Today we started off in the city of Livorno, sometimes called Leghorn by the English. We awoke at our usual time and made our way to the Livorno train station. A quick 20 minute ride via rail brought us to Pisa’s Centrale station. We walked up the pedestrian-only shopping street Corso Italia and crossed the Arno River (which dissects the city). Once on the other side, we made a left to walk along the river and admire the buildings here, some of which date from the 1200s when Pisa’s power as a port and trading center was at its peak. By the way, Pisa is also famous as the hometown of Galileo, a scientist who challenged the Church’s belief that all planets revolve around the earth (obviously we now know that the planets revolve around the sun) and he was imprisoned for some time. In fact, we walked by Scuola Normale which is the building that now houses part of Pisa University, which is one of Europe’s oldest and this is where Galileo taught.
Within a minute we had arrived at Pisa’s most famous site: the Leaning Tower. I guess there’s not much I could say about one of the most written-about buildings in the world other than to merely concur that is both beautiful and leaning. By the way, the Arno River is quite beautiful as well.
After walking around it and admiring it from every angle we hopped a quick taxi ride back to Pisa’s train station. Stay tuned for more info on our next destination!
