Porto Marathon

After a somewhat leisurely two days in Barcelona it was a marathon of ports that lay ahead.

Our first stop on this race was in Marseille France. Apparently way back in antiquity Marseille was a Roman city, and the Romans built miles of aqueducts to supply the city with water. These were not the look alike arched trainways that the French have built to look like the Roman ones, but the real ones built by actual Romans centuries ago, and still standing.

To get there we boarded the familiar bus, driven by Marco (a familiar name for bus drivers) who are all praised as expert drivers by the guides. And all have been expert at driving huge busses on streets that look to narrow for a bus to pass, let alone two busses, a scooter and a car.

Roman Aqueduct

Our guide was very knowledgeable.  I thought her favorite word would be Walla, but she only said it twice and made big points by stopping at a rest stop for a water closet break, but then she lost points for saying that the water closets at the Pope Palace were clean, and they were not.

French Countryside at the Pope Palace

Our next stop on this marathon was the Italian Porto of Livorno, and from here we would visit Florence a city I have wanted to see for years, and a stop in Pisa for a snap shot of the leaning tower.

Florence is nowhere near Livorno, so it involved, yes another long bus ride, but Marco knew the way and off we went on the motor way through the Tuscany countryside.

Once in Florence we marched to the bus company’s brother in laws leather shop for a sale’s pitch before being turned loose for three hours.

You could spend days in Florence and not see the city, so three hours was just blur of statues, art, history, and lots of other tourists.

Even The Horses Are In A Hurry In Florence

The espresso was wonderful and lunch on the square was excellent, and time was to short there.

Art is still alive in this Renaissance City.

It was back on the bus for the ride to Pisa, and a snapshot of the Tower.

The Tower

 

One could pay a few Euros and climb to the top and look around from the town or one could pay a couple of Euros and enjoy a glass of wine while the masses jockey for the perfect tower photo…

Outside The Walled City Of Piza