Italy-Unexpected Day 8 in Pisa

Might as well see the Leaning Tower, Cathderal, and Baptistry again!

Too bad the tower had scaffolding on it...

This is what I remember most about Pisa--the lines of cheesy italian gift stalls that go the entire length of the grass where the Tower, Cathedral, and Baptistry are. I kind of liked these masks...haha. Good thing I already had one from Lucca I bought in 2006.

These are more on the cheesy side.

Pisa back street. Not my favorite city in Italy. Definitely not somewhere I would want to have to stay overnight in, but oh well!

So many scooters! And these all look like the same brand...

This is what the train station "Arrivals" board looks like when there is a national strike. Don't know what SOP means, but the only train running is from Pisa Centrale to Pisa airport. It is about a 10 minute walk from the train station to the airport, so I'm glad they kept such a useful train running haha.

My unexpected hostel. Luckily it was clean, cheap, and everyone staying there was extremly nice! Too bad none of the other travelers had heard about the strike yet. I don't know why Trenitalia doesn't post it in huge red letters on their website, but then I guess that would not be the Italian way.

Somewhere in Pisa...

Next door to the last "somewhere"

To continue on from our major revelation at the Florence train station, Tiffany and I waited in line at the TrenItalia office-with about 10 other people- to further ask about the strike. The man confirmed that ALL regional trains were suspended during the strike time. The only trains running would be Eurostar which only occur a few times a day, and stop at only at certain stations-mainly going from Roma Termini, Milano Centrale, and Pisa Centrale-but not from anywhere I could catch them.

So we caught our train from Florence to Castgilion. At this point, I'm freaking out. To top things off, we have to ride the scooter back to Lignano, and we don't think we have enough gas to make it to the top of the mountain. To make matters worse, it's siesta time, meaning everything's closed, including the gas stations where you can get change-we only had large bills and for some reason the automatic machines wouldn't take our Euro coins (they give you no change-so if you use 1 euro 60 cents to fill up your scooter as we likely would have, and you put in 20 Euro, you simply pay 20 Euro...). Not having access to the internet, I had no idea when the last train would be before the strike which was in about 5 hours time. With the train ride taking 2 1/2 hours, we could only hope there was a train that would get me to Pisa before the start of the strike. To our knowledge, with a "planned" strike time like this, most trains will stop where they are at the start time of the strike. Some stop at stations, others don't. It will definitely not take you to your final station if it's past time. So we thought "light" thoughts, and somehow made it up to the top of Lignano with the gas light on most of the way.

On both the family computer and Tiffany's laptop, we frantically searched for solutions that would not result in tons of money or me hopping back on a train after 7 hours of travel and actually going through the station I need to be at now. We confirmed that charter buses and taxis were out of the question ("No, we not running-it's a strike!" says the charter buses- taxi would cost somewhere around 200-300 Euro), and changing my flight would be very costly (good thing I didn't change my flight to Saturday-the tube wasn't running on the Northern line in London to get me from the train station to Bob's-damn planned engineering and strikes!).

So, I had to book a hostel pronto and catch the last train out. I had about an hour to pack everything after finding a hostel and get to the train station. I tried to pack my best for the airport-no liquid in my carry on, clothes on top for tongiht and tomorrow as I wasn't sure what the hostel would be like when I got here, then Alfonso, Elia, and Tiffany took me to the train station. I made the train just in time thanks to a large bus blocking the winding road down from Lignano (really?? anything else Italy?). I got to Pisa Centrale just after 8:30 and walked to the hostel in a not so great part of town-right by the train station which are notoriously not good parts in most towns. Luckily, the hostel was fine, and everyone there seemed nice. I asked about somewhere to get some food (hadn't been able to think about eating yet). A guy who had just arrived from Northern UK went with me to find food and water-luckily, because I got us lost about 6 times, and he got us unlost about 6 times (and I had been here before, and he had never been to Italy).

