Italy: Destination #1- Pisa (October 29)

After only having 2 hours in my room after getting home for York I was off to the airport to start my week traveling through Italy. After sleeping in the airport with Katie, we were off to Pisa. We flew over the Italian Alps which was really cool. They were beautiful. We landed in Pisa around 9:30. We found a map and decided to try and walk to the Leaning Tower because the travel guy said it would only take a half hour. We left the station and of course, got lost. We ended up walking through the boonies of Pisa. Our first though was "great this trip is off to a fantastic start." We decided to go back to the airport and take the bus, definitely way easier. The bus driver told us the wrong stop to get off at but we were in more of a main part of the city now so it was easier to follow the map. We got breakfast at a little cafe and sat outside. It was so cute. I could already tell that the pastries in Italy were going to be way better than the ones in London.

The map we had gave us some other destinations to see in Pisa the only one that actually looked interesting was the Roman Bath Ruins. As we were walking to the Leaning Tower, we found them. It was called the Terme di Nerone which meant "the rains of the thermal complex". The Roman Bath ruins in Pisa were part of Nero's Palace. They were not as cool as we thought they would be. We had hoped  they were bigger and we could walk through them but they were still cool to see. 

We continues walking down the street and we could start to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took some pictures and then walked right up to it. It was so weird to walk around it. Different views made it look more leaning than others. I found myself trying to turn my camera to make it not leaning but then realized that slightly defeated the purpose. If you stand under it on one side it looks like it is falling on you which was kinda freaky. Katie and I tried really hard to get the perfect "Leaning Tower" picture. It was funny to see everyone taking pictures with there arms up. It was way harder to get the picture then I thought it would be. We met a group of students from BU actually who were laying on the ground taking pictures. They had the best idea and spot. We finally got some good pictures.

Since there wasn't much else for us to do in Pisa, Katie and I decided to climb to the top of the tower. It was 300 steps to the top. The view of Pisa was beautiful but we definitely were tired from the steep steps. It was weird because the only allowed you to stay up there for about 10 minutes because the stairs were so narrow they sent people up in groups.

We sat and had a glass of wine and then started walking to the train station. The sun was starting to set and we were able to see it as we crossed one of the bridges. It was beautiful. We continued to the train station to move on to Florence! Pisa was definitely a cute little Italian city. Italy is the first country that I have traveled to that doesn't speak English. I definitely felt like an American and it was kind of hard to communicate. My first day n Italy was a good one though and I was very excited to get to Florence and continue my adventure.

Chaio,
Allie