On the day we arrived in Florence we actually dropped our stuff off at the hotel and immediately took a train to Pisa. I had planned to do things a bit differently, but once we were on the ground in the area this is what made the most sense to us and so we went for it. I was listening to the first Hunger Games book at the time, and found myself not-so-secretly glad that we had several hours of sitting around doing nothing on a train between Florence and Pisa. TH chose to sleep, but how could I close my eyes for a moment with Katniss running around the arena evading her fellow competitors?

Poor Pisa! They are really fighting a losing battle when it comes to preserving the grass around the Leaning Tower. And we are certainly just as guilty as everyone else, stepping right out to take the overdone “I’m holding up the tower” pictures. As I am normally against doing what everyone else is doing because it’s the cool thing, That Husband was puzzled by my insistence that this picture is an absolutely essential part of any Pisa trip.

I really, really am not a fan of how I look in this picture, but the story behind it is sweet. I wanted a picture of the two of us together, and so I did my usual thing, scanning the crowd for a fellow dSLR owner. The guy I chose was a fellow Canon user who not only flipped my camera into manual and set the settings himself (I admit, this made me a little nervous in case he didn’t know what he was doing) but he walked around the tower for us to find a good spot that wouldn’t be backlit. It was really kind!

I call this: The Shrinking Tower of Pisa

Our visit was short, but perfect for us. We got off the train, walked toward the tower, ate lunch, ate gelato, walked the grounds while listening to a free podcast on the history, and went back to Florence again.

As usual, I was on the hunt to avoid all tourist-trap style eateries with big sandwich board signs out front advertising their food with pictures. We wandered the streets with bellies grumbling until we found Osteria Culegna in a little alley. I wouldn’t rate it as anything particularly special, but it wasn’t awful either. The waitress was rather fiery, and laughed openly at my attempts to order in Italian (in a good-natured way!) but my Risotto con Zucchini was cooked well, and if you want a really hearty dish you can order the Tortello al Ragu like TH.

But nobody goes to Pisa for the food anyway, right?

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