Pisa is a really small city; I mean the only reason why it’s famous is because of the leaning tower. You won’t even need a full day. Thus, I made it more like a pit stop on my way to Milan from Florence. There are many things I love about Italy but the biggest thing I love after Pizza and Pasta is their rail system. The trains are clean, cheap, and fast. I got to Pisa around 11:00 am and was a bit worried about my luggage. Since I wasn’t staying there, I didn’t know where I would put my luggage while I explore the tower and the cathedral nearby. Luckily, they have a good facility. The government must have known that tourists usually make Pisa as their pit stop and so storing their luggage would be a problem because they can’t take it up with them to the tower. The arrangement is that, while you visit the tower and cathedral, they can hold on to your luggage in special lockers. You simply go to a counter across the tower, show your ticket as proof that you’re visiting the tower and they will give you a token with a number on it and that’s the locker number they have stored your luggage in. Very simple. It was a good 25 min walk from the station and I was sweating by the time I got there (TAKE THE BUS). There is a direct bus from the station to the tower and it’s only 2 Euros but you will need cash and that’s what I didn’t have. Once I got there, I turned in my bags and started climbing the tower.
The leaning tower wasn’t really that special, It was a tower that was leaning and walking up those stairs was a pain, especially when it started leaning at the top and when I got to the terrace, I think it was time for the afternoon prayer/mass so the tower bell was going off really loud, I took a few pictures and went downstairs. I had so much time left before my train to Milan that I was like “why not go see the cathedral too”. I walked in and I’m not going to lie, I think I liked the cathedral more than the tower. The ceiling was phenomenal, I’m assuming it was all made from gold from the yellow golden color. I couldn’t see the whole cathedral since there was an afternoon prayer going on, they didn’t allow anyone to go in front, but I guess that would be for the next time. Post the cathedral, I was super hungry and it was lunchtime anyway. I didn’t really want to look for something fancy and ended up with McDonald’s right outside of the cathedral and tower plaza.
While I was at McDonald’s placing my order, I met an Australian girl named Suzy, we talked a bit while we were placing our order and since she was also traveling solo, we sort of had our food together and talked about our travels. I was blown by the fact that she had been backpacking for two months. Somewhere in the conversation, I told her that I walked from the station and she was shocked, as a result, she started laughing. She couldn’t believe that I walked for 25 minutes with my suitcase in this heat. She handed me 2 Euros as she sat there laughing and she goes, “here, don’t worry about it, it’s only 2 Euros. the bus ride is on me”. I had to pay her back somehow and since we both wanted ice cream after our food, I paid for our ice cream with my card. We took the bus back together, she was taking a train back to Florence and I was moving forward on my backpacking trip to Milan.
- Some things to note:
- There are not a lot of ATMs nearby. If there are, then they charge a huge fee for withdrawing cash from a non-Italian card. 1 thing that I learned was that paying with a card is great but you also have to keep some cash for when you visit small cities like Pisa, Cinque Terra &, etc…
- Bus tickets are only 2 Euros
- you can buy your Pisa tower tickets here: Link
- They’re 18 Euros ($20.40)
