Pisa

Our trip to Pisa was short and sweet. The town of Pisa is about an hour drive from Florence so we stopped there for lunch and a photo op on the way home. The tower is located in a town kind of in the middle of nowhere close to the coast. There are a few things to do and see there- a small museum, the cathedral and baptistry dating from the 1100s- but being tired and ashamedly uninterested we did the lazy tourist thing and skipped all of it.

Parking is about a 15 minute walk away from the church complex which is inside the old walled city limits of Pisa. Being a walled city there are only a few ways in and out and (naturally) we walked the wrong way around through the car entrance. Here there were few vendors and a few eateries. 

Here's a pic of the cathedral, baptistry with the tower being all like, "Hey guys, I'm over here!"

The reason for the pit stop was not our personal interest but at the request of my niece for her Flat Stanley project. My expectations were low because honestly, I thought the whole idea was boring and lame. Whoopdie do, a leaning tower! But if you promise not to tell anyone, I'll let you in on a little secret: it's actually kind of cool. Once you get up close to it the 11 feet of lean to the building looks like a whole lot more and more than once I looked up wondering if it was going to fall over on me.

Contruction began on this freestanding bell tower in 1173 and within a few years it began leaning. The architects did not realize the ground here, close to the coast, was soft unlike further inland where the ground was hard and rocky.

I will say the weather was beautiful, even if HB was tired and cranky and having none of the pictures we were trying to take except this one:

He enjoyed people watching from a cafe across the street but once he was done eating he started freaking out for his nap. Yes, I am blessed with a child who freaks out if he can't nap on time. While we never have to fight him to go to bed, this also means we can't ever skip a nap for convenience's sake.

On our way out of the city we left from the main tourist entrance. Walking this way was like stepping through a minefield. There were tons of carts full off nick-knacks, which was fine, but the solo peddlers were the worst. They stood in groups, mostly comprised of large African men taller than Zack who is 6'4" but some sorter men and a few women and kids as well. They stood a few feet apart from each other so we literally had to zig zag between them. They didn't move except when would step into our path more than once I felt like we were being assessed and targeted. We moved quickly and made it out unmolested, spending less than two hours at this iconic locale.