Pisa (Italy)

Without being too cruel, I was fortunate enough to spend 2 days in Pisa, which was probably about 1.5 days too many! Honestly, though, it is a pleasant enough city, further downstream of the Arno from Florence and about an hour away by train.

Home to an impressive and well-established University, Pisa has young population, heavily influenced by the student population. Of course she is most famous for the sights on the Campo dei Miracoli, the ubiquitous Tower, the Cathedral, the Baptistry and a couple of museums.

The tower itself is one of those things which is more impressive at close sight, I found it so anyway. It is going to reopen this year, possibly before the summer, after years and years of attempting to prop it up. I'm not entirely sure I'd want to venture up, but apparently it was 'tested' on groups of Italian students who volunteered to go up (there are obviously some advantages in being a University town!).

The Cathedral is beautiful, even to Florentine standards, even though you have to pay to get in, and as for the Baptistry, well, I'd run out of money at that point, but it looks good from the outside. There is an interesting museum with views of the tower itself from the forecourt which are very good.

As for the rest of the town, well, Pisa is a paradise for collectors of tacky souvenirs. Lots of plastic towers and plastic, plastic everything really!

There are other things to see in Pisa, there are some pretty piazzas, and churches. There is a small shopping area and tower or no tower, the city centre is much quieter than Florence (for obvious reasons).

There are some great restaurants away from the 'tower zone', and the Pisans are, like most Tuscans, immensely proud of their city and ever eager to assist!

It's definitely worth visiting once, but I wouldn't really recommend an overnight stay.