Firenze and Pisa

After a month of being in Italy the weather finally started to perk up. Ross and I decided to make a trip out to Firenze (Florence).  After researching the best route and prices we opted to take a train through Genova and then down to Pisa. We would spend the afternoon in Pisa and then finish our train to Firenze where we would stay for the remainder of the weekend.

Friday morning rolled around and I was the first at the station. As I said earlier, control is just an illusion and you are always waiting on someone or something. The ticket line at the train station is no exception. With only two counters open, the line was pretty slow go. I finally made my way up there and said to the women “Vorrei due biglietti per Pisa oggi per favore”. Hoping I hadn’t butchered it too much, I crossed my fingers that the transaction went smoothly. She understood that I needed two tickets for the train heading out to Pisa that day. She asked me what time, and confidently I replied “alle otto” (eight oclock).  “Dove treno?” I asked, and I was informed it would arrive on platform two. Getting my tickets I walked away. When you hear the saying it’s the little things in life, this is a prime example. This was my first time that I had not only ordered a ticket completely on my own, but that it had gone over so smoothly. Excited that I had ordered two tickets in Italian, it didn’t matter how broken or hesitant it was, I saw it as a huge improvement.

In no time at all we were on the train headed towards Pisa. We got a 6 person carriage all to ourselves.  It was a fun train ride and for some reason we were really excited as we embarked on our first official trip. We went through a variety of landscapes including snowcapped mountains, and foggy hills to sunny beachside views of the Mediterranean.

On the train ride over

By the Mediterranean Sea... had a California vibe to it

More sights from the train

We made it to Pisa around lunchtime. Figuring it was a small town, we decided to do the self-guided tour from Ross’s Rick Steve travel guide. From the train station we followed Corso Italia. This is one of the main streets in Pisa and it led us to the Ponte di Mezzo. Apparently this bridge used to be lined with shops, however that is no longer the case. The bridge was destroyed time and time again by floods, and then it was destroyed by the bombings that took place during WWII. We passed through the Piazza Garibaldi and the statue of the famous leader. We followed the tour up Borgo Stretto, which is filled with places to shop before getting side tract with our quest to find food.

Piazza Garibaldi

Veiw from the Pisa Bridge

We stopped in this pizza shop that claimed they had been around for quite some time. We did not blend in at all with our back packing backpacks, and to everyone who saw us we were clearly American tourists, but we surprised our waiter by ordering in Italian. The pizza was very different to the kind in Pavia and afterwards we got ourselves a caffé, which is the routine of Italians at meal time. However, when we attempted to get up to pay the waiter stopped us. Stay there he said. Then he came over gave us the bill, and asked for the money there. This is very untypical, but we obliged. We thought maybe they had been ripped off by tourists and so this was their protocol for outsiders. However, I don’t know how we could possibly rip them off. With my huge backpack on I could barely maneuver my way through the restaurant, yet alone barrel down the street at full speed in an effort to avoid an eight euro pizza bill. Anyways, it became clear after a few moments that we were the ones that were going to be ripped off. They waiter held on to the money hoping we would forget about the change. Then when we went to the register he suddenly appeared and handed us the receipt. Ross asked for his change in Italian and guy apologized… “oh mi dispiace” blah, blah, blah. Okay so it was only 50 cents, but still it was the concept of how they went about it that was so wrong.

After our lunch we made it the most famous site: the Field of Miracles and the Tower.  I learned that the Tower was first started in 1173. It became cricked due to the soil that Pisa is built on. Pisa lies on shifting delta sand which complicates construction, and in reality all of Pisa leans. However, the tower is leaning at a five-degree angle. This is equal to 15 feet off the vertical axis and after the reconstruction that began in 1990 they have actually decreased the lean by about 6 inches. This is much better for the preservation of the tower. With each year that passed it would lean more and more, making its destruction seem inevitable. While it is a better state after the $30 million used to restore it, there are still many factors that threaten its stability today.  The Duomo/Cathedral that is right by the Leaning Tower was beautiful. We got to go inside and it was breathtaking. Each cathedral has its own unique style and I learned this cathedral is considered to be Pisan Romanesque. After getting the classic pictures of us “holding” the tower up, we made our way back to the train station to make the train bound for Firenze. 

Field of Miracles

The "must-have-must-do" tourist shot of the leaning tower

Saturday was our big day in Firenze. Our first stop was to the Duomo. The Duomo is named the Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore. Thanks to Rick Steve I learned that this Duomo was built with a big hole in the roof. They knew that they didn’t have the ability to make the dome, but they felt someone would eventually figure it out. Obviously someone did, because today we can see the dome.  We wanted to climb the duomo.  However as it turned out we went through the wrong door and paid to climb the bell tower. We entered the dimly lit, narrow hallway and started our upward climb. It is a good thing I am short because at one point I encountered a large line of people attempting to come down. However we had hit the spiral part of the climb and only one person could really move past at a time. I literally climbed under everybody’s arms as they steadied themselves waiting for me to pass. Four hundred and fourteen stairs later we reached the top. The view was so cool and you could see a full 360 panoramic view of the city. We realized that the tower was probably better then climbing the dome because we actually got to get pictures with the Dome in them. The top was super windy and so after taking a few too many pictures we made our way back down.

