So, on our spontaneous mini-break, my friend and I flew into Pisa on Friday afternoon, spent Friday evening and most of Saturday having a look around, before heading to Florence on the train.

For a brief 24 hours in Pisa, we managed to squeeze in a lot!

Here’s our lovely hotel:

First peek at the leaning tower was at dusk.

It really does look like a wedding cake!

Mmmmmm gelato!

The Arno at night

Next morning, in glorious sunshine, we walked back towards the tower to see the sights! The river was gorgeous in the morning light

Mr Garibaldi, striking an extremely jaunty pose.

And of course his brother, Baribaldi… Brilliant bar name!

I do love a superior normal school…

Some fun street art

Breakfast of champions – cup of tea and a chocolate and pear pastry – Mmmmmm

You can’t tell, but the leaning tower of Pisa is RIGHT THERE! It was pretty exciting.

Funny blinds that open the wrong way!

LOVE this fallen angel statue next to the tower

One of my favourite pictures in Pisa

The wedding cake tower by daylight – we were pretty excited about climbing up it!

Up some extremely well-trodden steps!

It was really quite leany…

Bit more stairs…

Pretty spectacular views from the top

We spotted a hippogriff on top of the Cattedrale!

The bells

Me at the top of the tower, posing with a large bell

And doing a little leaning… Obviously

 

The cattedrale in the shadow of the tower…

The Battistero

The famous bronze doors of the cattedrale – one of the fun things to do is hunt for the rhino on one of the doors

Inside the cattedrale – the ceiling is made of 24-carat gold, one of the many legacies of the Medici clan (and rather pretty too).

Lovely and very intricate wooden panels

More bronze doors

Inside the battistero – incredible acoustics

At the Camposanto cemetery – amazing frescoes

Creepy faceless statue or gargoyle…

Incredibly graphic visions of hell…

This statue was called the inconsolable…

Mr Fibonnacci

This is one of my FAVOURITE statues from the whole trip – utterly gorgeous! I love how she’s so relaxed and drapey.

More fab frescoes

Outside the Camposanto there was a medieval parade happening – for Pisan new year, which happens to fall in March. There were some pretty good costumes and some excellent crossbows happening.

One last look at the tower before we head off

We found “The Keith” on the way to the station – a Keith Haring mural (a 1960’s pop artist). It was fun!

And with that extremely exhilarating 24 hours, we got on a train and headed to Florence!