Ciao Italia : PIZZAA PISA

On Saturday I went to the touristy attraction of Pisa!

Since Amanda was away in Barcelona for the weekend Taylor, Olivia, Jaron and myself decided to take a day trip to Pisa. Pisa is only about an hour train ride away from Florence and a pretty cheap one as well. We had heard that theres nothing to do in Pisa but see the leaning tower and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption...but they were completely wrong! Pisa was amazing!

When we got off the train in Pisa we decided our first and best move was to go straight to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. As we walked in that direction we passed all these cool shops and handmade jewelers. Once we got to the tower we took the classic tourist picture pretending to hold the tower up. It was hilarious watching everyone around the grounds of the tower making weird poses as they took their "holding up the tower" picture too. Literally everyone was doing it!

After a touristy photo shoot we went to get tickets to climb the tower and visit the Cathedral. We went into the Cathedral first because our ticket to climb the tower wasn't for another hour. The Cathedral was beautiful and the ambiance was breathtaking. It was dimly lit and there was soft church chant music playing in the background. We walked around the church observing the Roman art and architecture of the building. Being in the that power of a church made me think of both my Grandmas. They would love a church like this and I really do appreciate and admire their strong faith. I know how important of a presence it is in their lives. There was electric candles you could light with an offering so I lit one in memory of my Grandma Sweetheart and said a prayer for her and my grandpa. After about 20 minutes or so walking around the church it was time to make the trek up the leaning tower of Pisa.

As soon as we walked into the tower you could feel gravity pulling you the other way. I definitely felt the lean the most at the first floor and on the first few sets up stairs up. The walk up was tiring as we spiraled around but it was not as bad as we expected it to be. It was a relatively quick walk up! Once we reached the tippy top of the tower we were in awe. You could see for miles over the city of Pisa with a beautiful mountainous backdrop. It was beautiful! We stayed as long as we could sitting at the top of the tower and overlooking the city. But too soon it was time to walk back down!

We were starving, hot (btw it was extremely hot that day and we were all in maxi dresses so we could get into the church), and extremely parched after walking around and walking up and down the tower. We decided to go find a good place to get lunch. Our intentions were to eat pizza in Pisa but our stomachs and thirst begged us to stop searching and settle for a sandwich place. The sandwich place was actually great and the happened to have a student discount which always makes a happy Micaela. I got a tunafish, avocado and tomato sandwich and it was delicious! I love the tuna here because they don't use mayo. When we were done with lunch we decided to walk a different way than the walk to the tower. This "new" way lead us to tables and table of antique items for sale. It was so cool!! I ended up buying an antique bead that I planned to put on a necklace. I am actually wearing the bead right now after taking another one of my necklaces apart. The antique tables then lead into handmade tables. We stopped at one table where a women makes jewelry out of recycled materials. I though this was awesome!! She had necklaces, earrings, and bracelets made out of plastic, bottle tops, expresso cups, and bike tires! Of course I couldn't resist the unique opportunity to buy a pair of bike tire earrings. We continued on to the actual shops walking in and out of a few of them and after being in Pisa for 4 hours it was time to get back on the train.

When we arrived back in Florence we went home and quick meal of pasta and then went out to see the the Festa della Rificolona or The festival of Paper lanterns. The festival is the celebration of the birth of Mary according to Catholic tradition. This was once a very popular tradition where hundreds of peasants and farmers from surrounding areas would make the long trek into the city to celebrate. Today the celebration is still celebrated. We watched as a parade of people holding lanterns lead by a marching band approached the church. The parade stopped in front of the priests (I think they were priests unless they were higher than that) the priests blew a horn and said a few words in Italian and the parade proceeded on as more people with lanterns joined in. It was really cool to watch! The lanterns were mostly held by children and look like they were mostly homemade.

After watching the parade we went to the grocery store to get snack before we went over to our friends Jaron, Michael, and Greg's apartment. We ate and hungout and were soon joined by two more girls in our program Paige and Sam. We stayed there for hours, laughing so hard we couldn't breath as Michael and Greg did impressions of all our teachers. They were spot on impressions! Soon it was time to head back to our apartment because we were completely exhausted from the day.

Sundayyy...

I slept in to nearly 12 on Sunday which has been a record for me since I usually have trouble sleeping in my stiff apartment bed. The day was spent being lazy and catching up on work until we realized we were completely out of food. We walked to the nearest grocery store and stocked up. The grocery store was completely packed so we were there foreverrrr. The trek back home was treacherous! Our bags were so heavy and we were all so hungry and weak. As we lugged our bags back home we had to keep making pit stops to rest and put our bags down. Then it started to drizzle...as we hustled home we were lucky enough to just beat the rain by seconds. We then made a homemade mac and cheese (prepared by moi wooo i'm a chef now!) and salad. We watched a super corny old Ashely Tisdale movie as we did homework and soon enough called it a night.

Allora, Ciao

PISA...