Pisa (aka One Big Tourist Trap)

Ciao!

Yesterday myself, Sarah, and Devon went to Pisa to see one of the worlds' most famous landmarks, the leaning tower of Pisa!  I knew when I left that the only thing in Pisa is the leaning tower and that's it.  Everyone goes to see the tower and take the famous "hold up the tower" photo.  Despite that we all wanted to go anyway.  And we planned to stop in Florence on the way back to Perugia for an awesome dinner (more on that later). 

We left Perugia at 10 am on a train bound for Florence which is about an hour and half away.  We got to Florence then changed trains and got to the Pisa Central train station around 1:30 pm.  Then we took a bus to the piazza where the leaning tower is and when we got there we saw all of the tourists!  There were so many vendors selling "touristy junk" including leaning coffee mugs and replicas of the tower.  I am so glad someone informed me of the touristy aspect of the leaning tower before I went or I would have been highly disappointed.  Here are some pictures of the piazza and of course the famous leaning tower!

 

 We walked right up to the tower and truth be told it is pretty awesome!  When you see it in person it is so amazing to actually see how much the tower leans!  It's amazing to me that it is even standing now that I've seen it up close.  The three of us felt like idiots but we did the famous poses anyway, we pushed up the tower with all of our might....

We stayed at the tower for about an hour then grabbed some lunch at a little cafe in the piazza and ate outside.  It was so beautiful that day and we sat outside enjoying the 70 degree weather for what felt like hours.  We realized it was probably one of the last warm days we are going to have for the rest of our stay.  After lunch we caught a train back to the Florence train station for some shopping and eating!

I have never been to Florence but my 2 roommates I was traveling with have both been there more than once.  I am going next weekend for my art history field trip but I wanted to go with them anyway.  We got off the train and walked around enjoying the sights of the Duomo (the main church in Florence) and a lot of amazing artwork all over the city.  Florence is also a great city for shopping so we went in a few stores and did lots of window shopping as well since most of the stores include Chanel and Dolce and Gabbana which are not the cheapest places even in Europe.

Around 7 pm we headed for dinner at this Mexican restaurant my roommate Sarah raves about.  She had been there earlier in the semester and she wanted Devon and I to experience it as well.  Now, I know what you all are thinking..Mexican food in Italy?  I would say the same thing but all of us have been craving Mexican food for awhile now and we needed a change from all the pizza and pasta.

I had a chicken and cheese quesadilla for dinner and the three of us split chips, salsa, and guacamole as an appetizer and man was it good!  The spicy Mexican food is just what we wanted and we could not have been happier after that meal.  After dinner we had yet another American treat..Ben and Jerry's ice cream!  There is a shop in the center of Florence and it was pretty good.  I have not had Ben and Jerry's in a really long time but I could tell it tasted a little different than real American Ben and Jerry's.  I think the Italians tried to make it creamier because that is how their gelato is but once again we were all incredibly happy about our ice cream.

After our American dinner and dessert we took the 9:30 pm train back to Perugia.  We got back to our apartment around midnight then we all went right to bed.  It was a long and tiring day but well worth it!  I feel so accomplished as I think I have seen all of Italy's biggest landmarks.

Today I am working on some papers and preparing for another week of classes.  Tomorrow night a group of us are going to see "Inception"!  The film just came out here in Italy and every Monday night a theater in Perugia shows films in English with no subtitles or dubbing!  I can't wait to see my favorite movie again and here's hoping I figure it out this time!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I will update again soon!

Italian word of the post:
    torre di pisa - the tower of Pisa (Italians don't use leaning in the name)

Morgan :)