The tower

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Driving toward our destination, we could see the city in the distance with the top of the tower rising above. Due to congestion in the city, tour buses must park outside the city in a parking lot and the passengers then walk. When we pulled in, there were more than 15 buses already parked with others coming behind us. The walk to the tower city is about one mile winding through city streets. I am not sure just what I expected the Tower of Pisa to be but it was not what I expected. Other than the crowd, the first thing visible was the Baptistery and the Cathedral framed in a beautiful green lawn. We could see the Tower in the distance beyond the Cathedral. At our first clear view of the Tower, I experienced a slight chill. Before us was one of the wonders of the world that I never expected to see except in pictures. The Tower shining white in the afternoon sun and offset by the surrounding grass truly presented a picture moment. As usual, we were under a time constraint so we were not able to tour the cathedral. I would have liked to go to the top of the tower, but that won’t happen until they put in an elevator. I will leave that kind of a climb to those much younger than me.

After a few minutes to look in the shops, it back to the bus for our short ride back to the ship

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