Pisa, snow, more soccer

As I type this, it is snowing gently outside. The boys spent the morning (in between lessons!) gazing out the window and then sticking their heads out to catch the snowflakes in their mouths!! We’ve decided to put our Rome trip “on ice” (ha! ha!) for a few weeks until the weather clears up. Home-schooling is good fun (if there are no distractions!) but it is also a challenge. Robbie told me this morning (after I thought that I had competently explained something) that he “would rather do it the old-fashioned way, thanks”! On Saturday the sun shone brightly so we decided to go to Pisa (about 90 minutes from Prato). Our response to our first sight of the Leaning Tower delighted our taxi driver! It is spectacular. As you can see in the photo, I tried to straighten it (like every other dopey tourist)! The “Field of Miracles” is home to the tower, Italy’s largest baptistery and yet another stunning cathedral. After lunch, we took a ride around the old town on a 4-wheeler “bike” (quadcycle?), going the wrong way down one-ways and generally causing a bit of havoc on the roads (getting our own back). A gelato later (by now a daily occurrence), on our way home on the train, we took a family ‘vote’ (3-0, with 1 abstention) and decided to drop by the soccer stadium (of all places!) and chance our luck for tickets to the big match: Fiorentina/Juventus (according to Wikipedia, Juventus is Italy’s most successful soccer team ever). We managed to get great seats and I must admit, the crowd, the atmosphere and of course, the soccer was incredible. The stadium was a haze of purple, red and white and the chanting was deafening. I was entertained by the “older lady” behind us who yelled the entire match, “Madonna, Madonna, Mama Mia @#$%”. After a wonderful day, we trained back to Prato: happy, weary, a bit down-heartened (Fiorentina lost 2-1) and slightly deaf!! Another tough day in Toscana...