Personal Post: Day 6: Pisa-Lucca

After the wonderful afternoon in Siena, I found myself with a renewed sense of wonder for the rest of Italy, and especially the rest of Tuscany. On this day, we were heading to Pisa for the morning, and then Lucca for the afternoon, as recommended by the guy who works at the front desk of our hotel.

We arrived in Pisa early in the morning, after the hour-long ride from Florence. The air was still crisp and the streets were still empty. The cobblestoned streets were lined with closed shops, which slightly resembled Siena from the previous day. I found myself adoring this cute little town. Pisa Centrale is about half hour from the famous Tower, but we were in no hurry to get there. Crossing the Arno River made me think of Scandinavian towns, with the colorful houses neatly lining the riverfront. The sun was fully absorbed into the exterior of the buildings, giving them a healthy golden glow.

Finally, we saw the magnificent Leaning Tower when we rounded a corner on the street. Wow. It left me speechless. It's much taller and bigger and greater than I thought would be possible. As we entered the premises, we saw many tourists. Everyone was trying to get that shot where they're pushing the Tower, and we were no different. That in itself is a sight to see. Around the piazza, there were shops lined up with your typical souvenirs. We got our tickets to the top and just wandered around until our scheduled time slot. Meanwhile, we found ourselves a good spot for more "pushing" photos. The grounds also included the cathedral and the baptistry, but we only saw them from the outside.

On the ascent up the Tower, we found it much easier to walk up the stairs on the side that's leaning down, and harder on the other side. The center of each marble step was indented from people walking on it through all the years. There were three levels where we could go out and get a view of the ground below us. At the top, we had a great view of Pisa. It was such a sunny day that we could see for miles and miles. However, I have to admit that it was somewhat scary at the top, especially on the leaning down side. It felt like I was going to fall over, and the wind didn't help at all!

We ate lunch at a restaurant not far from the Tower. In fact, we had a lovely view of it as we enjoyed our meals outside under the awning. I enjoyed my lasagna, although it's a bit different than American version. It has less cheese and more vegetable, so I'm assuming that it was healthier. My mom got pasta with pesto sauce, which was also delicious. I've definitely fallen in love with pesto sauce over the past year or so.

The train ride to Lucca was about half an hour. We didn't know exactly what to expect, but we had a guidebook to help us along. If I had to vote for a town with great holiday spirits, Lucca would win by far. Surprisingly, there were many tourists, more than most other places we've been to so far. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why I was slightly turned off by the town. I couldn't exactly tell why it was so popular with the tourists because it wasn't as great of a city as Siena or Pisa. We stopped at the market and a church, but that's about it.

The ride back to Florence was rather uneventful. With our second-class ticket, we got comfortable seats on the second level of the train and saw a couple of cute little towns on the ride. I can only remember one of them named Pescia. I spent the rest of the ride in a slumber as the sun set over the Tuscan hills.