Pisa & Lucca

On Saturday, we took a trip to Pisa for mainly 2 reasons:
1) to get a picture with the Leaning Tower,
2) to see what else Pisa had to offer besides the Leaning Tower

After an hour-long bus ride, a short "train" ride, we finally arrived to the medieval city that hates Florence. Historically, it has always been at war with Florence (competing economies). The university here attracts many students throughout Italy, so it's considered a college town -- aside from the tourists.

I've heard about the Leaning Tower plenty of times, but the experience of seeing it in person made it more real and amazing. The soil is very soft in Pisa, and they actually stopped building the tower after 3 stories -- when they realized it was beginning to lean. It actually took a LONG time for the tower to be completed (because they weren't sure how to continue if it kept leaning more and more every year) and it wasn't until recent efforts stabilized the structure. They say that it should now remain stabilized for at least 2 more centuries.

To me, Pisa seemed characterized by the white paleness of its buildings, including the cathedral and cemetery. It's quite a beautiful city and unique in its own way! Pisa has been damaged before from fires/wars, but they commemorate the many individuals who helped preserve the frescoes and art of the city in their famous cemetery.

Next, we headed back in the direction of Florence and stopped by Lucca -- a medieval city surrounded by a wall. Lucca is quite large in comparison and is mainly famous for Giacomo Puccini, an Italian opera composer. One famous work is Madama Butterfly (I will be seeing this opera in about 2 weeks!).

He went to the music school here (in orange) and there is a little monument in honor of him.

                  

 Back in the day, it was popular to build towers to show off your wealth. Nowadays, we use things like phones, clothes, and cars. Back then, it was towers. In fact, people were building towers dangerously high (that they would collapse) and the city had to set a restriction on the height. So this particular family decided to outsmart everyone.

They built their tower, and at the top, they planted trees. Trees, people. That's how they upped and beat out the other families. So we climbed to the top and garnered a spectacular view of Lucca.

This here below is their cathedral. Notice how the third arch is smaller than the others?

In the medieval times, people didn't care that much. The tower was already there, and this was before symmetry was considered an important characteristic of art and architecture. In addition, they rarely had a frontal view of the cathedral at the time, so people didn't notice it anyway.

We came upon this beautiful building and courtyard -- which is the residence of a very wealthy family in Lucca. (Sorry that I'm blurry -- the majority of photos taken of me by other people are not successful due to my complex DSLR camera?)

We encountered a beautiful hill and grass on the outskirts of Lucca.

This is the outside of a type of amphitheater. You can view the layers that have degraded, and the style is actually quite similar and mimics that of the Colosseum.

When you walk inside, you feel like you've entered a hidden piazza. Quiet and away from the busy streets and stores. In the summertime, this is a popular place to have a meal and where festivities occur.

So that was Pisa and Lucca in one day :)

These excursions make me so grateful that I'm able to spend a semester here, much less visit all these lovely towns in Italy!