The Terrible Catsafterme

I generally always despise the week before vacation – with so much to do and prepare for, and seemingly so little time to do it. The week preceding Friday, May 8, 2009, was no exception, but thankfully when the chips were down on the Thursday before, I quickly and painlessly packed for my trip to Italy, gathered my passport, notified my credit card company, and still had time to watch a couple of episodes of Three’s Company on DVD.

That Thursday night, I drove out to Mom’s to spend the night and then had my boss Sue pick me up there the next morning to take me to work. It was a bit of a logistical nightmare to get my suitcase into my Mom’s car, and bring along clothes to change out of my work duds while at work. Most of this was handled efficiently, believe it or not. Mom picked me up at work at 2:15pm on that Friday and we were on our way. Immediate destination: the Cincinnati airport. Final destination: Pisa, Italy.

I had planned this trip to precede my cousin Chris and his wife Sarah’s departure from their residence in Florence, Italy, which would be coming up at the beginning of August. Sarah had been attending the Florence Graduate Program through Syracuse University since January of 2008. Chris had joined her there in June later that year. Originally, they were going to come back for good at the end of ’08, so I didn’t think I’d be able to cram in another week’s vacation before the end of that year. So when I learned that they were staying an additional six months, I got on the ball and purchased my ticket.

The Cincinnati airport was just as efficient as they had been during my last European journey, so although Mom got me to the airport by 3pm, it was largely unnecessary, as I had well over an hour to wait before I boarded my 4:40 flight. We also took off about 30 minutes late. I sat next to a large jovial man who was traveling alone to visit Ireland. He wasn’t horrible, but I was envious of the gentleman behind me who got to sit next to an incredibly hot college gal. We were scheduled to arrive in New York’s JFK airport at 6:59, but it was about 7:30 when we got there.

Even with the late arrival, I still had plenty of time during my layover to catch the 8:45 connection, and even had time to grab a sandwich at the Burger King in the airport.  The Delta flight to Pisa was naturally very long and I was able to sleep off and on throughout the journey. For a minute, I thought that the lady sitting behind me was Dana Wheeler Nicholson who had starred in Fletch – so much so that I even asked her. But alas, no celebrity encounters this trip.

I arrived in Pisa even earlier than the scheduled 11:40am Saturday landing. I was now on Italian time and had lost six hours during my eastward journey. I went through customs and got my luggage pretty quickly and made my way to the exit. There was a brief few minutes of panic as I couldn’t find Chris, but he was diligently scouting the airport to make sure that I hadn’t headed to the train station. Crisis averted quickly.

First photo in Italy, at the train station outside the Pisa airport

Chris had already purchased our first train tickets which would take us from the Pisa Aeroporto to Pisa Centrale in the heart of the city. Here I would check my luggage during our brief visit. I had been warned by everyone concerned that there wasn’t much to see in Pisa, but I still felt the need to go there to see what every fool tourist needs to see – the famous Leaning Tower, known to the locals simply as La Torre (the tower).

Checking out where we were headed on the Pisa city map

On the streets of Pisa

Relaxing on the bridge over the Arno as we headed toward the Piazza del Duomo

The tower is merely a bell tower to serve the cathedral located in the Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square), which was about a twenty minute walk from the train station. When the tower began construction in 1173, it almost immediately began to lean to the southeast due to a poorly laid construction. At one point the tower leaned 5.5 degrees, but after legitimate concerns that the tower would soon topple over, a restoration occurred which removed soil from under the tower and weighted it in the opposite direction. As of 2001, the tower is again able to be entered by the public and now leans just under 4 degrees.

This is all registered historical fact, despite what my friend Bill Cappello told me beforehand, that the tower only appeared to be leaning due to the landscaping. His name was mentioned a few times as we climbed to the top around the spiral staircase.

Chris and me at the leaning tower

Unfortunately, I soon found that Italy’s primary income pretty much comes from tourism, and thus everything costs lots of money to enter. The American dollar was still weak and I had paid $1.60 per euro at the New York airport to acquire 130 euros. The Leaning Tower of Pisa cost the outrageous sum of 15 euros to enter. And that’s not the worst part. One could only enter at designated times, our time being at 3:20pm, two hours from the time we purchased the ticket.

