Pisa

Pisa is a one-hit wonder of a city. As I'm sure you are aware, they have a tower, and it is leaning. It's a nice tower and all, but it's not exceptionally tall. If it were standing straight, Pisa would have a fraction of the tourism it enjoys now. Anyways, Pisa was a welcome respite from the unending crowds of Rome. There's far fewer people here and better weather, but the tower's plaza brings you right back to Rome with the tour groups, the heat that somehow localizes in that area, and the bazaar-like rows of trinket hawkers.

Pisa is essentially a ring with the train station on one side, the tower on the other, and a main road connecting the two. Very convenient. However, I didn't find the tower or the adjacent church that interesting. Maybe I was tired from Rome or maybe I felt that it isn't really important. I think that if they wanted to fix it, they could, but they obviously don't because people are willing to pay 20 bucks each to climb it. So they let the tower stay as it is, and even though they "stabilized" it, it still slips a little each year. So I only spent a few hours at the site before continuing to France.

From my impression, and the impressions of others I've talked to, Italians are not a very accommodating bunch. Also, if you step out of line, they're not afraid to launch into a tirade to chew you out. We've noticed that Italians, especially waitstaff, treat non-Italians quite differently than Italians. At a restaurant, you can bet that the Italians will be served before you are, your food will take longer to come, and the bill even longer. Either they're tired of dealing with confused tourists all the time or they're "just plain ornery" as one Canadian put it. I don't blame them, I mean, tourists aren't going to return to the same establishment even if the service is good, so why try? But when such a large part of your economy is centered around tourist trade, you might be happier if you don't resent it. Oh well, bad customer service isn't going to stop millions of people coming through to see the sights.

Maybe Florence will change my mind.