The Allisons

Pisa

This was a fun trip. As I mentioned, it's about an hour train ride from Florence. The station is on one side of the city and the "attractions" are on the other side, so it's a little bit of a walk. We thought it was a nice city though. It has a river running through the middle and whatnot. The picture on the right is part of the wall around the city. Pisa was one of the great naval powers before it was sacked by Florence. There's not a whole lot to do except the obvious. But I think it's well worth a trip. It really is very cool. The whole time I kept thinking how ridiculous it was to have a leaning tower. It's even more ridiculous to me that once they figured out it was leaning they tried to build the rest of it back the other way so it wouldn't lean so much. It's just nonsense. I love it. The first picture (upper right)was taken as we were walking up the street toward it. The picture to the left is of the base of the Tower. It's a little sub level. I don't know if it started out like that or it sunk. We had to go down a few stairs to enter the tower. Under that and to the left is the staircase inside the tower. We thought this was funny because the marble stairs are worn on either side depending on what side of the tower you're on. For example, if you're walking up the side that is closer to the ground, the stairs are worn on the left half of the step. Likewise if you're walking on the side that's farther away from the ground, the stairs are worn on the right side of the step. I hope that makes sense. It's really funny. The two pictures of us were on top of the Tower. On the left is a picture of the Baptistry. You had to pay to go in and our tickets didn't cover it so we didn't see the inside. The cathedral (right) was free but it was closed for riposo. (Almost everything shuts down for riposo from about noon until 3.) The picture below is of the cathedral and baptistry taken from the Tower. These last photos on the left , I know, are slightly silly. Unfortunately,they seem to be a requirement of a visit to Pisa. I was hesitant to put them on, but I figured what the heck, let's be silly.