Exploring Pisa: Lunch and Landmarks on the Way to Corsica

On our second day driving to Corsica we had a short leg of a little over 300km between Milan and Livorno. The reason for this was that we had an early ferry on Sunday morning so we wanted to avoid getting to Livorno very late and having to get up early in the morning to get to the ferry. Along the way to Livorno we passed Pisa and decided to stop for a late lunch and a short city tour. On our way to the leaning tower we stopped for lunch at Ristorante Il Borgo 21. They had good focacia and pizza. I had a risotto myself which was also nice, not too much cheese like it sometimes done. Prices were surprisingly low for being in the middle of a city with many tourists. We visited the leaning Tower of course but didn’t shell out the money to go inside. It is actually closed but not completely it seems. So, only if you are willing to stand in line and pay quite some euro’s can you get still in. We took the obligatory picture supporting the leaning tower. This seems to be a big thing on social media and almost everyone was taking this picture. I have to say I am glad to have missed the buzz. We did pay to enter the Duomo and cathedral next to tower. The combined ticket was still cheaper than entering the tower only and worth the small price. We had to suffer an uninterested official selling tickets but the crowd inside both Duomo and cathedral was limited so we could actually enjoy the buildings. The Duomo had the higher rating in our guide compared the cathedral but this was not in line with our own experience. Maybe it was due to the Duomo being renovated. We were lucky because by chance we were in the Duomo on the higher level at the half hour and it turned out that every half hour an official illustrated the special acoustics of the building by singing in the center. He was not really singing, just making some musical sounds but it was clear that he had a trained voice. After the Duomo we crossed the square and entered the cathedral. This was a more typical experience and well worth it if only for looking up at the ceiling. After visiting the cathedral we started to walk back to the car and stopped for some refreshments as it was really hot. We had parked our car at the train station because they had charging stations. These were of the slow 11kW type but because we spent around 4 to 5 hours visiting Pisa we still got a decent charge, more than enough to get to Livorno and Corsica.