Pisa

I have been feeling under the weather lately, and my days have been spent mostly sleeping. So here's a little (past due) catch up on my weekend. 

On Saturday we went to Pisa and a little bit of Lucca---will explain later. It was my first train experience in Europe and I really enjoyed it! The train to Pisa took no more than an hour and the scenery outside the window was beautiful. It was nice to get away from Florence for the day and have a trail run of the train system, so I will know what to do next time. Hopefully I can find some cheaper tickets via train for other places in Italy, because it was a very easy and enjoyable time. I also found the train station much more relaxed than an airport.

For lunch we went to a little place in town that served panini and pizza. We ate outside next to the street and enjoyed the sun. Again the apartment shared many laughs and good food. I ordered a caprese panino with hot tea (to hopefully help my sore throat). However, it turns out the thing to get there was the pizza.We grabbed lunch right as we got off the train, afterwards everyone split up and did what ever they wanted to for a couple of hours.

I remember when I was a little girl and had seen the leaning tower in books-- it always amazed me and I finally got to go see it in person! The tower itself was pretty fascinating. However, it was blocked away from the town of Pisa and made for a very touristy site. We saw more people from America than from Italy. I guess still must consider myself a tourist but it was something that I wanted to get away from. Either way, I really enjoyed looking at the architecture and sitting in the sun watching people young and old play with the birds. I was sitting on the steps of the cathedral journaling, when a little italian boy came up to me I guess looking to see what I was doing. I decided to give my italian a try--- Ciao. Ciao. Come stai? Bene. Yes I know. It was a conversation of the ages, nevertheless a boy no older than 4 couldn't have understood I was a tourist or from a different country. I enjoyed the thought that in his eyes, maybe I was just like him and could speak the language he spoke. (When we all know this is less than true.) After our lengthy conversation he was back to running around with the birds and I was back to my journal. 

At one thirty we all met back up and took one last picture with the tower, then said goodbye to Pisa. We decided to take a bus to Lucca but as we were sitting down on the bus, the driver told everyone to check their bags because there had been two robberies already that day. Unfortunately Kaitlin realized her wallet was missing. Our spirits down, we decided to head home on the first train from Lucca. Luckily, Kaitlin didn't have much cash and her passport was separate. We finally arrived back in Florence that night and were all happy to head home. It was quite a long day but was all worth it-- especially when Kaitlin received an email the next day saying that someone had found her wallet! I was going to name this post PISAster, but decided that is wasn't a disaster at all, but rather a learning experience for us amateur travelers. However, in no time we will know what buses to take and how to find the train we want (or let's hope so).

Today and Sunday have been spent sleeping and travel planning. I am getting a bit stir crazy but it is nice to have some time and an excuse to catch up on sleep and do nothing. I needed both.