It's funny the things you don't get around to/forget to do when you're backpacking and traveling every other day. Don't judge me. Lol
I set my alarm for 7am, packed up my bag(s) and was on foot to the train station at 8. It took me 30min this time, because I was walking a bit slower with all my crap. I got to the train station at 8:30, caught the 8:41 to VE Mestre station, waited 25 minutes for my connecting train to Florence, and when it arrived found my seat - right next to a nun. When I got off in Florence, I ran into the Chinese boy that had been at my hostel in Venice, who told me we needed to catch the train to the central station in Florence (which I wouldn't have known, had I not run into him). Thanks God for small favors. My hostel's instructions were to take bus #17 and it would drop me right in front of the hostel. Well, not quite. I absentmindedly boarded the bus without a ticket, then realized it and sweat bullets the whole ride, hoping no one would check and fine me €240. One man told me I was going the wrong direction on 17, but I didn't know where or how to get off and switch to the opposite direction, so I just stayed on the bus and hoped that it would eventually loop around to where I needed to go. It did. And I was so happy to get off that bus. My hostel was right around the corner, and I sat down at one of the tables outside (daily lockout from 11am-2pm) to wait the remaining 20 minutes until the lobby was open for business again.
When 2pm came, I let everyone else (who was apparently in a hurry to check in) go ahead of me. I got my room key, dropped off my stuff in my room, and then instead of showering I decided to make the most of the few remaining daylight hours and check out the Duomo. I wasn't going to try and brave the bus again, so I grabbed a map and walked. Took about 45 min, but it was a nice walk and not too warm outside. Because of my limited time (before closing) and the long lines at every door, I opted out of paying to go inside and just marveled at the outside architecture.
I did go inside the museum, but after that decided I couldn't stand any more museums.
From that point forward I vowed to spend all my money on delicious food (cuz hey, you gotta eat, right?). Down the street from the Duomo, I had some wonderful (and extremely filling) gnocchi quattro formaggi (that's four cheese gnocchi for you non-linguists).
When I returned to my hostel, I finally got my shower! Lucky for me, it seemed everyone else was morning shower people, so I had plenty of privacy. Got my internet connected, but still couldn't open my email for some reason. Oh well. Chatted with Flo for a bit, then sent Emilio a message that I'd made it to Florence without too much trouble. Transferred my pics from the day onto my USB, and went to sleep. I was exhausted. (I would've said pooped, but I was worried my non-native English speaking friends might mis-interpret the meaning, lol.)
11/10/2011 Day 13 - "The Scenic Route"
Instead of subjecting myself to the noisy breakfast room full of annoying hostel children, I chose to enjoy a cappuccino in peace at the caffe across the street. I'm glad I did. €4 for chaos < €1.20 for cappuccino perfecto. Mmm... So I took bus 17 to the train station (this time I had a bus ticket), got in line for a ticket to Pisa, and €11.80 later was checking the screens for my platform number. I figured whatever train I was on wasn't terminating in Pisa, so I looked for destinations with trailing stops along the way; "Roma Termini" listed Pisa as one of its stops, so I went to platform 11 and boarded.
An hour later the ticket man finds his way to my seat (and I was a tad worried because I'd forgotten to get my stupid ticket stamp validated before getting on, but that would soon be the least of my worries). I handed him my ticket, and he says,
"Not this one, the other one."
*Red flag*
Me: What other one?
"Where are you going?"
*Panic beginning to set in*
Me: ..Pisa?
"Oh no no, this train is only going to Rome."
Me: Super..so, what can I do?
"You can get off at Rome, and buy a ticket to Pisa."
Me: Sigh..okay :(
"And that'll be €95 for not having a ticket for this train."
*Color draining from my cheeks*
Me: €95?
"€95. Cash only."
FML
I dug in my bag and dejectedly handed the nice man E100. He gave me my piddly change, apologized for the mistake(not sure why; it was my mistake) and told me we'd be in Rome in an hour. Good thing I started my day early.
Arrived at Roma Termini Station, and hurried inside to get a ticket to Pisa. I entered my destination into the machine and the schedules popped up. Now I had a choice to make: I could either pay €18 and ride 4 hours to Pisa, or pay €42 and ride 2 1/2 hours. I really didn't want to pay a bundle more for this ticket, but I also really didn't want to waste all day on trains (time is money, right?). So I sucked it up and shelled out the €42. This time I made sure I matched up the train number, leaving time, everything. Ugh. Life may be an adventure, but you only live once, and that's 4.5 hours of my life I'll never get back. Screw you, Florence. The guy across from me on the train to Pisa shared his pringles with me.
Arrived in Pisa a tad after schedule (which freaked me out that I'd missed my stop). I glanced at the map on my way out of the train station and set a path for the leaning tower.
Honestly? It wasn't as big as I expected. It reminded me of when I first saw the Statue of Liberty - you see it on TV and it looks so huge, and then you see it in person and think, "That's it?" Okay, so it was a good 10 stories or so high, which is still big, but not nearly what I had pictured. I snapped a few pics, then laid out on the lawn for a while, once more soaking in another gorgeous day.
Caught the 6pm train back into Florence, and ate my leftover gnocchi for dinner. Got 3 new roommates - 2 Canadian guys and 1 Italian guy, and while the Italian went to sleep around 8pm, the Canadians and I (and a few others from the hostel) headed out for a night on the town. So Florence didn't end up being a total disaster after all.
Fun Facts:
-My hostel roommate for the first night was great - quiet, kept to herself, went to sleep early, but she left the window open, and the mosquitoes feasted on my arms and the right side of my face. Yeah..I don't think I'll be revisiting Florence anytime soon.
-I did have gelato in Florence (I had read that Florence had the best gelato in Italy), but it was terrible! Kind of like a cup of cold sprinkle paste, the way it coated the top of my mouth with that sugary film. I was very disappointed, and didn't have any more gelato after that. Granted, it may have just been that particular gelateria, but it was too late. Gelato had been ruined for me.
-Though I got to Pisa several hours later than planned, it really only took me a few hours to see everything. It's a small town, and a bit of a college town, at that.
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