During our wait, I was happy enough just to walk around the Piazza del Duomo and enjoy the nice day. We opted not to pay to enter the cathedral itself or the baptistery. Chris knew there were some important art pieces inside but didn’t want to see them without Sarah, who could explain them to him. The cathedral was open for free to those who wished to go in and pray…so I did. I figured “When in Rome, do as the Romans do…” so I’m sure the same applies to Pisa. After I had given thanks for my safe travels, I took a peek at the inside of the cathedral before exiting.

Inexplicably mounting the first available bicycle in front of the cathedral

The baptistery

Although I wasn’t in the least bit hungry, I felt the need to start off my trip with an Italian hotdog and a gelato(Italian ice cream). So I picked the nearest hotdog stand and made my purchase. The dogs were split down the middle and grilled and inserted into a fancy bun. The gelato was crema and cocco (cream-egg and coconut). Each day would see a different variety.

First gelato, last hotdog

Washing it down with some statue water. Although these type of photos are often staged, Chris and I often filled our water bottles from palatable water fountains such as these

With some Pisa policia

And of course – OF COURSE – I posed with the same idiotic pose as everyone who has ever visited Pisa has done, that of pushing the tower from afar. It cracked me up to see the line of tourists striking this exact pose, or some variation of it. Chris and I came up with a few of our own. All priceless, naturally.

Leaning Tower pose 101

Chris carries the tower on his back. I won’t comment on the man-purse

I was proud of my mime ability for this photo. By the way, Sarah despises mimes

Chris offers a hot tourist additional support. Note the other sillies balanced on the pedestals behind her doing the same thing

She didn’t agree to this, by the way

My favorite variation. Chris and I opted not to pose in this fashion, despite the man-purse

Since I was there, how about a just a simple standard pose with the tower?

When 3:20 rolled around, it was finally time for us to enter the tower. There was nothing overtly exciting about it – except to say that you were in it – but it was a lot of steps up. 296 to be exact. Chris noted that you could really tell which side you were on, as the leaning was very obvious. In fact, he said it twice so by default, it became one of the week’s catchphrases. “You can really tell which side of the (fill in blank) you’re on!”

Getting ready to enter the tower after our two-hour wait

I made sure to revive my previous European quip of “Save the clock tower!” as heard in Back to the Future

Chris and me with a Pisa bell

Overlooking the city of Pisa

In our respective Georgia and Texas t-shirts, Chris and I survey Pisa

A bat in the belfry

After our 30 minutes ascending, meandering around, gawking at, and descending the tower, we left the area and headed back to the train station. I had kind of hoped to eat dinner in Pisa, but neither of us were remotely hungry after the hot doggies. However, I did stop to grab a slice of prosciutto and cheese pizza in one of the cafes called the Caffè Bar Roma to eat as we walked for the very obvious reason of being able to say…

(drumroll) I had a piece’a pizza in Pisa (cymbal crash…unyielding boos)

We got back to the Pisa Centrale train station, picked up my luggage, which was thankfully safe and sound,  purchased our tickets to Florence, and headed back to Chris and Sarah’s apartment. The train ride was a little over 90 minutes and then it was a 30 minute walk (considering I was dragging a suitcase all the way) to the apartment.

After taking a little breather, Chris and I headed out on foot to a pizzeria called I Ghibellini. During both walks, I was taking in the new sights and sounds of Florence, although I was both too tired and overwhelmed to retain much. As I would spend three full days later on in the city, I wasn’t much interested in this point in anything but my pizza.

Naturally, the pizza I selected was called the Dante. It consisted of cheese, pork sausage, and truffles – which is something akin to a mushroom paste (which is a pretty expensive delicacy). And for the first and only time during the trip, I had a beer – a Boccale Medio (medium). From here on in, it would be red wine only when it came to alcohol.

Relaxing in Florence with some Italian beer and my Dante pizza

We walked back to the apartment and it wasn’t long before I was ready to crash. Sarah and Chris have two roommates named Kellin and Sarah, but Chris and I were the only ones at the apartment this night as the three gals were on a trip to the Marches, an eastern central region in Italy. Still I slept on the couch as I didn’t want to occupy anyones bed without permission. Sarah #2 would be leaving to visit the U.S. on Monday and I would get her room after that.

Although I had dozed in and out on the plane trips, it had been about 35 hours since I had laid down to sleep. I would be thankful for the rest as the next two days would be particularly jam-packed.

Bypass the Italy trip and continue with 2009…

The Italy trip will continue in Rome…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 6:53 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Historical Locations, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.