Day Twenty - Jun 10, 2012
Pisa, Italy
Daily Didactic
Today we did Pisa. It turned out to be a very nice, clean, and 'manageable' town. Our B&B was directly in between the train station and the Piazza De Miracoli where the leaning tower is. We walked to the train station to check on tickets to Riomaggiore (where we are heading tomorrow), but the line was super long and headed to the tourist attractions instead. We walked across the bridge over the Arno River and decided to alter our path to take us more through the historic district. True to course, we missed the historic district and got lost. Our map ceased doing much for us, as we had disregarded its instructions to travel where we should. We did however see some really impressive Roman ruins and eventually stumbled upon the piazza that holds the leaning tower. The tower (a bell tower in fact) turns out to be one of four things in the square of note and (except for the fact that it appears to be falling over) may be the least important. We skipped going up the tower but did visit the cathedral, baptistery, the Duomo Museo and the Camposanto (an enormous building full of enormous frescoes). The Camposanto was kind of fascinating. It was a historic art treasure that burned after being hit by a grenade in WWII, nearly destroying a football field worth of painting. It is still in a state of restoration/repair. We wandered for some hours through all of the history, while Brian repeatedly looked at the tower and muttered 'that is ridiculous'. We eventually headed back to the train station and then home, discovering yet another hidden Irish Pub with wifi. We enjoyed a few Guinnesses and some respite from pasta and pizza. We love the Irish.
Today's Photos
