Saturday 4 June 2022

FLORENCE FINALLY!!! Day one - PISA


Finally, we returned!!

 
All packed and ready to head out the door at 3:00am!!


So with all the chaotic airport scenes on the news, I was dreading our trip. Our flight was at 6:50am and we got there for 4am. There were queues outside the terminal for baggage drop off but as we were speedy boarding, we headed straight up to security. The queue zigzagged but kept moving, so no real delay. The airport was noticeably busier, no spare seats in the cafes etc. Our flight was delayed by an hour and a half but it was due to airport issues rather than our plane. Relieved to get on our plane, we then found someone else sat in our seats!!!!! No one could explain why, thankfully there were two spare seats on the plane but I still want to understand what would have happened had there not been spare seats, who wouldn't have flown!?! We bought the tickets and selected our seats back in March 2021 and paid more! We are trying to get answers from easyJet but as you can imagine, we're not getting very far. 


Anyway I tried to put it to the back of my mind and not worry about the return flight home!! Would've happily stayed a couple of extra days!! So we caught the Pisamover , a metro train then just shuttled back and forth from the airport to Pisa train station, super easy and only 5 euros.


Our hotel was literally a 2 min walk from the station.
 It was very basic, as you can see but .....


......it was clean, the staff were lovely but wouldn't necessarily return.


Anyway once we'd dropped our stuff off, we headed into Pisa for the afternoon to explore, starting off right with a cold beer......


....in this lovely garden cafe.


And what better way to start than with pizza!!


Once finished, we headed into town and got our first glimpses of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.


We walked around it, taking in the view from all angles....


...and took the obligatory selfie!!


Pisa itself was lovely


and I found bunting, I'm always on the hunt for bunting!!


Unfortunately we had tickets with our hotel booking to walk the city walls but they were only open on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the days we weren't there!!


We did find the Kieth Haring wall mural though.


It was huge!!


Anyway after a days exploring, we went back to the hotel, changed and headed back 
into the center for the evening.


And someone kindly took a photo of us so we could.......


.....replicate this photo from when we were last there, 30 years ago!!


The restaurants were busy and we choose well....


....sharing this massive platter between us!


The walk back, crossing the river Arno was lovely and so nice for it to be warm.


We walked back via the mural......


....taking a few more photo's along the way!! 
Had a reasonably early night, we'd walked miles and had had such an early start, plus we'd planned to be up and out early the following morning Florence bound! Will post about that tomorrow x

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