Here it is then.  That's what Pisa's all about isn't it.  The lampost is in the shot to provide a vertical against which to display the lean.  The woman in the foreground is there because it's hard to get a shot without a tourist taking up some space. 

What else has it got?  I wouldn't altogether agree with Shelley's remark to Byron that there's nothing to beat a sunset in Pisa but the streetscapes along the banks of the River Arno are attractive and there are some very fine old buildings in other parts of the town.  The Botanic Gardens are lovely though they could do with more benches in the shade.  I also ate quite well, once very well, a black rice and fish thing. Yummy.

I also ate well in Lucca.  My top meal of the trip so far; zucchini flan, rabbit pie with roast vegetables that called for a new definition of roast.  Now Lucca is justly famous for its walls.  I caught sight of them as I drove by twenty years ago or so and now I've returned and walked atop their 4 kilometre length.  Despite a fair bit of shade the heat was tiring so a bottle of fizzy water went down a treat.

I meant to take a trip to Siena where I've never been but despite the attraction of a couple of hours in an airconditioned train the thought of tramping around historic bits and bobs in 30 something degrees put me off and I did a lesser amount of pottering about by the seaside in Livorno and Viareggio.  

I'm not much of an opera buff but I quite fancied going to an open air performance at Torre del Lago where Puccini built a villa.  However though it's easy to get to it's impossible to get back to Pisa by public transport when the show ends.  I went during the day instead.  It's a lovely spot and I was looking forward to seeing round his villa.  But like so many continental museums etc they don't seem able to cope with seven day a week action.  So it was closed as was the souvenir shop (no loss there) and all but one of the refreshment spots.

Now I'm in Olbia on Sardinia.  I got here on a big boat and it took all day.  It then took quite some time to get from the port to my hotel.  That involved conversation through a glass screen that no doubt was installed as an anti Covid measure but which seemed to be soundproof.  I was eventually able to make out that there might be a taxi around in 45 minutes or so.  Then I struggled with Uber and on my second or third attempt when it looked as though with one click it would be done I spied a bus.  I clicked cancelled and dashed across and jumped in.

Luckily I had some cash because unlike Tuscany no card payment.  Lucky for a couple of young backpackers as well because I was able to make up their slight shortfall.  I don't know where they were going or how long for but judging by the size of their rucksacks they had each brought a kitchen sink.

So today I pottered around Olbia with the help of the old-fashioned bus day ticket bought in a tobacconists.  You don't punch a hole in it or have it stamped though.  Now it's held against a screen till there's a beep.  There's also a system similar to one I laboured over in Trieste two years ago that requires downloading an app etc.  More about tha later perhaps.

Anyway Olbia is quite pleasant with some lovely little shops and cafes and quality stuff as compared to the absolute tat surrounding Pisa's monuments.  There's also a lovely park where I spent some time and the waterside where it's pleasant to walk.  Having rested in my hotel room and written this I'm now slipping out for an aperitif. 

I took several snaps of this line-up but didn't manage to catch Nirek Mokar upright.  All the fault of the speed of light compared to my finger speed I expect.  He's a 21 year old boogie-woogie pianist from Paris and the generations behind him are his Boogie-Woogie Messengers, respectively from left to right, sax, drums and guitar.  I heard them play on the first night of the Jazz Festival and enjoyed the gig.  I'm not going to many gigs this year and decided to see only people I'd never heard of, preferably foreign.  The strategy has worked out well so far.  I've enjoyed them all with only one to go.

As a reminder to myself and in case you fancy judging my selection the others are Rosalind Orr, Nabou Claerhout, Cili Marsal, Kristina Barta and Theo Croker.

The Dunedin Wind Band held its end of term Summer concert which went well.  We're supposed to be relocating to a different church hall next term but I don't know where yet. It's a consequence of the continuing reduction in churchgoing whereby congregations amalgamate or churches are sold off for other uses.

Mostly in the last several weeks I've watched tennis on TV.  Thanks to the weather I haven't missed out on balmy days in the sunshine.  I hope to catch up on that when I go on holiday. Thanks to their roofs the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club got through their championships.  You have to wonder how they did it before the roofs when play took place on 13 days not 14 and there was no tie-breaker.  But they did because I saw it happen.

Apart from that I enjoyed a BBQ at Claire's and a brunch at Siobhan's where I met some very pleasant people from her French Yakety Yak group.

Other entertainment included a number of forgettable TV series.  I realised from the first frame of one that I'd seen it before but in all six episodes there was only one other frame that had stuck in my memory.  I wonder what had displaced it in my little grey cells.  Then there was a morning spent letting physio students loose on my supposed hip replacement.  Fun and hopefully useful.