Pisa

Our second day trip from Florence was to Pisa. It was really not a day trip but a stopover on the way to our final destination of the vacation. We checked out of our Airbnb, and with all our luggage in tow, caught the train to Pisa. We used the deposito bagagli again at the Pisa train station and set off on foot for the Tower.

It’s a nearly 1.5 mile (2km) walk from the train station to the Piazza del Duomo where the Leaning Tower leans. I’ll be honest – not a single person in our group of 9 was having a good day that day. It was hot. It was crowded. The kids were cranky. The adults were cranky.

By the time we got there, enthusiasm had waned significantly. We tried to get a group shot – the group wasn’t having it.

Not long before our trip that year, I had reconnected with a childhood friend of mine. Her parents and my parents were friends in the ’70’s when my parents lived in Bologna. When we started spending our summer vacations in Italy when I was a child, she would often come and spend a few days at the beach with us.

I knew she worked at the Pisa Tourist Office in the Piazza del Duomo. I hadn’t told her we were coming to Pisa that day because I really didn’t know if I would have a chance to see her, but when we found ourselves standing right outside of the Tourist Office trying to get the failed group shot, I went in to see if she was working. And she was! It was a fun surprise.

She recommended lunch at alabona, and everyone’s moods did improve after a few large glasses of wine, lemon sodas and heaping bowls of pasta with ragu di cinghiale (boar) and of course, another round of gelato.

Then it was back on the train to our next destination – the Tuscan beach town of Marina di Pietrasanta!

What We Say About Pisa