Pisa

We did a day trip to Pisa when were staying in the Cinque Terre. Although we can't see staying there for a couple of days, it is a fantastic place to visit on a day trip if all one is interested in is seeing the big sites (and that suited us to a "T").

The Leaning Tower, Duomo, Bapistry, Museum and Cemetary are all in one small area called "The Field of Miracles". It is a 20 minute walk from the train station to the sites, and each one is within a 1 minute walk from the next one.

The Leaning Tower is impressive because, and this seem obvious, it really leans! It is not subtle, there is no argument, this sucker could fall over one day! The best part was seeing how many people pose as though they are holding the tower up. It is worth the trip just to see 50 people holding their arms out at awkard angles. We just stood and smiled in our picture...how boring are we!

The most impressive part was going into the Bapistry. We were lucky enough to be there when a guard was singing. The dome of the Bapistry has a perfect acoustical shape, and every half hour a guard stands in the centre and sings a single note. After about 3 seconds he sings another note and is actually singing in harmony with himself. He carries on like this for about a minute and it is a really amazing thing to both hear and feel, as the vibratons from the sound go through everything.

We also went into the Duomo, which is nice on the outside but spectacular on the inside, and the Cemetary, which is a bunch of carved tombs and grave markers set in the floor, and is really just kind of neat. There is also a frescoe in the Cemetary that was done in the 16th Century to give the Pisans hope that they could make it throught the Plague. The frescoe was bombed to pieces in WWII but has been put back together and is still impressive.

Neither of us would recommend Pisa as a main destination, but it makes an excellent day trip from the Cinque Terre or any of the Tuscan towns.