Today we docked at La Spezia, Italy. This is the first port we’ve been in where we had to take a tender to shore. We planned on a shorter day after the marathon day in Rome yesterday. But, it didn’t work out that way! La Spezia is really cool – not touristy at all. We found the train station, but we messed up when we bought our ticket and paid for the train ride all the way to the end of the line instead of the town we wanted. 50 Euro one way. But, we were able to take the high-speed train to Pisa. We also learned Italian trains have different classes and the high speed ones have assigned seating. But, no one messed with us and made us move, so it didn’t matter. We walked a LONG way to Piazza del Duomo to see the famous tower. After being in Rome yesterday, we weren’t overly impressed with Pisa. It’s a great Italian city with beautiful architecture, friendly people, cobblestone streets, and one crooked tower. We were glad we saw it, but once we made it there, we were ready to go. We decided to have lunch and unfortunately picked a café too close to the tower. The food was bad (still better than anywhere in the US, but not compared to the other Italian cafes we’ve been to) and the atmosphere of cheesy accordion music wasn’t really our scene. Though, we could have picked up a sweet Rolex for 10 Euros while we dined. We walked all the way back to the train station to find we had just missed the train back to La Spezia. We killed time at a nearby café and paid 20 Euros for cheap wine and a lemon soda for Hayden. We got on the next train, but it wasn’t the high speed train so it took a long time to get back. But, since we actually got the right ticket, it only cost 12 Euros to get back. In La Spezia, we bought Violet a pretty dress at a store called Prenatal that had all kinds of cool baby stuff and clothes. We finally got back on the boat at 6:30. Another long day, but a nice train ride through Tuscany and another great city. Tonight, we’re leaving Italy and heading to France.
