On Thursday morning, with a full day ahead and nothing scheduled, we enjoyed our room and had breakfast delivered while we planned our day's drive. We picked the destination on our list that was farthest away, Pisa.
The drive was long but beautiful, and we arrived in Pisa hungry (which is the way we arrive in most towns, it seems). We bought tickets for admission to the tower later in the afternoon & found a streetside pizzaria in view of the tower.
Like when first visiting Venice, in 2006, this place seemed like a dream. I've seen so many photos, drawings and paintings from more than a hundred years that it seems this place only exists in pictures, not in reality. To see it in person was surreal.
After enjoying our pizza, we basked in the sun on the grass surrounding the Duomo, and we enjoyed some gelatto, while waiting for our scheduled entry, which came soon enough.
What's most striking about entering the tower is not the vertical lean ... It's the angle of the floors, which seem to be at a sharper angle than the walls (although that can't possibly be right). Climbing the circular stairway just inside the outer wall feels a bit like being drunk, as your walk leans from right to forward to left to back.
Reaching the top is a bit of a surprise as the bells hung in the archways are more prominent and beautiful than any picture ever showed. The light and shadows of the bells and arches playing across the inner top floor are beautiful, and I've never seen that in pictures or paintings.
Nancy - who has never been a big fan of heights, particularly heights leaning 5 degrees off center - did incredibly well, ascending the final spiral staircase to the top-most level, held back from certain death only by a thin iron railing. Soon enough, our time was up, we descended the tower and walked back to our car just as our parking expired.
After a quick stop in Greve for dinner & to scope out a winery for our next visit, we returned to Palazzo Ravizza in Siena, where we crashed to rest and prepare for our wedding day.
Next up ... um ... the day of our Siena wedding!
Ciao!
- Brent (& Nancy)
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