Sometimes its good to be cliche'...

As we began to look to our return trip from Florence, it slowly occured to Brittney, Travis and I that we were the closest to Pisa we would probably ever be... and we should definitely check out what they've got over there on the coast. So we hustled to Santa Maria Novella Stazione and got ourselves an hour's ride to the coast. Pisa was an interesting town, especially since it was also on the Arno River (in addition to Florence). The Arno runs East-West. Also, our destination was on the other side of town, so we had to trek through the city to find it- a smart choice in city planning, as we saw and smelled all the food and things to buy on our tourist hike. But soon we turned a corner and an awkward tower top was jutting out from over a wall. There it was- the Leaning Tower.

The whole complex is on the Campo dei Miracoli, or the Field of Micacles. It's beautiful lawns lay as a picnic blanket for the white marbled and lacy cakes. The Baptistery lies farthest back and at the endtrace of the Duomo. The cemetary walls the back of the complex, and the tower looms to the left of the enterance. Really it's quite a site; all four juxtaposed against the green lawn.

My favorite part of the afternoon adventure was every tourist's reason for being there: The "Lean-To" picture. But what has never occurred to me were all the people next to each other, scattered throughout the lawn, holding their arms up in the air. It was quite a site. We laid on the grass under the shade of the Baptistery and took some cliche photos like the rest. Being together, the three of us, made Pisa great in my mind. We joked and laughed at all the other tourists and joined with them from time to time.

And as we began to walk away, the police blew their whistles at the tourists on the forbidden grass and they split, like running through pigeons.