europe: day 3

DECEMBER 27, 2007
PISA & MILAN


another early start. actually, everyday on this tour was early.
today was exceptionally tiring because of the bus incident.

the itinerary for today was to visit the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in the morning, and then shopping at an outlet mall after lunch. i can talk about the outlet mall now because there's really nothing to talk about... over half the stores were american brands! what were the planning people thinking??

back to pisa...

pisa is a small city in tuscany, which we were told is a fairly "old" city. "old" refers to the average age of its residents. since the city doesn't have any growing businesses besides tourism, many young locals have moved out to the bigger cities for work.

our bus had to stop at a parking lot about 1 km outside of the tower area, because the government wanted to minimize the weight which tour buses and cars would bring onto the soil near the tower. we rode a few minutes on a local bus and got off outside of the tower area. the moment i walked through the gates and saw the leaning tower of pisa, i felt a wow for the first time on this trip. i've seen it in photos many times, but seeing it in real life was... so real! the clear blue sky perfectly accentuated the white marbled tower. and of course, all of us took the classic picture of pushing the tower at an angle. :)

the leaning tower of pisa
trivia: can you guess at what angle does the tower leans currently? (answer is at the end)


instead of showing the classic shot, i tried something else

the leaning tower is famous for its tilted structure but people seldom mention its history. little do we know that it was built as a bell tower for the cathedral of pisa. the cathedral was just as grand as the tower!

cathedral of pisa


the tuscan style buildings in the city of pisa

following a little street shopping and bargaining at pisa, we headed to the unnecessary (american) outlet shopping. and after the outlets, it was time to enter milan to spend the night. it's the real shopping the next day!

a very foggy night


we had a great dinner here

day 3 wasn't so bad!
the hotels were also improving... we all got huge suites with a walk-in closet~





answer to trivia: 3.97 degrees