Treats, Exploring and a Leaning Building

The morning arrived and I grabbed for my phone.  Just like Denise reads my blog with her coffee, I like to enjoy my cup of coffee looking at the pictures that Stephen has sent.  The ship had arrived at the port and they took a train for their day of exploring.

They were roaming the streets of Florence, Italy. There always seems to be lots of interesting treats along the way.

The architecture in Italy is amazing.  

 

Florence was full of beautiful buildings and naked statues.  🫣

They arrived in The Square of Miracles. 

“the three structures found in the piazza have been considered central to religious life, symbolizing the main stages of a human life: the Baptistery represents birth, the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta life and the Camposanto, of course, alludes to death.”The Square of Miracles

This is where they found the famous leaning tower. 

“The construction of the Tower of Pisa dates back to1173. It fame is owed to its inclination, caused by the shifting ground in the subsoil and for this reason works were often interrupted throughout its construction. In 1275, the tower was enlarged with the addition of three levels while the belfry was added only in 1350. The Leaning Tower is 55 meters high and is inclined 5° southward. One has to climb up 294 steps to reach the top. Each of the levels has galleries and arcades except for the last one, where there are 7 bells. The tower was closed from 1990 to 2001 because of instability but is once again open today to visitors.” About the tower

I told them that needed to do the famous picture of holding the tower.  He sent me pictures of everyone else posing and said that he thought it was “played out.”  

He decided to do his own thing. They were staying there for the evening to walk up the 294 steps to the tower of Pisa to catch the sunset. 

They had over 30,000 steps by the time their day was done.

Let’s see how our day compares..

I made, as per Sarah’s request, a German pancake.  I sent a picture to the group chat.  

Stephen said that I need to make Baanofee Pie.  This was something that he tried in Italy and really liked it.  I may give it a whirl when they get back home.

We headed towards Bella Coola and wandered around a trail but it was a little confusing so we decided to give up on that hike.  I guess it is easier to find your way around Italy.

We found some stairs to climb to nowhere.  We didn’t count them but I’m sure that there weren’t 294.

We walked around the marina.  I’m not a fan walking over water especially when there are strange sounds under the dock.  We weren’t sure if it was sea lions or seals but they were active.  It was beautiful down there.

We bought a few groceries on the way home and then took the dogs for a walk.  Princess led the way.

 She is quite the dog and seems to know the neighborhood and is able to make any aggressive dog step back to allow us walk by.  Murphy picked up some bone along the way and I tried everything to get him to drop it.  The last thing we wanted was for Murphy to eat something and make him sick.  He carried it all the way home.  He had it clamped between his jaw so tight that we had to open his mouth and pull it out.  Just another thing we do for Stephen and Kylie.  Our life has gone to the dogs!!

Meanwhile Stephen and Kylie are spending the night at the port.

Oh and one more thing… Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Sens again!