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Published: August 26th 2012
Before leaving Rome, I spoke to another guest at our hotel who told us to take the High Speed train to Pisa (1 hour travel time) to seeing the Leaning Tower and the Cathedral.
We decided to take their advice. The next day we jumped in a cab with our suitcases, said good-bye to Rome and headed for the train station,
Roma Termini. After waiting in the ticket line for close to an hour, I approached the man in the booth and told him we wanted to get to Pisa. He printed two tickets and we started running to catch the train that was leaving in 10 minutes.
We made the train and figured we would be in Pisa in an hour. WRONG! I booked the slowest train going anywhere in the country that day. It was a nice
FOUR hour train ride. We stopped in every little town between Rome and Pisa. We kept asking people when we would arrive in Pisa and each time they would say, “One hour”. Laurie got a seat for the ride and I stood. I figured it was my punishment for not booking the right train. Oh well, I won’t make that
mistake again.
We eventually arrived in Pisa and walked through the streets of the city in search of the leaning tower. When we rounded one corner and looked up, the sight was surreal. It felt like we were on a movie set. The tower and cathedral are so clean. The lawns were so well-manicured that I knew I wasn't in Tanzania anymore.
After the tower, we had some lunch and headed back to the train station. We caught the FAST TRAIN to Florence, grabbed a cab and got to our hotel, The Park Palace (
www.parkpalace.com) . This place is incredible. We had a room that overlooked the hills of Tuscany. It was located 10 minutes outside of the city. It is a Florentine style villa with 26 rooms, swimming pool in the yard and awesome food. This was the best hotel we booked on our trip though Italy.
The next day we wandered down the hill into Florence. Our first step was the Ponte Vecchio (translation: Old Bridge) where the tourists were out in full force. The heat was incredible but we made our way through the streets, taking in all we could. We went to the
Galeria dell' Accademia to see how long the line-ups were to see David. I can’t believe people would stand in line in that heat to look at a statue.... Okay, I am no great lover of art, but I can appreciate the work that goes into the finished work... But if I am going to stand in line in that heat to see a 15 foot naked man, he better be a living, breathing human.
We went for gelato instead.
After the gelato, we wandered past the
Florence Cathedral and into the
Piazza della Signoria. There, they have the replicas of all the great works of art (or so I am told). Here we found a 15 foot replica of David in addition to several other sculptures. This was good enough for us... after all, we had already seen the authentic
Pieta and
Moses!
The heat was doing a number on us and we had been going full tilt since arriving, so we grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hotel to lay by the pool for the afternoon. We had dinner on the terrace and called it an early night.
If I were to
The Arno River
After seeing it in crosswords all these years, I finally saw it firsthand.go to Florence again, I would stay at The Park Palace and use it as a hub for various day trips to Assisi, Siena, Pisa, & Lucca, and Chianti with a couple of days to relax by the pool... that way I would be able to experience Tuscany properly.
Tomorrow, Venice!
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