Monday 6th December: Rome-Pisa-Florence

Today we officially launched our Eurail Pass.

Having originally thought that we would make a half day trip from Florence across to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower etc. we changed our plan and decided to make a stop over in Pisa on the way to Florence. Good idea but making plans around the Italian train system is not always that easy. Arriving at the station in plenty of time, we stood in the middle of the Rome ‘Termini’ station with dozens of other would be train travelers, gazing up at the information screens waiting to see which platform our train was departing from. As platform numbers lit up, for all the trains departing before ours and then for trains due to depart after ours, we started to get a bit anxious. Then finally the delay notifications for our train started coming up. To cut a long story short our late morning / early afternoon stopover in Pisa eventually started at about 3.30 – 4.00 o’clock just as it started getting dark So Pisa for us was a brisk walk in the rain from the station to the leaning tower, a few quick Oohs and Aahs, and photos to prove we’d been there and then back to the station to catch a train to Florence.

In complete contrast to Pisa our arrival in Florence was magical. The Christmas lights were all on and the streets were full of people out walking before dinner. Our hotel turned out to be just as good or even better than I’d imagined it when booking it on the internet 2-3 months ago. So with Pisa a distant memory, we checked in and went out for the first of many memorable Florentine meals.