Today, we travel again. We are bound for Florence! I had never been to Florence until this trip and it was really exciting. Florence is like Rome and Venice had a baby. You the unique look of Venice everywhere in Florence, the ease of walking like in Rome, and all in a Goldilocks style perfectly sized city. Not too big, not too small. It was delightful. We will definitely be spending more time in Florence the next time we are here. But, before Florence, there was a little bit of excitement, so let’s rewind.

We woke up and headed downstairs for another amazing breakfast, complete with cappuccino, of course. We checked out of our hotel and make our way to the train station, bound for Naples. It was there that we transferred to another train to Florence. Small side note here: when you travel on the Eurail pass, you are expected to book a reservation in advance on certain trains. When one of the conductors was validating our reservations, she informed me that I was in the car. In fact, I was on the wrong train! Sometimes, in order to fill the demand or to have two trains that are routed to split off at some point, they will hook two trains together and continue merrily along. That was the case here. I was to be on the other train, whilst my travel buddy was to remain on this one. I was told to switch trains at the next stop. Be still my heart, my travel buddy is going to get lost and I will have no idea how to find him again.

He did not get lost. He was fine. I was fine. Everything was fine. In fact, he was sitting with a sprightly group of gentlemen from the United States who, it turns out, were delightful to talk to. I was stuck with a couple who was clearly fighting during their vacation. My ride was less interesting. It turned out that these gentlemen were from DC and were all around cool people to talk to. They had family in Florence and spent a lot of time here. I got to meet them when the train stopped and they were kind enough to tell us where to go and what to see. I love traveling for this reason, you meet the coolest people in the most interesting places.

We left the train station, found a hotel, dropped our bags, and headed back to the train station. Crazy? Yes. We wanted to go to Pisa to see this crooked tower everyone raves about. So, we did. We took the less nice, 45 minute run to nearby Pisa. Getting off of the train in the main square was less than appetizing. As much as I love Italy, there were some geopolitical aspects during this trip that made some of the places we went less than appealing. But, we muddled through. Across from the train station was a little cafe and we decided that it was cappuccino time, again. The gentleman behind the counter was kind enough to share some stories with us about the area and told us where to walk to get to the Piazza with the tower. He told us that we could go one of two ways. We could go directly to the piazza or take the long way around. While there was a small part of me that felt like this was a hustle and that he would call his buddies to jump us a block away, we listened to his directions. Once we got outside, we mulled it over. Looking down the direct path, we saw shady looking characters and a not-so-friendly road. Looking around the corner to the “long way”, we saw streets bustling with life and shops. We shrugged and decided we’d be more on our guard and take the long way.

We were so glad that we did, too. The long way was worth it! There were cool shops and restaurants and life everywhere. We circled around for a while and then we came up to the gates to the piazza. The young man’s directions were spot on, for what we could remember of them and we made it to the Leaning Tower, after all. No muggings, no issues. We ended up spending probably an hour or so wandering through the piazza. There’s not much wandering to do, but it wasn’t what I expected. I thought the tower was its own thing, but there’s so much more going on there. If there weren’t so many people, I could have easily spent more time there.

After we had our fill of Pisa, we made our way back to Florence to wander and see what we could find. Tomorrow, we set out for some of the places that our new friends told us about. We wandered around for a couple of hours and found a place for dinner. The Osteria De’ Peccatori held everything that we wanted, including an incredible waiter. When his assistants failed to bring us our bruschetta at the beginning of the meal, he was offended on our behalf. The Italians are very particular about food. i grew up in New Orleans. I am, too. Our bruschetta was brought out immediately and was delicious. Everything we had was delicious. I love eating in Italy. The food is so rich and wonderful. every course of your meal holds a new adventure.

After dinner, we wandered back to the hotel to get some rest for the next day’s adventures. We are traveling again tomorrow, but will spend the morning hitting the places that we want to see. Until tomorrow.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s installment of our vacation. Check back tomorrow to see where we end up.

Thanks, y’all!