The Crooked Tower

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Today it was off to Pisa. After downloading all the maps we took a deep breath and set off. It turned out to be pretty straight forward and we found the free parking down the road. On the walk to the tower area, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. I think it was too close and just aimed at tourists because it was pretty ordinary. Also watch out for the extra table service charge on top of the menu prices.

As with most major tourist spots, you have to run the gauntlet of vendors on the approach but once inside the courtyard, they are mercifully absent. The tower itself is at the far end of the entry and they don’t allow anyone under 8 years old to enter. This meant we saved the 15 euro each on tickets as we couldn’t leave Em behind!

Construction of the tower began in the 11^th century and it began to lean almost immediately. They stopped for about 90 years before altering the design and trying to straighten it during completion. Despite all the effort, it has continued to move for almost a thousand years now.

It was a really lovely day and we wished we packed a picnic instead of the restaurant lunch as there are large grassy areas to relax. Em certainly appreciated running around playing chasey. We have been reading a kids book with Em about a monster who goes on a holiday all over Europe and he pushes the tower of Pisa over. So of course Em wanted to do the same! We settled for photo that looked like Em was licking the tower instead.

Entry to the cathedral is free so we went in. It is beautiful with large paintings decorating all the walls and it is still a functioning church. The other buildings in the courtyard are all separate paid tickets. The baptistery looked amazing but Em was not up for any more churchy things so we just ran around and relaxed on the grass.

On the way out we bought a little touristy leaning tower model for Em before wandering back to the car.

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