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Published: February 20th 2008
PISA
We flew into Pisa on everyone’s favorite ghetto airline: RyanAir. We get so excited when we buy cheap plane tickets online…until we have to drive 3 hours to get there and then wait in line like cattle to claim a seat on the plane!! It’s at that point that we wish we had splurged and bought tickets on a real airline! The best way to describe it would be a cheap version of Southwest. At least with Southwest they are civilized enough to give you a boarding group. RyanAir makes you pay for airport check in, pay to check even one bag, and they don't serve drinks or snacks. Never mind the fact that to offer cheap fares, they added a couple rows of seats...so none of them recline and there are no nets on the front to hold stuff. The next time we're in the states, we won't be complaining about Southwest being lame! Compared to RyanAir, it's a first-class ticket!
Anyway, we arrived in Pisa, Italy and hopped on the city bus headed to the Leaning Tower. Neither of us had expected it to be in a small square surrounded by a wall. We had
both pictured it all alone in the middle of a field and instead we found that the tower isn’t by itself! It's in the Campo dei Miracoli, along with a cathedral and a baptistery. Most of the focus is on the tower though, as people line up to take pictures of themselves either holding it up or knocking it down!! The tower was once 4.47meters off balance and in 1990 was closed to the public for fear it might fall. In 1998, engineers attempted to stabilize the tower and now it rests only 4.1meters off. Experts predict it will be ok for another 300 years before it needs to be 'readjusted.' Adults are able to climb up the tower, however they charge 15€ per person to do so!! What a ripoff!!! We decided to just admire the massive archetectural mistake while relaxing on the lawn and then head out to the train station to catch a ride to Florence.
Our first night we wandered down the street with our host's guidance to a pizzeria. Andrea ordered chicken and Romas ordered Bistecca Fiorentina (a local specialty). Here is where we got our first glimpse at eating in an Italian
restaurant. The waiter told us we couldn't order what we wanted. He said the steak was too big for one person. Ok, so Andrea said she would try it too. Well...ten minutes later they rolled out a steak on a cart!! Everyone was watching as they sliced the 900gram T-bone at our table. Much to Andrea's dismay, it was still MOOING!!! It had literally been browned on either side, but was absolutely raw inside. It was actually cold in parts. It was ok for a one-time experience, but it would not be a re-do next time around!! We also inadvertantly ordered a bottle of wine and a bottle of water. Andrea, being the light-weight drinker that she is, only had about a glass and a half before she quit. Poor Romas was left to finish the bottle (let it go to waste?!?! NEVER!!) 😊
We headed back to our B&B...Andrea found it on TripAdvisor. It was reasonably priced and was in a residential neighborhood with easy access to public buses. We had a small apartment with a kitchen, which had just recently been renovated - from floor to ceiling with IKEA components! We had a modest breakfast buffet
each morning (in nicer weather breakfast is served on a terrace overlooking the city!) It was perfect for what we needed. We walked instead of riding the bus a couple times and it was a great opportunity to see life outside of the city walls.
OUR FIRST DAY (SATURDAY)
We woke up on Saturday and after Andrea showered she realized her big mistake: She had never checked to see that the outlets in Italy were the same as in Germany and Spain. She found out the hard way that they are not!! Instead of using 2 round prongs like in Germany, the Italians have to be different and use 3 small round prongs!! After freaking out that her hair would be a scary ball of frizz once it dried in a hour (and anyone who knows her realizes it's not an exaggeration!), they went to upstairs to breakfast. She asked the man working and he actually had one right there for her to use!! Apparantly we’re not the only people to make this mistake! CRISIS AVERTED!
Moral of the story?
ALWAYS check voltage and outlet sizes in case we need to buy adaptors!!
After breakfast
we headed out to
Il Museo Zoologico la Speccola. It's an odd museum which features a collection of every animal imaginable! They're stuff, displayed, posed...it's so weird! The collection dates back to the 17th and 18th Centuries. The museum also features late 18th Century wax models of human anatomy. They were created as teaching aids for doctors way back when. Unfortunately they have a strict 'no photo' rule or you can bet we'd have crazy pictures to post from the exhibit!!
