When we saw everything in Florence for the day, we took a train to Pisa and stayed the night there! It was really beautiful. As soon as we checked in and dropped off our bags, we went out exploring to go see the Piazza del Duomo at night!
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| Il Duomo Cattedrale |
The cathedral, baptistery and bell tower were all light up. It was really spectacular to come around the corner and see the tower lining the night sky!
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| Bell tower (aka Leaning Tower of Pisa) |
We ate supper at a small, local place and headed back to our hotel where we had...salami, cheese and wine from Florence!! Kyle was determined to go into a really nice deli to find some salami to take home and we also got a small sample for us to try for the night. We ended up getting salami piccante and salami with truffle oil along with some herb crusted cheese. Unfortunately, they threw away the salami when he went through customs...
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Wine, cheese with herbs, and salami with truffle oil
What a way to end the night! |
The next morning, we found out when the church opened, ate our breakfast and were on our way!
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Breakfast of champions-cappuccino,
tomatoes, mozzarella, and salami with cheese! |
The piazza definitely looks very different during the day and was filled with people!
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| Cathedral and bell tower |
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| Baptistery |
The building next door sold tickets to visit the different areas in the church and we were lucky and got one of the next times to go up the tower with just enough time to see the baptistery first.
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Model of Il Duomo with
the baptistery, tower, cloister and city wall |
This baptistery is the largest in Italy and shows the transition between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The lower course is Romanesque and the upper courses are Gothic.
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| Interior of the baptistery |
Both the interior and the exterior are clad in marble, however, the interior has very little decoration.
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| Pulpit |
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| Camera hole in the screen for pictures |
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| Looking down on the baptistery |
Next, we went to the magnificent tower so we could climb up!
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| Torre di Pisa |
The 296 steps seemed like a piece of cake when compared to the trek we made the day before.
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| Years of wear on the stairs |
Climbing up was quite the experience-each time we changed sides of the tower, we leaned a different way. You could even see the wear path on the stairs move from the inside to the outside walls of the tower. The marble was also worn down about two or more inches in some places from all of the people who have climbed them over the years.
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| View of Pisa |
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| View of cloister |
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If you look closely, you can see our
shadows in the picture-we're the
blob off to the right! |
The views were absolutely amazing!
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| Cathedral and baptistery |
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| We made it to the top! |
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| Some of the bells! |
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Part of the structure that was added
to help keep the tower stable |
When we finally made it down from the tower, it was time to visit the cathedral!
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| Elaborate bronze doors |
The cathedral was started in 1064 and wasn't finished until 1118.
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| Elaborately decorated pulpit |
The first major renovations happened in 1595 after a fire destroyed many elements in the church.
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| Left transept |
There were beautiful paintings all along the aisles and while we were there, two men were cleaning the marble of the altar with steam.
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| This makes for an awfully nice leaning post :) |
We had to try out attempts at 'touching' the tower...
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| Let me just try and straighten this out... |
Our trip to Pisa was definitely worth it. After grabbing our bags from the hotel, it was time to catch the train back for a relaxing afternoon in Rome!
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| River Arno running through Pisa |
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