Northern Italy: Day 3

Ok, last night’s deployment was fine and smooth, though I do not know why there is so much hullabaloo about the deployment when there is none about the actual development! Anyway, some people just love to make noise just to show they are doing something, well, I think, everyone does, just like I will post this blog to Facebook and Google+, just to make some noise. And now that almost everyone thinks me as “The Europe Travel Expert”, it is for everyone’s good that I make this noise.

Continuing from the last blog post, the third day started with an awesome breakfast prepared by Carla. She asked us last night only about at what time we would like our breakfast, and at sharp 7 am (like we said) the table was beautifully arranged. I have never had such an amazing hospitality anywhere else. The following pictures should speak for themselves. Soon we were gorging on the croissants and apricot and honey preserves.

After that heavy breakfast, we took the bus to reach the station, and then got our tickets to Pisa Central from one of the electronic kiosks. It is very easy to use the kiosks and you can also choose from 1st class or 2nd class, if available, for the train. And do remember to stamp the tickets before reaching the platform, there are no stamping machines on the platform, and un-stamped ticket is as good as no ticket. There are trains to Pisa from SM Novella almost every 40 minutes during the day time.

Our train to Pisa was a normal one like the one from Bergamo to Milan. We took the upper deck as usual, soon the train was almost full, everyone was going to the Leaning Tower. Well, I did a mistake of not booking the entry on top of the tower, but it was an advantage too since we were not bound by a time. Tickets are sold online from here 15 days in advance, and gets sold out within that day, since only a limited number of tickets are available online. So if you want to go to Pisa today, you should have checked for tickets 15 days back, other option is to stand in the queue there and get tickets for a particular slot. Anyway, we were late, so I was not hoping that I will go on the top of the tower.

We reached Pisa within an hour. Pisa is a quaint little town by the banks of river Arno. I say "town" because it is small compared to other cities of Europe, but technically it is also a city. I found Pisa very nice to visit for a quiet holiday since most of the tourists here are day-travelers (like us) and will leave the place by evening. The main attraction is of course the Leaning Tower, but the city is nice to walk along, specially by the river side.
We headed directly towards the tower or the main cathedral in Pisa. A map at the Pisa Centrale station told us that we have to walk straight. And so we did and after crossing the river and the city centre, we reached the Piazza dei Miracoli from the side of the Tower. The day was a bit cloudy with showers sometime, and the clouds and sun were playing hide and seek, and in that light the white tower looked majestic. Yes, you will definitely have a feeling that the tower is going to fall right now. It is actually more bent than it seems in the pictures. In no time we were busy taking pictures against the tower with the standard "holding" pose. It was quite funny to see other people making the funny poses.

Myself at Pisa

The queue was long and the next available slot was about 17:00 and also the price of 15 Euros only for the tower was quite high, hence we cancelled the idea of going to the top. Instead we went inside the Cathedral. The interiors were nice, specially the ceiling, which is a coffer one, and did not contain any fresco as such. The other interesting object inside was the intricately decorated pulpit.
Coming back to the main attraction which is the Tower, it is about 60 m high and is the independent bell tower for the Cathedral. Due to being on a river-bed at the end of its course, the soil in Pisa is soft and so the tower got tilted by the time it reached 3rd floor. The other cause of the tilt was of course poor foundation. The architects left the tilted half completed tower for about a century (it actually took 177 years to complete the tower!), and then when the soil was stabilized, it was completed in 1319. After that a lot of restoration has gone, and still goes to clean the marble and now the tower looks as if it was built only 10 years back.

Interiors of the Main Cathedral

We enjoyed the sun for sometime and also enjoyed the tactics of the people. The area is full of souvenir shops and as the day progressed more and more tourists came pouring in. By 13:00 we said goodbye to the Tower and retreated to the station. We had lunch at a restaurant on the way, moderately priced. And then I had a gellato, while Satish cursed the finance people again (after checking his Euro balance).
We reached back to SM Novella at about 15:00 and our next stop was Boboli gardens. We managed to find a bus which goes in that direction, from front of the Santa Maria Novella church. The gardens looked more like a lover's park, hence we avoided, and instead went ahead to have a look at Palazzo Pitti. The Palace looked more like a low height castle. It looked good in the afternoon sun, but we did not go inside mainly because we do not like museums.
Then we took bus number 12 which goes till Piazza Michelangelo. It takes some time, since the Piazza is on top of a hill. The view of Florence from here is really beautiful. You can see the huge dome of the Duomo, as well as the Campanile. Ponte Vechhio is also notable from here. It was getting windy and cold here, because of the showers. But the sights were truly beautiful. As the sun set, we moved towards the San Miniato al Monte, the church nearby. Not as beautiful as the Duomo, but from here more of Florence can be seen. There were very few people here, mostly tourists and most importantly there was a free toilet.

Pisa Cathedral and Bell Tower

After this began Satish's craziness. Tonight, he has to eat in a Indian restaurant, more importantly he has to eat lots of rice and daal. And this craziness triggered lots of wrong decisions and we by the time we found the restaurant, it was 20:30 and we were hungry like anything. We got down of a bus which was taking us to the centre, and took two more buses to reach centre. Buses were less since it was Easter and we waited for long time in a bus stop where no one else were there. But finally we reached the place, and the manager was nice to us and explained that all Chicken Biryani here is not actually biryani, it is just chicken curry and rice mixed together. We instead had just chicken curry and daal with roti and rice. Finally, Satish was well fed and he kept saying he had food after three days.
By the time we were back at the guest house, we were dead tired. I do not remember if we finished the wine from last day, but I do remember, the sleep was a sound one!

Cash register:

• Train to Pisa: 14.20 Euros return
• Pisa Duomo Entry: 2.00 Euros
• Lunch at Pisa: 25 Euros
• Indian Dinner: 30 Euros
• 24 hour travel pass Florence: 5 Euros