Our next stop was La Galleria Dell'Accademia, home of Michelangelo's
David. After paying 6.50€ per person for the entry, we expecting to see more than just one statue. Technically we did, but we were very disappointed. We walked into the hallway and there was David in front of us. He is on a large pedistal under a tremendous glass dome which makes him look even more amazing. As we walked up to stand beneath him, we passed 3 or 4 other statues by Michelangelo which were unfinished. They were carved into the front of the stone, but left completely raw in the back. Honestly, we were both more captivated with these statues, than with David. They left more
up to the imagination and they seemed more creative. We walked up to David and were disappointed that there are guards everywhere reminding you that photos are not permitted. We walked a 360 around and admired the work for a few minutes and then went down the hall to what looked like another exhibit. To our surprise, it was a room full of statues and busts...and it was roped off!! It was closed. Besides a room with musical instruments and another with 5-6 paintings, there was nothing else to see. We were very upset that after paying 13€ ($20) we only saw a couple things and a statue which was outside and available to the public for hundreds of years, now had guards preventing pictures. Disappointed we left and went to the Macchine di Leonardo.
The Macchine di Leonardo is a small museum with a bunch of Leonardo's inventions. They have been built (some to scale) and are on display. There are even some that you can play with and try for yourself! It was a neat place to visit, mainly because although we knew Leonardo was a genius, we never realized just how much he had created
and sketched such a long time ago. The museum displayed gears and cranks, pulley systems, a flying machine, a cryptex (like the one made famous by
The DaVinci Code. It also showed his writings and sketches (complete with his mirror image and right-to-left style of writing!) We left with an even fonder respect for such a remarkable man.
Next we were off to the famous
Ponte Vecchio. Here's a little history on this adorable bridge:
- the oldest part dates back to 972 A.D.
- it crosses at the narrowest point along the Arno River
- it was destroyed in 1177 and 1333, and nearly again in 1966 by severe flooding
- the bridge as we know it today was built in 1345
The tradition of selling jewelery in the shops comes from the 16th C. when Grand Duke Fernando I de'Medici ordered that the butchers who inhabited the shops be replaced (they had been throwing unwanted leftovers into the river!) A scary thought is that the bridge was almost destroyed in August 1944 by retreating German forces. As they retreated, they blew up each bridge on the Arno. Luckily they spared the Ponte Vecchio and blew up large
areas on either side of the bridge instead.
As sunset approached, we made our way on the bus up to the Basilica de San Minieto al Monte and the Piazzale Michelangelo. The church was interesting for its cemetary. There were old crypts and tombstones from the 1800 and 1900's. The church is above the Piazzale and monks still run it.
The Piazzale Michelangelo was created in the 19th C. There is a bronze copy of David here, which was dragged up from central Florence in 1873 by a wagon pulled by 8 pairs of oxen. From this spot in the city, you have an unobstructed view of the city center. And although the view was gorgeous, we were freezing and headed back down into town for dinner.
We had compromised on Valentine's Day, since we were running errands and getting ready the night before our trip, and ate fast food - knowing that we would find a great place to eat in Florence. Romas did his research in the guide book and found Frescabaldi. We had amazing food and wine that night!! We started our with Bruschetta and bread with fresh olive oil. Romas
had veal ossobucco and Andrea had a spinach/ricotta plate. We had great Tuscan red wines with dinner, chosen with the help of our excellent waiter, Alessandro. Then dessert was cheesecake and vin santo with biscotti. (Again, twice in two days, we had been vetoed by our waiter!! We had wanted one dessert with vin santo and he told us, "no." It was hilarious!) But the food was DELICIOUS!! Mmmmmmm 😊
HORSEBACK RIDING IN TUSCANY (SUNDAY)
Sunday we had schedule an excursion into the Tuscan countryside. We were figuring that everything would be closed on Sunday - like we had encountered in Germany - but that was not the case. Even so, it was an absolute perfect way to spend a day!
We were told to wait outside of the McDonald’s at the train station at 9:30am. There we met 6 other Americans - all students studying abroad in Florence. We were met by Romana, our driver, in a van from the farm. From there she drove us about 45 minutes into Siena province to a farm.
While we waited for our ride, we sampled some red wine. Romana told us that the wine was
produced on the land owned by the family for their own personal use - it was never marketed or sold. We walked around the farm and met some of the horses. Most are privately owned and used in jumping competitions.
We were matched with horses based on our abilities and experience. Andrea rode “Nadir,” a horse who our guide told us, “must always be second.” (Later we found that Nadir insisted on his placement behind the lead horse and would cut off, push, or race any other who tried to pass him!!) Romas rode “Motore” (Engine, in English!) - a former racehorse who had everyone fooled during the trail ride as he kept getting passed by the others until he was last in line! Apparently he is just bored with his new status as ‘semi-retired trail horse’ because later the guide let Andrea spend a couple minutes cantering/galloping through the field with another girl who had experience. You could tell he was having a little more fun when he had more freedom!
