Sunday, June 15, 2014

Le tour d'Italie: Pisa


Vacation, what a lovely word! Here in France the month of May is somewhat of a short month. There are holidays in which most French people make 'le Pont', which means the bridge. This usually consists of -Thursday (the holiday) and Friday (the day which they took off so that they can have a long weekend)- bridging the gap between Thursday and Friday; therefore 'le pont'... whew.. I hope I didn't complicate the idea with my explaination! During this time some french people decide to work on their homes, relax, or have a small weekend getaway to the closest region or country. We chose the latter.


Surfing the Internet and pinterest we had run into beautiful pictures of Italy which motivated us to move it to the top of the list of places to see. Most specifically, Cinque Terre, Italy. (Which I will talk more about in another post) We had 4 days to explore the area and realized that even though Cinque Terre was the main event we also wanted to take advantage of the other well known cities in the western part of the country. Here comes in Pisa, only 101 km and about an 1h 20m from the main destination we said; what the heck, why not!?


Fortunately, We don't live too far away from Italy we decide to make it a roadtrip! We packed up The car and drove 5.5 hours from Aix en Provence, France to Pisa making it our first stop on this four day cross countries road trip. We decided on Pisa as our first stop since it was the furthest destination we planned on from France. We wanted to start with the furthest and work our way back so that it's not too overwhelming for us in Sunday.


Going into Pisa I was a bit disappointed. Being that I had already been to Rome and Florence(my absolute favorite!) a few years ago, I was expecting to be swept away by a romantic city, but instead I was welcomed by a city with not much to see except the tour of Pisa and its cathedral. I'm usually the kind of wanderer that likes to explore the city and see multiple sights... ya know the active wanderer who wakes up at 8am and wants to be out by 9am because they don't want to miss a thing! Yea.... that's me as annoying as it may seem.


Even though we weren't amazed by Pisa I defintely recommend visiting this city for a few hours if you're on roadtrip mode or as a stop on your way to cinque Terre or Florence.


We can't complain too much, we enjoyed visiting the tower of Pisa, we even gave into doing the touristy things.... you know what I mean ;)


The River Arno


The plaza in the center of Pisa


A really pleasant walk in the park



The entrance to the park



Romantic balcony, we saw many local couples spending quality time here




The Cathedral next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa



The cathedral next to the Leaning tower of Pisa



The intricate details on this door is breath taking; the entrance to the cathedral



A nice view of how much the Tower of Pisa is actually leaning



Oh yes being a typical tourist, do you catch anything funny in this picture?



What can I say.... when in Pisa do as the tourists do :)



the tower is really breath taking! I'm glad I got the opportunity to see it in person


I hope you enjoyed the pictures! See you in our next adventure!

Bisous,

R

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