Pizza a Pisa/A Run to Remember - Sept 10

Today started off very relaxed. I sat in my room doing homework and preparing for the day until noon when hunger and necessity drove me into Sesto. After an ATM shorted me 50 Euro I headed back to the villa and did a bit more work until it was about 3:30 when I headed over to meet up with a group to go to Pisa. In total we had a group of eight as we boarded a bus to Florence. When we arrived at Santa Maria Novella (SMN) station we bought our tickets and celebrated our small victories in navigating the station using Italian. We boarded the train that was thankfully air-conditioned and rode an hour or so to Pisa. On the way I studied some Italian for class so I’d say it was a successful day for homework.

We arrived in Pisa around 5ish or so and immediately set out to see the Tower. It was on the opposite site of town from the train station so we got a nice little tour of what we decided was the average city of Pisa (Little did I know that I would really get the chance to get to know Pisa). Once we arrived we quickly set up camp at a spot and began taking the obligatory pictures holding up the tower. 

Our plan to arrive late in the afternoon/early evening was perfect because not only were there fewer tourists, but we also go the sunset shining on the tower which made the whole scene much more attractive than it would have been with a midday sun.  So we took individual pictures holding up the Tower, then began the combinations of groups and pairs and individual fun shots for at least half an hour. After we were satisfied we walked around a bit and looked at the tower more closely. We also looked around the church next to the tower, which I found to be surprisingly pretty, especially since the sun was setting.

The group then headed to find a place to eat, but we didn’t get very far before we found a nice little restaurant that was reasonably priced with a great view of the tower and a perfect table for eight waiting for us outside.  Almost all of us ended up ordering pizza because it was soooooo good. Definitely the best pizza I’ve had in Italy so far. It was so unbelievably stereotypical that we were eating pizza in front of the Tower of Pisa. 

After a nice leisurely dinner we meandered back through Pisa and stopped for my favorite gelato thus far. I had grapefruit and caramel. They were magnificent! The grapefruit was tart and sweet and light and the caramel was just a really smooth creamy taste that really complimented the grapefruit.

Upon leaving from the gelato place to catch our train in 20ish minutes, I realized that I did not have my bag. I then realized that it was back all the way across the city at the restaurant. While I didn’t have anything crucial to my life in the bag, we decided it would be best if I retrieved it. So the group split with those who had to wake up early heading onward to the station and and a few awesome friends (Laura, Morgan, and Dede) and me heading back on a rescue mission.

Now, since the Tower and the train station are literally at polar ends of Pisa this was not going to be a trivial jaunt. This was a rescue mission and it was going to be close. The Arno River splits the town in two with two-thirds on the Tower side and one-third on the station side. Since we had already crossed the bridge and walked a bit to get to the gelato place this meant we were going to have to cover the town almost two whole times to get back to the tower and then turn around and return to the station in order to make it on the train in 20 minutes. So we took off.

We ran at first and then decided to just power walk. When we reached the bridge I separated from the rescue team and ran hardcore back to the tower. It was quite a ways. I was getting tired and probably looked really crazy to the Italians.

When I reached the restaurant near the base of the tower I whipped out some Italian to ask the host if he’d found my blue bag. He told me “Si, si I have con-served it for you.” and then led me into the restaurant to retrieve it. I thanked him profusely then ran away like a crazy person. I sprinted back several streets until I met back up with the girls and slowed to a power walk.

For those of you that know me well, I am a power-walking champion. Everyone always complains about my normal pace, but this time I was told to set the pace! Haha! So, with the time in mind I put it into high gear and Morgan and I used our speed walking skills to keep the pace solid while Dede and Laura did a jog-walk-jog thing to keep up. When the train station came into view we were already a minute or two late, so I forewent the walking and bolted into the terminal whipping out my ticket as I ran. I quickly validated it, followed shortly by the others, and then went tearing into the underground passage between platforms.

Meanwhile, on the train our friends anxiously waited to see us on the platform. They were all carefully held in suspense as the time for the train’s departure came and went without motion. Finally after a three or four minute delay they pulled out. Slightly concerned that they hadn’t seen us on the platform they still waited anxiously when suddenly the compartment door slid open to reveal me dripping with sweat and breathing heavily holding a fist raised it triumph. They all expressed various forms of relief as I told them how it happened.

Amongst shouts of “Corre! Corre!” (Run! Run!) We’d sped through the tunnel I was a bit a head and when I saw the sign for Florence I’d through out a turn signal to the people behind me and ran up onto the platform. I’d then held the door and quickly confirmed this was the correct train as the girls hopped on. Then we’d all melted into seats and had 30 seconds of panting and sweating before the doors closed and the train pulled out. It was very intense.

According to Google maps our epic chase through Pisa was 1.8 miles and should take an estimated 35 minutes. I’m proud to say that we effectively cut off more than 10 minutes from that time in order to make the train. Awesome. It was definitely the most I’ve run in a while.

Shortly thereafter the group reunited in two adjacent sets of inward facing seats. We were quite relieved to have made the train back (since the next one would be much later and would have only taken us to Florence not Sesto. So we chatted and cooled off as we all discussed how much fun the day had been and rode the surprisingly short hour-long train back to Florence and then Sesto Fiorentino. As we started to get off in Sesto we realized quickly that we were not at the correct station. So we did a little indecisive straddle of the train, hopping off and back on 3 times before deciding that the station was at least in the correct city. We preferred to be far away in the right city to accidentally riding the train to Bologna that night. Once we got outside and looked at a map we realized we weren’t far at all and after that it was only a 20 minute walk or so back to the Villa.