Pisa - home of the Leaning Tower

One of the reasons for picking Florence as our base for a week, was how easy it was to get to so many places.  Train travel in Italy is wonderful so today we hopped on a local train for a trip out to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.  The train ride was about an hour, with what felt like a majority of it going through tunnels under the hills.  Before we knew it we landed in Pisa and had no idea where to go, but out popped the phone and google search had us heading in the right direction.  The first thing we came to was the Arno river, yes the same river that goes through Florence, right out to the Tyrrhenian Sea with a view of Santa Maria della Spina erected in the 1200s.  It was an amazing day, shorts, walking shoes, bottle water and my camera were all that was needed.  Jim would take care of feeding me :)

Everywhere we looked people were taking selfies or taking pictures of each other trying to hold the tower up.  How could we resist.  LOL it is harder than you think especially with so many people around.  My left hand actually looks like it is grabbing that poor man's bottom.

 

9 centuries after the tower was built it is still a big tourist attraction, even in October.  To help with crowd control, the city did timed entries to the church, the baptistery and the bell tower.  In the summer you better book these as soon as you book your flight.  The first time we could get was for 4 pm.  The sunset times were fully booked.  

We had no idea of the importance of the baptistery, we presumed it was for baptizing babies which it was.  What we didn't know was that you couldn't go into the church until you had been baptized and that back in the early days of Christianity, baptism required a full immersion of the body, not just a sprinkling on the head.  

The Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) included the Baptistery (above) and the actual Cathedral and the Bell Tower.  The clergy would climb 296 steps on the south side to ring the bell to bring the townspeople to services, while the north side has only 294 steps.  Restoration work done in the 90's corrected the lean from 5.5 degrees to 3.99.   

I guess there is something to be said for getting a wee bit older.  In the last few years I have had lunch in the shadow of the Pantheon in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and now the Leaning Tower in Pisa.  Tick Tick Tick off my bucket list.  Tick Tick Tick as I add more places on to it.

The actual Town of Pisa is charming, full of cafes, little squares and lots of history.  Below is the Church built for the Order of Knights of St Stephan.  The Medici family was everywhere in Tuscany, this church was built by the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici to help fight piracy on the seas.  

Italy is still full of amazing artists.  Imagine spending all day drawing this beautiful picture only to have it washed away by the street cleaners every night.  I couldn't even do a stick figure that would resemble a person never mind the detail this young man put into his work.

One final selfie as we head back to Florence.  Another reason why we picked Florence to stay in, you can have a glass or 2 of wine for lunch, relax in the apartment and then walk out for dinner without having to worry about driving, or cabs.  Priceless.