Pisa

On our list of places to see in Italy before we leave, Pisa manages to be both at the top and at the bottom. At the top due to my desire to take the cheesy famous "pushing tower" photo (like the guy in the photo above) but bottom because...well there's not really anything else I'm interested in seeing in Pisa.

I know, I know. It's a big city with 20+ churches and lots of other famous sites. However, this was a pretty easy one to hit as we road-tripped from Tuscany back to Milan. We pushed through the crowds of tourists and dozens of vendors to make our way to the Piazza dei Miracoli, aka Piazza del Duomo.

The piazza is justifiably famous and a UNESCO World Heritage site. At the center is the Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral (above), a medieval church influenced by Byzantine and Muslim architecture. The Baptistery (below) is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and is the largest of its kind in Italy but surprisingly humble on the interior.

As for the Tower itself, my guidebook assures me that it leans far less than it used to. Prior to the restoration work done throughout the 1990s, the tower leaned at a 5.5 degree angle. Now "fixed" to the best of the architect's abilities, it leans a mere 3.99 degrees. In practical turns, it means that the top of the tower is about 13 feet over from where it should usually stand. After taking the requisite cheesy photo ourselves (even Cooper had one), we hit the road to head home.