04/06/10 - Tuscanny - Italy

Up at 5am to catch the early train to Pisa. Very larthargic and not feeling well. Sick at the station and not well on the train. This is a two hour trip but seems like four in this rattler. We could not see out at all from the right side as all the windows were covered in graffetti. First stop was lovely Lucca hidden behind imposing Renaissance walls dating back to 180BC. A coffee in Piazza Maria and feeling much better. We walked and shopped around the ancient streets and the many piazza stoping for lunch. Then back on the train to go a few more stops to Pisa. The leaning Tower of Pisa is definately on a lean so Finn and I investigated it more closely by climbing to the top - all 200 odd steps whilst Karinne and Tilly laid on the grass admiring the view. There is one train into Lucca and Pisa in the morning (hence our early start) and one to return in the evening - miss this and we,re stranded. Making sense of the timetable is difficult and usually stations are unmanned and if they are people dont speak English. We raced to the station from Pisa to ensure we made the one and only train but to purchase a ticket you have to select your destination (in our case - Minucciano Piece Casola) and enter the appropriate code. We could not find our destination listed and being pushed for time didnt help the search. Our train came so we ran across the tracks to catch it. It seemed a little early so I was concerned it was the wrong one. I used the iphone translator to ask a passenger. He assured it was the right one. One becomes so vulnerable in trusting others in these situations. I needed a second opinion. At another stop I received confirmation by the train driver that we were in fact on the right one but we still had no tickets. After almost two hours and only one stop to go we were asked something in Italian by a non-English speaking railway worker whom we considered to be a conductor. I used the translator to explain why we had no tickets but he simply was asking us our stop as we needed to move to the froward carriages - I guess we dropped ourselves in it. We quickly alighted to our car and drove off. We were home by 8pm - a long day but well worth it. I finished the day with a wine speaking to some neighbours - one who speaks English.