Pisa is a nice place to stop by if you’re traveling north to south along the western coast of Italy, which is exactly what we were doing on our way from Genova to Tuscany. Pisa is famous for its leaning tower, which is easy to access from the train station via a walk along the shop and restaurant lined streets through the city center.

The leaning tower is part of a larger complex, which also contains a cathedral and baptistery. All are constructed of gleaming white marble that jumps out against the plush green lawns and bright blue sky.

The leaning tower is the bell tower for the cathedral, and its current lean is 5.5 degrees. For awhile visitors were not allowed to climb it because it was deemed too unstable, but engineers have been able to secure the building and now visitors are allowed back up.

We were content to roam around the outside of the buildings (scared off by long lines and steep admission prices) admiring the beautifully carved facades and watching people pose for pictures “holding up” the tower.

For more of our pictures from Pisa, click here.

The falling dollar
The relentlessly plummeting dollar has fallen so low that I can no longer take out the standard amount I’ve been withdrawing because it puts me over the daily maximum allowed by my bank. There were some scary moments when the ATM informed me that my card was “out of funds,” until I figured out that it was just a reflection of the falling dollar.

Digital Divide
After living in Italy for a little while, you’ll notice that the country hasn’t quite integrated itself into the digital age. Today, for example, I was browsing for a card in the card store. I noticed the one I chose didn’t have one of the tiny hand-written price stickers on it like many others. I flipped the card over and saw a bar code, so I figured the price would come up when scanned. Not so. The most advanced technology this store has is an electric calculator. No barcode scanner in sight. After some agitated shuffling around by the store clerk the manager appeared and told her the price. I guess his brain is as good as the scanner.

Pigeon revenge!
Pigeons are a huge nuisance in any city. They’re dirty, annoying, and make messes all over everything like cars, buildings, and occasionally my head. In Italy the things pigeons make messes on also includes laundry. Indoor drying options don’t really exist here, so we have to hang our laundry outside. As we’re reminded every few weeks, pigeons seem to enjoy taking target practice on freshly laundered clothes. You can imagine why I enjoyed the pigeon revenge contraption in this video. I wonder if I can rig up something like this…