11/03/2010 Pisa day trip

Coming to Italy, it’d be really silly to miss visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa. However, the little town of Pisa doesn’t really have much to offer except for the Piazza dei Miracoli which the tower is situated in. Nevertheless, we decided to give it half a day.

Arrived in Pisa at about noon from Florence. The train ride costed only 5.70 Euros. Cheap and fast.

 We visited San Paolo a Ripa d’Arno first.

Just in front of the chuch is the River Arno with it’s great view. At this point in time, the average daily temperature has risen significantly compared to when we just arrived in Italy. There was abundant sun.

We walked along the river and reached Santa Maria della Spina

This was taken on a bridge just in front of Santa Maria della Spina.

 

On the other side of the river, we wandered about for a while. There were lots of tourists around the town. Eventually, we started moving towards the main attraction in the town.

Piazza dei Miracoli with Leaning Tower of Pisa behind. It’s called Torre Pendente in Italian.

Best shot of the day by yours truly (I think. I kinda forgot who was taking pictures for who). We were really busy taking pictures and posing.

Shot by Kent Loong. I’m not a good poser, unfortunately. Couldn’t help smiling. Oh well, I was happy!

Awesome view of the place. The wide angle lens introduced some distortion to the tower though.

 

Awesome sunlight.

     Very picturesque place

Surprisingly the place is one of the least packed places I went to in Italy. That’s probably because Pisa is a really small place and the only real attraction is this piazza.

Near the Piazza you find stalls where you can buy alcoholic drinks in bottles shaped like the leaning tower.

Piazza dei Cavalieri with the Ecole Normale Superieure behind

Some strolling around the streets of Pisa before leaving.

It was a good and relaxing visit. But Pisa doesn’t really have as much to offer as Rome, on hindsight. Nevertheless, it was worth it. I mean, 5.70 euros extra to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Well worth the money!

10/03/2010 Florence Day 3 – Day of Roaming

Day 3 in Florence was an extra day because we expected that we’d enter a lot of museums. Instead, we found out that entering all museums would cost us a fortune and entering only a few didn’t take too much time. So in the end we had 1 extra day to roam around.

 Started off by passing by the Tempio Maggiore

Then we passed by Piazza dei Ciompi where there’s the Loggia del Pesce (shown in picture)

We then walked through the flea market.

There were vegetables and fruits on sale

Awesome looking apples

The Basilica di Santa Croce in which you can find funerary monuments of some famous people including Galileo, Niccolo Machiavelli and Michaelangelo. We didn’t enter. Silly us.

Street along the front of the Basilica

Side of National Central Library of Florence

Pizza as usual (2.50 Euros)

Looks awesome. Tastes awesome.

National Central Library of Florence. Me munching away

We arrive at the river again

Ma Jie likes taking photos on random streets

I like Haribo

and pastries

We crossed the river.

Went to Forte Belvedere

Unfortunately it was closed. Somebody had to kill himself and make the police do an investigation.

We walked along Via di San Leonardo and from above the fences on the side you can see this awesome view.

Via di San Leonardo is a really small road and you gotta stand parallel to the wall when cars pass by.

We took a random route

and arrived at the Piazzale Galileo. I took a picture with this lamp post cause it’s interesting and it’s all around Florence.

Piazzale Galileo

We then headed back and walked along Via Nicolo Machiavelli to

this random place where I later found out is called Convitto Ecclesiastico La Calza

We found some cheap and good gelato there

which cost me 3.50 Euros for 3 scoops and a piss in the toilet

We then passed by the entrance to the Boboli Gardens but decided not to go in due to the lack of time and the unsuitably cold weather (probably no flowers).

We also walked by the Palazzo Pitti. Didn’t go in though. Anyway regarding this place, I just saw a post on facebook saying that someone’s money (100 Euros) got stolen by the cloakroom staff here.

Continuing the journey, we crossed the river via Ponte Santa Trinita

and reached Via de’ Tornabuoni

Here I found a shop which aroused my interest

Bang & Olufsen (low value for money but great design)

LV was just around the corner and there were two mannequins, or was there just one?

Had some entertainment at Piazza della Republica

After some strolling, the sky darkened.

We went back to the hotel to play cards, preparing our legs for the long long walk the next day in Pisa.