A traveler's mistake: Do not take your luggage with you. Do. Not. It was heavy, awkward, heavy, miserable to carry, and was awful. We got on a bus and hoped it would take us where we needed to go! Wellllll, we got off in a panic because I had no idea where we were going and we ended up in a University part of town. Very cute but it was 100 degrees and we were hungry and we were weighed down by our luggage. Thankfully, before too many twists and turns, I asked a passerby lady who kindly pointed us to the courtyard with the tower not too far off.
We found a nice little cafe, got mom an italian espresso and a pancetta sandwich and browsed the adorable market set up in front of the tower/cathedral. Walking through the huge arches and through the insanely huge crowd was great and not so great. Seriously, believe me when I say- do not take your luggage! We had to stop so many times and we were dripping in sweat. Not fun.
But beautiful place! Everything in Europe is just so grand and exquisite. I love the architecture. It is like nothing else in America!!
As we finished our route through Pisa, we ended up at a little restaurant just across from the train station. We ate our hearts out! Some divine bruschetta, meatballs, and salad. The waitress was a sweet girl probably around 23 or so. Mom asked about her music tattoo and she got to talking about her favorite artists and such. Her dream is to visit America and we definitely invited her to come to Seattle where so many great musicians came from. She was tickled. I gave her my email in case she ever came to America!
Finally, after enjoying our time in Pisa, we conjured up some strength through the 100000 degree weather and dragged our suitcases over to the train station. We ended up getting on an earlier train but seemed no problem. We were so excited to get to the coast! Mediterranean sea? Sign me up!
Our train went from Pisa to La Spezia where we had to catch a bus to get to Porto Venere. I lucked out on choosing Porto Venere as our place to stay because it was magnificent but it also caused a lot of pain and heartache (okay, some hilarious laughs now but it was rough!)
Anyways, when we arrived in La Spezia, I befriended yet another bus driver who went clear out of his way to drive us from the station to another bus stop so we could get on the correct bus to La Spezia. I just love these Italians!! The bus ride was beautiful and went up and down these cliff edges that way too small for a bus! But the driver, just like every other European driver, made it work juuuuust fine.
La Spezia deserves a post all to itself because of the extent of what I want to say so move on to the next post to get your fill of laughs.
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