Pisa and Lucca Day Trip

Today some of my roommates and I explored Italian Train travel for the first time since being here. We met at the train station at 10 am, not knowing where we would end up but decided the night before that, since trains are SO cheap all around Italy, that we'd just go to the station and see where it takes us! We felt very spontaneous!

We ended up buying a 5 Euro bus ticket to Pisa! Once in Pisa we turned to Rick Steves (who has been a complete lifesaver this trip) to guide our day. Per Rick's suggestion, we started with some delicious gelato and then continued to the leaning tower and Pisa Duomo.

Pisa Duomo 

Leaning Tower!

streets of Lucca

beautiful Lucca plazza

Lucca Duomo

Pisa is very neat, very busy streets and even more bikers then in Florence. The whole town of Pisa leans. The streets 'flow' as if they were rivers rather than going in straight lines. The leaning Tower is truly a sight to be seen.  It leans at a 5 degree angle but, to me, seemed to lean even more than that. Of course, we took the typical 'holding up the tower' pictures by the tower, we decided to be total tourists today!

After our mourning in Pisa we caught a 30 min, 3 Euro bus ride to Lucca. I really loved Lucca. It was a lot quieter and more peaceful then both Florence and Pisa. Lucca is one of the few remaining 'walled' cities. You can walk (or bike ride)  all around the city on top of the walls. Less tourists and more green here. Beautiful churches (as with EVERYWHERE in Europe), wonderful courtyards, upscale shops, and friendly people.

After Lucca, we took a train straight back to Florence! I love how easy, fast, and convent it is to get all around Italy! We got tickets to Bologna for tomorrow, so that is where i'll be!