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Saturday 23 June 2018

The Final Countdown. Day 57: Florence and Pisa

I got next to no sleep this night. We had drunk a considerable amount of wine up at the Piazza de Michelangelo, and I was pretty damn keen to just crash out when we got back to the hostel. This was not to be. Well, actually, Dan and I both did crash out on our mattresses on the floor, but after about an hour I was awoken by a horrid buzzing sound near my ear and big itchy patches all over my body. Fucking mosquitos.

We closed the window that we had left open to get some air in the room, and it had let in an infestation. The next 4 or so hours were filled with me turning the light on (poor Dan), and trying to squash the little fuckers that I could see and hear. I put on my bug spray and a bug band, but to no avail. I squashed about 6 and covered the walls in my blood (and maybe some of Dan's as he too had some bites for a change, although they weren't itching him). I could continue to hear them as I turned the light out, so I pulled the sheet right up under my chin, sweltering in the heat and attempted to doze.

At stupid o'clock the alarms went off, and I was feeling pretty desperately unhappy. I needed to pull myself together, and we managed to get out of the hostel on time. I noticed we had an airconditioner in our room but no remote - and the stupid front desk only opened at 9.30 (and closed at 12 midday) so there was literally no way to ask for this from them.

First up this morning was visiting David at the Accademia Gallery. The gallery opens at 8.15am and I knew from experience that the line can get pretty hefty, and also it's much nicer inside when there are less people. For this reason, we got to the gallery at about 7.30 and took our place in the queue that was already forming. Dan held the fort while I went back to a cafe and bought us some croissants and coffee so that we didn't pass out before we got to the front of the queue!

In all, the queue moved really quickly. We were in by about 8.30am - didn't take us long at all! Dan and I made a beeline straight for David, and marvelled at his marbled glory. He really is quite exquisite, I poke fun because I can but he really is an amazing work of art. I always giggle at how large his hands are, and then there are all the puerile jokes that go along with that...

After we took a few photos, posing with him as well and doing a lap to look at his shapely buttocks, we returned to the beginning of the gallery to look at all the other art in there. On my last visit, I thought this gallery was tiny, but turns out they had opened another section all about music (which I swear wasn't there on my last visit) and we even discovered an upstairs area! As the caffeine started to course through our veins, we were energised looking at all the other artwork. Much of it was religious in theme, with some glorious renaissance babies - I can't resist a good renaissance baby! I also found a delightful painting where a lady very obviously had been painted with 6 toes. I wonder if she actually had 6 toes?

The music section was small but quite interesting with a few very old original designs of instruments and one of the first upright pianos - imagine a baby grand but with the back bit...literally upwards. It would have been difficult to fit in a normal room. Clearly over the course of time they perfected the design.

By the time we came back through the room housing David, it was squash packed. It was very hard to even make it through the crowd and we were thankful we had yet again got here so early - we wouldn't have been able to pose with the statue now as we had done earlier. A quick glimpse in the plaster cast room, and a quick look upstairs - all religious artefacts, and we were out on the street, ready to continue the day.

Next stop: Catch the train out to Pisa. I had researched a good cheap place for lunch, so we decided to head straight there, lunch and then find this wonky tower. Buying the train tickets and getting on the train were no problem at all - we managed to get some seats because the train was quite full with everyone heading in the same direction. Once we arrived, we just followed the crowd! The lunch place I had chosen was on the way, and so we grabbed ourselves a seat at Pizzeria Le Mura.

We sat outside in the glassed off area, which made it quite hot - it was a warm day anyway! About here I realised that my hayfever was pretty damn bad, and not getting any better. I had hoped it would start to clear up over the day, but it just got worse and worse. By the end of the day, I had popped an extra hay fever tablet, but my face and eyes and nose were just so itchy, that the day, while lovely, was a bit tarnished unfortunately.

Our meal was delicious - we made a bit of a misorder thinking one of the pizzas would have salmon on it but it had salami, but it turned out to be incredible. As usual, we got one each and shared, and we also had a wine and a beer. There were a few mild miscommunications with the lady behind the counter, so I wasn't entirely sure what we were going to get, but it all turned out perfectly in the end.

