7/30: Pizza in Pisa

One of the great aspects of travel in Italy is how accessible the many wonderful towns and cities are--both geographically, and financially due to the relatively cheap cost of train tickets. We appreciated these factors several times during our honeymoon, and the morning of July 30th was one of them. We awoke in Vernazza, ate brioche and coffee for breakfast, then packed for the day with plans to see the world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa!

At the train station we purchased tickets for Pisa Centrale, via the city of La Spezia to the south of us. We departed Vernazza at 12:45pm, and arrived in Pisa at 2:30--what an easy trip!

ABOVE: Niccola Pisano, namesake of the city of Pisa

At the Pisa station, we lingered just long enough for me to glance at a city map. The route to the Leaning Tower was direct straight through Pisa from the station, so we set out through the city.

After crossing a muddy-looking river that ran through the center of town, we stopped only to buy some pizza for lunch on our trek, carrying it with us on the go. Our jaunt took maybe fifteen minutes from the station before we found ourselves at the Piazza del Duomo, where the Tower was located.

ABOVE: The muddy river
(aka The Arno, or "The most important river of central Italy beside the Tiber")

There it was! The Tower was almost surreal to behold after seeing only photos or drawings of it throughout our lives, but it was amazing to see it standing there, sunken into the ground with its too-extreme-to-still-be-standing lean.

ABOVE: The gated entrance to the Piazza, with the Leaning Tower, and Cathedral behind it.

Tourists of course were everywhere gawking in similar fashion to us, and we were objectively annoyed by nearly EVERYONE’S insistence on capturing the cliché “holding up the Tower” pose. We opted instead for a more original—but still goofy—photo op: Eating pizza in front of Pisa. Get it?

ABOVE: Visual pun. Get it? GET IT?!

The Tower is actually what’s called the campanile, or bell tower, of the Piazza del Duomo. The Piazza itself was quite a large area, comprised of a giant town square with the Cathedral, Tower, and Baptistry.

ABOVE: Cathedral & Tower

ABOVE: Baptistry

The Tower is 184 feet high, and the lean we saw was actually improved from its worst state a couple decades ago. The lean used to be 5.5 degrees, though it’s now only 4. Still, that means that the tip of the Tower is displaced nearly 13 FEET from where it should be if the structure were perfectly vertical. Wowsers.

ABOVE: The sunken base of the Tower. Crazy.

Annie and I also thought the Baptistry had a slight sinking angle to it, but there were no signs indicating such and a later hunt online for validation proved fruitless. We didn’t enter the Tower, Cathedral or Baptistry, because all three structures charged for tickets separately. We appreciated their beauty and uniqueness plenty from the outside, and enjoyed the sun in the Piazza for a while before we set out to retrace our path to the train station—of course stopping on the way to buy Annie some more gelato.

The train rides back to Vernazza were hot with little air circulation in the cabins, so I in particular was craving a cold beer upon our return. We bought some Brie and bread at the local market, broke out a couple beers, and enjoyed our late-afternoon repast along the waterfront.

ABOVE: Italy also boasts beautiful fields of sunflowers, viewed easily from your train window.

Returning “home,” we grabbed relaxing showers before descending waterside again to scope out a dinner location. Annie chose gnocchi al pesto, and I went with lasagna alla bolognese. A delicious carafe of Cinque Terre wine washed it all down.

In the main plaza of town a band began playing, so we bought gelato for Annie and a beer for me before gathering with the crowd to listen. We enjoyed several numbers, finished off our respective desserts, then traipsed home with another satisfying day of Italian adventure under our belts.

July 30 Pisa Album:

Pisa: July 30, 2011