With the train stirke, the hostel was completely full, and turning people away. Evereyone was trying to get somwehere esle because no one really needs a full day in Pisa-a few hours will do. So he also walked around Pisa with me in the morning-trying to make the most of our time in Pisa. We walked by the train station and of course it was total chaos. People coming in from the airport had no idea they couldn't leave Pisa, taxis' were charging twice their usual astronomical fee to get out of Pisa, and the line for the TrenItalia office was about 40 people long. I got to the airport super early, for a flight that was 20 minutes late, and sat an hour on the tarmac for "engineering" issues. As much as I love Italy, I was a little exhausted at this point and ready to get back to Bob's.

Italy-Day 5, 6, 7-Isola d' Elba

Portoferraio from the ferry

The steps down to our Hotel's (Hotel Paradiso's) private beach. The reviews we read acted like there were tons of steps, and it was a terrible journey. We didn't agree until the second night after some Peroni's on the beach, and it being pitch dark outside when Tiffany's knee had an unfortaunate meeting with the steps. But she managed to keep hold of her camera wrapped in a hand towel, so not too much damage done!

Hotel Paradiso's private beach

Sunset in Vitticio

Our view from the hotel on Saturday morning.

We spent Saturday in the town of Procchio-where the guy from Il Papiro in Florence had suggested we stay. We walked around kicking ourselves thinking how we should have listened and looked harder for a place to stay! It would have been so much cheaper to stay here with the bars, shops, grocery store, and two star hotel--not to mention the awesome beach and how cute it was. We ended up stealing things from breakfast at the hotel in our pockets knowing we paid so much for dinner the night before (we felt we deserved it), and buying hot beers from the Procchio grocery store for 84 cents, and batting our eyelashes for glasses of ice at the bar in the hotel to drink later that night in Vittcio as drinks were 7 euro each at the hotel. It was also a 25 euro taxi ride from Vitticio to Procchio, or a bus ride from Vitticio to Portoferraio, and another bus from Portoferrario to Procchio ending up in about 2 hours journey because the buses only ran every once in awhile. Oh well, hind sight always is 20-20.

In Procchio after some iced granitas!

Beach at Procchio

Our ferry back to Piombino-where the real "fun" would begin!

Tiffany and I were excited to go to a place we hadn't been before, as we went to so many places in Italy in 2006 with school. As it is summer, she asked around for beach ideas and came up with the Island of Elba which is a Tuscan beach island that mainly Italians (and Germans it seemed) go for vacation. When we told the men at the paper shop in Florence where we were going and how we knew nothing of the island, one of them suggested we stay in Procchio. He said for a great beach and small town, it is his favorite place on the North side of the Island. However, we weren't able to really start looking for places to stay until the night before we left around 11 p.m., and being the high season in Italian vacations, we had trouble finding places. We finally found a 3 star hotel (cheapest we could find) in Vitticio. The actual address for Vitticio was Portoferraio (where the ferry takes us), and so we thought we would have easy access to everything. Plus, the hotel had good reviews and its own beach and pool! Being 63 Euro a night, it was much more than we expected (we are used to hostel living), but went ahead and phoned them to let them know we would be on our way the next morning.

We rode the scooter down to make the 8:25 train from Castiglion to Florence, and made 2 more train changes before reaching Piombino-where the ferry takes off to Elab. Too bad the 3 guide books we looked in didn't mention that Piombino has two stops, and the second one was actually where we needed to be. Luckily, we searched our scarce train, and Tiffany was able to get this information before we got off. We caught an hour ferry ride to the island, then took the bus to Vitticio. It was about 15 minutes from Porteferrario, but not at all walkable on the winding narrow mountain roads as we had hoped.

