More then just a tower

Monique, the strong woman!
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We headed out to Pisa with the idea of possibly making it to Lucca for part of the afternoon. Well, we ended up staying most of the day in Pisa before returning to Florence.

Pisa is a lovely town. After about an hour on the train, we walked to Piazza del Duomo, which is took us about 20 minutes, taking into consideration that we encountered a protest parade (some kind of socialist issue... teenagers drinking beer and some propaganda being handed out).

the famous tower of Pisa is really crooked

Sanglier la florentine!!! (Wild boar florentine)
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Piazza del Duomo really stands out. We agree with others before us that it is impressive to see the beautiful white buildings rise in the middle of a green field. The bell tower, the famous tower of Pisa is really crooked. We did the typical tourist shots of Monique trying to help keep the tower upright. We didn't go up, since she has had issues with heights during this trip (Duomo at Saint Peter's basilica). Anyway, Jason went up last year. But we took pictures on every side.

The view from our hotel's deck.
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The Duomo is a gorgeous church. The exterior is beautiful and the inside is actually unique. After visiting several beautiful churches, we put it in our top 3, along with Rome's Saint Peter's Basilica(can't beat it!) and Venice's Saint Mark's. The baptistery was OK. We purchased 6€ passes to visit both the baptistry and the Opera del Duomo Museum... The museum was well worth it. Very interesting and there was a really cool interactive multi-media station.

On the way back from the piazza, we wandered down another street, took some pictures around the Arno river and headed back to Florence, where we ate wild boar for supper. Seriously! Monique had this thing in mind of eating wild boar during this trip, as it was of the gaules in Asterix & Obélix favorite food. It was really good, served in a tomato sauce. It is like a blend of pork roast and game meat, but more tender.

Well, we are going to finish our day at our hotel's terrace, with a view on the Duomo, with a nice snack consisting of cheese, crackers and chianti bought yesterday in Grève in Chianti.