I always thought if I ever found myself going to Florence I would make time to swing by Pisa for a few hours.

Once I arrived in Florence in the morning, I dropped my bags at the hostel and set off for the train station. I arrive in Pisa at 10:30 and it takes a long time to get out of the station because of the huge number of tourists going out of the station.

As the majority  of them made their way to the bus stops, I decided to walk to the Piazza dei Miracoli. At most you’re looking at 15 – 20 minutes, if the bus had turned up late or broke down or even got stuck in traffic, then the advantage was with me as I’m unlikely to be stopped by anything out of my control.

If you don’t pre book tickets for the Leaning Tower of Pisa, not to worry! You need to queue at the ticket office which to my surprise wasn’t busy. I’m assuming a lot of people did the smart thing and booked tickets beforehand. Luckily I found a slot at midday which turned out to be the last for that time slot…Oh the perks of being a solo traveller!

With the ticket you also get free entry into the Cathedral which not bad for 18 Euros. I had a spare 45 minutes before needing to be at the tower so I decided to purchase a ticket for the Baptistery for 5 Euros as it was opposite the Cathedral, and thought I could see both easily in the time limit I had.

I went for the Baptistery first as I purchased the ticket for it. You’ll find its not big inside, from the outside you’d think it would be bigger on the inside than it actually is. There are 2 floors and on the top floor you get a good view of the Cathedral. You can even get a good panoramic shot of the top floor mixed with the windows on the bottom floor.

After the Baptistery it was across to the Cathedral. It was really popular among visitors. I always thought people turned up just to see the Tower without realising there’s more to see. It’s looks nice on the outside and inside, but it’s by no means anywhere near as good as St Peter’s in the Vatican. The thing that sticks with me about this Cathedral is the amount of detail that went into the décor when I compare with other Cathedrals I’ve visited.

You have to be in the queue for your time slot for the Tower 15 minutes early. After the standard security searches you’ll be taken to the bottom of the tower where a guide talks about the history of the Tower in both Italian and English. I can’t really remember much about what he said because I was too busy staring up at the glare from the window. The room was a bit dark apart from the very top with the glare.

After negotiating around 300 or so steps to the Tower, you have 2 viewing platforms with nothing getting in the way of some good photos (unless it’s other people getting in the way of your photos). You’ll probably spend 20 – 30 minutes at most. It’s definitely worth doing the once.

While at the top of the Tower I met a couple from Ohio, Beth and Greg who were travelling around Europe to celebrate their 25^th anniversary. We got chatting and I found out they were planning to go to Lucca just like I was planning to after Pisa. They kindly offered to drive me there and hang out with for the rest of the day.

What never ceases to amaze me is how easy it is to connect with people when you travel. It’s funny, I swear you meet more like minded people when you go away than you do at home. For some reason something just clicks, and all of the sudden you’re talking away and before you realise, time starts to fly by.

I thanked them for the offer and said I didn’t want them to go out of their way if it ended up inconveniencing them, but they insisted as they were planning to go to Lucca regardless. I was grateful for the time they saved me as well as the train fare! I became their tour guide for the day, whether I did a good job is something you’ll have to ask them!

After slowly coming down from the tower (be warned it isn’t any easier going back down as the steps are uneven so be careful!). Beth and Greg went off to look at the Cathedral and Baptistery while I took some more photos around the Piazza dei Miracoli.

We all met up after we finished and walked back through Pisa. People have told me in the past that Pisa is bit of a dive. While I see what they mean I thought there was a kind of charm behind the whole place. While everyone stays around the Piazza dei Miracoli area, there are some nice places to walk around such as the Piazza dei Cavalieri. The area around the River Arno is good to walk along. You’ll find cheaper places to eat in these areas than you would around the tourist spots.

Having made our way back through the town we stopped off for pizza in the Piazza delle Vettovaglie. I was told by Beth that there’s a pizza festival around this part of Pisa but we must have come at a wrong time, mind you it didn’t matter because at this point we were pretty hungry. We finished off our short time in Pisa with an ice cream at Gelataria de’coltelli which is along the River Arno. It’s apparently well known, either way it went down well before we set off to Lucca.

It’s worth swinging by Pisa if you’re going to be in Florence for a few days. It’s not far on the train or car for that matter and you don’t need long to see it, including walking back through the city to have a look around. It took less than 4 hours to do everything I wanted and I wasn’t rushing, and if you start early enough you’ll get the opportunity to go to see Lucca in the same day.