Meetin' in Monaco

Today's journey began with a mid-morning stop in Pisa.  Pisa is a pretty small town with an impressive Basilica, Baptistery, and of course the leaning bell tower.  As you enter the gates to the Basilica grounds, the tower immediately draws your attention.  It is sort of poking out, as if it is trying to look around and over the church to get a glimpse of the visitors.

The place is crazy!  There are vendors selling leaning tower 'crap' (our guides words, not mine...but I can't really disagree), men selling their wares as you get off the bus or simply walk around.  We started by trying to think of some way to take a picture that is not the Leaning Tower of Pisa cliche...i.e. making a picture that looks like you are either trying to push the tower back up or trying to knock it down.  Trying to prop the tower up is by far the crowd favorite.  You would not believe the number of people standing there with their arms up in mid-air with a big smile on their face.  We took our picture with Mr. Fox, a few of the famous landmark and then headed back to our rendezvous point. On our way back, Anthony started high fiving people that were trying to hold the tower up...yep, they are standing there, grin on their face, posing for the picture and here comes Anthony with a high five!

As we neared our little McDonald's train back to our bus, Michael, Anthony, and Emmy started negotiating with the street hawkers for sunglasses.  I think they ended up with 2 pair for 10 euro, when the starting price was 10 euro each!

Back on the bus, we started our journey out of Italy on our way to France. Remember the Churches, Castles and Tunnels, well the Churches and Castles have been with us the entire time, but the tunnels made a roaring comeback today, we went through no less than 167
tunnels along the road from Pisa to Monaco!

Mr. Fox checkin' out Monaco

Arriving in Monaco, the first thing you notice is that you don't have enough money to spend the night!  Capri looked expensive and exclusive, but Monaco takes the cake.  The boats (huge private yacht's), cars (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce just to name a few) are as thick as flies.  We took a quick walk to the center of Monaco, walked into the Casino, and pretty much hung out.  While we were standing outside Michael remarked to Anthony, "Wouldn't it be cool if we saw someone famous?", and Anthony replied, "That guy looks like Samuel L. Jackson." Michael glanced over towards the man and said, "That IS Samuel L. Jackson!"  After some debate, Anthony took off following the guy, and Michael took off after Anthony.  Anthony saw him go into a Gucci store where, after some trepidation, Michael went into the store and ask the man if he was Samuel L. Jackson...he replied no, but after hearing his voice, Michael knew...it WAS Samuel L. Jackson!  Mr. Jackson admitted it, and after Michael told him the story, he called over another famous person, Magic Johnson!  So, Michael and Anthony shook hands with not one, but two famous people today in Monaco!

After the excitement in Monaco, and a quick ride to Nice, France, we had a nice French dinner on the Mediterranean and are now back in the hotel.