The Leaning Tower

I am so lucky that my program in Florence is scheduled to give the students plenty of travel time.  I have really been able to explore Italy as well as take weekend trips to other countries.  One of my "must-do" trips was a day in Pisa to visit the Leaning Tower.

Much to my surprise, this thing actually leans.  How it's still standing is incredible, and I was nervous the whole time I was there that it was going to come crashing down.  I'm not really sure what the architects were thinking when they made it, but it makes for a really cool and unique site at the very least.  I didn't climb the tower (I had enough climbing two domes and mountains in Cinque Terre!) but just looking at it and taking cliche photos of the tower was good enough for me.

Leaning Tower of Pisa - Pisa, Italy

Unfortunately most of my pictures are too close-up to see how much this structure is leaning toward the ground.  If you look at the base of the structure though, you can see how off it is.  There isn't much to the city of Pisa other than this tower - a lot of typical shops I've seen in other Italian cities and tourist type restaurants.  We combined Pisa and Lucca into one trip in an afternoon and it was the perfect amount of time.  A lot of fellow students had told me it wasn't worth my time going, but I think it certainly was just to say I've seen this tower!

Julia and I in Pisa, Italy

Of course we had to stop for quite a while and make sure we had the perfect tourist pictures!  These two are some of my favorites from the day.  The great thing about Florence besides the food, art, and culture, is it's central location within the country which provides easy ability to take day trips such as this one.  Pisa isn't a place I'd make the effort to return to, but I'm really glad I went.

Arrivaderci,

Adrienne