Florence; Tuesday, 02 October, 2007

An early start, a quick breakfast and then out into the Florentine rush hour and onto the station. My flight was due to leave Pisa at 5:45, so I had most of the day to play with, but to make sure I did not miss the flight was going to have that day in Pisa itself.

The train creaked and rattled through the countryside between the two cities, stopping, it felt like, at every other town along the way. Eventually, after nearly an hour and a quarter it pulled into Pisa Centrale. I hunted down the left luggage office and dropped my bag off, before heading out into the town.

Large swathes of Pisa at the time of visiting were being dug up, so getting from the station was made even trickier. Trying to walk around holes in the road; pavements which were about as even and level as the cities most famous landmark; and drivers who, obviously impatient at the delays caused by the road works, were exhibiting behaviour what would normally be described as “baseless stereotypes” but in this case were every bit as bad as all the stereotypes make out; made the walk longer and scarier than it should have been.

It took about 15 minutes to walk across the town to the Piazza Dei Miracoli, home to the world’s most famous building cock-up. You’ve seen the pictures, you’ve heard the engineers and the scientists, but nothing quite prepares you for how out of alignment the tower is on first sight, and how it now, thanks to a bodged attempt to make it straight after the first couple of layers had been built – it curves towards the top. Should they ever get the bottom level, the top will still lean, as one sides supports were built longer to try to counter the lean.

First stop was the ticket office to try and see if I could book a ticket to go up the tower. I wasn’t hopeful, all the guide books went on about how you had to book weeks in advance. In the end, the next tour I could book on was only 40 minutes later, so I brought my ticket, along with entry to all the other sites around the cathedral complex.

The leaning tower, whilst being the most famous, is not the most important structure in the Piazza Dei Miracoli. The tower is merely the bell tower of the Cathedral which stands next door to it, beyond that is the baptistery and the cemetery. In addition there are also two museums on the site.

I figured, that I had enough time before my journey up the tower to have a look around the baptistery, then joined the queue for the tower. Having climbed up and down the tower, one of the most bizarre climbs up a building I’ve ever made, I had a look around the Cathedral and the Cemetary before stopping for a quick snack.

After a brief lunch I boarded the open top bus for a tour of the rest of the city. An hour later it deposited me back at the Piazza and I had enough time in the hour between services to look around the two museums before picking the bus back up, catching it round to the station, picking up my luggage and making the train back to the airport in time to check in.