...REWIND.
Last night, the girls and I stayed in. We went to a pizzeria near our apartment, about a 2 minute walk away. I had my first real pizza:
I just ordered one off of the menu and this is what I got: HOTDOGS, plus sausage and proscuitto. So delicious. I didn't want to be rude so of course I had to eat all of it. Nom nom nom. One of the waiters came over after our meal with a try of Limoncello shots for us. How kind. I love the Italians! Then after dinner, we were all so tired (the most tired I've been here by far). So after a little skyping [ :) ], I was off to bed. I had a horrible night sleep (due to the assumed exorcist haunting our room and waking up every half hour thinking we missed our train) but we all woke up on time and got our train to Pisa with Joe.
Our very first Euro train ride! Ah! So exciting. We got our tickets validated (because you must do that before boarding or else you get charged full ticket price) and found our platform. We ran into our other PSU friends on the train - how weird! Looked like it was just a Pisa kind of day. NBD. So we also discovered that gypsies ride trains too!
And they give out souveniers! How thoughtful. Gypsies. Oh, gypsies. So the train ride was eventful chatting with the girls. After about an hour, we arrived in Pisa. When planning, we had heard that all there is to do in the city is to see the Tower and that's it. Fortunately, Emily's guidebook has a walking tour of Pisa so we were all excited for that.
We wandered around the city, found an information office and got maps, and began our adventure. It's exciting to just roam the streets of foreign cities. We checked out the last Keith Haring artwork left in the city of Pisa. It was so fun and bright! How have I never heard of him?
Emily asked for directions from the two cutest ladies so we followed them to the Fiume Arno and we explored a bit around. We made a stop at the Chiesa Santa Maria della Spina. I was actually pretty disappointed because the church looked a lot bigger in our guidebook. No reason to go in.
So after the chiesa we wandered around to find some lunch. I just had a caffe americano and we went to visit Europe's oldest botanical gardens. It was 1.5 E to get in and it was worth it. It was a pretty garden to walk around, although I'm sure it would be even more beautiful once the flowers bloom. So we walked around the gardens for a bit and had some family photo shoots.
Then we were off to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We found it, no problem, and proceeded to take the cliche "hold up the tower" pictures. Since there's 10 of us, it took a little while but it was fun seeing all of the other tourists' poses.
Definitely worth the trip. Then we walked around the cathedral and the baptistery and ran into other students on our trip.
We decided it was necessary to pay the 15 Euro and climb the Tower! All of us minus one climbed the entire 294 steps to the top. It was extremely interesting to begin climbing and actually FEEL which way the tower was leaning as you ascend to the top. Some stairs are easy to climb and then others, depending on the lean, are more difficult. We finally made it up to the top and let me just say...WOW.
The view was absolutely amazing. We could see the entire city of Pisa and some of us even ran a lap or two around the top. All in all, the Tower is a must-see (even if the rest of the city isn't).
We ventured our way back down through Pisa to the train station, but of course not without stopping at Pisa's best gelato shop, La Bottega del Gelato. I had two flavors: coffee and hazlenut. It was SO delicious!
After some more walking & ticket problems at the station, we were on our return train to our home, Florence.
The night was somewhat uneventful. We made family pasta and sauce with proscuitto, cucumbers, red pepper, and anything else we could find in our kitchen. It turned out delicious - as always - and after many outfit dilemmas, we made it to Naima for Happy Hour. It was an early night, which I liked, and I slept for twelve hours. I think I needed it.
TODAY: I slept in until noon (after a couple of panic attacks last night that where was "the man" in our bathroom even though it was just Em) and went through pictures from yesterday. A couple more roomies woke up and we ventured out to explore, with no destination in mind. We walked near the Piazza del Repubblica and saw a crowd formed around a fountain of a pig. We noticed they were touching his nose and putting a coin in his mouth, which they let fall out. I assume it's good luck if the coin falls through the grate below the mouth because whenever it did, the individual was very happy and did a "yes!" motion. So of course I want my wishes to come true so I too fed the pig fountain a coin. YES! My coin went through the grates. Good luck to me!
Then we walked to Ponte Vecchio and just window shopped the gold stores. I can't wait to buy something from the bridge. Hungry for lunch, Kristie took us to Dante's Pizzeria, which is conveniently close to our apartment, just on the opposite side of the river. Kristie and I split a prosciutto pizza which was delicious.
I wonder if Italians eat at much pizza as I think they should. Then we wandered up to the markets to browse scarfs and I successfully got two (for lower than asking price). I'm still not comfortable trying to bargain the vendors down. This is something I'll have to work on.
Honestly, this life is surreal, My Sunday consisted of gallivanting around Florence, just aimlessly window-shopping and taking in the scenes. This is the life. I can't wait until the weather gets warmer and I can stay outside sunup through sundown (after sundown, it gets much more chilly). Alright, now on to homework, which doesn't seem acceptable to me seeing as I'm on a four-month vacation. School? What?
Off I go! BYE!
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