Day 23- (Uno) Pisa

My first trip in Italy was to see the leaning tower of Pisa. "La Citta di Pisa" is about 380 km from Rome, and it took us about 4 hours to get there on the regional, non-express train. Dani and I were successfully woken up by our alarms this time, so we were on our way to the Toscana region of Italy around 6:00.  Now I must admit I was dreading sitting on a train for 4 hours, but as it turns out, getting up that early for the first time in oh, many months, made me sleepy. So, after looking out the window for a little (and catching my first glimpse of the Italian coast!) we basically slept for 3 hours and woke up in Pisa.

Once there, we went to buy our ticket back just to be sure, however it seems Italian transportation workers are not very happy lately, and went on strike. For us, this meant we were out 45 Euros if we wanted to get back that day. Upside: only a 2 hour trip. So, glass half full. End of story. Now, I had previously googled "what to do in Pisa, Italy", so we had some sort of plan...we just had to find everything, which was pretty easy once we got our hands on a map, because the city is quite small-185 square km to be precise. 

So we made a few stops around the city (and by stops I mean looked at shoes haha), and walked down the picturesque streets, taking everything in. And watching the people, I thought about those that live in the city-the locals. The Piseans. I mean you think okay, Pisa, Italy...that place exists, there's the leaning tower of Pisa.  But who actually lives in Pisa...is born there, grows up there?  Does anyone really? And of course they do. But it doesn't seem real until you're there. Until you're looking at this beautiful door, with the tarnished wood and iron knob, taking a picture, trying to capture how mysterious it is...when suddenly a woman walks up to it, unlocks it and goes inside. Because she lives there. 

And then, even what you expect of the city becomes sort of unreal. We kept walking, and out of the blue, we could see the tower in the distance. It made me feel smitten, because when you're younger you hear about the  Leaning Tower of Pisa, this crooked building somewhere in Italy and you think about how it doesn't fall over, and that the name sounds like "pizza", and do people eat pizza in Pisa? And then I'm older and I'm walking along, and boom, there it was. 

So we took the pictures (yes, we ridiculously posed holding up the tower) and then had a most delicious lunch at La Buca, with a view of the tower. What better than pasta while looking at something so legendary. And Daniela...ate pizza in Pisa. It was great. But the old man who was the owner was even better than the food. Him and his little wife who strut around serving the wine and bread...It made me want to move there and just be a waiter at his restaurant for the rest of my life. Can I please?

Pigeons in Piazza Garibaldi

Just a regular old window reflection.

For more pictures: Pisa

The rest of the day went well...we saw a few more things-Piazza dei Cavalieri, Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina on the River Arno, a Keith Haring Mural (apparently one of his lasts) and were about ready to go home, at that point very satisfied that it would take us only half the time to get back to Rome. 

Around 11:00, I literally sighed walking into my room and fell into bed. It felt a little like coming home...