The hotel was nice, but felt strange. For one thing, apparently Italians have a tough time with the name Tiffany, and tend to call her Steffanie. Now, she even spelled her name for the hotel twice (the man spoke English), and still when we arrived, he said, "Oh, you must be Steffanie!" Tiffany said "Yes, I'm Steffanie" (as they had now talked about 4 times and he had called her Steffanie despite her best efforts to correct him). A few other things were strange too. Like a stupid person, I had forgotten to bring my passport which all hostels/most hotels need for some reason for you to stay there. Luckily, my Texas Driver's License was fine for them (they obviously never looked because they would have noticed that their Steffanie is really Tiffany). They also made us make no down payment or anything. We simply paid the night before we left. Can't see that ever happening in America!

In addition to that, we also got the distinct feeling that we were the only Americans on the island at that time, or at least that had stayed at the hotel in awhile. Everytime we walked into a room, they knew who we were-the guy tending the bar, the waiters in the restaurant, the night shift receptionist "Oh Steffanie!". We thought maybe there were only a few people staying there, but that was not the case. and they didn't seem to know other people right away. We felt like we walked into a room and we were constantly being talked about. Sometimes they would giggle when we walked in!

More strange-while breakfast was included in our hotel cost, dinner was an extra 10 euro. We declined thinking we could do cheaper, but really, there was nothing around our hotel. So we asked instead of the 25 Euro charge for not booking it with the room (3 course meal with wine), if we could just order one course and have the price of that item. "Of course Steffanie! For you, special price!". Well I got bow-tie pasta with butter and water, and paid 14 euro, and Tiffany got spaghetti and paid the same. When Tiffany tried to order a beer, the old man waiter threw his hands up and said "Birra?!?!?! Americana and Birra!???". So she ordered the wine...

Despite the high cost and hard time getting there, the island was lovely. We had to catch a taxi to Portoferraio Thursday morning at 7:30 because the trains of course didn't start running until 9, menaing we would miss the 9:26 train from Piombino. OUr ferry ended up being ten minutes late which caused major issues for us on the train. While we and a few others ran all the way fromt he ferry to the train and made it on, we hadn't validated our tickets whch results in a fine. About 3 stops after Piombino, myself and another guy (Tiffanya nd I decided I was maybe faster), jumped off the train and ran down the platform to validate, then jumped back on. At the other stops, the train had only stopped for 20 seconds, but of course here because we rushed to get back on, it stopped for about 10 minutes making our running not necessary.

The biggest surprise came when we got to the Florence train station around 2:30 for our one station change, and noticed a sign saying there would be a ntaional train strike from 9 p.m. that night, until 9 p.m. the following night. As I flew out the next day at 4 p.m. from Pisa- a 2 1/2 hour train ride from Catsiglion, this was a MAJOR problem. It was only made worse when we foudn out the buses were included in this strike...

Italy-Day 4-Firenze!

One of my favorite things in Florence that I hadn't experienced before-two older men working in the Il Papiro shop showed us how to make marbelized paper. It was super neat! They also gave us good suggestions about where to stay in Elba. If only we had listened...

There's the paper he made right in the front.

I bought one of these stamps with a "BH" to make wax seals (and bought the wax too)!

Tiff and I in front of the Duomo

When Mom, Dad, Cat, Zak, Jerry, and Glenda visited me in italy in 2006, the pensione that we stayed in was just to the right of this gate.

Leather market

Tiffany and I in front of the Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

Locks of Love at Ponte Vecchio-Couples in love write heir name on a lock, lock it on the chains, then throw the key into the Arno River to symbolize eternal love. Now obviously with thousands of people doing this a year, they actually must have to take them off every so often. These weren't even actually on the bridge, but on the walk to it because they must be getting lazy about cutting them off.

Duomo peeking out. And yes, there were THAT many people there.

Look at all the scooters! (not to mention brave souls who drive in Italy)

My one and only gelato in Italy. Had I known, I would have got a grande!!!!

Duomo-Still stunnning to see right in the middle of the city with cars driving by ont heir way to and from work-even if you've seen it close to 20 times!

Florence is still one of my favorite places in Italy hands down. No matter the masses of people or not! It's definitley an awesome city.

4th of July in Castiglion & Cortona!

Gate to Castiglion. I have missed it so much (the town, not this particular gate)!

