Pizza in Pisa | Pisa, Italy

Pisa, Italy: This place was Amazing; Clock Tower near river

Pisa is beautiful, but is definitely a one day stop. I left Florence early because I had finished everything I wanted to see. Here's a tip for people traveling in Italy. Don't buy your tickets unitl you are ready to leave. When planning your trip pick out what train you want then check the times after it because more than likely one train will run late and you will have to take these later trains. Remember to validate your ticket before getting on the train because you will get a �50 fine if they catch you without that little stamp from the machine. Florence to Pisa trains run every hour and only cost �5 so if your in Florence for a couple of days then hit Pisa and just spend like 4 hours there. 4 hours is seriously all you will need. The town is beautiful and quiet, but the tower in definitely the main attraction. The was no other art meuseums or anything that I wanted to see so I just hung out at the Campo de Miracoldi all day. When I arrived there at night, I was tired but wanted to see the tower at night. The hike is nice and especially at night. The main streets where crowded with people just looking at the shops and could throw someone off if you don't know the Italian style of doing this EVERY night. The tower was great and I suggest seeing it at night but I was ready for bed. The hotel was nice but my clothes stunk to high heaven. I ended up taking a shower with my clothes on to wash them and then hanging them out to dry. I didn't have a clock because my cell phone became disconnected in Florence and I didn't want to take my watch for fear of it being stolen. This provided a problem because I thought I would sleep past the 10 o'clock checkout time. They wouldn't give me a wake up call, but I found a t.v. station with the clock on it. I would wake up all night and turn the t.v. on just to tell what time it was. I finally got up and had to dry my jeans with a hair dryer. FYI Jeans take a long time to dry in a humid environment. I headed out and took a different way to the Tower. Pisa is a nice city with hidden cool buildings everywhere. Like most Italian cities, the street planners were on drugs or something and I found myself lost. I found some German speaking people and knew they were tourists so I just followed them. Sure enough, like a river leading to an ocean, we made it to the tower. The field was absolutely packed with people off some cruise. You could tell they were Americans by how loud they were. I wanted to get a ticket to climb the tower before everyone else got one because they only allow 60 people up per hour. I got in line and then found out they were �15!! I didn't have enough money for food and a ticket so I chose to not get one. Just as I was leaving the line, some lady came up to me and starting saying something in German. I had no idea what she said so I just told her in English 'I don't want to buy anything, Thanks!' She heard the English and lit up. She started talking in English and said she had an extra ticket for someone to go up in the tower and I could have it for free if I wanted it. I was wary of a scam but had nothing else to do, so said 'Sure!' She was Swedish and knew little English but I gathered that she had bought 3 tickets for her, her husband, and her 35 year old son. Her husband didn't want to go anymore so she had an extra ticket. I thought it was my lucky day. We got in line because her tickets were for right then. When we got to the front, we learned that we couldn't have bags. I had my backpack and she had her purse. So we gave them to her husband at this cafe and got back in line. I was still wary of them and made sure I stayed right next to her the entire time just in case she turned out to be a bag thief. Turned out she was just a nice lady. I had a great time and the view was incredible. I got my bag back and walked over into the shade of the tower. I listened to music for a while and drew some, but otherwise I just relaxed. I had already bought my tickets home so I had about 5 hours to kill so I stayed there for a while. While I was sitting there, a rather attractive girl came up to me and asked where I was from. We started talking and she was from D.C. but was studying in Rome for a couple of months. We just sat there and talked about traveling in Italy and different tips about things. After an hour of talking she offered to buy lunch. Being the liberal person I am and also having little money, I had no problem with her buying me lunch. We had pizza in a cafe near the tower and talked about politics and different things. I was time for my train so I said goodbye to Jennifer and made my way back to the train station. My train was suprisingly on time and I made it back to Reggio on time also. I was a very good weekend trip.