A few hours in Pisa, Italy (for the most obvious reason: The Leaning Tower of Pisa ofc)

Yes, I went to Pisa just to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

As one does.

I last left off in Florence, where Kelly and I ended up with an awkwardly-timed day to kill while we waited out our trip until the Uffizi Museum was open so we could explore.

We decided that Monday (the day the Uffizi is closed to the public) was a good time to head to Pisa for a day trip.

Or, I guess really, a half-day trip.

There isn’t much to do in Pisa.

We were up at about 9, and left our hostel at about noon.

We stopped for the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life (reiterating this, again) and then hit the train station…

…for Pisa.

We arrived a little bit after 1, and then immediately walked to the Piazza dei Miracoli to take our dumb tourist photos with the Tower of Pisa.

We admired the tower and the nearby Duomo di Pisa for a bit, and then we just wandered.

That was… pretty much it for Pisa.

Since we’d taken a very expensive train ride* across Tuscany from Florence to Pisa, we felt obligated to spend a few more hours in the city.

*validate your tickets, y’all. Even the train tickets you think are safe because you selected a specific train at a specific time when you bought it. It’s a trick and you’re not safe, you’re never safe, validate everything.

While wandering, we decided to stop at a cute little gelato shop called La Bottega del Gelato, which I highly recommend.

I had a combination of mint and meringue, and the meringue gelato was absolutely incredible. It somehow had the exact same thick, glossy and smooth texture of a freshly-beaten, stiff-peaked meringue, but it was ice cream. Incredible.

If you ever find yourself in Pisa, please go get a two-flavor gelato from La Bottega del Gelato, and make sure one of those flavors is the meringue flavor.

After our gelato, we decided to kill some more time in our favorite way…

…alcohol!

We found a nearby bar for spritz.

After our drinks we went to a nearby restaurant for wine and a very mediocre cheese board (truly, if a restaurant’s staff tries to wave you in, don’t bother), and then wandered around Borgo Stretto and Corso Italia to window shop for a bit before catching a pre-sunset train back to Florence.

And, that was that.

Pisa was actually a cute, sleepy little town. I think if we’d planned our day trip a little better we would have found more things to keep us occupied, but we were also completely content to just go do the think in the place you’re supposed to do it (aka: cheesy tourist photos in Pisa) and drink and hang out.

Happy travels!