Pisa, Lucca

the top of the tower in Lucca

In the Duomo at Pisa

How could you not hug it?

This past week has been filled with so many activities and everything that it's been crazy! I have loved every minute of it and can't begin to convey just how amazing Italy is. The culture, the sites, the food, the views…all an experience of their own. So here's the part where I try to recap just how great this place is, oh boy, this could be a long one.


Our group headed out to Pisa last Thursday. It was a total tourist trap but I was ok with that. The minute you walk through the arch and see the Duomo, Leaning Tower, and Baptistery you realize why someone choose to capitalize on the area. The lawn is bright green, contrasting the white buildings and blue sky. It all makes for a very pretty picture as many people discovered. We were lead on a tour by my soon-to-be painting teacher. We first went into the Baptistery which was beautiful. While we were there one of the guides/worker/ticket taker (I'm not sure what he was) came in and asked for silence and then proceeded to sing to show off the acoustics of the building. Quite incredible. We then went to the next place I think it was called the Camposanto which held many fine frescoes that they are working on restoring. My favorite part of that one was watching 2 workers on scaffolding tediously trying to restore one area of the frescoes. From there it was onto the Duomo. Once inside you forget all the people around you and outside. It was breathtaking. I guess that's what Italy's about though. The detail and work inside was unlike anything else I've seen.

Everywhere you looked was another work of art; whether a painting, the floor, or architecture. I can't imagine what a service there would be like. I think I would be incredibly distracted the whole time. Of course after that we acknowledge the tower that has yet to fall over. We didn't go inside but instead chose to be the tourists that take awesome pictures holding the tour up. That's enough to keep 90 college students busy for a long time : ) Finally the cameras were put away as we then had to forge our way through the stands to the buses.

On Sunday we went to Cinque Terre, but I'm not going to talk about that now because that deserves a whole post of it's own. Instead I'll jump to when we went to Lucca.

Lucca was overwhelming for me. We were only there for 2 and a half hours so we had a lot to pack in. The wall surrounding the town surprised me at just how well it hid what was inside. We took a tour through the city and saw all the incredible areas. The guide shared some crazy fact that there are almost 90 churches crammed into the city. The city had streets barely wide enough for cars and all the buildings were minimum 3 stories high. I had no clue where we were at any point in time. Had we had more time I think I would have found it much more enchanting. The part that really captured my attention was climbing up a ton of stairs in the Torre Guinigi. This is the tower that randomly has 4 oak trees growing on the top, no one quite knows how that works. The climb was crazy and a quite scary for the person who's not so fond of heights. However once on the top the view was incredible. From there you could see the whole city and the wall surrounding it, out to the areas around Lucca. A different kind of beauty. Lucca had so much beauty and detail packed into such a small area that it almost frustrated me. I wanted to stop and look at every building and just take it in. Instead I felt like some of the beauty of each building was lost among all the other buildings and their character. This is a place where the tour definitely was a help because otherwise I would have had no clue how to get anywhere and the history of the town was very intriguing. Maybe I'll go back at some point and take a little more time there so I can really enjoy it all.

On another note….

Fun fact about Italy: Italians don't care at all about body image. I have seen more than my fair share of elderly people, larger people, and all shapes and sizes in bikinis and Speedos since being here. In fact I don't think anyone here has heard of a one-piece. I love it. Everyone is comfortable in their own body, which is such a contrast from America where we want to cover up every flaw. Here they embrace it and acknowledge the imperfections and that everyone has them. I wish everyone thought this way and was this comfortable because really it's a beautiful thing.