Last, last weekend…sorry I’ve been slackin’…
Our alarm clock went off at 4:25 this morning. We got up, threw clothes on and headed downstairs to meet everyone in the lobby at 4:50. The Porter called two taxis for us (we couldn’t get a 6-person cab that early) and a few minutes later we were off to Termini Station. We found our train without a problem, got seats together and set off for Pisa at 6:13 on the dot. Everything went rather smoothly (for Italy I mean) and the car we were in was pretty empty. Throughout the train ride we had a beautiful view of the Italian landscape; mountains, the sea, and many fabulous ancient homes scattered about. I had signed us all up for sack lunches on Wednesday night; this is a really nice option Mensa (our dining hall) gives us. You pick your bagged lunch up on Thursday night, since we have Fridays off, and you can take it with you on your trips! It’s a very good way to save a few bucks, so we all ate those on the train as a makeshift breakfast/lunch, (it consisted of an Italian bologna sandwich (which is a shit ton better than American bologna, no offence) an apple, blood red orange juice, a cheese sandwich (for the veggies at school, we just took the cheese off and put it on the bologna sandie) and an apricot tart, it was a splendid little meal!) and in about 4 hours we arrived in the quaint little town of Pisa. We walked out of the Pisa Centrale train station and realized that we were completely unprepared. We had no map and no idea which direction to head in, but we had a good 3 hours until our train left for Florence and so decided to make the best of it! We found a map a few minutes of out the train station and began our trek to the other side of the city (where the tower is located), which took about 15 to 20 min tops. When we told people that we were going to Pisa before Florence almost everyone told us to just skip it, there was nothing to see except for the Tower, and that’s swarming with tourists. Well, this is what I have to say to those people: we had a FREAKIN BLAST in Pisa, it was the cutest little city I have ever seen. Totally worth the trip!!
When we finally got to the Tower we, of course, had to take that picture, you know that one that every tourist takes when they are in Pisa, the one where you’re holding up the tower. We had a blast trying to get these pictures and with a group of 6 it took a lot longer than we thought it would. It was so funny to see everyone hanging around that tower. We thought it would be an American tourist thing but tons of people from all over the world were trying to get the same picture. It was hilarious, everyone was laughing and doing the same pose with their hands in the air trying to hold a building that is, in reality, about a football field away. The whole experience was quite amusing.
Our train to Florence left Pisa around 1:30 in the afternoon and got in around 3. We decided to head to the hotel first so we could put all of our stuff down but since I had COMPLETELY forgot to bring our printed conformation information (I know, I’m an idiot, completely worthless) we had no idea where our hotel was…but thankfully we did know its name and found someone who could look up the address for us. The women who googled it for us said that it was a long way away, in fact her exact words were “It’s in another district completely. Not even in Florence!!” So we started freaking out…a lot (I would like to take this time and let it be known that I did not book the hotel). However, after looking at a map and chatting to a few Loyola students we had run into we decided that it wasn’t too far away. When we got into the cab we told the driver the name of the hotel and he knew exactly where it was…so no worries :)!! It was about a 20 min walk from downtown Florence, totally do-able for 6 Romans.
Needless to say, the hotel was amazing, it was a 2 bedroom apartment with 5 beds and it even had a kitchen! It was fabulous and was only 18 Euro for each of us! A very good find! That night we went out for pizza and beer at a local place, it was great stuff. We woke up early the next morning and made breakfast in our little kitchen! We had nutella, bread and eggs (breakfast of champions!!) it was so nice to have a real breakfast. We then walked downtown went shopping for a bit at the awesome markets and then met up with Father Al at the Duomo. He gave us a nice little tour of the churches and streets of Florence, it’s a great place to visit and has amazing architecture. We went through the Santa Croce Cathedral which houses the tombs of some of Italy’s best, including Galileo, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Dante…among others. The leather shop connected to this church was amazing as well, although extremely expensive. I would recommend this tour to everyone who goes to Florence.
Because our train left at 7 we had to eat an early dinner (we had pizza again because nothing else was open…most restaurants close for a siesta after lunch from like 4-7:30). We then got on our train and headed back to Rome. It was sad to leave but felt nice to be back in Rome.
Because our train left at 7 we had to eat an early dinner (we had pizza again because nothing else was open…most restaurants close for a siesta after lunch from like 4-7:30). We then got on our train and headed back to Rome. It was sad to leave but felt nice to be back in Rome.
Da Roma, con amore.
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