John and I finally finished up in Taunton and got on the road for our flight to Pisa. John was there for work while I tagged along to use Italy as my jumping-off point for my travel. After cleaning up a lot of loose ends in Taunton and throwing a big party (which didn't go down well with my neighbors in the end), I spent the first few days in Italy working on my laptop, organizing address books, transferring files and finishing work email.
Our first day off was in Lucca, which was not so enthralling. A drive through the countryside proved exciting but not for sightseeing. Italy is really a little bit on the edge of the Western world. The driving is crazy and unpredictable, the infrastructure is dodgy and nothing quite works as well as it should. We figure Italy is really 'India-light'.
After John took off, I had one day in Pisa which was also not much fun: wickedly expensive, over-visited and not so interesting. Gazillions of people were trying to get a photo of themselves pushing over the leaning tower. Cute, 'cept for the cute part.
