Rimini to Florence, day trip to Pisa

Go to the start of my trip here.

12th July 2012 Rimini to Florence and Pisa

After a rather warm night I woke at 6:50 (always ten minutes before my alarm!) and we packed up. Headed down to breakfast at 7:30 am. Had some delicious cereal and got the tram to Rimini Centrale at 8 am. Got 8:58 train to Bologna (10:20). We then had to get a fast train. This costs a ?10 seat reservation fee on top of our rail ticket. I was quite glad as I really wanted to try the fast train. We bought our reservations and got the 11:03 train to Roma Termini via Firenze S.L. Only 40 minutes! So fast and SO cool (temperature and technology). They had white posh seats and many little screens that showed where we were on a map, the speed of the train and also the temperature of where it was going. I took photos for Jon.

We arrived in Florence earlier than we thought we would and earlier than we told accommodation. We strolled up the hostel, walking the whole way round a square unnecessarily. Only the cleaner was there I think, she didn't speak great English but made a call and we got a key to our room. It was a small room with double bed and one single and a large fan (thank goodness). Also a shower in the corner of the room! Rather odd but fine haha.

Although I wasn't 100% certain of the hostel at first it has really quickly grown on me. The man in charge is very nice and speaks English well. I had a beautiful 20 minute cat nap waking rejuvenated and, at 2 pm, we headed for the train to Pisa. Where the hostel is, is a great location and the street and surrounding streets look so interesting. Keen to explore tomorrow.

On the train to Pisa there was a school trip with a teacher talking and counting them all in Italian. We had our interrail ticket checked again. (Used it for four trains today - getting our money's worth!) Off the train. Pisa is surprisingly beautiful. It has this one street leading up to The Leaning Tower which is gorgeous and has so many interesting shops on it. The Leaning Tower was shorter than I expected but very exciting to see, as if I were meeting a celebrity! We headed back to the station, bought a very small ice cream for ?1.20. I accidentally chose a flavour I couldn't eat! Bought another delicious cherry one for ?1.80.

At the train station we missed the 5:35 pm train by seconds. Thankfully there was another at 5:58 pm. Played tetris and enjoyed the scenery. Once back at the hostel we leisurely got changed and headed for dinner. I had this DELICIOUS risotto which was creamy with parma ham, mushrooms and asparagus. I had missed proper cars so much. When I am home I am going to make an epic risotto. The waiter was very rude. We find a lot of staff here are, not all though.

There was a flyer for an "Irish bar" at our hostel which we decided to check out. It was DEAD so we headed back, and on finding nothing of interest we headed back to the hostel. I was so tired from getting up at 7am anyway. At the hostel I enjoyed their WiFi and whatsapped M and checked out FB. Two of the Australian guys had added me which was nice, they had made it safely to Barcelona (much to our surprise). Hit the hay around 11-12 pm.