Pisa

Pisa is an easy hour’s train ride from Florence.

Visiting Pisa is easy because, no matter how much the town tries to suggest otherwise, everything worth seeing is all on one plaza. I can say this definitively because, as a result of either clever planning or simple coincidence, the train station is on the exact opposite side of town.

So after walking to the relevant plaza and back to the station again, we effectively toured all of Pisa. It’s a small little town without much to recommend it aside from the so-called “Plaza of Miracles.”

The Plaza of Miracles itself includes a cathedral, a baptistery, a built-up cemetery, a couple of museums, and of course, the leaning tower. Pisa tries its best to center your attention on the cathedral. After all, the leaning tower is meant only as the cathedral’s bell tower. But everyone really shows up to marvel at their famous mistake, and my parents and I were no different.

When you enter the plaza, your attention immediately shifts to the tower – which leans southwest-ish at a significant 4 degrees. The second things that you will notice are the dozens of “clever” tourists posing for their oh-so-original photos – either holding up the tower, knocking it over, or trying awkwardly to lean on it.

You can hear one in five people saying something along the lines of… “Move your hands to the left… No, my left… A little higher…Tilt them… No, not like that… Kind of… Yes, perfect… Stop right there…This is going to be so cool.”

No, it won’t be. My mom wanted me to take one, but I refused on principle.

First things first: after getting our bearings, my dad and I bought tickets to climb to the top of the tower. It’s a pretty interesting climb. You start by walking through a notably crooked doorway and immediately make your way up a spiraling staircase. There aren’t many windows on the way up, but you clearly can judge which side of the building you are on. Of course, you're just standing up straight as you climb, but at times you feel like you’re leaning back. Then on the way back down, you naturally gain speed in certain parts of the spiral. Sometimes, the walls of the staircase lean into you, and at other points, they lean away. It's like a fun house. And presumably because of these effects, everyone winds up stepping in the same places in the stone stairwell, and all the stairs are morphed. I’ve been climbing to the top of a lot of things on this trip, so at least this stairwell was unique; it made Pisa a bit more interesting.

The tower has something around 295 steps if I remember correctly. (Yes, I counted.) It’s not especially tall, but it still allows you to see everything in Pisa – however little that may be. Somehow, it never occurred to me before that the tower was a bell tower, so it was interesting to see all the bells and hear them chime, too.

After the tower, my parents and I explored the cathedral. (15) It had some interesting character, and I’ve attached some pictures. But in my opinion, the tower remains the main attraction.

That was Pisa, and that was less than half of a day. I am glad that we went over to check it out. It was quick and easy, and I felt fully satisfied. It was cooler than I anticipated it would be.

---

More pictures of Pisa: