[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 19 April 2015]
29 October 2014, Wednesday
It’s Day 5 and today, we would be making a short trip to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, one of the sights I was most excited about. Since young, looking at my parents’ photos of the Leaning Tower when they visited it in the 1980s, I have always wanted to see it for myself. Does it really lean as much as it appears in the photos? There’s only one way to find out!
To get to Pisa, we took a regional train from Firenze S.M. Novella station. The ride takes just one hour and a one-way ticket costs 8 Euros. You don’t have to book tickets beforehand – just purchase it at the train station on the day of departure. However, you MUST validate your ticket at the train station before it departs, or risk incurring a fine. How do I know? Because we learned it the hard way!
We arrived at the station just in time for the 8:30am train, and after buying our tickets, we ran to the departure platform and hopped on just as it was about to pull off. As such, we did not have time to validate our tickets, nor did we see the validating booth before we boarded. As the train departed, we thought we could still get it done on board, but we did not see any validating booth on the train. So we just sat at our seats and we thought everything was ok.
As it turned out, they were being serious when they said that tickets must be validated. About 15 minutes into our journey, a train attendant showed up and checked our tickets. When I tried to explain why we didn’t validate our tickets, he did not accept my explanation and fined us 5 Euros each! That’s a pricey lesson. So yeah, let me reiterate – you MUST validate your ticket before boarding!
We arrived at Stazione Pisa Centrale at about 9:30am. From there, we took a leisurely stroll via Corso Italia to the Leaning Tower, about 1.8km away. The street was flanked by shops on both sides, with chain stores like H&M and many more. We also came across an indoor flea market and stopped by for a while, indulging in a spot of shopping. We then crossed the Ponte di Mezzo bridge over Fiume Arno (the same Arno River in Florence) to the other side, approaching the Leaning Tower from Via Cardinale Maffi Pietro.
As I caught my first view of the Leaning Tower and gradually walked towards it, the first thought that came to my mind was that it looked much shorter than I imagined it to be. Even though it stands at about 56m tall, the 8-storey white marble tower appears diminutive and a bit unreal. It isn’t hard to imagine it as an oversized wedding cake. I think it is because the height of each floor is higher than normal, so where there can be about 15 storeys in a building of similar height, the Leaning Tower only has 8 storeys, so it appears like a miniature model, like an optical illusion.
To answer my question of whether the Leaning Tower leans as much as it appears in the photos, it is a resounding yes. It was quite amazing to see the tower leaning 3.97 degrees from the vertical. We spent a good 30 minutes taking photos with the tower, from every angle possible.
The Leaning Tower is not the only prominent building here at Piazza del Duomo, Pisa. Besides the Tower (Torre), the square also contains a Cathedral (Cattedrale), Baptistery (Battistero) and the Camposanto. The well-manicured green lawns, coupled with the clear blue sky, provided a beautiful backdrop on this fine sunny October day.
We finally left the area at about 11:30am and headed back towards the train station. Along the way, we grabbed a gelato (it was sweltering hot) before catching the 1pm train back to Florence. This time, we did remember to validate our tickets before boarding. Once bitten, twice shy.
Back in Florence, we had lunch at the same restaurant the day before, the one just below our apartment. I had lasagna while mum had a Hawaiian pizza and dad had a chicken cutlet. It was yummy. We then spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around the streets of Florence, shopping and soaking in the sights at our own pace. I also bought a leather business bag that I had eyed the night before. I paid 60 Euros for it, and dad said that I could have bargained harder, since it was a pushcart stall and not a proper shop, so he believed that it should be cheaper. Nevertheless, I was very pleased with my purchase and I felt it was a fair amount for the workmanship and quality.
At the recommendation of the housekeeper Christina, we went to Piazzale Michelangelo to see the sunset. From the city centre, we crossed the Ponte alle Grazie bridge over to the other side of the Arno River, and walked a short distance and climbed some stairs up to Piazzale Michelangelo. It is a hugely popular destination because it offers a panoramic view of Florence, and true enough, it was packed with tourists.
By 6pm, darkness had fallen, so we took a bus back to the city. We then spent the rest of the night window shopping, grabbing another stick of ice-cream at my favourite shop before finally calling it a night. We had spent a good two days in Florence and we enjoyed every bit of it. Tomorrow, we’d be leaving Florence for Venice, very excited!