the leaning tower of pizza

So that's really what I used to think it was called... 

My school program took us on a trip to Pisa and Lucca for the day. After confusion about where we were supposed to meet for the bus (totally my fault), we finally got on the bus and drove almost 2 hours to Pisa. Before taking a tour, we had to fuel up with a cappuccino... of course! The cathedral was beautiful and so was the cemetery, but the main reason for going there is to take a picture with the Leaning Tower:

Doing my part to help!

Honestly, Pisa was okay, but there isn't much to it besides the tower and the cathedral. We didn't go up the tower due to time constraints,  though my claustrophobia definitely wouldn't have allowed me to go up anyway. 

From Pisa, we went to Lucca, which was a very cute town that is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls. One of my roommates and I got lunch at this well-known restaurant called Buca di Sant'Antonio that has existed since 1782. We got a little adventurous with our meal choices: I got braised wild boar (very common in Tuscany) with polenta and my roommate got lamb chops with fried vegetables. The meal was very rich, so I was pretty much full for the rest of the day. After lunch, we walked around and saw a lot of the city. There was a bike tour around the city walls, but we decided to skip out on that because we didn't have very much energy that day. Instead, we ate more! We went to a lovely chocolate place with some of the best chocolate I have ever had in my life (sorry, Ghirardelli). There were also bakeries on every corner! Everything looked so delicious, but I had to regulate myself. 

Mmmm... baked goods in Lucca!

We also went on a walking tour where we went inside a few of the churches. They were definitely not as grand as the ones in Firenze or Roma, but they were still beautiful. It was also fun to look in all of the shops around town, because some of them were a bit different from the ones in Firenze, and it looked like the prices were cheaper, too! Once again, I restrained myself... I try to save money for trips rather than spending it on things... I have enough crap here and at home!

UGH the blogger things SUCKS at uploading pictures EVERY TIME. So I guess two per entry is all I get.

Coming soon: Jen's trip to Europe!

ciao