| Erin's Florence Journal #9 4-18-02 Thursday we managed to get ourselves out of bed and ready to go by 7:45, a record for this trip. We gulped down breakfast and raced down to the Galleria dell' Accademia, and were pleased to walk right in! This was a much smaller museum than the Uffizi, but I was greatly impressed by the sculpture works of Michelangelo, particularly the David, of course. It is absolutely amazing in real life; pictures, drawings, and copies cannot do it justice. It is a must-see. We spent 2 1/2 quick hours there seeing the sculptures and some more beautiful paintings before rushing back to the hostel to change rooms before they shut down for the day. We made it just in time, after stopping for some fresh bread, meant and cheese to take with us on our day trip. After moving all our stuff to another new room (a group was coming in that they needed us to accomodate), we ran down to the train station and caught a train to Pisa. This was after we waited almost to the time it left, standing in line for the ticket machines - a group of 5 Americans was standing at one of the two machines, completely blocking its use and blatantly ignoring the harried looks of the rest of the line of travelers as they debated which class of train they wanted to take! We thought they were incredibly rude, especially since we could hear their comments of "who cares? Let them wait!" and other such sentiments. But we made our train, which is the important part! The 75 minute ride was spent in reading and watching the countryside pass by. Pisa was a pretty little university town, whose main attraction for tourists is of course, the tower. We walked the 25 minutes through town, rather than take a bus, and saw a busy, more modern town. Everyone in Italy has a cell phone constantly attached to their ear, whereas in Pisa, they all had hands-free devices! We came around a corner and caught sight of the tower. I had thought it would be unimpressive, but I was wrong. It was wonderful to see, to take pictures and lie in the sun on the grass and contemplate this architectural blunder. We didn't climb the tower, but did get some fun pictures of Pisa's Duomo (yes, another one!!!) before heading back to the train station. We get tickets back to Firenze, but took a train that stopped in the city of Lucca, since our tickets were good for a 6-hour window. Lucca is surrounded by a huge wall, and has foundations back in Roman times. We walked along the wall, which was very wide and covered with grass at the top, before striding down the main streets to view its Duomo (don't ask, it's just the popular thing). Lucca was a charming little town, and we stopped into its Roman amphitheater for dinner. Well, actually, it is a circle of 3-story apartment houses built in a circle on the foundations of the ancient Roman circle, but it was still a fun place to sit outside for a meal and watch the kids play. We hurried back for the 8pm train, but missed it, and had to wait for the 9pm. Be careful when buying tickets for trains in Italy; the master schedules don't tell you whether a particular train line will be running on a given day! There was a scheduled train at 8:24pm, but it never showed up, so we waited. Once making the 90 minute ride back, we were ready to relax. |
| Battistery attached to Pisa's Duomo, with ancient medieval walls in background |
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| Pisa's Leaning Tower was much more impressive to see than I had anticipated |