Florence to Switzerland

Thursday 5^th May

Off to Pisa this morning.  Pisa was so incredible the leaning tower was so clean and pristine and it holds 7 bells in the tower.   The Italians have done a lot of work attempting to straighten up the tower before it fell down, but they only  straightened  it a metre as the locals were complaining that they would lose the tourists.

The church was lovely and of course the leaning tower is the bell tower of the church and there is also the Baptistery where all the babies are baptised.  This is the norm in Italy all the little villages have a baptistery for the baptisms as a separate building to the church. 

Then went through the Apuane alps where all the caracara marble is located. The Apuane alps are known all over the world for the precious marbles.  The various nature of stones - siliceous by the outside, and carbonatic in the centre, results in a dense vegetation together with empty spots. From the mediterranean underscrub covering the piedmontane strip opposite the sea, the landscape changes with oakwoods and mixed woods of hornbeam (often turned in chestnut-tree) to the beechwoods at 1000 m. of altitude The highest peaks do not host many trees. The rare prairies and the limestone cliffs host a rich flora of great interest.

The peculiarity of this mountainous range is the variety of the shape and form of its peaks. Here you can find endless veins of marble, spas and mineral water springs (known for their low salt content), streams, woods and numerous caves, including the largest and deepest (1210 m depth) cave in Europe called "Antro" of Mount Corchia.

To Lugano we were destined, this was to be our brief visit to Switzerland and it was a great.  This little town was a very expensive up market tourist town situated on a lovely lake.  We walked around this part of the lake and watched the cable car go up the side of the mountains that there were houses precariously perched upon.   We wandered around the shops for a wee while and brought a pretzel for himself and some handmade chocolate for herself, they were  lush.  Everything in this wee swiss village looked so nice and clean and very organised.  After a couple of hours we were whisked back out of Switzerland and back to Italy to the Lakes area.  We passed through the prealps on our way to Lake Como and Lake Maggiore.  Our hotel was situated right on the Lake Maggiore and we had a fabulous room with a balcony and a lovely view over the Lake, it was fantastic.  We have palled up with an Italian couple Domenic and Rena who are from WA and are great company, so at dinner we get on the vino.  Mamma Mia!