How much rain?

Honestly, how much rain can one country have? In the 8 days we have been in Italy it has rained everyday, and mostly that's been heavy thunderstorms resulting in flash flooding, poor driving conditions, and disturbed nights sleeps all around. So we all slept OK free camping on the Aire/Sosta in the Port de Pisa until another storm started last night. Most of the night was then spent snoozing rather than proper sleeping as we were woken regularly by thunder and lightning. We were all awake by 7:30 am, so we had an early breakfast. Jasper and Maya got dressed after the scaldy wash, I washed my hair and we even had a SOMAD session of Numeracy before leaving for Pisa at 9am. We quickly located diesel, negotiated the odd payment system, (every petrol station so far in Italy is self service) and then found a parking space in a blue zone, which means you have to pay to park. Although the fee is stated per hour, you can actually put any amount of money in the meter and it calculates how long you can park for. So we had nearly 2 hours with our 2€. We walked along the streets of Pisa, not really knowing where we were going. Surprisingly the leaning tower isn't that obvious once you are in the city; it's well hidden by other buildings. Once we got to the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles), the Torre Pendant (leaning tower), Duomo (cathedral) and Baptistry were all free to see from the outside, but you had to pay to enter each building. The whole area was very pleasing to the eye, but the threat of rain was ever present, as were the street vendors selling tourist tat. To enter the tower, you had to be aged 8+. Jasper's 8th birthday is in a few days time!!! So armed with a passport, Ed spoke nicely to the ticket seller and persuaded her to let him up! A pre birthday treat! Maya and I stayed at the bottom and watched from below. It really is an amazing site to see, I'm so glad we've seen it for real. The tower is an impressive structure in its own right, but the lean on it is amazing! According to one book, recent engineering work has reduced the tower's tilt to approximately 4.12 metres! Ed and Jasper took plenty of photos from the top, so we didn't really miss out too much. We took the obligatory photos of us pushing it straight and some of us pushing it over. As we returned to the van, we found a shop and stocked up before heading off in more rain for our next stop over, an Aire by the seaside. I'm not holding out for a day on the beach though as I expect it will rain. Again! Oh for a dry day!

Clare

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