Saturday Trip - Pisa and Lucca

Pisa

I woke up at 8 and had a huge breakfast (half a box of cereal) because I knew that I’d be hungry in a few hours if I didn’t. Dana was supposed to call me in the morning to let me know if she and her roommates were coming (they were at a club all night). At 8:50, I figured the girls weren’t coming (they would have slowed us down anyway) so Joe and I left for the train station.

Getting tickets was easy and we were on the train shortly thereafter. Five kids sat next to us on the train. I think they tried sneaking on or something (I’ve thought about doing this since they rarely ever check your train ticket) because five minutes into the train ride someone came around to check tickets and they didn’t have any, haha. So, they each get fined. Now, I’ll think twice about trying that.

We arrived in Pisa in about an hour. The morning started off cloudy and chilly, but the sun finally came out and it felt a lot warmer. The Arno River runs through both Florence and Pisa so both towns look similar when you face the river.

We walked toward the city center in search of the main attractions (the cathedral, baptistery, leaning tower, etc). On the way, we passed a hospital and an office building. Most of the streets were quiet. Pisa didn’t have the hustle and bustle of Florence.

We finally reached the central square and the first thing I noticed was the famous Torre Pendente (Leaning Tower). Seeing the tower in person was unbelievable, it looks like it’s about to fall over.

Historical Note: Construction started in 1174 and it was obviously lopsided by the time work began on the third story. The tower’s architects attempted to compensate it by making the remaining floors slightly taller on the tilting side, but the extra weight only

made the problem worse.

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Both the grounds and buildings surrounding the immediate area are kept in excellent condition. The cathedral was gorgeous inside and out. As opposed to the cathedral I visited in Sienna which had tons of great sculptures, this cathedral was comprised of many brilliant paintings. The size, detail, and location of the paintings was incredible.

Inside the cathedral

We walked around for another hour and visited a few old churches, but most of them were closed. On the way back to the train station we came across an old fort, once surrounded by a lagoon.

Lucca

The train ride from Pisa to Lucca was only about 25 minutes. Lucca is an old fortress town and its center is completely surrounded by walls. Motorized traffic is restricted which makes it nice to walk or bike around.

You can actually walk on top of the walls that surround the city. It was a nice day, so there were a lot of people strolling and jogging along. It was fun to walk around the city center. Most streets are narrow, but lively and full of character.

We came across the Piazza del Anfiteatro Romano. It used to be the spot of an old Roman amphitheater and the medieval buildings that were constructed over the amphitheater are still there, retaining its original oval shape.

Next, we went to the Torre Guinigi, the tower of an old medieval palace. The interesting thing about the tower is that six trees have formed on the top and their roots have grown into the room below. The view from atop the tower was magnificent and we timed it perfectly because the sun was just setting.

The Trip Home

I had a great time seeing Pisa and Lucca and we were both happy that our first trip went flawlessly...or so we thought. At 6:00PM we buy a 6:30 train ticket back to Florence.

At this point, we were both realy tired after a long day. It felt like the ride home was taking so long. It was dark outside so we couldn't see much. I roll down the window and see snow! Oh shit! We’ve been here for three weeks and I haven’t even seen a single flurry. It was freezing and it looked like we were in the mountains somewhere.

There were only two other people on the train and they were older woman who didn’t speak any English. I show them my ticket that says Firenze and they say, “no no no.” Great! So we are on the wrong train and have no idea where we are. I looked at my cell phone and realized that we had been on the train for at least an hour. Luckily, the ladies were really nice and understood our situation. We get off at their stop and they explained our situation to a manager at the small station.

where the hell are we?!

The manager tried explaining something to us in Italian and I understood most of what he said. We had to take a train back to Lucca and then another one to Firenze, but we had a timeline because the last train back to Florence is at 10:30PM. If we don't catch it, we are stuck in Lucca for the night.

At this point, I was already starting to feel sick with a sore throat and all I wanted to do was go home. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, two molto bella Italianas walked onto the train and sat down right behind us. Why the hell didn't we pay more attention in Italian class?!Luckily, I had my little translator book with me and I was able to conceal it while formulating questions to ask them. Meanwhile, a 15 year old Italian kid a few rows up, was laughing his ass off because he saw what was going on. We ended up talking to them for awhile and found out that they were going to a discoteca.

We couldn’t pronounce their names and we couldn’t figure out how to ask them for their cell phone numbers, but we did take a picture of where they got on the train and where they got off. So, we vowed that we will find them again.

We finally got back to lucca and caught one of the last trains going back to Florence. Originally, it should have taken 45 minutes to get home from Lucca, but it ended up being a four hour adventure.

Lucca train station