Okay, so it's been two very full days (I think) since I posted anything. Wow, there is just so much to say! First of all, let's talk about this hostel I'm staying in. So, I was supposed to be in a three bed women's dorm; however, when I checked in, the guy told me that they had overbooked the dorms, so he was putting me in a two bed private room with another lady for two days, and then I would have it to myself for five. Whatever.

Not whatever. Just say no, should this happen to you. There is strength in numbers, people. Staying in a room with one stranger is weird, especially if your roommate is already weird, which this girl definitely was. We started off on the wrong foot, because she was expecting me to be all: Wow, you climbed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica? When instead I was like, you should really climb to the top of the Duomo in Florence, because it's freaking amazing. She responded with some ignorant comment about how all cities are pretty much like another, so why would she want to climb another dome...really, it was awkward. No matter what she says, or what anyone in the future may tell you: MY dome beats hers!

So, aside from like two people who walked by the kitchen to go have a cigarette on the balcony, I didn't see anyone for two days in the hostel. It was me, the kitchen (pretty nice) and the Tuscan hills. Then last night all that changed (I'll explain in a future post).

Sunday morning I woke up early and went to Pisa, which was actually pretty amazing. Honestly, my reaction to the leaning tower was pretty anticlimactic, because I actually just stumbled upon it. I mean, I was trying to find it, and stopped at this intersection that had a sign that said: Leads in All Directions, which I thought was kind of vague and unhelpful. So, I stopped, took my map out, turned my head to check the street I was on, and there was the Leaning Tower.


Pisa is nice because all of the attractions are in the same spot, so I bought a ticket for five sites that were all really close to each other, plus I got to see the Leaning Tower (but didn't go in, because I can't just throw around 15 Euro). So, I saw the Basilica, the Baptistry (unusual, because it's round and that are usually octagonal (that's a word, right?). But, my favorite was the Campo Santo, which is an old burial ground tomb place thing. Basically, all the big, important Pisans from way-back-when have tombs there.

The place is pretty large, and originally the walls were covered in frescoes that told stories, like there were quite a few panels devoted to the story of Job. Anyway, I read last week that prints of these frescoes were the original inspiration for John Keats' poem The Eve of St. Agnes.

I took a ton of photos of the frescoes, which were really quite beautiful, though much of the place was destroyed from improper care. I was going to upload some of those photos, but the internet is being weird, just like the rest of the hostel...

Though the area around the Leaning Tower is packed with tourists, the rest of Pisa, at least on a Sunday, was really pleasant and quiet. I mean, there were very few people in the streets, so I just wandered around for a while. I very much enjoyed the day trip and highly recommend Pisa, should you find yourself in Tuscany sometime with half a day to kill.