Piazza dei Miracoli, aka Piazza del Duomo. There's a great stretch of grass to the left of this picture where couples were sitting and people were sunbathing. I'm going to make an overgeneralization, but PDA seems to be much more commonplace in Europe. There were a few couples lying on top of each other. Even in London, many couples make out or cuddle while riding the escalators. I usually don't have a problem with it, but it is much more in your face than I remember in the States.
Yes, it actually does lean. However, I was shocked by how small the tower is. If you count the external rings, there are only seven floors. Each is slightly larger than a normal floor, but the whole tower is smaller than you're led to believe. It costs 15 euros to climb to the top so I skipped the climb. I probably get a better view out of my 20th story dorm in New York.
This picture doesn't quite capture it, but there were so many people doing the same pose of holding the tower up. Most people would stand on the little fence posts, but some were original. My friend has a picture of him kicking the tower. The street vendors were selling T-shirts of the tower falling on Bart Simpson. But there have got to be thousands, if not millions, of pictures around the world of people holding the tower up.
The interior of the Duomo. I was really impressed with the extravagance of this church. The exterior and dome of the Florence Duomo certainly win, but I think the interior of the Pisa Duomo was one of my favorite in Italy. I tried to capture each aspect of it in this picture from the ceiling to the colors of the columns to the paintings in the domes. The walls also have some great artwork (of course, not as great as the Medici church but still pretty high up there).
The pulpit inside the Duomo. On the bottom of the solid columns are stone lions holding the columns on their backs. The panels at the top told the story of either Mary or Christ, I can't remember. If you do go to Pisa, make sure you pop into the church for at least 15 minutes. It's probably as astounding as the tower.Like the Florence square, Piazza dei Miracoli also has a Battistero and Museo dell'Opera in addition to the Campasanto and another museum. This Museo dell'Opera is not nearly as informative as the Florence one.
Outside of this square, Corso Italia and Keith Haring's mural were worth the visit. Corso Italia is a busy shopping street that runs down the southern part of town below the River Arno (the same river that runs through Florence). On this street, there were two women kneeling with a bag in their hand to raise money for leukemia. It was quite a humbling sight, especially since I've never seen it before. Corso Italia will take you to Keith Haring's mural on the side of a church near the train station. If you don't know who he is, Google Image his name and you'll instantly recognize his signature block figures.
Since I was only in the city for one night, I stayed at a camping village just outside the city's northern walls. It wasn't as bad as I expected. Granted, I didn't risk taking a shower there, but we were given trailers with a common room and two bedrooms, each with two beds. I met a boy from North Carolina who is taking a gap year to do organic farming throughout Italy. One of the best parts of traveling on your own (which I did in Pisa and Basel) is the people you meet in hostels or camping villages. I doubt I'll stay in touch with any of them, but it's always nice to meet new people who have completely different outlooks on life. For example, I doubt any of my friends, either in high school or college, considered taking a gap year to do organic farming.
On the whole, Pisa was decent. It paled in comparison to the other Italian cities, but if you have a day before you're flying out from the airport, it makes for a reasonably well-spent day. If you have less than a day, say a few hours, even that may be sufficient. No offense to anyone who's from Pisa lol
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