While traveling from Florence to Cinque Terre, I made a slight pitstop in Pisa to, of course, see the Leaning Tower. It was a very short stop, so when I say a few hours , I mean a few hours.
Pisa is small. Much smaller than Verona, I think. And when I say small, I mean it in a tourist sort of way. The main “tourist” part of Pisa is small. One only visits to see the Leaning Tower and surrounding cathedral. So that is exactly what I did.
From the main train station, I took a short walk to the center of things. You have to walk along the Main Street where all of the shops and restaurants are, all the way to the end before you hit the open grassy grounds of where the tower is. The Leaning Tower of Pisa stands at the entrance or exit, depending which end of the grounds you enter from and it isn’t as tall or large as I had expected it to be.
If you didn’t know, the Tower is in fact a bell tower that was built on a wonky foundation that couldn’t really support all of its weight. This was discovered during construction when the Tower began leaning towards the side. Instead of doing it over, the builders just went with it and that is how we have a Leaning Tower of Pisa.
After taking a few photos of both the Tower and surrounding buildings, my friend and I simply sat down and chilled on the grass a bit before heading back to grab some pizza before our train ride to Cinque Terre.