Fiesole & Pisa!

SATURDAY: FIESOLE: AMAZING VIEWS BUT NOT MUCH TO DO.

Fiesole is a small, small town located 300m above sea level and 6km from Florence. Fiesole is basically a tourist destination because of its landscape, amazing views that overlook Florence, and its cultural and historical treasures. After some mix-ups with e-mails and time differences, we finally boarded Bus #7 (the bus that runs continually from Piazza San Marco to Fiesole and back about ever 15 minutes) and took the 15 minute bus ride up to Fiesole. When we got there.. it just looked any other town but on a hill. We walked up a VERY steep hill, you could tell we were all out of shape from the huffing and puffing, but when we made it to the top, there were amazing views overlooking the city of Florence. It was so cool to see the city from above, you could even see the Duomo and the soccer (football) stadium. My pictures did not come out all that great because of the haziness in the sky and the fog. Trust me though, the views were amazing. We proceeded to climb another steep hill with steps up to another view point, the museum, church, and covenant. Because of the mix-ups with the meeting times, we quickly had to rush through. Honestly, the museum and church were all quite boring to me but the views from the second vantage point were even more amazing than the first. We then walked into the town and took a walk through the market and then our tour leaders bought us a snack which was like thick doughy bread topped with salt and olive oil which I believe is called Schiacciata? I'll have to double check on the name but all I know is that they sell it in almost every bread/pastry/sandwich shop around. Everyone was getting ready to board the bus but I wanted to do some more exploring so we asked our advisor, "What else is there to do in Fiesole?" and she responds, "Nothing!" There is a mini Roman theatre that you can pay ten euro to see but we opted not to, so in conclusion... Fiesole: Amazing views but nothing to do. If visiting Florence though, I would recommend a short trip to Fiesole just for the views.

SUNDAY: PISA: THE FAMOUS LEANING TOWER OF PISA.

On Sunday, I paid the 5.70 euro to take the one hour train ride to Pisa just to take my pictures of The Leaning Tower of Pisa and yes, it really is leaning. My Eyewitness Travel Guide Book says: "Begun in 1173, the tower began to tip sideways before the third storey was completed, but construction continued until its completion in 1350. The tilt has now been corrected by 38cm (14 in)." It is pretty crazy how much it is leaning but I think it was done on purpose.... it is such a tourist mine. Literally... all along the tower there are shops selling "Leaning Tower of Pisa" souvenirs. Everything from postcards, t-shirts, "leaning" shot glasses, piggy banks, children's toys, and statues. Almost everyone goes to Pisa just to see "the leaning tower". There were tons of people there all just taking photos of the leaning towers. Also, everyone was taking their cliche' pictures of trying to hold up the leaning tower or to keep it from falling. It's amusing just to watch people taking pictures of each other, one person keeps moving their hands and making funny faces trying to use all their force to hold up the tower while the other person is fiddling with the camera, tilting it this way and that, zooming in and then zooming back out. You could sit there and people watch all the day long. I'll admit though that I even took a couple of the cliche pictures myself. Pisa is another one of those days trips that everyone should take while visiting Florence, just to say you did it.