When I studied abroad, I signed up for a class all about Rome and the history of this city and empire. The one-credit course only met once a week. However, the big finale of the class was a four day trip to Rome. I took this class because the history fascinated me, and I knew there was so much to learn and see. I figured it would be a more valuable visit if I actually knew a bit about what I was seeing, and I was one hundred percent right. It was also nice to have a tour guide and travel buddies.

When I called my mom the week following the trip, she asked, “Did you see the leaning tower of Pisa?” My response was the title of this post.

But today, I will finally fulfill all her silly dreams!

I disembarked my train from Lucca and made my way through the thick of town. Apparently it’s orange season in Pisa, because there were some beautiful fruit trees dotted with ripe-looking oranges. The clean-up crews sure did their job well, though, because there was no fruit on the ground, and it looked like all the low hanging fruit had already been picked. Darn.

I was still in a little bit of a sulky mood because I didn’t have time to climb two towers in Lucca, so I quickly grabbed some gelato to lighten the mood. Works every time.

The walk through Pisa center was really quite lovely, and the sun was beating down.

The streets were brimming with shops, selling everything imaginable in the shape of the tower, from cakes to mugs to giant (and super cheap) piggy banks.

I also came across a 3 store (a cell phone company) and attempted to get my SIM card situation figured out. Unfortunately, though, and not much to my surprise, 3 Austria and 3 Italy are completely separate companies, so they were unable to do anything about my misbehaving card. I weighed the options for a while and finally decided it was worth it to shell out again for a new one. I just did not have faith in my abilities to get in contact with Austria during normal business hours, without a phone, to figure this situation out. This second SIM card was cheaper, longer lasting, and seemed much more official since I bought it at an actual 3 store instead of at a SIM card kiosk in the airport. I’ll definitely wait until I get into town and go to a real 3 store in the future. The worker here was pretty sure my problem was that I hadn’t gone into a 3 store to properly activate the international roaming. Live and learn. (I just wish leaning didn’t so often involve wasting money.)

After about a half hour of walking, I made it to the cathedral and the tower!

At first, the tower didn’t really look like it was leaning that much, but after walking around it a bit, I realized it was because I had entered the square from the side it was leaning to.

For my first attempt at a photo, I forgot the idea was to help the tower up, and I instead decided to gently push it farther into its precarious tilt. Ha.

Here’s a pretty good picture of its maximum tilt.

Pretty crazy. I then proceeded to take way too many pictures of myself trying to either lift the tower upright or stop it from crashing down on my head. Here are some of the best and worst takes:

Soooo yeah. I won’t even tell you how many more there are. Probably for the best.

I spent a little time wandering the rest of the cathedral grounds while I awaited my turn to climb the tower. (Oh. Yeah. The second tower in Lucca would have cost me €3 to climb. This one was €18. €18!!!!!! That’s about twenty dollars! Outrageous. But I also knew I wouldn’t regret the cost once I was up there, so I gave in to their evil tourism pricing and bit the bullet.)

The climb was spiral, hugging the outer edge of the tower on slippery, worn down stone steps.

But it was beautiful up there!

I do not consider myself afraid of heights. However, I get this little feeling in my core, like all of my organs hitch up just a fraction of an inch, whenever I look over an edge that isn’t well protected, or whenever I dangle my arms out over the edge to get a better picture. This feeling is one of, “Don’t fall!” Or, “Don’t drop your phone!” It also sometimes happens when I’m climbing, if the stairs or the railings are of questionable integrity or are really narrow or really steep. Rarely do I get this feeling in any other tower climbing situations. But up here, as I walked round and round the viewing platform, I felt this hitch each time I rounded the leaning side. It felt like the building was going to just gently tip me off the edge, and I found myself leaning backwards and holding onto the protective railing to compensate. A very strange feeling.

Here’s me on the leaning side of the tower:

Can you tell I’m a little tense? Haha.

We were only supposed to half thirty minutes up here, but I somehow managed to hide on the opposite side of the guard, so soon I was all alone! Woohoo!

When most of the next tour had come up, though, I made my way down. Didn’t want to get in trouble if they checked my ticket on the way out.

Great experience, despite the price.

Then I wandered the actual cathedral. Quite a beautiful interior.

I had a bit more than an hour before I needed to catch my bus to the airport. I couldn’t decide what to do with my time. Walk back and find something to eat? Have a picnic here in the grass? But then I noticed some walls lining two sides of the cathedral square, and I noticed people were on top of them. You know I love climbing things, soooo I did just that. Only €3 to walk the old city walls around the old town. I didn’t even know Pisa was once a walled city! From up here, I could see down onto the cathedral square and into the cemetery.

I did make the awkward mistake at first of going the wrong direction, so I was pretty confused when I met a dead end. Then I realized this stretch was really just for the view, and I turned around.

I ended up over the top of a tiny jungle, many backyards, and some Roman ruins.

I also had most of the wall to myself. My whole walk, I only ran into three other people.

Highly recommend this different view on the city! There were three exits, but since my time was a bit short, I made sure to take the first one so I could take a more direct route to the train station from there.

I was also very conscious about soaking in the last of my supply of Italian sunshine for a while. The rest of my trip would certainly require my winter jacket again, whereas here in Pisa, with the sun beating down, I wasn’t even wearing a sweater! Just a light long sleeve with a bunch of little holes in it. Craziness.

I had a little bit of trouble at the train station when I found out the airport shuttle was canceled, and then the bus that was meant to replace it just wasn’t coming. As my departure time crept closer and closer, I considered trying to get a taxi, but the bus finally rounded the corner and took myself and one other girl up to the nearby airport.

My flight was lovely. We flew over craters, snow-capped mountains, and a beautiful sunset.

I’ll miss Italy, but I’m sure I’ll be back! There’s so much history to explore here, and so much food to eat. And so many Italians to flirt with! Tehehehehe.

Ciao for now/ best wishes,
-Lizzy-wa