Pisa

During our stay in Florence, we decided to take a day trip to Pisa which is only about an hour or so away from Florence. Seeing that Florence isn't really that big and we thought it would be a good idea to venture out more into the Italian country side. As expected, the drive to Pisa was beautiful and very scenic. Although we were driving towards the coast, it seemed like we were going somewhere where there weren't a lot of people. When we finally got to Pisa and parked in the piazza in front of the leaning tower, we got a ticket- or so the store clerk we asked said. Apparently the piazza we parked in was reserved for "special vehicles" and as soon as you enter with a car you get fined 200 Euros. Let me say that again, just driving through the piazza gets you a ticket of 200 Euros which is the equivalent of $262.70. Pretty insane. We immediately parked somewhere else and hoped that they wouldn't actually charge us because it was a rented car. We still haven't received any sort of ticket or fine in the mail so I guess it was nothing. After that fiasco we walked around the plaza where the famous leaning tower of Pisa is. Let me just confirm your suspicion, it leans. A lot. It's actually pretty insane that it hasn't fallen over because it's really scary how much of a slant there is. Before you climb to the top they make you leave any purses and backpacks in a locker area because they don't want added weight in the tower. Knowing that a couple of purses could make this tower topple made me feel SO much safer. Going up the 300 something stairs was hell; it required lots of breaks and "ohmygod I'm dying", but we eventually got to the top. Needless to say the view was amazing. I feel like I have said that a thousand times throughout this whole blog. but Italy is SO beautiful. Everything is pretty. When you are standing on the slanted side of the tower you feel like you are about to fall over; it's pretty great. Afterwards we just wandered around Pisa, grabbed some lunch, and wandered some more. When we got in the car, we spontaneously decided to drive another hour to the actual beach. It was like a trip within a trip within a trip. So that happened. I think you know what I'm going to say, the beach was beautiful. However, there was the downfall of seeing old Italian men in speedos and topless women laying on rocks. We avoided that area and walked on the boardwalk. It's not a typical beach, it is a beach made of large boulders- no sand. You will see that in the pictures. We walked around, got some gelato, spoke a little Italian and went home. I think the only words I know in Italian are "scusi", "un cono", "cioccolato", "gelato", and "grazie," Which are all the words you need to know in order to order ice cream.