Hello my darlings! I am finally (sort-of) catching up to "real time"! Which only means that I will need to start doing more exciting things so I have something to blog about! Who knew that this blog would serve as an impetus for italian/european adventures! Or that I'd need it?! (I don't).
But -- Pisa and Lucca! We decided to do both in one day mainly because no one wanted to spend a whole day in Pisa. It is requisite that all travelers to Italy see the leaning tower, but other than that Pisa is kinda a hole. I'm sorry but it is what it is! And Lucca is a little baby town, but a hidden Tuscan gem. So as Joey would say, "put your hands together..."(but instead your hands hold Pisa and Lucca, not jam and...you know).
Also this trip was special because it was the first trip that all five friends (Caroline, Jenn, Jess, Kate, and ME) went on together! We (C, J, and C) got up early and walked over the bridge to collect the cousins, and then headed towards the train station. Luckily Pisa is only an hour away by train, and Lucca is about halfway between Pisa and Florence on the way back. Another plus? Tickets to Pisa from Florence hover somewhere around 6 euro. Sweet!
We all got on the train...and then promptly passed out. When we awoke an hour later,we scooted off the train, grabbed a cappuccino, and headed towards the tower. As I said earlier (in less flattering terms), Pisa is not the cutest place. Not because the architecture is ugly, or the city is sprawling or anything, it's more the whole place just looks run down. Graffiti everywhere, vagrants on corners selling cheap crap, creepy people...I'm probably making it sounds worse than it is. Really, the biggest deterrent from visiting Pisa? It's boring. That is until you get to the tower, and accompanying cathedral and baptistery. Set out on a green field outside the city center, the whole thing is certainly picturesque. The architecture of the tower et al. is gorgeous. My sister commented that she thought the Pisa Duomo is one of the most beautiful she's ever seen, and I am inclined to agree. Here is a pic so you can decide yourself:
We saw the tower, some of us did the (un)necessary "holding the tower up" picture, and then headed towards the Cathedral. It is possible to go inside the tower itself, but apparently its pretty expensive and not necessarily worth it (like many other things you climb: the Space Needle, Statue of Liberty, St. Louis Arch, etc). The cathedral was spacious, beautiful...a nice church essentially. I really wanted to go in the baptistery because the building was just so pretty, but if I've learned anything in Italy it is that baptistery's are often much more glamorous from the outside from the inside. So, we just admired it from afar and then we were done with Pisa! Off to Lucca!
Lucca is and was the ying to Pisa's yang. The village is CUTE kids. Its quiet too...and strangely full of Britains. There were also an obscene amount of churches - if the word "obscene" can ever be applied to churches. But whatever, the streets were wide(ish) and tree lined (mostly) and best of all, they had a WALL! Now ever since the ridiculously wonderful wall walk my family went on around Dubrovnik (GO!! DO IT NOW!!!), I have had a love for all things wall. Lucca was no exception, in fact it was exceptional (bahaha). Minus, of course, the couples making-out every couple yards. And I am not exaggerating -- literally every couple yards. It was like some smoosh-smoosh regulator had gone and marked where each little kissy-face couple should go. But make-out mountain aside, we sat up on the wall and relaxed and threatened to push each other off -- all that good stuff. It was a good day!
Cheerio! xxx
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