Feb 7, 2009 - Pisa & Terrania

Natalia's boyfriend's mom's best friend Julie (haha) lives just outside of Pisa in a coastal town called Terrania. Natalia was told that we had to visit so she called Julie Friday night after we got back from Siena. When Natalia inquired about possible dates to come visit, Julie suggested tomorrow. We hopped on a train Saturday morning to Pisa and arrived around 11am. We found signs immediately pointing towards the leaning tower so we followed. On the way, we crossed the Arno and found the cutest Church, Chiesa della Spina, literally in...

Dec 26, 2008 - Pisa

It has been so foggy and cloudy so Shannon wished for wind overnight to blow the fog away. Would you believe it- her wish came true! The wind blew so hard last night we couldn't sleep for the howling! On the up side, it is much clearer outside today. Very cold though! We have been having trouble withdrawing money over the public holidays but were finally able to get some today, so we feel much better now. We bought some more train tickets and headed off for Pisa. It was only an hour long trip, but the train was almost empty which was...

Nov 23, 2008 - Pisa

Monday November 10th We decide to head out to Pisa before going to Venice since it is only an hour outside of Florence. We get there take the funny pictures and then have lunch and then go back to the train station so we can get on our way. Well apparently the Italians like to go on strike and we cannot get another train out of Pisa until like 4 in the afternoon! Pisa is a small town and so we decide to just walk around and see it all. Well we find this bike thing for rent. it is a four person bike and it is set up like Fred Flinstones car...

Aug 16, 2008 - europe '08' - Pisa

Arrived in Pisa around 7pm. First impressions of Pisa were a bit mixed. It seemed very quiet and there were alot of gangs hanging around. As we hadn't booked a hotel anywhere, that was the first thing to sort out. We headed for the tourist information office to look for cheap hotels in the area however, being a sunday EVERYTHING was closed so we would just have to wander around till we found one. Thankfully this didn't proove to be too difficult as the first place we came to had free rooms at 25euros each! BOSH! After settling into our...

Jul 14, 2008 - Pisa

Today we took a side trip to Pisa. It is only a short train ride from Florence. We took the required pictures of us holding up the tower, but could not get in as it was a seven hour wait!!! Sometimes it pays to plan ahead. We were hoping to get lucky as we did at the Louvre where we walked right in. Oh, well. It was fun to see and lunch was fantastic. House wine here is cheap and quite good. We have had our second trip to our favorite gelato place in Florence (the chocolate orange was as good as advertised.) Tomorrow we will go into the...

Jun 6, 2008 - Pisa

Last time I visited Pisa, we only stopped to see the leaning tower. I thought surely there must be more in this town since it has such a beautiful square that the leaning tower is in, but I am here to inform you that there is nothing else in Pisa! Ah well it was too late to continue the drive to Sienna anyway. As at all the major sites we have visited the tower had scaffolding and a crane on it, but what can you do. Willy was a spoil sport and wouldn’t get a photo trying to hold it up..... or licking it as we saw some other people...

Jun 3, 2008 - Pisa

We finished out our bus tour (24 hour tickets) and ended up at a cute little historical town further above the city called Fiesole. The bus stopped for 10 minutes so we took some pictures and called it good. We got off our bus at the train station, took the 1230p to Pisa which was about an hour jaunt, bought a city map and hiked to the leaning tower. The Campo dei Miracoli is a court/plaza where all the structures are built entirely of marble from the 11th – 15th century…amazing! They only allow 38 people every hour in the leaning tower, so...

May 19, 2008 - Pisa!

Thom on th keyboard here: Firstly, the hotel that we stayed in in Pisa was very swanky, and fairly moderately prices also. We came to the leaning tower, saw the leaning tower, climbed the leaning tower (and Meg was incredably brave!) and took a picture from the top. Then we went next door to the Babtistry of Pisa which is built like a giant amplifier. This building has the best acoustics of any building in the world (according to the Italians) and THEY LET ME PLAY MY PENNYWHISTLE INSIDE!!!! It was fantastic! It sounded as if I was a whole...

Feb 6, 2008 - Firenze to Pisa

This was to be a big day as we travelled from Firenze over the Appenine Range to Bologna then Padova and finally Venezia (Venice). I woke up feeling like absolute shit... A bout of the flu that made me feel miserable for the day. We headed off to Pisa first thing to check out the Leaning tower. Wonderful experience and Robyn and I even paid the 15 Euros each to climb the tower. I'd have to say it was worth it. At least then most of the day was spent travelling in the bus so I could sleep off some of the flu. We finally stopped at Padova...

Jan 25, 2008 - Climbing Trees On Towers.

Day 16. Friday 1/25. Firenze, Pisa and Lucca, Italia 6:30 was way too early this morning. And then my straightener quit working, wouldn't even turn on. I might have said a few choice words while I was thinking it was too early in the trip for this to be happening, especially to something so expensive. Grr. We all left the apartment with wild hair and consoled ourselves with McDonald's breakfast. Too bad that didn't work so well either. In Italy McD's doesn't believe in biscuit breakfast sandwiches, so I settled for a mcmuffin. They did...

Jan 8, 2008 - Missing Entries

Some of you keen journal observers may have noticed a gaping hole in our journal entries between Italy and Netherlands due to lack of computer access, and we will now fill you in on those missing installments: 1) Austria Following Our Venitian adventures we headed to Innsbruck, Austria. Whilst there we stayed at a hotel above a cafe - choclatier. At Innsbruck we saw some local Christmas markets, went skiing, and saw some local sights like the Alpenzoo and the Bergisel Ski Jump. We also were graced with a day trip to Slazburg were we saw an...

Dec 12, 2007 - Pisa

We visited Pisa yesterday. It was pretty cool, a quait little university town. We cwalked through the cobbled streets until all of a sudden there it was, the Leaning Tower! It is so different seeing it in real life, it leans so much (about 4.1 meters) We climbed to the top, about 300 steps each way, which was pretty awesome to look down over the town.