Overland 1972 - Day 14

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Day 14 - Friday 25th February

A very pleasant night's sleep and up early for the adventure ahead. Breakfast was not too expensive for a hotel costing 600 Lira but in itself breakfast was 40%!o(MISSING)f a normal day's spend. Then disaster - we waited until 11am but no Porsche arrived - had the driver been forced to change his plans or was he just leading us on ! We had to pay for the hotel room at 2450 Lira (£1= 1550) and to add to injury, we were on the wrong side of Milan for the route to Florence. Oh well chin up - off we walk in the direction of the autostrade. The first lift in a very small Fiat helped us to the main road where we were picked up by another Fiat and dropped in North Milan near the autostade. This was another hopeless spot as the traffic was heading in the wrong direction and it had started to rain. After the Police moved us on, we decided to change sides of the road and head through Milan. Almost immediately we were given a lift to the southern side of Milan straight through the centre along very crowded roads - our driver stopped to buy some Black Market cigarettes but hey we were making progress at last. Sadly we had concentrated on travelling and had not found time to sightsee - Michael would have expected us in Florence by now.

The fourth lift was heading to Pisa. It was a very small Fiat with two occupants in the front. We sat in the back with our rucksacks weighing down on our knees - not so good for the view and even worse for the legs. The journey lasted from 3pm to 8pm which is 5 hours for 175 miles. However the scenery was pleasant enough along a coastal road which was mountainous and offered occasional glimpses of the sea. One of the Italians spoke quite good English and had been to England as well as Israel (on a Kibbutz), Morocco and Tunisia. He was generous but a bit weird and we declined the offer of a special cigarette !

We were dropped in the centre of Pisa right by the Leaning Tower and decided to find a hotel (1350 Lira) - we had no idea where the Youth Hostel was and who cared as we had endured a frustrating day. We went to our beds after having a nice fresh pizza and having left a phone message for Michael. It was raining ! Oh dear we are spending too much money.

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