Cheers from Scotland: Leaning from the Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower at Sunset

Kristen and I met my parents Thursday night at the London airport and then flew to Pisa on Friday morning. On our flight, we flew over Mont Blanc which is the highest montain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. The snow covered mountains were beautiful and were a perfect start to my amazing trip.

Mont Blanc

We arrived in Pisa around 12:45 and took a bus to the city centre. While walking to our hotel we passed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a bunch of tourists were taking the "typical" Leaning Tower of Pisa picture. The streets were lined with street vendors coming up to you asking you to buy one thing or the other. The street filled with people and shops really reminded me of Mexico but with a leaning tower in the background. When we got to our Pensione Hotel, I had to carry my 17 kg suitcase up four flights of starts. Let me tell you that was not a very pleasant experience. After we were all situated in our hotel, we became like everyone else and took the typical leaning tower pictures. You could just imagine what it looked like when another person was trying to hold up the tower, it was amusing. Everyone just had their arms up for no apparent reason. I of course have to put every picture up because it is super cool! It is the pictures you see of other people doing it but finally you get to! It's like watching someone else eat a piece of delicious chocolate cake and you can't have one until a lot later ha.

Kristen and I then paid 15 Euro (which now I realize is an awful lot) to climb up the tower. We walked up loads of steps where we were leaning every which way. If you look at the above pictures we climbed all the way up to where the flag is. From the top you could see the entire city of Pisa with the mountains in the background. It was a beautiful site like most other things we saw this trip. On the videa, you can just ignore my voice. Hopefully, I don't sound like this in real life. After I put up more videas, please note that I start almost each one with a nasally "Here we are". It's obnoxious and I am sorry in advance

When we came back down from the tower, my balances was so off and my leg was spazing out from climbing down a leaning stairwell. Next, we went to the Bapistry and the Duomo. You can see those in my video. The Baptistry was amazing and the accoustics in the building were incredible. A woman sang in there and she could harmonize with herself because the echo stayed for 10 seconds. Next we went to the Duomo which is a cathedral. It reminded me a lot of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Duomo

Inside the Duomo

We then walked into town looking for somewhere to eat gelato. We came across La Botlega del Gelato and it was delicious. I had strawberry and banana. I think this was my favorite place out of everywhere else that we ate gelato. We met my aunt and uncle at the hotel later that evening and opened a bottle of wine in celebration of everyone's arrival. We then went to an Italian restaurant called Bruno's and of course we heard a song from Bruno Mars playing. I tried pate which is calve liver (yea I know pretty sad right) but it was alright from what I can remember. For dessert, they serve you biscotti which are kind of like crackers/ hard cookies and you dip them in a sweet wine. We ate the Italian way and stayed at the restaurant for over three hours.