The Leaning Tower and Florence

Today was our first real day in Florence, and first thing we went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  We got up early and walked to the train station to buy tickets after eating a really nice breakfast at the hotel.  We found 12 euro tickets roundtrip and left at about 9:30am.  Pretty much slept the entire way to Pisa and when I woke up we were there.  We got off the train and got lost on our way to find the tower, but we did pick up some lovely gelato—I got a Lion flavoured cone.  We spotted the leaning tower from a distance and it was just what I expected.  We took our iconic photos holding up the tower and I almost face-planted trying to get out of the way of a photo(not a fun part of the trip).  It really was cool to see this in person.  We walked around their duomo and saw the baptistery and then we did some shopping at the tourist shops along the way.  We then grabbed some lunch at a café (I had a calzone) before heading back to the train station.  Our train left at 1:30pm and we got back to Florence at 2:30pm.  From here we set off to find the Duomo—very gorgeous—and waited in line to get inside.  The outside was magnificent compared to the inside, but it was still cool.  Next we found the Ponto Vecchio which is the iconic Florence bridge that holds lots of jewelry and leather shops.  Seeing as none of us have very much money to spend, we just walked through and a little further into the city to explore.  We randomly heard some music around a corner so we went to find out why there was a random band playing on the street.  We don’t read Italian, but we knew enough to realize that we had walked into a communist/fascist rally.  Obviously, we got out of there quick, and wandered into another free church that was nearby.  This church wasn’t as beautiful on the outside, but the inside was much more ornate.  Our day was wrapping up so we headed back to our hotel and stopped at a grocery store on the way back.  We picked up some food and rested after a long day of travel.  Amanda and I got in our swimming suits and made the lovely jet-bath in our room as a Jacuzzi.  Overall, it was a great day J