20 hours in Pisa, hotel keys, fast food Italian style, and The Tower

Our visit to Pisa was not long but I’m so happy we were able to go. I’ve been through Pisa on the train many times and have never seen the Leaning Tower. It did not disappoint!

As our train rolled into Pisa both Tracie and I were exhausted. That was one very long travel day flying from Portland Oregon to Milan Italy, and catching a train to Pisa. It was a 24-hour trip.

We found our lodging, the BnB Red Horse, and made ourselves comfortable. We decided to keep dinner simple and close since we had little energy left. And of course there is this thing in Italy where the good restaurants most often are closed for dinner until 7 or later. We would be lucky to keep our eyes open…

After checking Yelp for places to try, we opted for the little place we passed between the train station and our BnB. It was fast food at its finest and we didn’t care. It seemed to be a popular stopping place for adult beverages as well as food. The patio was huge and covered with umbrellas with room for more than 50. It was called Kinzica and was the perfect choice for our evening. Tomorrow we conquer the Tower!

Our BnB used a set of keys. One to let you into the building, one into the BnB portion of the building and a third into our room. We also had a key to our private bathroom. They were the type of keys that you had to figure out which direction to turn and how many times around and around. I’ll just say that in the middle of the night the key process to get out of our room and down the hall to the bathroom and back to lock our room back up, was noisy. And apparently we woke our other travelers up because shortly after I was up, others were also. It was click clack click for quite a while since all rooms had their own private bathroom.

After a so-so night of sleep we both were ready for that tower climb. We still have not seen the Tower. How can that be?

We’re less than a mile away and finally laid eyes on it. Along with the church and baptistery the entire area was gorgeous.

I had selected our tower climb for 9 am which was first entry. They had a fairly good system because there was only one set of stairs which had to accommodate both up and down. They let the 9 am group in, and the 9:15 group had to wait. It was just enough time to require us to have a very small number of people climb up while we headed back down.

251 steps up and we were able to enjoy the views and the bells.

Outside the Tower area there was a large market filled with vendors selling the touristy shirts, bags and everything Tower related. We didn’t buy anything since we would be carrying it on our backs in a few days, but it’s always fun to look.

This was an excellent way to begin our Italian adventure. Pisa was a great overnight stay with the Tower as the main event. Now on to Vernazza where we will pick up our friends, Linda D and Steph. Ciao!

#Italian adventure #ViaFrancigena2022 #lifereset