side to properly support the tower's weight. Construction of the tower happened in three stages over the course of 177 years. Rumor has it that Galileo dropped two cannonballs of different weights off the top of the tower to demonstrate that speed of descent is independent from mass.  Tourists have to stand on top of little fence posts in order to get good shots with the tower so in lines all up and down the main sidewalk were tourists of every race and religion awkwardly balancing on narrow fence posts, taking the same goofy shot "leaning" against the tower. Don't worry I got one too.

After seeing Pisa we crossed the border into France and began our drive along the French Riviera. We passed town after town of whitewashed buildings, stacked in tiers against the mountainside with the ocean glittering in the background. These coastal villages actually looked the way I had always pictured Greece, white and pristine with men unloading fish on the docks. We passed Monaco, a small country of it's own that is a famous get away for high-ballers with gambling addictions. Around 3 p.m. we pulled into Nice.

Nice, France

My first personal success story for Nice was tracking down an English library in the basement of a nearby church. I had finished all my books on the long bus ride and my kindle doesn't work well in sunlight. Seeing as how we had arrived at a beach town I was pretty desperate to find some beach-side reading material. I found the library easily and was able to trade in my massive copy of Game of Thrones for a Jane Austin Anthology. Over the course of the trip I was able to finish both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon and the entire following day worshiping the French sun Gods and swimming in the salty sea. Nice has a pebble beach so I was expecting small little pebbles. It should really be called a "boulder beach" these were the biggest pebbles I've ever experienced. It was nice not getting sand in all of our clothes but the pebbles were really painful to walk on barefoot and it was literally impossible to look graceful climbing in and out of the water. The water itself was crystal clear and so salty that you can float on your back without even moving your arms or legs. The beaches were crammed with topless old ladies and smiling kids devouring watermelons. There was so much watermelon being eaten on the beach that you could smell the sweet fruit all the way out in the water. As I swam further and further out to sea I hoped that sharks don't like watermelon.