Narrow, steep, dark stairwell

We then met up with another American from our university and explored some more areas by foot. We went back to the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio is the most famous bridge of Florence. It is lined with shops selling silver and gold on either side and is apparently the only bridge to have survived the bombings of WWII. In addition, we also explored the Palazzo Vecchio.  We didn’t pay for the museum part but we looked around the free courtyard.  The real Michelangelo Statue of David actually stood at the entrance of this castle. It was removed in the late 1800’s to be preserved and has since been replaced with a copy. After that we of course had to stop for gelato. I mean after all we had been walking all day, hardly any breaks… life was hard. After recouping with some delicious pistachio flavored gelato we continued on. We walked up to Plazzale Michelangelo. This offered an amazing view of Florence and the Duomo! It also was the location of the cooper copy of the Statue of David. Out of the corner of our eye, this white church caught our attention when leaving. We decided to explore more and come to find out it was the San Miniato Church, which housed the first Christian cemetery in Florence.

Ponte Vecchio

Locks of love

Tourist, tourist what do you see?
I see Vespas all around me!

Creepy yes, but couldn't pass up an opportunity to get a
picture of a classic Italian scene such as this

View from Michelangelo's  Hilltop

San Miniato Church

Cemetary with view over Florence

Sunday we woke up to miserable weather. It was rainy, wet, and cold. However, on the bright side we had saved all the museums for Sunday so we were mostly inside. The museum most important for us to go to was the Galleria dell’Accademia. This museum houses the infamous statue by Michelangelo: The Statue of David. The Statue of David stands under a dome built just for him and is incredible! You don’t realize how amazing it is until you stand at its base admiring the 17-foot-tall masterpiece. Sure it is famous for certain male body parts, but there is so much more to this marble figure. To think that Michelangelo started this project when he was 26 and completed it by the age of 29 illustrates how truly talented he was. David is extremely life-like; it is as if looking in the eyes of someone real. He has fingernails, muscles, and even veins! Nothing was left out, and he was chiseled into perfection. Some of Michelangelo’s other works are on display there. Although they technically were never finished, I really enjoyed them. The figures look as if they are emerging out of the stone and it shows you what he did with each one of his sculptures as he made them from nothing into something to be appreciated for years to come.

We also saw the archeological museum. This museum had an Egyptian display. Apparently it is second outside the world to Cairo. One of the museum workers came up to us and told us she recommended we go upstairs before they closed the exhibit on that floor early. We responded in Italian, and she responded with a quick “mi dipiace”, and repeated herself in this rapid Italian. Staring at her we responded the only way we knew how… “si!” As we walked up stairs we both laughed. That is one of the problems with practicing Italian. If you speak it well enough to get your point across, they assume you are more fluent and then you are completely lost. On the other hand I took it as a compliment that she thought we spoke it from our couple of phrases. Anyways the exhibit turned out to be really cool. Most of the museum was in Italian, but a few things here and there were translated. We got to see old vases, jewelry, pots, and statues. However, my favorites were by far the mummies and pages from the Book of the Dead. For those of you who have seen the movie the Mummy Returns, you know exactly what I am talking about!   

After the museum, we walked back to our hostel to get out stuff. We were moving to another hostel on the other side of town for that night. We walked to the bus station, and took it to the station, where we informed to transfer onto bus 6. We could not find it at all. Ross was up for walking, but stubborn me refused. I was soaked to the bone, with my huge backpack and it had become a personal mission of mine to find that bus! Luckily not long after we did. We got off at the stop and headed up the street. Number 8 was the address we had and it seemed as though there was no rhyme or reason to how the houses were numbered. We found number 9, then next door was number 27, then next door to that was number 3. Finally we found it… or so we thought. Ringing the doorbell this man came to the door. Looking at us with what I assume was a ting of sympathy for our ragged and rained on look he asked how he could help us. “This isn’t Danny’s House Hostel is it?” I asked laughing. He of course said no and we apologized for bugging him on his Sunday afternoon. We had a nice conversation with him as he explained how to find this mysterious number 8. Eventually we found it this little door with Danny’s House on the fourth floor buzzer. We buzzed and the door clicked open. When we got to the fourth floor the door was open and this man was standing with a scarf and hoodie on. “Welcome to Danny’s House! I am so very glad you made it and to meet you! Come in, come in!” he exclaimed.  Taking one look at me he asked if I needed to change in dry clothes or dry my hair before we did the paper work. I said I would change and he led us to our room. There were no lockers and stuff was thrown all over. He informed us that we were to make ourselves at home because at his hostel we were family and not a number. He sat us down at the table in the room and brought us each a glass of wine and some chips. The wine was amazing, and it turned out it was from his family's region. We later met the other people that we were rooming with. There was a guy from Australia, another American, a Canadian girl, and a girl from Sweden. All were really friendly and we had a blast swapping stories and trading tips for traveling.  

