On this morning we mounted up on the tour bus to head for the township of Pisa (population about 90,000) to see, of course the leaning tower of pizzas. Yes, let's get the hoary old jokes out of the way as we take a photo of ourselves appearing to hold the tower up to add to the 140 million other ones. If a tour bus drops you in the Piazza dei Miracoli (the square in which the bell tower (for that's what it is) stands next to a cathedral and baptistery), you probably won't have any appreciation of Pisa as an ocean-faring town. However in reality it sits on the mouth of the Arno river, less than 10km from the ocean, and it was prior to the 13th century one of the major maritime republics of the Italian peninsula. Naturally, we saw none of this because hey, Leaning Tower Of Pizzas! Geddit? Geddit? That's all you want to see, right? Bucket list, baby!

Consequently I'd like to return some day and see the town properly, and spend a day or two there.

Pisa is the centre of its own province (PI), one of 10 in Toscana.

Just before lunch we piled back into the coach and headed for the Vicchiomaggio Winery in the the area of Greve in Chianti (a municipality and town of around 14,000 people) for a most excellent lunch in most excellent surroundings. Before 1972 this was just known as Greve, but when it incorporated the Chianti wine lands the name was changed. Administratively the area falls under the province (actually metropolitan city) of Firenze (FI).