Florence Day 6 and Pisa

Monday, April 23, 2007 PM
In addition to the entry of last night: We ate a late lunch and we decided to go on the Oltrano walk down by the Pone Vecchio. We went on an unexciting non touristy side street. We walked and saw the old Roman city limits wall around Florence, then turned around and walked along the Arno river and saw a pair of otters swimming in the water. We also saw lots of trash on a big sand bar because of the low water level. A couple was sitting on a dry part of a “spill way,” I guess that’s the only way I know how to describe it. We walked some more and ended up at our apartment and Luke got dinner started. We ate late at 9 pm, just like the Italians. The restaurants don’t even open around here until 7 pm.



Christine called at 9 pm while we were eating. We ate (while I am thinking of it) basil tomato sauce penne with chicken cutlets, romaine lettuce salads with creamy herb dressing, mozzarella cheese and pan fried zucchini in parsley, garlic and butter. The zucchini was really good. So Christine called and said she was in Florence. She said she’d come by to visit. We cleaned up our dinner mess and went outside to meet her when she came in. It was a really nice night on the Piazza della Signoria. We met Christine’s roommates briefly. We came back up for wine and apricot torta. We chatted until 1130, arranged our plans for the A.M. and Dad graciously walked Christine back to her hotel by the train station. Luke and I hit the sack as we were really tired.


Tuesday, April 24, 2007. 1711
Luke and I literally just breezed through the door from our trip to Pisa. I’ll start the story from the beginning. This morning we had an early start. We were all planning on leaving to go to Pisa this AM at 8.30. I looked at our Pisa tower climbing reservation and it said 1130 and to arrive 30 min early to get your ticket etc. Damn. With the time it takes to walk to the train and the time it takes to theoretically wait for the train and to get from your train stop to the bus and the waiting time for the bus and time to the destination- ( deep breath) it is hard telling if you could make on time by the skin of your teeth. So, Luke and I left early so we could be there and not miss our combined €30 tower reservation. We left early and scooted on foot to the train station. We bought our ticket from the automatic ticket machine for 0856. We had enough time to get a breakfast sandwich. We chose to stop at the McDonalds. I had a bacon egg and cheese, Luke had 2 hamburgers. We caught the train to Pisa which went kind of quickly. I was tired and dozed in and out of the trip. We saw some hints at the Tuscan hills and poppies growing wild next to the train tracks. I really like the poppys. We arrived at the Pisa train station after 1 hour and found our way out to the bus area and with some questions and some spontaneous advice from a local we got on the right bus-Lan Rosse (red line) (€0.80 for 60 min. ticket).
We got a standing ride on the bus to the tower. It was through a gate and we could hardly see from the road. Luke said he saw the Leaning tower peaking out. We walked past a throng of tourist stalls to the leaning tower. It was really neat to see in person. We found the ticket office and turned in our voucher and waited patiently with like 45 min til our entry time. As it got closer to our entry time we stood in a line at the base and look who we saw but Dad coming down the little road. They were here and we would have definitely been too late if we had traveled with them.
We ascended the stairs which were marble and had a 8 inch grove in the center from water perhaps and also from thousands of foot steps. It was a bit disorientating as the spiral stairs were kind of crooked and put you off balance. Everyone was going up the stairs fast as they were excited and eager to look out of the top. We got to the first walkable layer walked around a bit and then went up to the next layer for a 1 story higher view of the surrounding view. Then we saw another teeny stairway up another level to the tip tip top. This was, of course the most exposed as there was no building above our head. We waved at times to Mom who took our picture from the bottom. Cousin Christine was sketching some architectural details for her sketch book and Italy semester abroad.
It was pretty hot and hazy in Pisa. I think I got sunburned a little bit. We ate our sack lunch in the shadow of the Duomo or the “church.” We had surprisingly enjoyed the church. It had a gilded, coffered ceiling. Some large religious paintings along the side walls (of course) and the highlight was an intricately carved “Pisan” pulpit. Not “of Pisa” but the guy who made it was named Pisan. We were allowed to take pictures there so we got some pics. I wanted to get one of Luke narrating to the group of my cousin, my mother and me.
We wandered around, went to the gift shop (for Mom) and went to get a picture of Luke holding up the tower. I tried to give him instruction to hold it up appropriately but he wasn’t following my instruction and we didn’t get a good pic. His hand was holding up mid air. He wasn’t very happy with me. We then walked past the sea of tourist trinket tents. Decided to go and find this grocery store that there was a sign for. I was kind of crabby and tired and felt sunburned and didn’t want to go. It turned out to be the best grocery store we’d been to. It gives me hope that we’ll have some better grocery stores in Parma and Volterra. They had lots of brands and cereal and all the things that are not terribly common to the regular Italian. I was impressed. We got some filled croissants, Diet Fanta (we had it on the plane and have been looking for it ever since and not found til here), a Bueno Bar (yummy wafer with hazelnut filling) and potato chips (to satisfy the French fry need for Luke). We caught the bus to the train station again.
Got a ticket for €5.50 again and hopped on the train. Guess who we saw in the station? Christine’s roommates! They had been at the Uffizi AND the Pitti Palace and then they were in Pisa to see the tower! These girls have a mission I tell you. Damn that is some serious travel. This time we sat and got in some good chat time with Christine. We had some snacks that we bought at the grocery store. When we arrived to Florence we saw police men patrolling the station on segueway scooters. They looked very dignified- they had hard saddlebags containing perhaps stuff for a riot or maybe a gun in a lock box. I thought that was pretty cool. Christine booked her ticket on the electronic ticket machine for her return trip back to Venice. She was checking times and prices and things. She booked and paid and didn’t notice that she booked from the wrong Florence “station” and also booked to the wrong Island of Venice. AHHH! The train that she booked left in like an hour. That would have been fine but she had to travel back to our apartment to get her overnight bag AND travel back to the train station and THEN figure out how to either deal with her ticket OR get it figured out and fixed. Ahh. Can you imagine? I was so nervous for her. That kind of mistake is the thing of my bad dreams.

So that’s where you find us. Just blown in from the train station in a hurry to get here and get Christine off. Mom and Dad are scheduled to return via the bus as Christine thought a brisk walk would be quicker than the bus. So we obliged.

Later that night at 2000:
We have had dinner. Luke made partially from box and partially from scratch minestrone. They got some on sale stew meat that he put in there to dress it up a bit, also added some of our potatoes. It really hit the spot with some hard bread to dip in and some fresh grated parmesan cheese on top.
The Family is fading fast and we are getting tired quick. Luke just informed me that he is bored and wants me to hurry up on the computer- likely so he can go down and check the status the email. That is all I know. Tomorrow we are off to Pitti Palace which was the Medici (they were the BIG patrons and ruling family over Florence for a hundred years) family home. They have lots of palace décor and a costume museum and a big ornamental garden that is it’s own exhibit with separate admissions. I hope to enjoy some quiet time there. Good night. ljf