For our first free travel-day in Siena, Becky and I chose to head out to see Pisa. We got started a little late due since we decided to walk to the train station. However, after getting on the city busy at Pisa, which was supposed to be heading the right direction, we discovered that it made a loop, and there were two different stops heading the same direction, and we got on the wrong one. We were delayed by a few minutes, but made it to the Piazza dei Miracoli at last.

Called the Piazza dei Miracoli because of the pure whiteness of the marble buildings, and the seemingly impossiblity of the leaning Tower. As our ticket time to go up the tower wasn't for a couple hours, we explored the Baptistry and cemetary. The accoustics in the Baptistry are so amazing that an unamplified choir inside can be heard from 2 kilometers away. We were in time to hear a vocal demonstration - a man yellingly sang notes, and the dome echoed and amplified them into a sound like that produced by a full choir.

We finally were able to go up into the tower, which is built completely of marble - part of the cause of its famous lean. The ground that it was built upon was incapable of holding such a weight, due to the formerly nearby river and the moisture content in the soil. Due to the number of visitors to the tower over its near 1000 years of existence, so many people have climbed the tower that the marble stairs have worn down significantly. In some places, the wearing is several inches deep. In the main staircase, the wearing weaves back and forth across the stairs, according to how the human body responds to the shifting of the tower's position while climbing.

We stayed up on the tower for a few minutes before heading back down. As I have slight vertigo, I wasn't comfortable being up in the tower very long, and for several minutes after getting down, I wobbled back and forth while I walked... ten steps to the right then ten to the left - apparently the number of steps it took to get around the stairs.

Our train back connected at Florence, and we missed the last train to Siena by two minutes. Fortunately, a connection through another small town was available, and we got back to the Siena hotel.