Pisa, Italy
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Pisa – We passed through Pisa for a couple of hours on our way from Lucca to Sienna. Overall, there isn’t much to see it Pisa; it was heavily bombed during WW II and much of it was destroyed. Most of the remaining historical sights are concentrated north of the river Arno, the most famous of which is (duh!) the leaning tower of Pisa.
Probably everyone has seen photos of the tower; still, it took me by surprise by; 1) it is shorter than what I expected from seeing in pictures and 2) seen from the right angle, you can really see the lean. It didn’t seem so pronounced in pictures I’ve seen.
The whole area is very, very touristy and we didn’t spend much time. Still, as a little day trip (we had stored our baggage at the train station) it was worthwhile for a few hours to see the tower, but also the Cathedral. Everyone makes a big deal about the tower because it’s leaning (and I thought I’d gag if I saw one more tourist doing that thing where they’re pretending to be supporting the tower) but I was actually more impressed with the immensity of the Cathedral and the whiteness of it all.
(“Look at us, we are doing something original that nobody’s ever done before. We’re mavericks!”. Urgg…)
(The Arno river)
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