Neptune Balls & a stop for kids who grew up driving by the Leaning Tower of Pizza

We stayed two nights at an adorable AirBnB called the Beach House, it was all decorated in a beach theme and a block from beautiful beaches of the Mediterranean.  The train stop was called Cecina and our actual beach town was Marina de Cecina.  They were getting ready for what must be a busy summer, but it was still sleepy while we were there. 

From the train station, I liked the font!

After big busy cities and treasures of the art world, it was really wonderful to just enjoy a beautiful beach and not worry about crowds and admission times!  We made the most of our day, skipping rocks,

Climbing cool towers..I'm sure this is all over the girls Instagram accounts! They probably aren't doing what Charlie did on it!

Building amazing rafts of driftwood & seaweed!  It really floated and it took hours to build!

Our beach also had a pine forest on the other side that went for miles, you could rent bikes and ride through it, we opted for the family bike.   Most of the time Charlie ran behind us like a dog we needed to exercise!

We debated stopping to let him jump back in!

As a seashell collector, I can't say the beach was that exciting, only sea glass, but there were these brown balls everywhere.  I picked up a few and googled what they were-Neptune Balls.  When I first said the name Greg almost spit out his drink, I might have called them Neptune's Balls!

Holding a Neptune Ball, the girls are enjoying fruit smoothies at a nice outdoor tiki bar.

Neptune balls are really all over the beaches here, and a company figured out a way to do something with them..Cool use for Neptune Balls

We found a beautiful beach bar to watch the sunset, the kids were out on a little jetty with the sun behind them, it was kind of heaven to sit and watch them...even if they were fighting we couldn't hear them!

The girls came over and Greg got a nice picture of us... little brother refused to come off the beach!

One of my favorite discoveries in the past few years is this lovely drink they have in most places in Belgium & all over in Italy...an Aperol Spritz..here is my sign!

We all went down to the beach one last time before we had to leave in the morning, it was just so nice to be by the water!  We were sad to leave, but the leaning tower was waiting.

After a quick train ride up the coast we arrived in Pisa and walked from the train station to the tower, winding through the town.  We crossed the river and I liked these lions on the bridge.

Getting close...

Found it!

Charlie does his part!

We can all send our regards to the Leaning Tower of Pizza on Route 1 when we are back in Massachusetts from its buddy in Italy!

Greg decides to help too!

Pisa was a beautiful city, we enjoyed our walk back and had a nice lunch by the university too. Here was an ornate building on the way.

Our next stop was the train station back to the airport in Milan...a great trip and our kids figured out that backpacks & train travel through Europe is a pretty amazing way to go!