everything leans in pisa

My 6-day adventure began in Pisa, well actually it began with a four-hour bus ride to Barcelona.  It was the first of many, many ways of transportation that I took while traveling.  The ride was all along the coast of Spain, which made it very pretty because we could see the Mediterranean for a lot of it.  I saw a cemetery that was built as terraces up a huge cliff. 


Our flight took off for Italy 45 minute late, so we didn't leave until about 10:30 pm.  RyanAir is pretty unique.  For one thing, we paid about 10 euro total for the flight to Italy, and I also had my first experience of walking outside and right next to the plane on the ground in order to board.  When we got to the Pisa airport, we got off the plane and immediately onto a bus shuttle which proceeded to drive us about 50 feet to the door of the airport.  We found this very amusing because the plane was still right behind us when we got off the "shuttle" bus.  

Our hostel had a shuttle service that picked us up- an old Italian man that drove way too fast down extremely narrow streets.  Nevertheless, we arrived in Plaza Giribaldi alive.  I've never stayed in hostels before but it is definitely a good place to experience culture.  It was pretty weird when the other girl sleeping in the room started talking in her sleep in a different language.  

"Tuttomondo"
Piece of contemporary art
by Keith Haring
given to Pisa as a gift

We had one full day to explore Pisa, which is the perfect amount of time to eat some quality Italian food and take ridiculously touristy pictures at the tower.  Our hostel offered a free walking tour in the morning which was a great idea for us since it was either that or wandering around wondering what everything was. It took about 3 hours, but we learned all about the architecture of Pisa, the national heros, and it's rise and downfall in the Middle Ages.  Our tour guide was fun to listen to because she spoke English in an Italian way, so words like "changed" she would pronounce as "change-ed" and with that Italian emphasis that everyone knows.  

I had the best margherita pizza in Pisa at a cute little restaurant with a man playing Italian music.  We were all about the cheap food, so when we saw an entire pizza for 4 euro that pretty much sold us.  There are so many pizza and gelato places in Italy- I would not recommend going there if you have no self control when it comes to eating food.  Everything is displayed so you can see it as you walk by, which is almost cruel sometimes especially when you're starving after walking for hours at a time.  I stopped wanting to look at things after awhile because it just made me want to eat more gelato.  

Finally, we arrived at the Leaning Tower along with every other tourist in Pisa.  I think everyone goes to see the tower just to be able to take a picture of themselves holding it up.  It was pretty funny to watch people do their poses of holding up the tower and watching the people with the cameras try to line up the shot correctly. The area around the tower was very pretty, and the weather was perfect that day.  There are 3 other buildings in the same area as the tower- a cathedral, a baptistry, and another miscellaneous building that I can't remember. The leaning tower definitely steals all of the attention.  On our tour we learned that the tower isn't the only building that is leaning in Pisa.  Because of the land Pisa is built on, many other buildings aren't completely straight either.  In order to control how much the tower leans, they had to remove earth from underneath the tower so it would gradually fall in the other direction. 

Definitely could eat
this every day

We decided that the best gelato of our trip was the gelato we had in Pisa- and it also happened to be the cheapest! (1.50€ for 2 flavors) Nutella flavored gelato might be one of the most delicious things I've ever tried- the U.S. should really work on making some. 


Overall, I really enjoyed Pisa because after being in a city as big as Valencia for so long, it was nice to explore a smaller and quieter place where you don't always have to be on the lookout of getting run over by a bicycle.  We were there for the perfect amount of time, but had to leave way too early on a 5:45 a.m. train to Rome- next post coming soon!