After our ride, we were driven to a nearby ‘town’ (and by town we mean a wall around a church, a couple of restaurants
and a couple of houses!) to have lunch. We started with some Tuscan white wine, procuitto, 2 kinds of salami, capacola, and pecorino cheese (and, of course, bread and olive oil!) Then we had 2 kinds of Tuscan red wines to try with our pasta sampler. Then we had vin santo with biscotti.
In the car on the way home, Romana let us pick a CD. One of the girls picked one that was labeled “Old Italy.” Andrea was laughing that she could actually know one of the songs about to be played…And sure enough, she did!! Growing up hearing Grandpa singing Italian songs it was bound to happen; it was the song about the parrots telling the man which lottery numbers to play:
“C'erano tanti tanti pappagalli, rossi verdi e gialli che dicevan così
Giocali, Giocali, Giocali, Giocali gio'
Ho giocato tre numeri al lotto 25, 60 e 38
Li ho giocati convinto perché usciranno tutti e tre”
We got home around 5pm and walked back to our B&B. We were tired after our long day but it had been so much fun!! We had an entire day’s excursion complete with horseback riding,
a tour of the countryside, food, and wine for 95 Euros! It was definitely worth the money - we had a great time!!
You can find more information about our ride at www.horsebackridinginTuscany.com.
To get from inside the city walls to our B&B you had to cross under the Porta Romana. The history surrounding this wall is fascinating! LonelyPlanet Florence says the following, "The square below was traditionally a fairground for peasants in the surrounding county. By far the most curious of these fairs was the Fiera dei Contratti (Contracts Fair), when country folk from near and far dragged sons and daughters along to contract marriage. They would haggle keenly over dowries and, must to the amusement of the not-too-respectful city folk who had taken the day off to come and gawk, compel prospective brides to walk up the hill...to see how well they swayed their hips!" Hilarious! And to think we walked through that same gate and up the hill a bunch of times....😊
Our last night in Florence, after a long excursion into the Tuscan countryside, we decided to eat at the local pizzeria near our B&B. We opened the door
into a crowd of Italians waiting for takeout. As we waited for the host (owner?) to find us a table, we watched the pizzas being cooked in a wood burning, brick oven. Romas ordered a mozzarella and tomato calzone and Andrea a foccacia with mozzarella and tomato. The calzone was delicious, but the winner was the foccacia. They had baked the round dough bottom and then topped it with fresh mozzarella slices, tomatoes, and fresh basil and drizzled olive oil on top. It was amazing!! There aren’t many places in America where you can get fresh mozzarella and Andrea had been going through withdrawals since leaving NY. Romas keeps saying, “Everything tastes better in Italy,” and that may be the case sometimes...but it also helps to have such fresh ingredients!
Florence has free public transportation…well, sort of! You are supposed to buy your ticket in advance (bus tickets are valid for about an hour after, train tickets for about 3 months after purchase). You have to validate your ticket on the platform before you board the train or onboard the bus. We did pay for our roundtrip train tickets (which were really cheap anyway) but
after the first couple of bus rides where we paid for tickets, we decided to do like the Italians and ride for free. Hey, when in Rome, right? So we saved a ton of money riding the city’s “free public transportation!”
Another trend we are noticing is on our flights. So far we have flown 4 separate times (2 roundtrips) and each time we land and begin our taxi to our gate (or in RyanAir's case...our bus on the runway!) the entire plane errupts into clapping!! We suppose it's a European thing since the only time Andrea can ever remember clapping was when the pilot announced that their instruments were once again working in heavy fog after circling on approach for an hour. The passengers had been thrilled they would not have to be diverted. But here, apparantly it's a common occurance.
The only regret we have on our trip is not going inside the Duomo. It was a stupid mistake but after walking up through the crowds and seeing the lines to enter inside, we were hit with a feeling of exasperation at the amount of people all crowding through the doorways. Looking back,
it was silly to not go inside...but as Romas put it, "Now we have a reason to go back." 😊 In a heartbeat! 😊
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mnmhull
The Many Adventures of M&M
Adapting to Adapters
I've never had a problem with the adapters in Italy! I think the three prong one that you're talking about is like our three prong one in the States. But the German two prong plugs are a little bit thicker than the two prong ones that you can use in Italy. If you go to the PX get the smaller adapters...the ones in the little plastic bags, not the big round ones. Those fit down south :) Then again, maybe I'm wrong and Pisa has completely different plugs! But I'm glad the hairdryer fiasco was averted :)