Pisa!!! Yes it's touristy, but how can I not see the leaning tower and take the requisite "holding up the tower" photo?!!!
The alarm went off at 6am, ugh. We wanted to
catch an early train to Pisa so that we still had time to get in a few museums before they closed. We caught the 8:30 hotel shuttle to the
train station. The Eurail pass was definitely coming in handy as there are no tickets to buy, no reservations to make (except for long ones like Venice to Florence or Florence to Rome), you just jump on the train and go. We
found the next train to Pisa which happened to be in 20 min and
hopped on.
We get to Pisa Central Train station
and follow the guidebook's suggested 1 mile walking tour. I was a total tourist with my nose buried in the guidebook while holding my trusty camera at the ready. The
leaning tower finally came in sight! I make Girard take my touristy
photo (amongst many an eye roll and groans) single fingeredly holding up the tower. Girard refused to take one. Spoilsport!
We tried getting
tickets to go into the tower but only tickets available were at
2pm. If we had any hopes of finishing the museum tour today, we had to
get back around 2pm. *sigh* So we walked around the area, went inside the
cathedral and had lunch at Osteria La Toscana that we had passed on the way
up. It was truly a little gem and I had pasta with boar sausage.
Yummm...
We jump on the 3pm train back to Firenze
and explored the Piazza Pitti, the Museum of Modern Art and the
Boboli Gardens. There was a breathtaking view of Florence from the top of the garden.
The exploration of the garden was cut short by attacking mosquitoes so we quickly descended. By now, dinner was looking pretty good so we went looking for the Cibreo
Restaurant, a very high recommendation by Girard's mom and the locals that we spoke to while trying to get directions. We finally found
it after asking several police officers, an ambulance team and
finally a local. The food was seriously foody paradise. The menu was entirely verbal and when Girard didn't finish his soup because it was a bit rich, they replaced it with a to-die-for polenta without even asking. They even gave us free dessert because our dinner took a bit longer than it should to come out, again without us even saying a word. This is definitely a must experience if you ever visit Florence.
We roll ourselves into a taxi and subsequently the hotel. Tomorrow will be another long day. We are headed to San Gimignano, the city of towers (or affectionately renamed "Gimi" because Girard can't seem to pronounce the entire city...hey it's my blog so I can say whatever I want!) then to Sienna.
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