Pisa!

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Finally back to blogging! After another failed attempt to make a timely entry, here I am a week later writing about last week’s adventure. Last week, my roommates and I took a day trip to Pisa and learned that there really isn’t a whole lot to do there besides check out that leaning tower. In fact, Pisa smells pretty bad if I do say so myself. After wandering around probably the entire city we finally found the tower, and I had to laugh because the first thing I noticed was all the people scattered across the lawn doing the same pose. And that’s exactly what we came to do! We had to take the classic pictures pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa because a trip to Italy would be incomplete without it. After doing that for a little while, the four other girls I was with (my two roommates, Abby and Claire, our friend Gabby also from St. Bonaventure, and her roommate) decided we should go to the top of the tower. Great, I don’t like heights so let’s just climb to the top of an extremely tall building, that’s just my idea of fun... But I figured I’d probably never come back to Pisa again so I had to just sac up (pardon the expression) and do it. It really was a climb-at-your-own-risk kind of adventure. The stairs inside are steep and slippery, and beginning to erode away from the millions of people who have climbed it already, so you really have to watch your step. Finally, we reached the first observation deck area which I quickly realized, to my dismay, was not the top. On this level, you’re right next to these huge bells, because as my dad informed me, the Tower of Pisa was apparently built to be a bell tower. Anyways, now it was time to go to the top. To get there, I had to climb up these even steeper, even more slippery winding steps that I had no clue how we would possibly ever be able to get back down. The first thing I realized when I actually reached the top is how far from the ground I was, it was terrifying. But as long as I didn’t look down, the view was amazing. You could see for miles, past the city of Pisa to the mountains of Italy. It really was incredible. Then it was time to get back down. Needless to say, once we very carefully made it down the scary stairs to the easy part, I was booking it to the bottom. I’m surprised I didn’t kiss the ground when I ran out of the tower. As scary as it was though, I’m glad I did it. The view was definitely worth it.

After visiting the tower, we went to this cute little restaurant where we all got some kind of pasta (surprise surprise…) and then went across the street to get crepes! We all shared some crepes and waffles with nutella on them and it was SO good. I’ve found there isn’t as much variety as I’m used to in my diet over here, but whatever I do eat is always pretty delicious (hmmm maybe I should start a food blog…). After we ate, we walked the streets of Pisa (which had some cute little places to shop) and made our way back to the train station and took that back to Perugia. I’d say it was a pretty successful day. Recently Abby, Claire, and I have started planning our future trips which I’m so excited about and I’m sure I’ll be able to write lots about! Next weekend we’re making our way to Florence which should be really beautiful! Till then – arrivederci!!

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Photos

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Me holding up the tower!

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Getting ready to climb

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View from the top

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View from the top