Onward and Westward!

From Florence we continued on to Pisa in our little black Ford Focus, carefully avoiding the expensive Superhighway marked on our map in blue. Despite taking the long way round, the drive was short, but unfortunately once we hit the outskirts of town we began to get lost. A few wrong exits, a few wrong turns, and we were pretty flustered. Finally we got some directions in very broken Italiglish and figured things out. When we arrived in the city, a chilly drizzle had begun to fall, but we piled excitedly out of the car to find The Leaning Tower (or, more correctly,The Tower of Pisa in the Piazza del Duomo) nonetheless.

We had parked the car near the bus station, and decided to seek guidance within. However, the lady behind the counter was less than thrilled to direct us, no maps were available and the Information Center she attempted to send us to was closed. Instead we did some clever manouvering, finding a map posted on a wall, photographing it and using the photo on my camera's screen as a map.

As we walked along the route, we unexpectedly and happily stumbled upon a GIGANTIC Keith Haring wall. Haring is one of my all time favorite artists, so this was nothing short of gasp-worthy for me. I stood in front of it, mouth gaping and entirely flushed with excitement, while the rain started to pour down on us. It was a really significant moment for me; the fact that we just happened to walk down this particular alleyway (it wasn't even a street, it was an alleyway!) and there happened to be a massive Haring mural was pretty flipping epic. After a few minutes appreciation and loads of photos, it was on to the final destination, the tower.

Along the way we encountered a book fair which was surrounded by plywood walls covered with really cool paintings. The book fair itself was inside of an open air market structure, whose vaulted ceilings were supported by wide rectangular columns with a floor and stairs made of grey marble.

After looking at our map and getting a better idea of our intended direction while under that shelter, we began to move on. We walked along the River Arno, encountering the beautiful, elegant and surprisingly tiny Gothic style church of Santa Maria della Spina. This delicate looking and ornate house of worship was originally built in the 1200's but was moved to higher ground to evade a threat of flooding in 1871. (Thanks wiki.)










Next we crossed a bridge over the Arno, and passed by the Orto Botanico de Pisa, which is Europe's oldest University botanical garden. We approached the Piazza del Duomo and saw in front of us the famous Leaning Tower, shrouded in a grey mist. It was unfortunate for my photographic purposes that we arrived in encroaching darkness and a thin drizzle. Most of my photos are fairly grainy and underexposed, as unfortunately I don't have a tripod.

After seeing the tower and taking the requisite silly/cheesy tourist pictures, we were headed back by bus to the place where we parked our car. After momentary panic and subsequent directions from a grandfatherly policeman conveniently situated steps from where we parked, we found the location of the hostel we had booked the previous day so as to avoid the Florence issue of having no place to stay. We checked into our hostel, ready to sleep as long as possible in order to wake up at 5 am the next morning for the journey to Rome.