Pisa, part 1

Oct 03, 2005

We went to Pisa for a long weekend from Thursday 22nd to Monday 26th. It was a busy week as I travelled with work on the Tuesday and got back at 5 on the Wednesday, then we had to drop the dog off with Grandma and Grandad – our dog sitters for the weekend. The flight was at something like 6.45 on Thursday morning – to get us into Pisa for 9.30. Which was good, but meant getting up at 4.00, not my best time of the day! We’d looked at directions on the map the night before as we didn’t think Doncaster Airport was signposted yet. However when we got there we saw signs for the airport… after deciding not to go down the turn on the website and instead follow the signs we realised these were for Humberside Airport. So we had a bit of a diversion! Got there with plenty of time to spare though.

The airport’s pretty nice, couple of shops – I bought a puzzle book for the plane and we got some breakfast. As everyone had checked in early the plane set off early, which was a nice change. We still didn’t make it to Pisa before 9.30 though. We found a taxi easily and got to the hotel before 10.00. Dad had rung before to make sure we could have an early check in so we got in and changed really quickly. We asked for directions to the Leaning Tower at the desk and got a map to follow.

The hotel was quite a way out of the town centre so we had a trek to get to anywhere pretty or touristy. But we got to see the real Pisa. We went in a few shops, got some elevenses some and walked around all morning, making our way up to the Field of Miracles. We got there about 1ish and decided that Chris, Dad and I would climb the tower while Mum shopped and looked around below. There was a huge wait so we got some lunch at a restaurant near the tower, and watched all the people at the top. I know it’s obvious… but it really does lean, much more than you’d think. The stairs are worn in an odd way, usually they wear in the middle as that’s where people walk. Going up the tower the wear goes from side to side as you go round the lean. At the top the rails don’t seem very high, specially where it’s leaning towards them. It doesn’t feel that safe at all. Well worth doing though as the views are amazing. I got some great photos from the top. Which I will get round to posting soon…

After we’d done the tower we walked around the other buildings and market stalls, got some tea – a nice pizza in Pisa and headed back to the hotel for the night.