So, Florence. Let's see here. I believe we arrived in Florence sometime just after noon. After figuring out the complicated bus schedule, we finally caught the correct bus and took it towards our hostel. Ha, our hostel. Ohhhh goodness. It was fun. Well, different/fun.. all the same. It would be best compared to a 'home-stay' type deal. We knocked on the big, front door and lugged all of our luggage up the stairs to the second floor where we were greeted by an man in his 60s and his family. It was a tiny apartment, complete with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. One bedroom was packed full with bunk beds and I'm guessing the other was where the family slept. But, they were accommodating! They set us up with a map and places to see around the city and some free wine to taste! Can't beat that!
So after we got our map, Lacey and I headed back to the train station by foot, because we already had plans to catch a quick train to Pisa for the rest of the day. We arrived in Pisa and lemme tell you, that city is pretty much all about the famous tour.. there's not a whole lot more there, except for the other really cool building that stands on the opposite side of the lawn from the tower.. pobre building.. no one ever pays attention to it.
But before I delve any further, please let me try to describe Lacey's and my view as we were finally approaching the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We came through the last buildings on the street and BAM! There it was the tower, and BAM! there were all the people in the lawn before it, all with there hands up at different angles and some on their back with their legs up in the air.. HIL-AR-IOUS. It didn't take us long to figure out that they were obviously all taking the common picture of trying to hold the tower up or pushing it down. Still quite entertaining to see hundreds of pairs of hands in the air.
But of course, Lacey and I joined in the tourist-y activity. We took about a bajillion pictures each and finally settled to spend our last 3 Euros combined on gelato. I sure hope that doesn't surprise you. I think we'd find a way to buy that delicious dessert even if we were homeless and had no money. After gelato though, we decided it'd probably be best to head back towards Florence in order to get back to our hostel before dark and somewhat early because we wanted to get up early the next morning so we'd have as much time as possible to see the city.
About half way back to Florence though, we both realized we were starving and so once we got back, we immediately set out to find somewhere to eat. Too bad all the restaurants were closed... so we settled on walking about a mile to the nearest grocery store (which was to close in 10 minutes) and buying yet another cheap and unhealthy dinner consisting of deli sandwiches, cheese puffs, and something else. Ha, again.. not really surprising.
We then got to sleep at a decent hour because we were up the next morning and out on the town by 9 or so. Our first stop was Michaelangelo's David. This is where we found out the most exciting news of Italy: this entire upcoming week was CULTURAL WEEK meaning ALL museums were FREE!!!! Ahhh! It was SO wonderful! So we got in to see David for free, then headed down towards the Duomo and did a little browsing/shopping at the shops along the way, and then finally made our way up to a scenic overlook with a view of all of Florence and the Ponte Vecchio which expands across the Amo River.
Then we realized how little time we had to get back to the train station. Woops. Good thing there were taxis up on the overlook. Although we really didn't want to waste the money for a taxi, we HAD to get back to our hostel as quickly as possible. Since we were headed for Naples next, we did NOT want to miss our scheduled train. Not only because we already had a reserved time to make, but also because nothing good ever happens after dark in Naples.
So we made a break for it. We made it back to our hostel, grabbed our luggage and began to wait impatiently at the bus stop that we never thought would come. Well it did, but as if we weren't already stressed out enough, we got off at the wrong bus stop and then were SO turned around and couldn't figure out the next bus we had to take to our train station. It was terribly frustrating. Finally though, we found a nice bus driver that understood a little English and helped us find the bus we needed. Lucky for us, he was the driver! He made sure we got off at the right stop and told us which bus to catch next.
But then the trouble started up again. Since we departed from a different train station than what we arrived in, we ended up in a part of town we were completely unfamiliar with. We, again, got off at the wrong bus stop and had to haul our luggage a ridiculous way until we finally ran into someone who could tell us where we were going. About a mile and a half later, we finally saw the station and found the correct platform, just to find out that our train was running 30 minutes late.
So. Regardless of all our best efforts, we still ended up in Naples past dark. But, luckily for us, we shared a cabin with some great people. All Italian, and hilarious. We had a good time with them. We'd all try to talk to one another as best we could, but it wasn't too long before Lacey was just randomly saying things like, "spaghetti and lasagna." But it didn't take them long to catch on.. soon the whole cabin rang out in.. "ooohhh. SPAGHETTI!" in the typical Italian accent.. probably one of my favorite stories from the trip, but it definitely has to be told in person.
Okay, I think that's it for Florence and Pisa. Check in next time for Naples.. it's gonna be a doozie!
