We'll see how much of this amazing trip I can actually remember. Jet lag, you know...
Day one: Pisa
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| view from the back row |
If you've been reading my blog (and I hope you have), you know that I haven't been back to Italy since the game-show-winnings trip in 2007, but I have been longing to go back. This trip has been in the planning stages since February, and when departure day finally arrived, it almost seemed as if it came too quickly. Was I ready? Would I be able to handle all the walking? Did I pack well? Last time I went, I packed a big duffel bag and was miserable dragging it around, so this time I stuffed everything into my small carry-on. You have no idea what a hardship this was for me. I did a bit of worrying about, well, everything, then I told myself to shut the f- up. I was going to Italy!!! So...here we go. After taking a harrowing car service ride to JFK, having to
go back and forth from security to the ticket counter because the machines
couldn’t scan our tickets, and eating a very tasty snack at an airport wine bar, we (five pals and me) finally got onto a Virgin Atlantic flight to London. Virgin Atlantic is AWESOME! It seems like they bring you food every five
minutes, which is nice. And we each had
individual screens for movie watching – I watched a documentary on Serena
Williams, Zootopia and…something else that I can’t remember at this moment. We were in the back row, which normally I don't enjoy that much, but we had plenty of room behind us to recline our seats, if we wanted to.
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| hey, that's London! |
After another easy flight, we finally landed in Italy. All the months of planning, waiting and
dreaming were finally over. The trip
through customs at the Pisa airport took only a few minutes (the customs agent was just not having it; she dismissively looked at passports for a second, then, with an Italian snarl, whacked down the stamp. you can barely see it on my passport), then we were off
to pick up our rental car. It was quite
a comedy show, trying to figure out how the car worked and how the GPS worked,
but once we got going, we decided to head right to the Leaning Tower of
Pisa. Why wait?! We took a couple of wrong turns, but finally
found a nice parking lot near the Campo di Miracoli, or Field of Miracles.
You know, I’ve seen pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa my
entire life and thought, ‘that’s cool,’ but it was never a bucket list/must see kind of thing. Seeing it in person is a whole other experience. We arrived as the sun was setting, so the sky
was glorious, and looking at the tower, from every angle, was simply
magical. The white stone just glows and
the detailing over each inch of each level was stunning. I admit it, I got a little teary at how beautiful it was. I wasn’t up for climbing to the top, but my
friends were. We got there right before
the last grouping could go into the Tower, so my friends opted to do that, and
I went to the Camposanto (the cemetery).
That structure, which was begun in the 13th century, is also
quite beautiful. They say that the earth
that lies in the middle of the U-shaped building is from the Holy Land. There are a lot of beautiful tombs inside the
Camposanto, alongside the remains of frescoes, a room of holy relics, and an
area where they’re doing restorations. I was interested to see Fibonacci is interred there - don't ask me how I remembered his name. I knew he had something to do with math, but that's about it. I felt smart for about a minute, until I realized I didn't remember WHY his math was famous (I looked him up on Wikipedia - aha!). Anyway, the Camposanto was truly lovely inside and I was happy to spend a solitary hour
there, looking around at my leisure. I was pretty much the only person there, except for a family with some screaming kids who kept running back and forth. Sigh.
After my friends finished their climb of the Tower (check out one of the spectacular photos below), we went
into the gift shop and got some souvenirs (yes, I bought a Leaning Tower of Pisa/Santa Christmas ornament, so?!), then set out to find a place for
dinner. We walked past a couple of
touristy places right by the Field of Miracles, then stopped at Bar 62. It was relatively touristy as well, but by
this time we were starving. I got the
calzone Toscana, which was a delicious (and enormous) calzone with mozzarella
and Tuscan salami. Delicious (and
enormous).
We enjoyed a leisurely dinner, then walked back to the car
to begin our drive to the villa where we’d be staying for the week. The GPS was out of its mind and kept wanting
us to go back to Pisa (“turn back” became a familiar refrain through the whole
trip). Thankfully, a beautiful gal pal’s
cell phone was working and those directions were easy and perfect. After about a 45-minute drive, we arrived at
Borgo alle Vigne, the Hilton Grand Vacations Club resort we were staying
at. I can’t even say how grateful I am
that we could use another beautiful gal pal’s club points to be able to stay at
this gorgeous resort FOR FREE.
The concierge was very handsome, and very charming, and he showed us around the place. We had two two-bedroom villas, so the boys stayed in one
villa and the girls stayed in the other.
The boys had a larger dining room, so it became our after-hours lounge,
where we would drink wine and go over the next day’s plans. Considering that none of us had slept in more
than 24 hours, I was surprised we didn’t go right to sleep as soon as we got to
the villa. I guess we were all too
excited. But, speaking for myself, once
I finally got to that very nice bed, I was OUT, but woke up early-ish to start our
first full day in Tuscany. First
stop: Cortona. Stay tuned...
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| view from top of Leaning Tower (photo credit: Gregg Moore) |
Best article on Italy. Keep it up! I hope you will check out my Online Travel Blog on Pisa. I explained the entire history of Pisa, Italy and also all the transportation facilities.
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