The next morning we got up just in time for breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the main area of Pisa. Like most the European cities we have visited, things start slowly in the morning, so even by 11am stores were only just beginning to open. From the main street we walked back up towards Piazza dei Miracoli. Unfortunately the next tickets for the Tower were not until 4pm so we decided to put that off until Monday and got tickets for the other buildings in the Piazza. The first was the Cathedral which was huge and impressive.
Next was the Battistero (baptistery) -
- which frankly seemed kind of dull until the ticket-taker walked into the center of the floor and started singing notes – the acoustics are incredible and send shivers down your spine. Lastly we went to the Camposanto (cemetery) which is an amazing building of graves. Both grim and fascinating.
After that we had our first pizza in Italy! Very exciting (and very good). We then went back to the hotel, collected our bag and found the train station to take the train to Florence, about an hour away.
We made our way from the Florence train station to the hotel on foot – without getting lost! Our hotel was fantastic – a small boutique-type hotel ranked #1 on Trip Advisor, our favourite site for hotel reviews, and clearly worthy of such acclaim. Not only a great location and nice décor, but incredible staff/owners – phenomenally helpful and knowledgeable about the city.
After some relaxing (i.e. a nap for Nicky) we headed out to dinner, going just down the street from the hotel to a place recommended by the owner for great pizza. We took the inside option so we could sit at the bar and watch the pizzas being made and cooked in the wood fire oven. So simple and yet, so delicious! After dinner we took a walk across the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge to the Forte di Belvedere, the highest point in Florence, to see the city by night. On the way back to the hotel we bought our first gelato (yum!) at Perche No?, another recommended place, and one of the oldest in Florence.
The next morning we were up early to get to the Uffizi Gallery before 10am – our reserved time. Tourist attractions are so busy and queues so long (especially in the summer) that you can reserve tickets ahead of time (which our hotel had done for us weeks ago after I had made the reservation – just another reason why we loved it). Even this early the ticket queue was extremely long, whereas our queue to collect our reserved tickets was much shorter and faster.
The Uffizi Gallery is simply amazing – a beautiful building with awesome architecture and frescoes housing at least one of the most famous artworks in the world, Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Inside -
However, if that’s not enough, you have some Titian, Da Vinci, Raphael, Michealangelo…in fact, all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
After the Uffizi we went to an antiques market which, luckily for us, happens on the last day of every month. A few interesting things but not enough to induce us to buy. (Although bizarrely, I was stopped by the person who had designed the top I was wearing! She had worked at the Gap before leaving to study Italian in Florence and had designed only for the UK and Japan stores so had never seen anyone wearing it before so was quite excited. As I said, bizarre!) Some more walking and a not-so-great pizza later (we should have known better since the café was within sight of a major tourist attraction…although I feel inordinately disappointed – I can’t believe there is bad pizza in Italy! I can’t believe it is allowed! They should be shut down!), we went to the Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David. Let me just say: wow. HUGE! And just beautiful. After David, nothing else impresses so we beat a hasty path to the exit. The David copy in the Piazza della Signoria (also huge) -
Next stop was the Piazza del Duomo, featuring the enormous Duomo cathedral -
- and the campanile (bell tower) of 414 steps –
- which of course we had to climb – so high that by the time we got to the top, the weather had turned from sunny to rain! But the view of Florence from the top was worth it –
By this time we were both exhausted so we made our way back to the hotel for a late-afternoon siesta, after which we had dinner at a trattoria, again on the recommendation of the hotel owner, and again a great place.
On Monday (bank holiday in the UK, hence the extended trip) we spent the morning wandering around – Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, Piazza di San Giovanni, Piazza San Lorenzo – just taking some photos and enjoying the scenery. Nick with the famous pig which folklore says if rub his nose and give him some money, you are destined to return to Florence -
The thing about Florence is that there is so much to see that it is almost overwhelming (and expensive!) But on the flip side, every street and building and view is interesting/beautiful/historic, so really you can’t lose. We ended up at the food market -
- where we had probably the best coffee so far in Italy at a traditional stand-up coffee bar – and cheap! Only €1!
After another pizza at the previously recommended pizza place, we took the train back to Pisa. After dropping our bag off at the hotel, we went back to the Piazza dei Miracoli for our 4pm reserved time to climb the Leaning Tower.
Only a certain amount of people are allowed up each day and only in small groups with a guide. You can actually feel the lean as you climb around the spiral staircase – on one side, you feel like you are climbing downstairs, although you are actually going up, and on the other side, it feels much harder. The view at the top is spectacular, as all these very tall things tend to be, and totally worth it.
After a last wander around Pisa and another gelato, we headed back to the hotel for an early night so we could get up at 5:30am local time (4:30am London time!) to catch our flight home for work.