At the end of our meal, it was time to continue on find the tower. Aaaaand there it is! It always makes me laugh how it sort of peers around the corner at you. We stopped to take a few photos - one thing I noticed was that the whole grass area on this side was now do not walk on the grass. I swear when I was there you were able to walk on it! It seemed there was only one spot worth taking "the" photo from, so Dan and I made our way around there.

Most people were standing up on the bollards (again, I swear they were on the grass last time?) and so after watching people for a few minutes, we did the same. It's not easy, trying to balance yourselves up on a rounded bollard while striking "the" pose, and make it look natural. We took about a hundred photos of each other - getting in other people's way and people getting in our way. We also tried to do a couple of selfies with the selfie stick - surprisingly one of them worked out!

I was really, really sweaty by this point and my face was itchy as hell. We still had a little while before we had to be at the cloak room to deposit our things before going up the tower, so we went into the gift shop for some serious airconditioning relief.

By now we were just pretty keen to go up, so we joined the queue at the cloak room which was at least in the shade and slightly less warm. We shuffled forward a bit, but the man behind the counter continuously shouted the time for the time slot before us - he wasn't even going to serve us until the other time slot closed. In between time, people from earlier time slots returned to collect their backpacks and things. It was not a very efficient system - a series of different queues would have made far more sense.

Due to security reasons and also probably the slippery nature of the tower, you're not allowed to take any bags up at all. When it was finally our turn to get rid of our bags, we kept all of our photographic equipment with us but had to leave the rest, including drink bottles. I was a little concerned about that - the day was quite hot considering we were in the sun constantly and I only had 1 tissue on me to deal with my hayfever.

We then got to join another queue around the outside of the tower. This time in full sun. In front of us was an older lady and I was quite desperate not to be stuck behind her as we climbed! However it all worked out - once they security scan you, you walk inside the tower and have a seat while someone gives a short explanation. This includes the history of the tower, and why it started to sink, and what they have done since to stop it sinking any further (otherwise it'll eventually just topple over!). The leaning Tower of Pisa's lean is now and will forever be 3.99 degrees.

The talk over, Dan and I raced to not be stuck behind slow people. It really was quite bizarre walking up! I likened it to walking on the cruise ship when we had rough seas - you were automatically pushed from side to side - now you're walking against the window side, now you're walking against the wall side. I think originally there was no inner wall (and I was a bit scared about this!) but now there's no way you can slide off and fall down the abyss.

296 steps later and we emerged at the top! There are 2 levels but we went straight up the top first. The view out was quite lovely, although the real spectacle was the angle we were standing at. i took all my photos trying to be in keeping with the angle at the top! It was quite lovely up here, and there were a few giant bells, and while I thought we were only allowed 15 minutes it seemed that no one was paying attention to this. We sat down for a little while on the steps and felt how the ground was uneven beneath us. I felt like I wanted to slide right off!

My face was still a problem, and after sitting here for a little while and there being not much else to do, we made our way down to the 2nd level, took some photos and then walked down again, this time much slower and really noticing the angle of the lean.

Our ticket also gave us entry into the Cathedral so sneezing, we made our way over there. It was actually very beautiful inside - far more than I anticipated, and the ceiling and stained glass was very ornate. The other round building outside the Cathedral had an additional charge, so we didn't go in there. Over this side, you can sit on the grass so we found a little shady spot and sat down for a short while. Then it occurred to me that my hayfever was probably a result of grass seeds, so we made a speedy exit.

On the way, we passed a water fountain - and I only mention this because it took FOREVER to fill up our water bottles. People were getting frustrated behind us, and then when we wanted to refill after them they realised just how slow the damn things were. Oh well, we desperately needed rehydration after that climb and the heat of the day!

We walked back the way we came - I ducked into a shop and bought an over priced magnet - and returned to the train station. Back in Florence, we tossed up the idea of getting Maccas but managed to talk ourselves out of it, going to the super market for dinner instead. Neither of us were very hungry so we just bought a large fruit salad - turns out half the fruit was off.

We spent the evening in the room, typing occasionally and squashing even more mosquitos. I wondered if they were living in the heater which is filled with water, so we covered that with a blanket to see if it would help. And so began yet another restless night's sleep - I was truly glad to see the back of Florence this time.

Til next time
xx

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