Italy Trip 2011 - Day 2

Second day was a day trip out of Florence. Our destination was Pisa. Obviously, the main visit place was the Leaning Tower, right? Hmm... sort of, definitely.

We took a train to Pisa in early morning. That train took us an hour to reach Pisa. Pisa is a small town. If you got plenty of time, you can take bus there. It would cost cheaper and if you love nature scenery, bus would be a good choice. To me, I love train as I don't need to worry I could get car sick if I was not sleep well the day before.

Getting out of the train station, we had to walk for about half an hour to the place. Of course, you can walk faster, but we found that the path is quite worth to walk slow. There are lots of fashion shops in this old town. The road is quite straight forward. But still, you'd better have a simple map on hand and a compass in order to make sure you are heading to the right direction. At that time, there was a renovation in a turning around road. There were statues in the middle. However it was quite far from the pavement, I could not see much.

People there are friendly, I have no idea whether they are tourists or local residents, but they are all friendly. You could not find any negativity shadow from them. That is really good to see that especially under this economy shadow.

Along the way, there is a little church. At that time, there was a wedding. We hanged there for a while and continue our walk.

Our destination is an area with several buildings, including Leaning Tower, Cathedral, Baptistery, and another large building. There is a ticketing office for visitors to buy tickets. You can buy all the entrance tickets for a particular time slot. However, one must know that for the ticket to Leaning Tower, better be booked before hand at least one day. To get a better time slot, I booked it 2 months in advance via internet. So, when we reached the ticketing office, we just bought tickets to Cathedral and Baptistery.

Trust me, all these 3 buildings are worth for visit. The Cathedral is really beautiful. Though the outside is not that special as that in Florence, the interior decoration is really nice. The painting on the ceilings, colorful glasses, statues, all are very nice. They would take you ah hour to glance. But, as we had booked a specific time slot to go up Leaning Tower, we could only spend less than an hour inside the Cathedral.

Besides, we went to visit the Baptistery. Usually, Baptistery is a octagon cylindrical building with a dome shape top. Doors are on 2 of the 8 sides and opposite to each other. It is nice place but not much to see as it is not very large.

When it was time to queue up for entering Leaning Tower, we leave the Baptistery. Leaning Tower is a must go place. On the grass land next to the tower, lots of people resting there, especially in the shadow of the tower. Very interesting.
Climbing up the tower is another interesting experience. From the staircases, they can tell they are really old. With the leaning angle, going up that round tower on these steps is really interesting. But remember, book your tickets in advance. Each time slot is 30 minutes. That means you have to go up, stay at the roof for a while and come down in 30 minutes. But, that is more than enough.

At the top of the tower, you can see the entire town of Pisa. Definitely, the roof of the tower is the highest place for you to see the beautiful scenery. Came down the tower, you can see lots of people posing for shooting. Usually, pretend leaning to the tower, pushing the tower or pulling the tower. Watching them is also a good scenery and interesting. Trust me. You cannot imagine how creative they are.

On the ground, there are lots of kiosks that are selling souvenirs. You could spend more than half hours there if you really want to buy some. But, you'd better walk through all of them for a better price.

After buying some souvenirs, we left those buildings and followed the same track back to the train station. Then took train and back to Florence.

Pisa is a "must go" for the first time visitors of Italy. It is really a nice and beautiful town.