We paused in Pisa to pass through and eat platefuls of pizza and pasta and patter down pavements and peer at postcard-worthy places (can you tell I'm an English teacher with all the alliteration in that sentence!).
Our accommodation, although located on a main street and so therefore fairly noisy, was filled with Italian rustic charm, with a frescoe on the ceiling of our room, antique decor throughout, lace curtains, patterned tiles on the floors, lovely old furniture and a very quaint feel to it. Compared to my impressions of France, Italy is very unassuming, quaint and charming- there are still old buildings everywhere and beautiful sights to see, but somehow it's not as pretentious or overbearing, it's far mo subtle and I feel that there is more of an adventure to experience in peeling back the layers and becoming familiar with this place so full of history from so long ago! We quite easily found the famous (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint of this architectural failure turned national monument!) Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is surrounded by a very ancient looking wall and a lovely old church. Located nearby is a statue of Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf, eliciting an ancient history lecture from me to my poor traveling buddy (she has had to put up with me being fascinated by all this 'old stuff' for a week already now!). I found Pisa to be a lovely place for a stopover and enjoyed our day of shopping and wandering the cobble-stoned alleys, through old buildings and across a quant bridge over the river. Now all I need to do is improve my Italian vocabulary and then I'll be better able to communicate here!
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