Not long after two new arrivals came in from Argentina. I am not going to lie the guys were weird. They were easily in their 50’s, staying in a youth hostel. Now that is okay, but what is not okay is rudeness. Social skills are also good skill to have, and this guy was seriously lacking in that department. Here is a tip when you introduce yourself. A good start is: “Hi, my name is (insert here). I am from (blah blah), and you?” NOT: “so you are American huh? I hate Americans!” I mean really how do you respond to that?! The room got quite as if waiting for our reaction. We turned around and remained quiet for a bit… The other American from Jersey nodded his head and said “that’s cool”. He then launched himself into this lecture as to why he finds all of us ignorant and stupid. In his opinion, we don’t know anything and our government sucks. Trying so hard not to say anything, I turned away. The girl from Sweden whispered in my ear, “this is why I like being from Sweden nobody knows or cares about us. I just have to convince people I eat other food besides meatballs made out of moose!” I laughed at that.

Alright, here is my disclaimer... please excuse me while I vent because I was honestly very annoyed at his comments. He claimed we are ignorant, yet he travels the world and is pessimistic. He found the cons with every country. Hint for travelers number two: the purpose to traveling is to become more open minded, and to experience different cultures first hand. Now this is not saying you have to like everything you encounter, but you should learn and take something away from it. For instance, I don’t like how relaxed Italy is about government and legal issues. However, I recognize that is because I have grown up with a very structured and efficient system my whole life. I can appreciate that more that I have lived here. However, at the same time I can appreciate their laid back life style in terms of enjoying everyday life. Americans are always rushing and stressing and here they focus on just living. They take breaks to be with family and friends, and overall don’t stress nearly as much. So in certain regards it can be good. However this guy saw all Americans as uneducated. The man attempted to rip into me after I returned.  He commented about how much time I spent on my hair. I told him about 10 minutes because I had just put it into a pony tail. His response: “what?! Ten whole minutes every day what a waste of time! You should get a boyfriend so you don’t have to do your hair.” WHAT KIND OF ADVICE IS THAT? “I do it for me” I responded. “I like to put myself together and take pride in myself.” He looked at me like I was crazy and proceeded to ask me what I studied. I informed him I studied social work and criminal justice. “Ugh you are going to work for the government,” he said with disdain. “I could, or I could work in the hospital, in a school, in a nursing home, with the army, overseas, but I want to work with youth who are in gangs. I am going to make a difference… so sorry to put a damper on your theory of how Americans don’t care”. Okay, so maybe I couldn’t refrain from all my snide comments. He picked up on that and asked how many years I would have to study. “Four years for my undergraduate degree and then two more for my masters. Yes I am educated too,” I smiled politely. “Okay”, the owner of Danny’s House said clapping his hands together, “why don’t you leave these poor kids alone and everyone enjoy some more wine? Its aperitivo time”, he said as he ran into his room to get the food and wine. Saved by the wine… it was nine o’clock on the dot.

Just as a side note: when traveling hostels can really add to your experience. Take the time to research and find ones with good reviews. Danny’s House was amazing and still remains my favorite hostel experience (yes, despite the rude Argentina guy). He went out of his way to welcome all his guests and truly did make it more of a home vibe. He gave every guest a map of the city with an in depth recommendations of places to go and see. He gave free wine and food at nine every night, and even called each guest to confirm their arrival that day.  Hands down, an amazing hostel and the best one in Florence I would bet.

In the morning we had to leave super early. We had researched where to buy our cheapest ticket. We had to walk to the other station about 40 minutes away by 7:45. When we finally arrived we found that our cheap ticket train had been cancelled. On top of it there were no cheap trains going out from that station that day. So we had to pay double the price for our tickets and probably be standing room. On the bright side, we were on the fast train so it wouldn’t take that long. We got on and couldn’t find a seat, so we were really standing room. We ended up in the first class restaurant and we must have looked like death. We totally sat down at a table and not a single person asked us if we wanted anything or bugged us to move. Even the ticket taker let us slide. We found out that typically if you do that they make you pay for an upgraded ticket to first class. So I have come to the conclusion we must have looked pitiful. We got into Milan and had to wait for the next train two hours later for Pavia. However, besides that minor inconvenience we made it back home to Pavia alright and in time for class. All in all it was a fun and successful weekend.