Pisa

Pisa was an hour car trip from our village. When we walked through the old city gates, I was a little surprised by the sheer amount of tourists there. There were shops lined up all along the right-side and the buildings--a cathedral, a baptistry, and the leaning tower, of course--were scattered on the left.

The Baptistry in Pisa

The Baptistry is quite beautiful too, just not quite as remarkable as a building that may or may not fall over

It is amazing just how very much the tower is leaning. All the tourists stand around taking their pictures, acting like they're keeping the tower from falling, so we thought we'd do one too.

Pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa

The tower really is beautiful

I love the detail in the stone work

Seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa was Portia's favorite of the whole trip!

It began to rain after a couple of hours, which worked out perfectly for us to go into the cathedral and look around. My feet hurt by then so I sat in a pew with the girls while Eric and mom walked around. It was a chance to teach Bianca and Portia some important architectural terms about columns--like Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. It was a good place to learn about columns and they were pros by the end of day.

Inside the cathedral

We did want to do a little souvenir shopping as well. I got a cute cup and saucer that leans (of course) and I think Mom got a similar one in a different color. Bianca picked a bracelet that's twisted from a fork. Portia chose this cat mask. 

We finally got around to sitting down for lunch mid-afternoon. There were restaurants up and down the streets and we stopped for pasta. (Really, besides McDonald's, in Italy, there's only pasta restaurants, pizzerias, and panini [filled with Italian meats, of course] shops. Good luck finding anything else!) We sat down in outdoor seating (rain was gone by then, thank goodness). Bianca had a caprese (tomatoes and buffalo mozzerella) pasta and she was in heaven. I ordered tortellinis with the pesto, as pesto is the signature food coming out of this part of Italy where we stayed. 

Dining on the street

Our lunch in Pisa

We enjoyed our time in Pisa. A little touristy, but what can you expect when you go to see the most lopsided building in the world? 

DOORS OF THE DAY

A door in Pisa (may have been one of the doors to the Baptistry but I can't remember for sure)

Was Portia leaning over on purpose? Maybe it was catching on--we were in Pisa after all!

It's probably less of a door and more of a gate, but cool nonetheless.
Maybe it was one of the original gates to get into the city of Pisa many years ago...