Day 304

I'm roasting right now, as I sit on a train to Tuscany...but hey...I'm on a train to Tuscany! Ok that's a bit of a lie. The first stop we'll get off at in a little over an hour, will be to Pisa. After that, we'll be going to our Bed and Breakfast in Tuscany.

We started our day off as usual, with breakfast on the rooftop terrace, and then took our time in the air conditioned room to pack up all of our things. Once we geared ourselves up, we hoisted our bags onto our shoulders, and with a great deal of pain...left the building.

We walked down the street as if the bags on our backs were as light as feathers...but our insides were burning, and the 2 injured women that we are, were suffering...silently. *The swear words weren't so silent...but they were quiet, and in English, so I'm sure they weren't understood*.

We made our way to the train station, and jumped on the metro. Two stops later, we were where we needed to be, and I was in a Foot Locker buying new flip flops. Mine had had it. From there, we checked train times, and were doing great. There was a train at 12:15 and we had a good amount of time to spare. That was of course, until one ticket machine didn't work, another wouldn't show the destination we needed, and we got redirected by people about 5 times - No exaggeration. By the time we finally found a place that would sell us the tickets we needed, the 12:15 bus had left, and the next one was at 2:10. Perfect!

We decided after all that, that we needed a pedicure. Now...I've NEVER had one, and my Mom has only ever had maybe one in her lifetime, because we're just not that type of girl. As you know us, we like to try and look our best, but we are quite capable of doing our own nails, hair, etc. Anyway, by this point, we decided because we'd seen a spa in the station, that we would treat ourselves. We walked in...and looked at prices...eventually, a man began to talk to us. Turns out they don't do pedicures today. We're not sure if that means on a Friday...or if they were fully booked. But we thanked them anyways, and walked out. We decided to go for a coffee instead. Not quite the same, but a treat is a treat.

We lugged our heavy bags - yes we were still struggling with them - up and down several flights of stairs and escalators, and eventually, we got to a cafe. We sat down, decided what we wanted, and I went up to pay. I thought I was getting a cold coffee, so I got a muffin to split with my Mom, she got a latte, and also a bowl of fruit. Turns out my "cold coffee", was actually ice cream. Delicious, but unnecessary. When we finished there, we thought we'd see if there was a FREE washroom to use. So far in Italy, we've yet to find that. It was then however, that I glanced at the receipt from our food order, and noticed it said *in Italian* that if you kept your receipt, you could go to the washroom upstairs for free. You just had to show proof of purchase. Crazy! We went into a small, but not as small as the Bed and Breakfast's elevator, and we took it up to the next floor. When we were done, we still had quite a while until our train. We found out where it was, and got on anyway.

Not too long after finding our seats, a Mom and her twin daughters, probably just a bit younger than me, got on and sat in the seats across the aisle from us. They were from California, and we had a really nice conversation with them for most of the way. In the midst of our conversation though, the air conditioned train...went to non-airconditioned. We were boiling! They got off before us, and I fell asleep for about half an hour. My Mom and I moved into the shade once we were both awake, and the train was pretty empty. We pulled into the Pisa Centrale station, and thought it would be easy enough to find a bus or train to where our bed and breakfast was. It wasn't. We found our way, easy enough, to the bus station - after stopping for a lemonade/orange slushy...but it was there that everything went awry. We spoke to the ladies working there, figured out what bus we wanted, and decided we had an hour to do whatever. We didn't really like the area we were in, and felt a bit unsafe, so we decided to stay in the station. My Mom went up to ask a question, and as she was standing there, she noticed the screen said Platform 5 for the bus we were told we needed, but the paper the lady wrote on said Platform 3. I went up and double checked where we needed to be. The lady told me that for today only, the bus we needed was indeed departing from Platform 3. We waited...
and waited...
and 40 minutes after the hour we had already waited inside...we waited outside.
We saw a bus go by with the name of the destination we thought we wanted, but it didn't stop at Platform 3. It disappeared around the corner, and soon after, we saw it across the street. We were debating running over, but thought, "No...we asked...we should stay put". As that bus pulled away, we saw the sign it was sitting in front of across the street, said Platform 5. DAMMIT!

We went inside to speak to these same 2 ladies. We knew from before that they spoke English, but as we stood there, they pretended like they didn't know what was going on. They clearly did know what was going on though, and you saw it register. They looked at each other, tried to unsuccessfully hide their emotions, almost broke into laughter, and shrugged. They told us to go speak to the drivers in their office. ARGH! We walked outside to find the office, and spoke to a very nice man who did everything he could to communicate with us. He told us they were wrong, and that the bus today stopped stopping at Platform 3, and went back to Platform 5, after 3 o'clock. He then told us which bus we could take as an alternative. We had about 15 minutes to wait for that one, so we thanked him, and went back to the ladies to tell them what he said. We thought they might like to know so they don't send others in the wrong direction, plus we wanted an apology, and also needed to know if we'd have to change our tickets. Well, we didn't have to get a different ticket...but we also didn't get an apology. She just looked at us and went..."Ok". COW! - We used words a little more harsh than that in the conversations to follow.

We waited for this other bus, and luckily there were numerous others that began lining up as well. This time we were sure one was coming. When it arrived, our backpacks being so big, there wasn't much room for me to sit. I stood, until the 2 girls on the back of the bus who had been laughing at us for part of the journey, got up and left. I sat down beside an Italian boy, and asked him if he knew where our stop was. He told us - in Italian - that he'd let us know. For the next several minutes, a man kept looking at us...to the point where he was beginning to freak us out. We came to realize later that he was looking because he'd recognized the stop name, as that's where he was getting off as well. When the bus pulled into the stop, he motioned that we had to get off, and the young guy had words with him. It seemed the young one was a little pissed off - and rightly so - at the fact that this old "creepy" guy, didn't seem to trust him to tell us where to go. We thanked the young one, and smiled at the old one as we got off the bus, and hurried into the first store we saw. We didn't want the creepy man following us. A really nice guy in this shop, told us how to walk to the Bed and Breakfast. Sweating like crazy and oh so lady like...*Pffft*...we lugged our bags on our backs, down the street and up a hill. We stopped at a little Pizzeria and asked how far we had to go, and how late they were open til. When they told us 11, we assured them we'd be back for dinner, and continued on our way until we arrived at a BEAUTIFUL house, complete with an Olive Grove in the backyard. The lady of the house came to greet us, and showed us to our rooms. As I was standing there admiring the view, I saw a hummingbird. She had just finished saying we could go into the garden at any time, so camera in hand, I was out the door faster than I came in. I didn't find the hummingbird - I'm hoping he comes back over the next 3 days - but what I did find, was tons of plants, trees and flowers to take pictures of. I may spend an entire day just in the garden. It is absolutely amazing!

As I walked out, a dog began barking at me. An older Italian gentleman began speaking to him, and came over to introduce the dog to me. The dog's name is Jack. I'm not sure what that man's name is. He doesn't speak any English, but we somehow managed to have a full conversation. It truly inspired me. If only people realized that if you just listen, no matter what the language barrier is, you really can understand each other. It was great. Once he went inside, I took some more pictures, and then my Mom and I walked back to the restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner, and have decided we will most likely return there most nights. I tried to learn some Italian as we sat there, and at the end of the meal I asked if the service fee was included in the total. The man was clearly impressed with my attempt, not to say it was pronounced properly haha, but it made us both smile. We walked back up to the house, and now we're having a cup of tea, and are going to watch Big Brother. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings us! But for now, Good Night xx