The First 24 Hours in Italy

Literally 24 hours ago I was landing in the Pisa airport on my flight from Dublin. Since that time I have saved the town of Pisa from a leaning tower, got lost countless times on narrow Italian streets, and explored Florene in the rain.

Yesterday, March 29th 2010 Sean and I took the 3 pm bus to Dublin and tried to look over some traveling plans on the way. Sean is my sole travel companion for the first week in Italy until our friend Mackenzie joins up with us on Easter. Sean is from Boston and is planning on being a lawyer someday. He is a really laid back guy and is pretty much fine with going to see whatever I want to. He has a great sense of humor, which helps when we get lost in Italy. He is an overall great guy and it is nice to have such an easy travel mate! So that is the low down on my travel partner when I reference him in the following blogs.

In the boarding line we met 3 girls from Boston who were studying in Cork for the semester and on their break as well. They had a very similar Italy trip as ours and we shared ideas as to what we wanted to do. We learned about a bar in Barcelona whose name translates in English to shots. They have around 200 different shots all costing 2 euros! We will definitely be hitting that bar up when we are there! We had heard that bars in Barcelona were really expensive but if all the shots are only 2 euros then it will be a fun night!

We landed around 11:50pm in Pisa and were met by Francesco, the man who owns the hostel we were staying at. He drove us there and showed us various hot spots in Pisa along the way. Sean and I got a private two person room to share. It was really nice having our own space to spread out in and not having to worry about others. We pretty much got everything ready for the next day and then went to bed. The alarm clock woke us up about 7 hours later at 9 am. We got ready and then hit the road in hopes of finding a nice grocery store. That was the first observation I made about Italy, all the grocery stores are tiny. You wont find a Hyvee or even a Tesco over here. All the supermarkets are tiny and carry a limited selection of items. The second observation I made was that Italians obviously eat less peanut butter than even the average European for peanut butter was no where to be found. There went our idea of eating peanut butter and jellys to save money..

After that we went in search of the streets that would get us to the Leaning Tower. After backtracking from two completely different routes that failed to take us to streets we recognized, I asked a man on the street where we were on my map and how to get to the Leaning Tower. He kindly showed us the way which was completely opposite the direction we thought we should go. So after a few minutes of walking we came across streets we knew were right. This walk led me to observation number four about Italy, the streets are tiny just like the supermarkets. Those streets would only pass as alleys in the small town I come from whose population is 8,000 not 70,000! At first, I wondered how so many cars could travel down these narrow streets and not cause traffic jams and then I realized there are not as many cars here as there are in the states. More people take public transportation which reduces the number of cars traveling around at a time. But I still do not know how a bus could fit down those streets! I did see small buses about half the size of a normal one going down those "alleyways" so at least buses of that caliber can fit. Observation number five is that most of the streets are one way. One reason why the roads can be so narrow is because they only have traffic going one way on them. I wonder if the street width was solidified before cars were invented. My common sense says they were, but I dont know the absolute truth on that thought.. anyone?

Observation number six, you can be walking along a windy, narrow Italian road and suddenly pop out into a grand Piazza! The piazzas, or squares, are surrounded by normal neighborhoods that you must walk through inorder to get to the Piazza. I feel like most monuments in the states and even in London were right out in the open. They were like hey everyone look at this cool statue or building, but in Italy even the Leaning Tower was intertwined with the neighborhoods. Dont get me wrong the Leaning Tower and all the other buildings in the Campo del Miracoli take up a large amount of space, but they seem to be nestled into the town not necessarily standing apart from it. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me after looking at the Leaning tower because all the other buildings in the square seemed to lean, but I felt better when my travel book explained that they all lean to certain degrees. I was shocked to see how much the Leaning Tower actually does lean! It is about 4.1 meters off the original vertical axis. At the Campo del Miracoli, or Field of Dreams, Sean and I got the classic pose of holding the tower up. It was funny to watch so many people taking pictures of that and then to try to position my hands perfectly to "hold up" the tower. We then started our trek to the train station and stopped for our first dish of pasta along the way. I had penne with crab and white sauce. It wasnt the amazingly awesome pasta I had my hopes up for but it was still very good. I am sure I will have my fair share of pasta while in Italy and I bet I will find that mouth-watering dish that I fantasize about.

We then boarded the train to Florence, or Firenze, as it is called in Italian. I accidently had us get off at the wrong Firenze train station and we had to wait 15 minutes until the next train came so that we could hop on for the next stop. When we got there we had a 10 minute walk to our hostel but started off going in the opposite direction again. We realized it after a few minutes of not finding the right street and turned around. We knew we were going the right way because some of the streets were right but the street we wanted we couldnt find. After a few minutes of critical thinking and wandering up and down the streets we found the one we had been looking for. After that the navigating was pretty smooth sailing and we found the hostel with out a problem. Andy is the name of the guy who owns this hostel and he met us there and showed us our place. Once again we opted for a few extra euros per night for a hostel with a good rating and great reviews. So far this seems to be the way to go. In this hostel we have a private two person room and the price includes free breakfast, free internet, towels, linens, a shared dining room, and a shared bathroom. We have seen one other person the whole time we have been here so it basically feels like we have our own flat in Florence!

After we got settled in, we went for a stroll down the streets of Florence. We wandered to various Piazzas and then to the famous Duomo. I am sure that I will see many other amazing cathedrals in my time in Italy;however, this was truly a spectacular sight! The shear detail on the windows must have taken a long time let alone the detail on the entire building! If you ever make it to Florence, this is definitely a must see!

Our wandering was cut short as we were caught in a torrential downpour with my umbrella nice and dry at the hostel. So needless to say we started our walk back with pit stops in local shops when the downpour intensified. Even with those pit stops I was still pretty wet. We stopped in a local Spar to pick up bread, meat, pasta, and sauce for our dinner and lunches. This will make for some cheap meals as it only cost us about 2.50 euros each! Considering the traveling and housing costs are so expensive, we are trying to save as much as we can! We then spent the rest of the night relaxing and looking up travel plans for the next few days as it rained outside. We will definitely be walking around Florence tomorrow night, rain or moonlight.