Pisa

Day trip to Pisa

We were up and ready to go by ten of 8 (which took us a week to figure out meant 7:50) to walk to the train station to hop a ride to Pisa. It's about an hour ride, which isn't bad at all. I have a picture from us during the ride, but I'm not sure if it posted. The Internet is pretty sketchy here.

We walked about 30 minutes from the train station to get to everything we would see; it's amazing how long walks seem so much shorter when 1.theres a lot to look at 2. Youre in good company and 3. You're at this point completed used to this kind of walk. Seriously, after having to walk back and forth from the hostel all the time, it seems like nothing. Especially when you just don't have any other means.

The leaning tower of Pisa...leans. Really. It's only like a 3 degree tilt or something small, but it seems crazy. You have to see it though, because I'm sure my pictures look like all the other ones I saw before the trip. It's always different in real life.

We went to the Baptistry, which Is the largest one in Italy. It also is known for having great acoustics; while we were there, everyone got quiet so a woman could go out in the middle and just sing one note, and let it resonate, and then belt out another; it was so pretty, and as always, I wish I had gotten video. I'm starting to get better about that.

Next was the cathedral. It seems awful, but they're all starting to run together; honestly, this trip is like cramming for a test. You remember some really significant stuff,but a lot of it you forget a few days later. 4 churches a day for two weeks is a lot of remembering altars and frescoes. This one had the christ in majesty mosaic though, I can tell you that, and at some point during the 1600s there was a fire in it, but it's been restored.

Everything is all within this area called the "field of miracles ", which you aren't allowed to walk on. It was so nice to just see grass though; at one point there was a lawn mower going and you could smell the freshly cut grass, and everything was peace.

People were tromping through to take their tourist pictures, though. It was so funny, how many people were standing there pretending to be holding up the tower. I actually snapped a picture of a bunch of people doing it; the huge groups of people you find is comical. Meghan took hers, but I restrained myself. I'll probably regret it later.

Our last sight was the composanto cemetery. The whole thing was bombed during world war 2, and they never point any fingers, but it is weird to think that it would have been the allies doing the bombing on Italy. Actually, it was specifically the Americans on July 27 (my brothers birthday, that's how I remembered).

Anyway, its this huge monument with marble halls; but it all opens to the outside, where there's a stretch of grass that holds the dome for the background. It's hard to explain, but again, I'm sure you could look it up. The whole thing had these really great frescoes, but they're all gone now and in the process of being restored. The graves are there though; they just look like plaques, but they're on the ground. Some were as recent as 2009. When they built the monument, they shipped in a bunch of dirt from the middle east so that it could be built on holy ground, since many of the people buried there are Important church figures.

We broke for free time, and checked out the shopping. I ended up finally getting a blazer that was on sale. It's always flattering when a person working at a store comes up to you and starts speaking Italian, especially in touristy areas, because a lot of the time they can pick out Americans from miles away. When they don't immediately start with English (which happens a lot) it can be terrifying, but it also means you're starting to blend in, which just feels like a huge accomplishment.

When we came home we sat next to a British couple, and it was fun listening to the same language with different semantics (instead of "where did you put it?" the statement is "where have you put it?"...its probably just the accent, but it still sounds cool). It made me wonder what it would be like, to come to a country as an English speaker but without the stigma of being an American. I wanted to ask them about it, but I could always just talk to the obnoxious high school kids from London in our hostel. More like hostile... We have not been getting along.

We found this restaurant called Astor, which apparently the cast of jersey shore went to, but all I really cared about was the Americanized cheeseburger. It was like a nice night club, but all the food was very American. They knew who they were marketing to. It was so delicious though; and even in Italy, they use Heinz ketchup. It was nice comfort food to end the day with.

We walked around at night, which was really pretty. We hung out on the bridge over the river for a while, and it amazes me that even a year later and a continent away, I still can't really enjoy the beauty of a river since Molly. It's not that I can't stand being on one, but it just leaves me kind of sour and bitter. I know I can't go around being salty at every waterway I walk across, but for now I'm not going to deal with it.

Tomorrow is our last full day of scheduled activities; Florence is going by so fast! It's hard to believe that this is the 2nd week- each day goes by so slow, but the weeks go so fast. This time next week I'll be leaving Germany for Paris. Crazy.