Hello my many followers, I am here to update you on my many world travels. Today we are adding two more to the list, Pisa and Lucca. These last two cities complete the "top 5" of Italy's most beautiful must see cities, now I guess all the rest are nothing in compare but I will be the judge of that.
So yesterday was my traveling day after a long week of classes. It is a nice reward at the end of a four day academic week to get to travel. All homework aside, Italian in tow, camera fully charged and my ambition to be the best damn tourist there is, switched on. Traveling to Pisa started off at 8am Friday morning. The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful. We arrive by bus only taking about an hour. Many many tourists and many many more vendors selling the typical leaning tower shot glass, the leaning tower t-shirt, key chains and all that you can imagine. Our guide "Marchello" warned us that Pisa is the home of the ugliest souvenirs in Italy. Luckily I did not get sucked into buying anything. We walked thru a square of vendors to get to the entrance of the area where the tower, church, cemetery reside, as we turn the corner, it looks very fake!
Lots and lots of guided tours thru the church, the baptism hall and the cemetery. Apparently there was a fire during WWII and alot of the fresco's that were painted there from eons ago were mostly lost. The buildings were all marble and magnificent.
Friends and myself traveled outside of square of the leaning tower attraction to have lunch somewhere where they didn't charge 20euro for a tourist menu. Successful lunch and then we returned to the square. Really all there is in Pisa is this leaning tower and this square. It was great to see, but now that i've seen it, I'm good. Below you will see the many photos of me holding up, pushing over, standing next to the leaning tower. I am glad my travels led me here.
Next on our stop was the town of Lucca. This town was a little more of a secret in terms of it's contents. The whole town/city whichever is enclosed by these huge walls. The walls surround the town all the way around it, of course they built on the outside after many years but on top of the walls are paths that circle around the town. The school rented bikes for us and we were able to ride all around the top of the town. The view was magnificent. It was so warm out, sunshiney, and carefree, I felt like we rode for hours circling the town. I was hanging with the boys this day so their competitive edge would kick in every now and then and try to race me around the town, believe you me, bike riding isn't as carefree as it looks, I'm lucky I have a bike back in Florence to have given me a little edge over them!
Overall I am glad to have visited these two cities/towns whichever. I will keep the pictures forever and the memories I have for you all. Next week we are trying to conquer rome in a day, hahaha isn't that a movie title or something! Anyways I hope to update you with more adventures from this weekend as it has only begun. I'm on the hunt for oatmeal, whole fresh chicken, hairdryer and ingredients for a soup that is to-die-for! Wish me Luck, i'll send pictures of the final product once it is finished.
