Pisa

Written by Opus

I can not believe it has been a month already since our last adventure. It has been a busy time in our home, but now things are settled again and we can write about our visit to Pisa.

At the end of October, found out that our humans were going out of town for a long weekend. We decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to take a little trip of our own. Afraid of getting caught again, I sent Roscoe on a mission. He was to find out WHERE our humans were going so that we could avoid their destination at all cost. Roscoe is a brave and sneaky cat. He crept quietly into the computer room and spied on our female human. He noticed that she was checking out hotels at Lake Como on the internet. They would be leaving on a Saturday and not returning home until Monday night!


That night while the humans slept, we unfolded our large map of Italy. We decided we would throw our toy mouse in the air. Where ever it landed on the map, would be our destination.

"One..two...three" we tossed the mouse into the air. I watched it tumbling to the ground head over tail. Oh how I wished it could have been a real mouse to play with. It landed with a small thud. Right on top of the city of Pisa!

The morning, shortly after our humans left, we scurried out the door. We waited for the bus to come and take us to the train station. How lucky for us when the bus doors opened and there was our old friend, Mr. Statezitti, sitting behind the wheel. We don't know what his real name is, but he is always saying to us ***"State zitti", so that is what we call him.

Mr. Statezitti delivered us to the train station and wished us a "Buon viaggo". We look around for our friend who works at the train station. He was no where to be found, no tuna fish sandwiches for us today. Thankfully Roscoe thought to pack a bag of cat treats. We munched them on the train and hoped that the humans wouldn't notice that they were gone.

With the sun shining through our window and cat treats in our bellies, we snuggled down for a little cat nap. A short while later I awoke to a woman speaking Italian on the loud speakers. The only word I understood was Pisa.

"Roscoe, wake up! We are here!" I said. I swear, that cat can sleep through anything.

We walked out of the train station, hopped across the street and waited at the bus stop. I had read enough guide books to know that I didn't want to walk all the way to the "Field of Miracles". The first bus that stopped was driven by a cranky young man. "No gatto!" he yelled at us. We put on our best sad cat faces, but our cuteness was of no use. "No gatto!" he yelled a second time and then slammed the doors shut.

Just when I thought that we were going to have to walk (too much exercise for a cat) a second bus pulled up. This time a sweet older woman with gray hair was behind the wheel. She greeted us with a warm smile and we walked on board. She never said a word, but softly scratched our ears as we passed by.

We drove for a short while when Roscoe spotted it out of his window. Behind the ancient city wall was the Field of Miracles. We could see the top of the tower peaking out above the wall. As soon as the doors opened we ran out of the bus, remembering to thank the kind lady on our way out.

As we ran towards the accient city door, the bells of the leaning tower began to ring as if welcoming us to Pisa and the Field of Miracles.


End of Part One

****State zitti means "You guys be quiet" in Italian