Pisa, Italy
Saturday, July 14, 2007
The rest of our time in Rome was
divine, the last night there we decided to do a recommended night walk and dinner based on the guide book I was using. It's a Rick Steves Italy guide...and it's fabulous! The only thing it really leaves out is the ''young night life scene''..but I'm too old for that anyway, right? HA. No, really though, this book is great for suggestions and little tidbits you'd want to know. I haven't really been using a guide book at all on this trip, except Kacie's Lonely Planet Western Europe book, which I left at an internet cafe in Paris...whoops, sorry friend. Anyway, it was fantastic, the minute I got to Rome I met 2 girls from Seattle who had just toured most of Italy and Rome was the last stop. They gave me GREAT advice, such as book the museums in Florence in advance, and also how to get my tickets to the colosseum without standing in the line...which they learned of from the guide. They were leaving Italy, so they offered to leave the book with me, which has become my best friend since
. So ANYWAY, we go this FANTASTIC restaurant in Campo di Fiore called La Carbonara. It wasn't ridiculously expensive, but it was probably the nicest restaurant on the square. The portions were small, but I appreciate that. What I had was so great though, believe it or not it was an eggplant dish (I know mom, can you believe it?), but again, food was great, up there with the tapas in San Sebastian. We took off on a walk by the Piazza Navona, and then on to the Pantheon, which is actually closed at night, but still a view from the outside. We walked a little further and hit at the Trevi fountain, which is really a must see in Rome. I didn't see it in the day, but spectacular at night, and a very decent crowd, most notably of Italian men looking for tourist girlfriends. Atleast that's what I gathered. We ended the walk at the Spanish Steps in the Piazza Spagna, which we hopped a cab the minute we got there. late and tired. Warning though: you will fear your death in a cab in Rome, they drive as if they're trying to run you into a wall. We made it ok though.
So yeah, I titled this blog day trip and Pisa because that's what we decided to do the next day. It was kind of impulse since our destination and hostel for the night was in Florence, but it was a great idea. We headed to Pisa around noon, which was about a 2 hour train ride, spent a few hours there, then hopped the hour ride over to Florence. I loved Pisa though. The only thing to really see is what they call the ''Field of Miracles", which is a beautiful piece of land which houses 4 or 5 monuments of the same material, including the leaning tower of Pisa...which was just how I imagined it. There is a church, baptistry, long funeral Hall, and the Tower, which all glow in the white 'marble' material they were made from giving the whole scene a magnificent visual unity. I couldn't help but picure what may have looked like the White City in Chicago World Fair as depicted in the book "devil in the white city''. Because it was just that, a white city. We went into everything but the tower, only because it was 15 Euro to climb the tower, which seems Pisa takes full advantage of the only tourist trap it has...but not worth it to me. It was enought just to marvel at how dramatically it actually leans! and taking pictures of us holding up the tower, suprising entertaining as well:)
Like mentioned, we moved on later in the day to Florence....where I have to start a new blog so I can have a new map pin mark, so check out the next page...
