Italia: Pisa

Here we go my friends. The final installment in an Italian adventure that has long been finished. I'd like to view this blog though as a good book that you put down and pick up with ease- no matter how long it's been since you've been reading. (Bold, I know, referring to my own work as good but we should be our own biggest fans right?)

We arrived late in Pisa after returning to Florence from the vineyard, retrieving our bags from the train station lockers and catching another train east. The next morning, we slept in and waited for the rain to pass before setting out to hopefully catch a glimpse of the famous leaning tower. Here she is, below, artfully reflected in a puddle. (Angela is practically a professional photographer so traveling with her is great because I can follow a few steps behind and copy every cool picture she takes.)

 

 

And here she is again, in all her leaning glory. It was very cool to see this in person. I would say it's one of the more recognizable European landmarks so I felt lucky to be seeing it with my own eyes. We almost missed the Tower though... do I dare mention this off topic (and slightly embarrassing) anecdote? Of course. Well, we stopped for a coffee after leaving our apartment that morning and headed across the bridge to the touristy area of town. I guess the coffee hadn't kicked in yet though because we found ourselves a bit lost and nowhere near the touristy area we were searching for. The signs had led us the wrong way - typical Italian move. No, typical Angela and Kayla move - we were so busy chatting and not paying attention. Angela was finally smart enough to look up and we saw our first glimpse of the Tower, a few streets back in the opposite direction. Back on track, we made our way to take a selfie or two with the tilting queen. 

Attention: extremely original pose below! See what I did? It look like I'm pushing the Tower! (Speaking of pushing, finding an open stretch of fence here required a bit of pushing and quick movements when someone vacated their spot...)

Okay so the Tower was great but I'm going to take a minute now to say that the real treasure in Pisa is the Cathedral. If you find yourself here and don't go inside you are making a mistake. The outside was beautiful with the column details but wasn't extremely outstanding. I think I was naive enough to make the comment that it didn't look very well maintained... I mean jeez it's nearly 1000 years old... I don't know what I was expecting.  

Anyway, my tune changed as soon as we walked inside. This Cathedral is breathtaking. I loved the dark and light alternating marble pattern along the walls- something I had never seen inside a church before. The ceiling was an incredible gold tiled wonder- I walked the entire length of the church mesmerized by it. The pictures below are honestly just a glimpse at how amazing the interior was. 

Arches for days my friends! I loved this dark and light mixture. I'm still amazed looking back at these pictures and I think it is because this Cathedral was such a surprise for us. We had no idea that there was much else to Pisa besides the Tower (perhaps we just didn't research enough before arriving) and were pleasantly surprised to find such a beautiful Cathedral. (Disclaimer: there isn't much to Pisa besides the Tower, this cathedral, a decent Indian restaurant with free wifi, and a couple nice piazza's to chill and play cards on.)

The picture below was taken just in front of the altar. The shadowed angel statue looked so amazing against the incredible detail of the rest of the church in the background. 

Little bit of that ceiling... 

Before I leave this chronicle of Italian adventures for good I want to show you some of the drawings we found all over Italy. Random walls down alleyways and major streets had these guys playing around. 

Ciao Italy! You were good to us - can't wait to return :)