A Day Trip to Pisa and Florence

Day 6
April 13, 2009
Pisa and Florence

Monday is siesta day in Rome. Most tourist attractions are closed so we decided early on that we would travel outside of Rome on this day. Our first choice was Venice, to see its canals and gondolas. We later realized it would take at least 5 hours just to get there and decided it would be too tiring. We settled on Pisa which is nearer. And since there is very little to see there, we also included Florence in the itinerary, which is 1 hour away from Pisa.

The uneventful trip to Pisa took 3 hours and 20 minutes. Once in Pisa, we took a quick bus ride to get to the famed Leaning tower of Pisa. We proceeded immediately to the ticket office to buy entry tickets to the tower (tickets were actually available online but should be bought weeks in advance). However, the next one available was for 3:30 PM and we had to leave early for Florence so we decided to buy tickets to the Cathedral and Baptistery instead.





After an hour or so of appreciating the tower, we proceeded to the cathedral:



Inside were beautiful paintings and frescoes:




Later on, we went to the baptistery:



There was nothing to see inside, which made us wonder why the ticket to this one cost 4 euros whereas that of the cathedral was only 2 euros.




Here is a popular to-do in Pisa.



We left Pisa at around 3 PM and headed to Florence. As we only had few hours left to spend here, we were only able to stay on Piazza del Duomo which was near the train station.



In the piazza, we saw the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore



,Giotto's bell tower



and Saint John Baptistery



and its carved bronze doors.



We climbed the catheral's dome, Cupola del Brunelleschi, for a view of the city of Florence. On the way up were odd staircases, which looked like they were built as an afterthought,



and scores of graffiti,



despite posted pleas:



Up there on the dome were sinister frescoes on the walls and ceilings, showing scenes from the Judgement day:




Outside the dome was a canvas-like view of the city of Florence.






With more time, we would have also gone to Gallerie dell'Accademia (which is closed on Mondays anyway) to see Michaelangelo's Statue of David, Uffizi Gallery (also closed) to see the world's finest collection of Renaissance art including Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and the picturesque Ponte Vecchio (Jeweler's bridge). I will definitely be back here, after another lifetime's savings.