Best. Road Trip. Ever.

That's right. It's a tower, it leans. We saw it yesterday on an unexpected detour on our way to Camerino - was that just yesterday? This has been the longest 48 hours of my life.

The trip from San Remo to Camerino took us about 14 hours. Yeah. But, while the other tutors headed for the south rode on a bus, Max and I got to ride most of the way with the director of the program, Bruno, in his uber air-conditioned BMW. In fact, instead of Mystery meat sand-burgers from the kitchen Bruno stopped and bought us lunch at a little roadside grill. Longest trip out of the group vs. AC, not crowded, and free not sand-burger lunch? I think our option turned out much better.

When we got to Pisa as little ahead of the bus full of tutors Bruno questioned in his broken English "Tower? You've seen?" No, in fact we hadn't seen it. When we shook our heads he looked a little aghast, shook his head, and motioned for us to get back in the car. He speed demoned it over to the leaning tower and held up his hand "Cinque minutos" (5 minutes). I grabbed my camera from the back seat and Max and I booked it through the gates and up to the tower, took a few pictures, had some unofficial-wonder-of-the-world awe, and then raced back to the car. 4:39 in case you were wondering.
The rest of the trip to Orte where we caught our connecting train was just stunning. We drove through the countryside of Tuscany and Umbria with my face pretty much glued to the window. Max was really trying to finish Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October", but about every 10 minutes I would tug on his arm and say "Oh, and look at that little village! And look at those hills." He's a sport that Max.

As we approached the Camerino/Castelromando bus stop I saw the following out of my window. I know, get out of town.

Our route was roughly the following: