Tuesday morning we got up early, took the train back to
Naples and from there a train to Florence.
The train ride was beautiful, passing through mountains and
the greenest of fields. We sat comfortably in our 1st class seats,
blissfully unaware that we hadn’t actually paid for 1st class seats,
but that’s for another time.
In Florence, we had booked a room in a hostel to try and
save some money where we could. After getting off the train, we tried to follow
the hostel’s directions to the bus stop, which clearly said “cross the street,
pass the McDonalds, and it’s on your left.”
Classic us though, we got super lost, and soon found out that you actually don’t cross the street, and the stop is on the other side of the street from the McDonald’s. And by “soon” I mean only about 40 minutes.
Classic us though, we got super lost, and soon found out that you actually don’t cross the street, and the stop is on the other side of the street from the McDonald’s. And by “soon” I mean only about 40 minutes.
It’s funny, we’ve been managing to navigate by ourselves
through the streets and alleys of Rome, and Sorrento, but the simple “oh it’s
right across the street!” directions really throw us off.
After a 30 minute bus ride we arrived at the “hostel.”
The Hostel is called Plus Camping Michelangelo, and turned out to have much more of an emphasis on the “camping” than on the “plus.”
The Hostel is called Plus Camping Michelangelo, and turned out to have much more of an emphasis on the “camping” than on the “plus.”
We were shown to our room, a small tent with 2 beds,
swelteringly hot inside and filled with mosquitos.
Now, we are not the spoiled type, (Riding 1st
class was an accident!) but this just wouldn’t do. On the website they
advertised air conditioning, wifi, bathrooms and other amenities that turns out
were all just available at the bar, which was a five minute walk away.
After a few minutes, we decided there was no way we’d be
comfortable in this place, so I went online to good ol’ airbnb.com and found us
a pretty cheap apartment right in the center of town. It could not have been a
better decision. After returning our keys, we met up with our good friend, Sarah
Sofer, who helped escort us to our new digs.
Sarah kept reminding us that if nothing were to go wrong on
the trip, it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting or exciting. The apartment was
great, 2 minute walk from the famous Duomo, and 15-20 seconds from the outdoor
leather market. The apartment even came with one of those “shoilets.” You know,
when the toilet is literally in the shower. Brilliant.
We’d left Piano Di Sorrento at 7:20, and now at 4:00 we were
finally settled in and ready to start the day. The 3 of us headed straight to
the Synagogue and enjoyed a nice tour in English. Once again, like the Shul in
Rome, it was breathtaking. We wondered why they just don’t make ‘em like this
anymore, because it truly is beautiful. Once again, no photos were allowed, so
you’ll just have to trust us.
Trivia question: Written on the ceiling of the shul were 4
Hebrew acronyms. The first 2 we figured out, מכבה מכנב, but
the second 2, which none of us (tour guide included) could figure out, were:
אהלש אהלא
So if you can decipher them, let us know…
When we were getting ready to leave, Sarah noticed that her
wallet was missing. This was especially bad because it meant we had to foot
the bill she was flying back to England the next morning. But hey, if
nothing were to go wrong, wouldn’t be nearly as interesting right, Sarah? (She
went back to the Jewish Museum the next morning and found her wallet, so all’s
well.)
We stocked up on fruits, veggies and some much needed milk,
and headed home for the night.
Wednesday was our chance to spend a full day in Florence.
The 2 main museums, The Uffizi gallery and the Accademia (where Michelangelo’s
David resides), were packed, with long lines stretching around the block. But
we found out that you can reserve a time later in the day and come back, kinda
like a Disney fast pass. We reserved a spot for the afternoon in the Uffizi and
decided we’d just have to miss out on the Accademia.
We spent the morning walking around, enjoying the views and
outdoor sites and statues. We walked over the bridges, checked out the leather
markets and squares and had a nice picnic lunch in front of Pitti Palace. We
headed to the Uffizi at 3, and after 5 minutes of waiting, were inside. The
Uffizi hosts a really impressive collection of artwork, from ancient sculptures
to renaissance paintings. We spent a few hours walking around, accompanied by
Rick Steves’ useful audio guide.
After the Uffizi, we took a quick break at home and went
back out later to Piazzele Michelangelo, which hosts an amazing lookout over
the entire city. The large square was filled with tourists, who like us had the
not-so-original idea to watch the sun set over Florence. I could describe it
more, but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Having decided to skip the Accademia, and having already
seen most of what Florence had to offer us, we decided to spend Thursday
outside of the city.
We took a train to a smaller town called “Lucca,” which is
about an hour outside of Florence.
Lucca is somewhat famous for the fact that it’s been walled since the time of the renaissance. Meh.
Lucca is quaint, rustic and most importantly, very scarce in
terms of tourists.
After about an hour we found a “palace” with beautiful
gardens, so we figured it was as good a place as any to stop and relax in.
A little while later, we stumbled upon the botanical
gardens, where we decided to eat lunch. Now it’s very important for the later
part of the story that you know two key pieces of information.
The botanical gardens cost
us 3 Euro each, which even for us was reasonable.
2This was without a doubt
the WORST “garden” either of us have ever seen.
You have a better chance of finding a nicer garden in the Sahara desert.
After lunch we headed back to the train station to head over
to Pisa. When we were doing research for the trip, and trying to decide how to
spend our time, one thing that most travelers and friends who’d been to Italy
agreed on was Pisa. And by that I mean that almost everyone advised not to go.
“Tourist trap!” they cried.
“Men selling knockoff sun glasses and bags!” they warned.
