Today my family and I visited the famous leaning Tower of Pisa. We walked to the train station in Lucca and took the train to the city of Pisa. The train was a little confusing because it didn't announce any of the stops, so we had no idea if we were getting out at the right stop (luckily for us, we guessed right the first time and got off at Pisa). We then walked from the Pisa train station to the tower area. Although I personally am not extremely interested in historic ruins, the architecture in Pisa (and in Italy in general) is absolutely beautiful. Everything is very intricate and obviously supposed to be visually pleasing. Unlike many structures built today, these ancient buildings exist for art just as much as function. Even thought I'm not a huge fan of old art or going sight-seeing, I could definitely appreciate the beauty in Pisa, and I genuinely enjoyed going to see the tower and the city.
Italy has turned the leaning Tower of Pisa into somewhat of a tourist trap; there's tons of souvenir tents, people selling knock-off sunglasses and purses, and over-priced pizza. Apparently this is a very common thing in Europe, but I was surprised when I learned that they even charged you to use the bathroom. It's like the musical Urine Town, but in real life. They have a police officer selling tickets and it costs .5 euro to pee...so strange. Anyway, we then paid for our tickets and climbed the leaning tower of Pisa at our 2 p.m. time slot. It's not as many stairs as I expected for a 7-story climb, and I'm definitely not complaining about that. The stairs are all made of marble, so coming down from the top was a little more treacherous than the climb up. The view from the top of the tower was awesome. You could see a lot of the city, and also a spectacular aerial view of Pisa's Cathedral and Opera House. I honestly didn't expect the leaning Tower of Pisa to be as cool as it actually was (sorry mom and dad). You could actually feel how it was tilted as you walked up the tower. Possibly one of my favorite parts was watching all the tourists take the classic "I'm holding up the leaning Tower of Pisa picture". Everyone looked so ridiculous with their hands or feet outstretched no where near the tower from passer-by's point-of-views.
Although we were pretty tired by the time we came down from the tower, I'm actually glad that my parents forced me and my siblings to go into the Cathedral at Pisa. When you walk into the Cathedral, if you're wearing a tank-top (which Callie and I were) they hand you this hospital-like gown thing to put on over your head to cover your shoulders for "modesty". Of course, for some reason I'm the only one who had to wear this lovely get up; it was me and one other person in the entire Cathedral... My sister took some beautiful photographs of me (and the Cathedral, of course). The Cathedral was actually pretty awesome; it was hugeeee and had giant paintings and stained glass everywhere. I'm not super great at describing things, so I made a little slideshow with some of the better pictures I took from my day trip to Pisa. The Cathedral is seriously beautiful, and I don't think my descriptions or pictures could quite do it justice.
-Madeline
Italy has turned the leaning Tower of Pisa into somewhat of a tourist trap; there's tons of souvenir tents, people selling knock-off sunglasses and purses, and over-priced pizza. Apparently this is a very common thing in Europe, but I was surprised when I learned that they even charged you to use the bathroom. It's like the musical Urine Town, but in real life. They have a police officer selling tickets and it costs .5 euro to pee...so strange. Anyway, we then paid for our tickets and climbed the leaning tower of Pisa at our 2 p.m. time slot. It's not as many stairs as I expected for a 7-story climb, and I'm definitely not complaining about that. The stairs are all made of marble, so coming down from the top was a little more treacherous than the climb up. The view from the top of the tower was awesome. You could see a lot of the city, and also a spectacular aerial view of Pisa's Cathedral and Opera House. I honestly didn't expect the leaning Tower of Pisa to be as cool as it actually was (sorry mom and dad). You could actually feel how it was tilted as you walked up the tower. Possibly one of my favorite parts was watching all the tourists take the classic "I'm holding up the leaning Tower of Pisa picture". Everyone looked so ridiculous with their hands or feet outstretched no where near the tower from passer-by's point-of-views.
Although we were pretty tired by the time we came down from the tower, I'm actually glad that my parents forced me and my siblings to go into the Cathedral at Pisa. When you walk into the Cathedral, if you're wearing a tank-top (which Callie and I were) they hand you this hospital-like gown thing to put on over your head to cover your shoulders for "modesty". Of course, for some reason I'm the only one who had to wear this lovely get up; it was me and one other person in the entire Cathedral... My sister took some beautiful photographs of me (and the Cathedral, of course). The Cathedral was actually pretty awesome; it was hugeeee and had giant paintings and stained glass everywhere. I'm not super great at describing things, so I made a little slideshow with some of the better pictures I took from my day trip to Pisa. The Cathedral is seriously beautiful, and I don't think my descriptions or pictures could quite do it justice.
-Madeline