View from the Loggia

LOVE this view (also from the Loggia)

View from at the top of Castiglion-at the ancient ruins of the Tower

Pathway down to Velvet Underground where we spent many a night!

Way back to Santa Chiara after being at Velvet-can you imagine this after a few too many drinks?

Not sure what the blue flags are for as I don't remember seeing anything liek. Tiffany said there was just a horse race there before I came, so it must be like in Siena where the different parts of town have different flags and their own horse/horserider to root for.

I forgot just how much you had to be in shape to walk in Castiglion

Church right next to Santa Chiara-heard these bells every morning!

Santa Chiara-our home for 3 months in 2006. Oh how I miss it and all of the great times we had!

The tower ruins from outside the city walls

My love- the Coco Palm. Sadly, because of the strike, I was not able to get a gelato fromt he best place on earth :( Guess that means I will have to come back!

View from the bus stop in Cortona-kind of like our bus stops in Houston

Antique store in Cortona

Love this sign! (would have bought it had it been for sale...haha)

I love how all the cats are always out in Italy. I miss this in America and London! (oh, and Cortona is known for its ceramic, so there's a cermaic store behind the sleeping cat).

Art gallery along the main corso. It was built around a well that has been there since the 11th century. I'm sure the building itself was built in the 16th century at least. It had amazing and very pricey art, stationary, and antique Italian maps.

Where I ate my lunch-pizza and my fake lemon ice tea (minus the ice). I miss those teas already!

Church? Museum? don't know....

A church outside of Cortona (just outside what I would call the "back gate" haha). The long pathway down didn't look steep, but I actually had to stop on the way up to catch my breathe. I pretended to be looking at the scenery when some people passed me. London & Houston and their flatness have spoiled me!

I believe this is the church in Under the Tuscan Sun where the young couple gets married, but it is outside of Cortona a little bit, and I'm not sure how you would get there (escalators maybe?), so I've never been inside to confirm (of course they could have used a different church interior in the movie).

View from where I took the escaltors down to (it was a parking lot.haha)

Escalators in Cortona? I knew that they had escalators in Siena because I remember thinking what a great clash of modern and ancient means when we went there on a school field trip 4 years ago. But either we didn't see these in our day trip in 2006 to Cortona (Tiffany and I think we just spent a few hours here), or maybe they are new. Eitherway, there were two stories of them, and this really long and steep one didn't work so you had to walk up the steps anyways.haha


Tiffany was busy with Elia all day Sunday, so she took me to Castiglion early Sunday morning to spend the day doing whatever I like. It felt so great to be back in Castiglion. I remembered exactly where most of our most frequented places were-Santa Chiara, Velvet Underground, the Loggia, our favorite places to get cappucino and pasteries, and even the way out of town to my watercolor class. It definitely felt like just a year ago that we were there and not four years! After some time in Castiglion, I decided to head over to Cortona. I was proud of myself for buying a train ticket and just making it to the train station in time for the next train which stopped in Cortona. Except that it was a Sunday, and for some reason, the trains weren't all running (in small text under most of the trains it said something about festivio-festival). So I hiked it back up to Castiglion (about 10 minutes all up hill), and came back down right before the train without the small side note.

Cortona was better than I remembered. Lots of great art and jewelry galleries. There were more Americans and British peple there than Italians it felt like. I met a girl waiting for the bus (you have to catch a bus from the train station up to into town) from California, a British woman who had moved form London to paint and own her own art gallery, and a girl from New York. Too bad though that as it was "festivo", there were only four buses running all day. So I ended up staying there for 5-6 hours until a bus direct to Castiglion showed up as the Italians hadn't thought to coordinate their bus and train times (i.e. bus picks up at 14:25, trian leaves at 14:20). I got back to Castiglion around 7 and Dorian was nice enough to come and pick me up again. The only thing we said was- Dorian: "Cortona and Castiglion?" Me: "Si". Oh well, a very small (piccolo) improvement from the first ride.