Bad Things Come in Threes

We were about an two hours away from the Italian Lake District and on our way to Pisa when I realized I'd left our passports in the hotel room safe. Our tour director called the hotel and I sent them an e-mail asking them to courier the passports to where we're staying in Florence. That's a 40 euro vacation mistake.

Another hour down the highway we stopped suddenly. There had been an accident just ahead. Two young people on a scooter had lost control of their underpowered vehicle and scattered it and themselves all over the highway. Thankfully they both survived the crash. One was badly enough hurt that s/he was taken away in a helicopter. What's shown in the picture is two people being lowered from the chopper onto the road. When it was time to load the casualty, the helicopter landed on the highway.

After an hour or so we were on our way.

A proud tradition returns: Bruce with the leaning tower coming out of his head.

Pisa, as expected, was teaming with tourists. Our tour director, Patricia, led us away from the Square of Miracles and its truly beautiful buildings to where we could see Italy's top publicly-funded college housed in an edifice built by Vasari.

 You can tell from the difference in the skies in the shots above that we went from a sunny day to an epic storm. We were back on our bus by the time the skies opened, however, so that was not the third bad thing that had to happen today.

Instead, I decided I could no longer ignore the fact that my lower right leg and foot - while almost entirely recovered from the injury I inflicted on myself before my trip up north - were becoming more and more swollen.

So now I'm cooling my heels in my hotel room, waiting for the doctor to show up. I may be spending tomorrow morning looking at the sights of Florence, or I may be at a local clinic getting an ultrasound to check for blood clots.

Thanks for reading!

Karen