Travel the World: A Day in Pisa, Italy

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Earlier this year, we spent one cloudy day in the city of Pisa.

We took the train in from Florence and nixed Turin in favor of another day in Tuscany. There's not a lot to say about Pisa. All of its attractions are really bunched up in one grouping. The Pisa Cathedral, the Leaning Tower, the Duomo, and a fair number of restaurants are all within a couple square blocks.

The Cathedral.

Ceiling of the Cathedral.

The view of the Baptistery from the Leaning Tower.

Tickets can be purchased to climb to the top of the tower, but you need to drop your belongings off at the lockers first.

The steps inside are quite worn and uneven, but it's less than three hundred steps to the top. There were not very many people let in at a time, groups of about ten to fifteen. A quick activity, we took our time and stretched it to a full hour.

The rooftops are all a beautiful orange terracotta.

We walked around in the late afternoon and ended up just exploring the streets. There were not very many people around, which was a nice change from Rome and Florence.

While the attractions are around the square, there's a fair number of pretty buildings everywhere. We found the city very walkable, we actually just used our own two feet to wander from our train to our hotel right by the Leaning Tower, stopping for coffee and thick hot chocolate. Naturally.

The streets immediately surrounding the center square have a fair number of restaurants. While they offer up Florentine steak, I think you should eat that in Florence and instead, have wild boar in Pisa. We had spiced boar with polenta, hearty and delicious after a day with cool temps.