La aventura italiana: Pisa

Italia! First stop: Pisa

Fui a Italia! On Sunday, I got back from our 5 day aventura in Italia. I went with 5 of my friends from API: Marcela, Colleen, Lorelyn, Kat, and Molly. We decided that we would spend 1 night in Pisa, 2 nights in Florencia, and our last day in Bologna. When we left, I couldn’t believe that we had booked the trip a mere 3 weeks prior and now we were actually going!

                And so here the journey begins! Our first destination was Pisa, Italia. We were flying out of Madrid and we’re clearly not living in Madrid so we had to get a bus from Granada to Madrid. The bus we took was SO. NICE. The best way to describe is was the favorite love child of an airplane and a coach bus. The seats on the bus not only had the reclining back part but it had a reclining foot rest too. YEAH, I know. The seats were so comfy which was convenient because we were all beat on account of not going to sleep before boarding this bus (again, we’re young, right?). The bus left at 2 am on Wednesday morning so we left our houses around 1 to get to the bus station which is about a 10 minute cab drive away. After 5 hours on the luxury bus, we arrived at Madrid Barajas airport in Terminal 4. This terminal is in a completely different portion/building of the airport so we hopped on a bus and took the 10 minute journey to Terminal 1-3. We went through security without any problems and then found a nice row of chairs for us to make into some beds. We were SUPER temprano for our flight (it left at 1:30 pm and we got to the airport around 7:30 am). We all curled up on the seats and took some siestas. Then, before we knew it, we were boarding our RyanAir flight to Pisa! The flight went very smoothly and we got there sin problemas. 

Our RyanAir flight to Pisa, Italia!

              

 Molly y yo en nuestra avión a Pisa

 

 First glimpse of Italy from the skies <3

  Once in Pisa, we had to catch a bus to the city centre to get to our hostel. First thing to learn about Italy? You have to buy any sort of bus ticket in advance, including if it’s just public transportation AND you have to validate it once you get on the bus in this little machine thing. We got on the bus, 1,10 euro in hand and then realized this soooo we ended up getting to our stop and just hopping off. I know, I felt terrible but at that point, we were too far deep into this little mistake that it was just best to bite the bullet and escape ( we found out later on account of this happening to some Bulgarian guys from our hostel in Florence, that you can get fined up to 50 € for not only for not buying a ticket but also for not validating it AKA we got mad lucky) Our illegal bus trip took us to right by the Leaning Tower of Pisa which was quite the site to see but more about that a little later. We found out way to our hostel, which was super close, without a problem. 

The hostel we stayed out was called Hostel Pisa Tower. It just opened in June of this year and it used to be an old villa. It was such a good first hostel experience; the owners were super nice and helpful and the hostel itself felt like you were in someone’s adorably decorated apartment. The 6 of us filled one of the 6 bedrooms at the hostel which was nice because it was just us in the room. There were 3 bunk beds and 6 lockers to keep our belongings in if we wanted (more useful though for when you’re staying with randos) When you looked out our window, you could see the top of the Leaning Tower and the top of the church there as well so we were only about a 1 minute walk from it. One of the hostel owners gave us a map and showed us how to get places and also places where he would recommend going. After a tour of the rest of the hostel, we were off to be the ultimate tourist and go take pictures holding up the Leaning Tower!

 The awesome view from the window of our hostel

 Appropriate flags to be hanging outside our window

 Our bedroom!

The view of downstairs/entrance from the stairs

The kitchen/dining room area

The living room

 The backyard and Starlight Terrace

 Me and Lorelyn walking past the tower

 Definitely almost got squished by the Tower

Standing in front of the Tower was very neat. It was so big and impressionable; it really did feel like I had just intruded onto the front of a postcard. The weather was cloudless, cool, and sunny and there were people hustling and bustling everywhere. It was entertaining to watch everyone gathering on the grass in front of the Tower taking their leaning pictures.

What up, tourists

So much for that!

About 10 minutes after we got here (and subsequently were on the grass) the police came with their whistles to make everyone vacate the grass. Good thing we got our pics holding up the Tower just in time!

After the Tower, we went walking to the river which was gorgeous. It was just about sunset so everything had a golden pink glow to it. Then we walked around the shopping areas a little bit and finally decided to get some good ol’ Italian grub. One of the owners of the hostel recommended a restaurant that was on the other side of the river. We tried to find the one he recommended but the map wasn’t so keen on showing the multiple alleyways so we ended up stumbling upon a different restaurant. We were a little weary at first because there was NO ONE in the restaurant but, then again, we were early in the Italian eating schedule. Well, what do you know; there I ate possibly the best gnocchi I’ve had, ever. I wish I was exaggerating but I’m not. It was pistachio and pancetta gnocchi. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, my mouth is salivating just thinking about it. Molly and I also got a pizza and split the both of them. Delish. 

My mouth is salivating at the thought of consuming this

The sunset in Pisa along the river that eventually will lead into Florencia

After dinner, we wandered the streets a little bit and then made our way back to the hostel and turned in for the night.

                The next morning we got up and were off to Florence! We had a 2.50 € breakfast from the hostel that, for 2.50, it was pretty good. After asking one of the hostel owners which mode of transportation to Florence was best, we decided upon a public bus to the train station and then a train to Florence. We had to ask a few people to make sure we didn’t miss our stop but we made it to the station! A train to Firenze was leaving in about 15 minutes so we quickly bought tickets and hopped on.

Ciao Pisa, Ciao Firenze!