Monday morning

Well, we had a full day yesterday.  Long drive with a stop at Pisa and another couple of "pit" stops, and a winery.  We had lunch at the winery, which was a family owned place that also made olive oil.  We saw huge refrigerated vats..with bubbling water at the base.  I wondered why the water, and I was told that fermentation releases gas and this iras two fold use.  First to prevent air going back into the tank, and secondly to see that in fact fermentation is occurring.  The refrigeration keeps the tank at 20 degrees C because there is a tendency with fermentation for temperature to increase to such an extent that fermentation will stop as yeast will be killed. Interesting.  We had a great lunch, with appys of bruschetta then pasta, followed by biscotti to,be dipped in what they called a sweet wine, and which I would say was more like brandy.  Most enjoyable and of course lots of free wine of different sorts.  The bus was quiet after the lunch as everyone slept, full tummies and lots of wine. "The economy in Italy is the pits.  UI for people 18 to 25 is reported to be 40% but probably is much higher.  Everywhere we go there are Blacks from Africa mainly Senegal and Nigeria selling purses, umbrellas, sun glasses, etc.  They are illegal immigrants who receive 30 euros each day from the Government who cannot afford it.  If they sell anything on the street, they can be put in jail for 2 days and then they are out and sell again.  There arenot enough jails to take care of them.

We were really expecting a good tour to Florence and Pisa but the 10.5 hour tour proved to be the worse we have experienced.  All the others have been excellent.  The drive to Florence was 2.5 hours.  Our guide kept telling about all the fine restaurants and shops in Florence.  The most significant information she gave us was that Italy needs to have more rich Americans come and spend money to improve the economy.  The only viable business is tourism. Along the way, we saw a great deal of agriculture land growing vegetables and grapes.  Many of the factories are closed.  In 1966 Florencehad a flood and the river rose over 24 feet covering the main square with water to a level of 12 feet and all the shops were ruined.  We had a local guide take us around Florence for 1 hour.   Then we had 3.5 hours of free time hoping we would shop.  What a drag!  We then drove to Pisa to view the Leaning Tower and the main square.  The Leaning Tower is a lovely white building which has been restored many times because it is an important tourist attraction, to keep it from falling over. All in all, we had the guide guiding us for only 1 hour in a 10.5 hour tour.  Pretty Poor!!!  We have advised the powers to be."

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