Bits and Pisas.

Breakfast in the hotel was a nice chance for us to revisit the funny conversations from the night before. The gang have been exploring the hotel a bit - to get to the gym you have to go down some stairs and then up some stairs and then down some stairs. Someone said “we thought the gym was the stairs” and we were all giggling again - a good start to the day.

We headed off to Pisa for the obligatory tower visit. The climb was fun although it feels very odd due to the lean and the view from the top is nice, but I’m mildly underwhelmed by the Pisa experience. 

Back in Florence, we ventured out to explore. Cam had done some homework on vintage shops and led the group to a few options. We ran out of time, needing to get back to the hotel by six. The daylight is deceiving as it doesn’t get dark till almost nine o’clock. We caught two taxis up to San Miniato, up on the hill with an amazing view of Florence. Our cab driver had the Tour de France playing on his screen while he drove and reminded me that it started in Florence this year, on the Ponte Vecchio. 

 

Each night at San Miniato there is Gregorian chanting. It’s real, not a show for tourists and goes for about half an hour. It was conducted by eight monks, in Latin and was very ritualistic. Eve sent very useful Italian in our group chat : “ci piacciono i tuoi canti gregoriani” (we like your Gregorian chants) but they filed away into the darkness after their session and we didn’t get to use it. The view from the church is amazing and although we were a little nervous about the ability to find a taxi and get back down the hill, it all worked out. 

Dinner was pizza at a very busy restaurant that had been highly recommended to us. The line to eat in was long so we ordered takeaway.  Eventually our order arrived and we sat on some nearby church steps to eat. The pizza was just ok and it was still about 30 degrees outside, so not the most pleasant experience. It was nice to back to the hotel and the air conditioning. Fun fact - the hot and cold taps are labeled (as one would expect) in Italian so hot is “C”.