Piece of Pisa

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We're glad to be back in Europe, and Italy! But all I can think about is returning to my adopted home, Rome. Perhaps I'm anxious about arriving in the city that I fell in love with two years ago, perhaps I was grumpy because of all my Moroccan things I had to lug around, but I felt so-so about Pisa. All we really did after we landed was go to the tower, snap a few fun photos, and trudge painfully back to the train station thanks to my awkward and heavy bag of Moroccan goods, which of all the things I bought in Morocco did not include a belt, sadly enough.

It wasn't a complete waste of time, but I can't say that I would have gone out of my way to see Pisa. I really don't understand how the Leaning Tower of Pisa is so well known. Along with the Colosseum, it's on nearly every single pizza box from a non-chain restaurant I know. It's iconic, and very emblematic of Italy. Ask anyone to name a few things they know about Italy and it's bound to come up. Yet the town is quite small, and in my opinion, passable. It would be a good day trip from Firenze, maybe, and it's convenient to fly into, but to climb the tower is expensive (15 euros!) and it's not really leaning that much any more. Oh well, c'est la vie.

So that's Pisa. We didn't really do a whole lot to warrant more words. I'm also very excited for Rome. It'll be interesting to return after 2 years. I hope it is exactly what I have built it up in my mind, and that I haven't been loving the city for reasons that are based on softening memories that tend to dull the bad parts rather than true sentiment. We shall see!

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