You can’t come to Florence and not make the half-day trip to Pisa. We really did want to skip Pisa, but at the end, we figured IF we do not come back (highly unlikely), we need to accomplish everything this region has to offer. The roundtrip costs 11.40 euros per person (50% off if you purchased 60 days ahead of time) so for the 4 of us, it was pretty steep at 45.60 euros total. We figured if we didn’t pay the entrance fee to climb up the Leaning Tower, then we’d come out ahead ~__^.
It’s really stupid, but Italian train stations make you validate your ticket at a yellow box machine BEFORE you get on the train. The ticket size is not compatible with the box machine, so you’re standing there inserting the ticket at different points in the machine trying to get the machine to stamp your ticket.
TrenItalia takes approximately 1 hour to get to Pisa, then a 20 minute walk to the actual tower from the Pisa Centrale train station. If you decide to make the half-day journey (and really, half day is MORE than enough!), make sure you print a Google map how to walk there cuz there ain’t signs from the train station of how to walk there! Go figure! Thank God Angel printed one out, so we followed it across the river Arno:
The Leaning Tower is a lot smaller than we imagined! Angel says it looks like an amusement park statue because it’s so small… almost like a toy! There are 463 steps to get to the top of the Tower, but for 15 euros per person to go up, no thanks! We’ll climb our 5 story apartment! We learned that the Tower leans because construction started in 1173, but stopped in 1178 for unknown reasons. Construction started again 100 years later, then stopped again, and only started for real in 1360… which, by that time, the unfinished tower was already leaning. Makes you think why they didn’t just tear down the leaning portion and rebuild? Although I guess the Italians are known for using half-standing buildings and walls to build new buildings with.
The Tower is the belfry for the cathedral next to it, although now the Tower is more known than the cathedral! It’s supposed to be the other way around in most cases!
The Baptistery:
The ultimate touristy pic:
We arrived back at Florence around 1:30pm and went to the café that we went to yesterday (Bar Cucciolo on Via Del Corso 25/R) for some heavenly pizza:
I have NEVER had pizza dough taste this good before! And the tomatoes!!! Incredibly fresh and sweet!
A delicious panini of prosciutto, tomato, and cheese:
Plus, my favorite (and at 2.5 euro per slice, it is the BIGGEST and cheapest we’ve seen so far! The slices shown is actually one slice portion, cut in two):
Dad bought a scone-like dessert with raisins:
We were surprised he had room left over to eat at all!
Don’t these look delicious!
The bar is next to the Duomo and Dante’s house, and we strolled over to the Duomo after lunch:
The cathedral is free to enter, but the Campanile and Duomo both cost money to climb to the top. I would have to say the main draw to the cathedral is the ceiling:
We went to San Lorenzo market afterwards cuz Angel was hunting for a Burberry wristlet but…
Plus the police were out in full force today so all the African guys selling fakes were standing around with their goods hidden.
Angel made dinner in our apartment again, with yummy cherry tomatoes,
Prosciutto Tortellini with ALL truffle butter sauce today… no cheese and milk mixed in this time baby!
Mom learned how to open champagne like a pro from TV ~__^… no spillage! She opened up a Lambrusco dell’ Emilia Amabile, a red frizzante (Italian champagne) that was very concentrated, fruity and dolce! We all loved it and Angel said it’s like a Zin with bubbles ^.^ We bought it for 2.2 euros at Marconcini in the Mercato Centrale.
Dessert is a gigantic jar of Nutella with biscotti ^.^ Yummy!
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