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Published: March 9th 2009
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Hello all!
The start of my winter break began with Pisa. Ben and I (along with two other IAU) students boarded a bus to Pisa/Florence at 10pm Thursday night (Feb. 26th). The bus trip lasted all night, and we arrived in Pisa at 6:45am. Not knowing where we were going, Ben and I debated between walking and riding the bus. In the end, we got bus tickets, but due to mass confusion with the directions given by our Bed and Breakfast, we ended up getting off only two stops away and walking an hour to find our room. This actually worked out to our advantage later, because we knew where to go, and in what direction all the major sites were in.
Once there, we were exhausted, and despite being in a new city took a nap. And a nap was a great idea considering that Pisa is a very small city, capable of being fully experienced in one afternoon. When we woke up we went back to the center (the only place to go really) and took a look around. The Leaning Tower is expectedly leaning, but you'd really be amazed at the extent of it! It's thirteen feet
Coming up the Stairs
Ironically, these would be the stairs I would later fall down. off center, and even more expensive to enter. (Didn't mean for that to rhyme, but it works). To go up into the tower for thirty minutes costs fifteen euros! But it was worth the fifty centimes a minute as we climbed the marble stairs. Walking up, it is obvious which way you're leaning. Once we got to the top, the view was fantastic. We saw the entire city and into the countryside that surrounds it. We enjoyed every minute allowed on the tower, and when our thirty minutes were up we were yelled at by the security people to hurry up and leave.
This is when the story gets interesting. As I'm heading down the first flight of stairs (in my boots) I slip and fall. I didn't just fall...I WIPED OUT! The camera in my hands went flailing, I think every surface of my body hit the marble stairs, and I was in shock. At the same time, I felt the situation was ridiculously humorous. I needed a minute to catch my breath, but after made sure documented the whole situation. The security guard who had yelled at us a minute earlier was now super sympathetic and walked me
down to get ice for my arms which were at the time the most painful part of my body. As Ben and I walked down the rest of the stairs (Ben in front just in case I fell again) I was switching an ice pack onto either arm to prevent swelling. In the end, I looked like a ridiculous tourist, but at least I have a funny story!
After our trip up, and our more adventurous trip down, Ben and I headed to get some lunch. We ended up at cute little place on the side of the road which we chose because of the type of beer they carried. Apparently, on the Simpson's (the television show) there is a certain type of beer that the dad drinks. Ben noticed in this little sandwich shop that they actually carried this thought to be fictional type of beer...we HAD to eat there. We sat and enjoyed the beautiful day outside with our paninis. Pisa, being a city in Italy, automatically has bunches of people trying to sell you things on the street. A man walked up to us as we were eating and tried to sell us African jewelry. This would
not have been worth mentioning except for the fact that while we were sitting there, a crazy old Italian man came up and started talking to him and suddenly grabbed all of his jewelry and tried to break it! The Italian man continued to yell at the vendor, and all in all, it was quite a scene to watch....Italians are quite passionate.
The only other thing left to see after the tower was the Duomo (church with a dome) right beside the tower. Inside it was marvelous. Beautiful ceilings, statues, and mosaics all inside made it wonderful. We spent some time roaming inside the church, just enjoying its splendor. Afterwards we headed into unknown territory in the city just to get lost for a little while. While lost, we conveniently found a gelateria and thoroughly enjoyed a lovely cone of gelato. As we ate our wonderful snack, we ventured back towards the center to buy some souvenirs. Of course, being in Italy, fake bags, sunglasses, and watches were everywhere. Ben decided that it was time he owned a Rolex, and my Prada bag from the last time I visited Italy was wearing thin. In the end, we decided to splurg
with the illegal vendors on the street.
After a fun filled day of climbing, falling, eating, and buying, we headed back to our hotel, still tired from the lack of sleep from the previous night. We hung out and watched some crazy Italian TV until it was time for bed. Besides, this was only the first leg of our journey...the next morning, we had a train to catch to Florence.
Ciao!
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