It took us an hour to back track from La Spezia to Pisa.

We walked north from the station in the direction of 'the tower'. Like other Italian cities so far, is seemed a bit shabby and in need of some TLC. We appeared to be following the Main Street, with its many retail outlets, clothes, shoes, jewellery, etc, etc. At one point we came across a fellow playing a violin - he was brilliant (in fact David bought his CD).

The ancient Loggia, built by Ferdinand Medici in the early 1600, was imposing on one side of the street. It's role was as a market place and a money changing venue (ATM maybe????)

We eventually found the ancient town wall and knew we must be getting close to our destination.

Even though I've seen pictures of 'the Leaning Tower of Pisa' all my life I was blown away at my first glimpse of it. It's just so amazing that doesn't fall - it seems to be defying gravity. The marble used in the tower, baptistery, and the cathedral was beautiful. We'd passed the marble quarries on the train earlier in the day so could imagine the effort it would take to construct all of the buildings. We decided not to climb the tower - 18€ seemed a bit much. We got tickets to the baptistery, where we climbed up to its dome, and to the cathedral. Of course 'the Tower' is the free standing bell tower for the Cathedral of Pisa. Construction began on the tower in 1173 and took 226 years to complete. Galileo was baptised in the Baptistery in 1565. The whole complex - Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) was pretty impressive. We didn't check out the Monumental Cemetery. So glad we made the effort to go.