We caught the train from Corniglia to Pisa via La Spezia where we met a group of middle aged Australian woman at the station intent on cycling around Italy on 30 euros a day which although impossible would be an interesting challenge.

Through Airbnb we managed to find an apartment seven minutes’ walk from the main attraction. It was cloudy and dull for most of our two night stay in Pisa but this didn’t stop us appreciating the unique tower, 55 metres high, weighing in the region of 14,450 tonnes and tilting at four degrees.

We climbed the 300 steps, weathered and grooved with time and countless shoes, looking down on the Pisa Miracles Square which includes the Tower, the Pisa Cathedral and the Battistero di San Giovanni, as well as the red roofed town with the blue green hills in the distance.

Work on the Cathedral began in 1063 and it was consecrated in 1118 while the Baptistery, devoted to St. John the Baptist, was kicked off in the middle of the twelfth century. The tower itself was started in 1173 but only finished in 1350 (It started tilting at about level three of eight while being built).

It was hard to photograph the tower with all the tourists in the way. 

The cathedral was magnificent.

Locals and tourists doing their thing.

I  thought this girl sitting at a café table, lost in her thoughts, was worth a photo.