Samuel on beach at Savona
Ella on beach
In the hotel at Savona, the true meaning of a split system - actually split between two rooms
Street vendors at Pisa
Buildings at Pisa
Ella holding up the tower
It's hard to believe they manage to keep all the crowds from crushing that beautiful grass but they do.
Piazzale Michelangelo
The statue at the Piazzale Michelangelo
Samuel on his DS at the restaurant in Florence
Ponte Vecchio - along the inside of this bridge areall the gold jewellery shops and also thousands of people
Buildings near Ponte Vecchio
Buildings near Ponte VecchioOn Sunday morning we drove to Pisa. We arrived early, found a carpark only 3 streets away and I hopped around at an annoyingly slow pace on my crutches to look at the leaning tower. We were quite amazed that we found it so easily because the signage was terrible and we didn’t have a map. Hundreds of people were already there - it was very crowded and we didn’t stay long. We took a few photos as evidence but the day was rainy and gloomy and the photos look drab. The tower seemed kind of small to me and there were lots of people taking photos with their hands lined up against the side of the tower holding it up. Quite comical really. I’ve put our pictures doing that same silly thing on the blog.
People were climbing up the tower but I couldn’t face it on crutches. I notice they had put up some sort of fence/barrier around the edge of the tower which wasn’t there when Andrew and I visted in 95. I climbed the tower when I did a contiki tour way back in my other life and I remember the marble steps being quite smooth and slippery and winding right around the outside of the tower with no barriers. But I was fearless then. Not like now.
We took the wrong road when we arrived in Florence and ended up heading south instead of north but we’re so clever, it didn’t take us long to work out we were going the wrong way.
On Monday morning we took the free shuttle service from the hotel into Florence. The driver skilfully wove his way through the morning traffic with a bit of choice language directed at his fellow motorists along the way. Andrew and I were very happy to be sitting in the bus and not having to driving ourselves in to town . The traffic reminded me a bit of Barcelona, chaotic and every which way – you never know which way to look, they’re coming at you from all angles, cars, motor bikes, push bikes, pedestrians – it’s mayhem.
We bought tickets for the open top double decker City Sightseeing bus tour and it was the best thing. There was no way I could have walked around Florence’ cobbled streets all day on crutches. The tickets were €20 for an adult and €10 for a child. We pretended Ella was 5 so she could ride for free. We ended up taking both itineraries and covered a big part of Florence sitting happily at the top of the bus. We could get on and off as many times as we wanted at various sights but chose not to. It was nice just sitting there in the bus enjoying the sights and not have to do anything. We made a stop for lunch at a restaurant which was nice and we scored two free tickets for the carousel which the kids loved.
The day finished off on a bit of a sour note when we were walking back from the Ponte Vecchio and smelled the scrummy aroma of waffles and thought what a good idea. Anyway we were charged €8 for one waffle and €6 each for the other two. Admittedly they were double waffles (not that we asked for double). I was ropeable. Ripped off again. When are we going to learn. I tried to ask the lady the cost of the waffles but she wouldn’t answer me and kept insisting we had to go inside to pay. We should have just walked out without paying but we’re not that sort of people. Sometimes I wish we were. Actually I just had a thought as I’ve been writing this and I wonder if it was karma being returned because I lied about Ella’s age to the bus ticket person. I saved €10 not paying for Ella to go on the bus but then we paid €20 for stupid waffles that weren’t even very nice.
People were climbing up the tower but I couldn’t face it on crutches. I notice they had put up some sort of fence/barrier around the edge of the tower which wasn’t there when Andrew and I visted in 95. I climbed the tower when I did a contiki tour way back in my other life and I remember the marble steps being quite smooth and slippery and winding right around the outside of the tower with no barriers. But I was fearless then. Not like now.
We took the wrong road when we arrived in Florence and ended up heading south instead of north but we’re so clever, it didn’t take us long to work out we were going the wrong way.
On Monday morning we took the free shuttle service from the hotel into Florence. The driver skilfully wove his way through the morning traffic with a bit of choice language directed at his fellow motorists along the way. Andrew and I were very happy to be sitting in the bus and not having to driving ourselves in to town . The traffic reminded me a bit of Barcelona, chaotic and every which way – you never know which way to look, they’re coming at you from all angles, cars, motor bikes, push bikes, pedestrians – it’s mayhem.
We bought tickets for the open top double decker City Sightseeing bus tour and it was the best thing. There was no way I could have walked around Florence’ cobbled streets all day on crutches. The tickets were €20 for an adult and €10 for a child. We pretended Ella was 5 so she could ride for free. We ended up taking both itineraries and covered a big part of Florence sitting happily at the top of the bus. We could get on and off as many times as we wanted at various sights but chose not to. It was nice just sitting there in the bus enjoying the sights and not have to do anything. We made a stop for lunch at a restaurant which was nice and we scored two free tickets for the carousel which the kids loved.
The day finished off on a bit of a sour note when we were walking back from the Ponte Vecchio and smelled the scrummy aroma of waffles and thought what a good idea. Anyway we were charged €8 for one waffle and €6 each for the other two. Admittedly they were double waffles (not that we asked for double). I was ropeable. Ripped off again. When are we going to learn. I tried to ask the lady the cost of the waffles but she wouldn’t answer me and kept insisting we had to go inside to pay. We should have just walked out without paying but we’re not that sort of people. Sometimes I wish we were. Actually I just had a thought as I’ve been writing this and I wonder if it was karma being returned because I lied about Ella’s age to the bus ticket person. I saved €10 not paying for Ella to go on the bus but then we paid €20 for stupid waffles that weren’t even very nice.
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