“Overcrowded and not worth it!” they typed.
So I’ll answer all of those here.
1)
Wouldn’t call it a “tourist
trap” per se. Yes, to get in to climb the tower’s 188 or so steps costs a
ridiculous 18 euro. If you wanna climb a tall bell tower, I suggest climbing
the 414 or so steps in the Duomo in Florence for 10 euro. (Or the 180ish step,
4 euro tower in Lucca)
But in terms of just going to see and admire
the tower, its totes free.
2)
So far, not one day has passed,
no matter in which town or city we’ve been in, that we haven’t seen men selling
the most ridiculous things, and harassing tourists in the process. In fact, we
both agreed that it’s way less of an issue in Pisa than anywhere else we’ve
been.
3)
Not overcrowded, especially
when compared to the real overcrowdedness of the Vatican, Uffizi or Coliseum,
and pretty worth it if it won’t cost you too much time in terms of traveling.
The train ride from Lucca to Pisa
was only about 30 minutes, and from the train station it’s around a 20 minute
walk to the tower.
When we got to the station, we
went to check the return trains, saw that they left once an hour on the 32 of
the hour, and that they would cost us 7,90 each.
“No problem!” I thought to myself, quite ironically, as this
was indeed a huge problem. See, upon further inspection of our wallet, we found
only about 12 euro, and as the mathematically astute readers have surely
already noticed, we needed 15,80.
It was at this point that we
started feeling hopeless and potentially screwed, and directed all of our anger
and frustration at those STUPID botanical “gardens.”
We decided for the moment to not focus on the fact that we
had no way of getting home, and to enjoy the tower. Turns out, the town of Pisa
is actually pretty nice too, although I have one MAJOR issue with it.
Okay, just hear me out for a second, and then we’ll get back
to the story. Walking to the tower, we must have passed at least 50 or so
restaurants serving pizza. And yet, unbelivably, not ONE of them was called “The
Leaning Tower of Pizza!”™©
This simple fact has continued to perplex me, even days
later. Imagine the endless marketing possibilities! Not to mention the chance
to offer a restaurant specialty, “the tower,” 10-15 mini pizzas, each with a
different topping, stacked one on top of the other, leaning over. And yet, this
apparently has not been thought of!?
 |
| And yet they thought of this |
Given all of the warnings, and Pisa’s pathetic disregard for
the draw of clever restaurant titles, we weren’t particularly hopeful that the
tower would be too impressive.
And it’s not that the tower is all that impressive, but there
was a definite beauty to it.
Unlike all of the other bell towers we’d seen, TLToP is
round, with columns going up and down.
Here, I’ll just show ya:
Here, I’ll just show ya:
 |
 |
| Howdy do dat |
It’s also really fun being there, seeing all of the tourists
making ridiculous poses, especially when you’re not seeing the final picture,
and you have no idea what they’re going for.
We were standing near a group of some guys and girls who
were doing some posing, when one of them offered to be our photographer. And by
that I mean not just that he took our picture, but he spent like 5 minutes directing,
posing and moving us around until the picture looked perfect.
Besides for posing, which we didn’t actually do too much of,
there’s not much to do besides admire the tower from different angles, and sit
on the grass and enjoy the surroundings. We did this for a few minutes until we
remembered what you’ve surely already forgotten, which is that we had no way of
getting home. My plan B was to ask some nice Americans for money, but plan A was
always to just keep an ear out for some Hebrew. So I turned to Chaya and said, “We
just gotta listen for some Hebrew,” and BAM not a second later, that’s exactly what we
heard. “אוווווף אי אפשר ככה!” said a frustrated little girl, trying to take a picture of two
married couples in front of the tower which people kept walking through. So I walked
over, and offered to take a picture for them, and we started talking. But turns
out it really isn’t easy or fun to ask random strangers for money. Eventually
after taking the picture and not having the courage to ask, I turned around and
went over to them and explained, feeling very embarrassed, that we didn’t have
enough money for the train, and if possible if they could give us a euro or
two.
What happened next was
really quite amazing, but shouldn’t have surprised us at all. We got a nice
little speech about כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה and that we shouldn’t be embarrassed, they were here to help. I
kept insisting that we only needed 4 euro, but both men shoved 5 euro bills
into my hand and took out 20s and insisted that I take them. I kept refusing
but all four of them kept asking me what we’d do when we got off the train, and
if we had a place to stay.
It was all quite dramatic and emotional considering that, thank God, we had credit cards and cash in our apartment, which was only a 10 minute walk from the train station when we got back to Florence, so there was really no need for the 40 euro they tried forcing us to take. I was under the impression that I’d only taken 5, and only at the train station did I realize that there were two 5 euro bills folded together. But the fact that they were trying to force us to take 40 euro (around $60, or 200 shekel) was so touching, it made us both extremely emotional.
It was all quite dramatic and emotional considering that, thank God, we had credit cards and cash in our apartment, which was only a 10 minute walk from the train station when we got back to Florence, so there was really no need for the 40 euro they tried forcing us to take. I was under the impression that I’d only taken 5, and only at the train station did I realize that there were two 5 euro bills folded together. But the fact that they were trying to force us to take 40 euro (around $60, or 200 shekel) was so touching, it made us both extremely emotional.
In the end, Sarah telling
us that if everything went according to plan it would be way too boring
+ A terrible waste of 6
euro at the “botanical” “gardens”
+ Our experience in Pisa
= An excellent day.
(Even when you subtract
the lack of a “leaning tower of Pizza”)
Ciao for now,
Zvi and Chaya
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