After lunch and sunbathing we decided that we had had enough of the narrow winding roads and followed signs to the Autostrada.  We arrived in Pisa at 4ish and followed signs to hotels, although we never found it.  We parked up after losing the signs and walked in the main tourist area – the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) in which one finds the Leaning Tower, the Duomo, the Baptistry and the Camposanto.  All of the buildings were started in the 11^th or 12^th centuries and form a neat square, around an immaculately kept grass lawn – walk on it at pain of death!  The buildings are magnificent but it is the lean on the tower that really captures the attention.  It is hard to believe that it is still standing at that angle.  Closer inspection at the base of the tower shows the lengths to which the authorities are going in an attempt to keep their famous monument in an almost upright position.  A huge belt has been placed around the girth of the tower part way up – Fred says that this is to prevent the tower kinking like a straw and breaking in two.  Thousands of tonnes of lead has been stacked on the side opposite to the lean.  There was also evidence of earth boring.  We had a good wander around ( unfortunately, you aren’t allowed up the tower anymore for safety reasons.) and took many photos before ambling back to the car. 

We decided that we had probably seen most of what Pisa had to offer (as we’d parked someway from the centre and walked through the quiet streets past old University buildings and the botanic gardens (closed)), so we set off for Florence (Firenze).  We thought that we would probably have to find a hotel in Florence and attempted to follow signs which lead us fairly close to the centre, where we discovered a carpark containing a large number of motorhomes already parked up for the night.  We had a mini tour past the bus and train station, while attempting to find the entrance to the carpark.  We got there in the end.  We wandered into the main area to sample Florence by night, find a bite to eat and suss out where we wanted to see by daylight.