I spent a lot of this weekend climbing up and down important things. I went to Pisa (again) with Allie, to meet Giorgio there since we stayed in Castiglioncello with my family for a night. Last time I was in Pisa it was pouring rain and too foggy to go up the tower, so Allie and I made the trek on Saturday. You could literally feel the entire building tilting to one side as you climbed up - I had to grab hold of the walls to keep from feeling like I might fall over! The stairs, like everywhere in Italy it seems, were skinny and slippery stone steps that wound up and up and up to the top. The view from there was great, looking down on all the tourists on the lawns surrounding the huge Pisa Duomo and its Baptistry. Giorgio waited for us at the bottom with our backpack and purses, and then we left for the half-hour ride home to Castiglioncello along the coast. It was awesome to see these views for a second time in the beginnings of spring - the coastline was clear and the water was a turquoise color not unlike the Caribbean. Blue skies and seagulls overhead, and it was perfect. Back at the house, Stefania had prepared us tea and cookies for a snack and then we all headed out to explore some other towns around theirs. They took us to the house in Riparbella that my great grandfather built (Grandma Wood's father) with the help of Stefania father. Dahlia (her sister) and Stefania grew up there, taking a bus to school in a town nearby called Cecina. The house is perched on a tiny hill in the small village-town, complete with a little elderly neighbor who came by to hand Stefania fresh eggs from the woman's chickens while we were there. I poked around the small house, which is closed up for the winter because Stefania and Giorgio live there during the summer, and found photos of my long-ago relatives along with a room full of trophies from my fourth-cousin Matteo's sailing competitions. Stefania even pulled out some photos of my Grandma and Grandpa sitting in these very rooms when they visited years ago. It was cool to think that my own family had built this house and passed it on for so many decades. I will definitely be coming back with Sheena when she visits, and hopefully sometime again in the far future. So much history!
They then took us to a chocolate festival in Cecina before dinner (where of course Stefania and Dahlia HAD to buy us candy) and into a town called Vada, for dinner. The restaurant was lively with kids running around, and Giorgio ordered every antipasto on the menu to make a slew of appetizers into a long meal. We each got a pizza, too, and they laughed when Allie and I asked to take our leftovers home. They just don't do the boxing food thing here I guess!
I've got to take a study break now, but be back on later to post some more from the weekend!
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