Funny how a little thread of an idea can grow and morph and take on a life of its own. We started out with the idea that since the kids were out of school, we should go with my husband on his next business trip to Stuttgart, Germany. Flights looked pricey so we considered driving. Then we started talking about how once we were that far south, maybe we should continue on to Italy and see Venice. That started looking like a really long drive and next thing we knew, the business trip to Germany was postponed and airline tickets to Pisa, Italy for a long weekend in Italy were purchased. We were all excited for some real summer weather.
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| Malmö-Sturup Airport--the sun finally came out as we took off but you can see how wet it was from raining all day |
We flew Ryan Air which doesn't have the greatest reputation here. It is a discount carrier where you don't get assigned seats, but they do offer some REALLY cheap fares sometimes. Cheap enough that my husband wondered if we dared fly with them. We had to leave on Midsummer's Eve to get the best rate. Since it was so cold and rainy, we didn't feel too bad about that. The airline compensates for the low fares by charging fees for everything-- if you want to check a bag, if you want SMS messages about flight status, if you want them to print your boarding pass, etc. You can pay an extra fee for priority boarding (get on first) or even more for reserved seats (get on first and specific seats). We avoided most of this but did pay the extra fee to reserve seats. We wanted to all sit together and it was nice. We felt like VIPs. We didn't have to stand in the super long lines with everyone else. We sat in the second row both flights and it turns out that they leave rows 3 and 4 empty (for weight distribution issues) so it was like sitting in first class.
Waiting for the flight was actually quite entertaining. You had to prove your one carry-on would fit in this little cage thing or you had to pay to check it. And they REALLY mean one carry-on. Any purse, computer, etc. must all go into that one bag. We each had our own backpacks. With a little persuasion, they all passed the test. Then we sat there and watched the show as all our fellow passengers did the same-- little kids having great fun putting their tiny bags in and out 10 times were kind of cute but the hilarious ones were those that just didn't quite fit. One lady wrestled with hers for a good ten minutes before finally managing to force it in. She got a round of applause from all the already checked people when she succeeded. Then there was a group of college kids that all had identical hard shell carry-ons. The hard shells typically fit easily, but these had an accordian-like expansion section in the middle that made them a little too fat. The first girl got hers partially in and then it got stuck. Since the whole group needed to prove that type of bag was small enough, they all set to work trying to shove it all the way in. They were tugging, pushing and pulling and laughing hysterically the whole time. It doesn't help that this thing you have to test in has no weight to it so it comes off the ground as you lift the bag. Finally one of the boys jumped on the suitcase to shove it down. It went down but there was a really nasty crunching sound. We had to wonder what item in her luggage would never be the same again. Then they had to spend another 10 minutes trying to pry it back out. But they were successful and the airline employees let them go without testing the rest of the group.
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| Flying over the Alps |
Being on the flight was a little like an infomercial. They try to sell you food, gifts, lottery tickets, bus tickets for your destination, but with headphones on you could zone that all out. And they did successfully get us to Pisa-- 20 minutes early even.
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| Pisa Airport |
We'd decided to get a hotel in Florence for the first few days. It is in between Pisa and Venice, the train station there (Firenze S.m. Novella) is a major hub, and the hotel rates were much better than in Venice. We'd planned to take the train from the Pisa airport to Florence but when we walked up to the ticket booth, we learned that there was a train strike that day. Thankfully the one employee working pointed us to shuttle buses outside. Several companies run buses from the airport to Florence so we were able to get on one of those without difficulty for the hour ride. We enjoyed hanging out outside the airport waiting for the bus in the WARM twilight!
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| Buses to Florence |
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| The sun sets earlier in Italy |
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| All kinds of fun animal sculptures in front of the airport |
We got to Florence just as it was getting dark-- around 10 pm. We bought a late dinner at McDonald's at the train station and then found our way to the Alinari Hotel. It's big selling points had been reasonable price and proximity to the train station and it really was close. Just a couple minutes walk up the street. It was an odd building. The hotel sign was outside but there was no door there. We went into a little courtyard and then found a door. Turns out the hotel was just a few floors of the building-- there were stores on the bottom, another hotel and who knows what else. Our hotel was on the 4th floor. Once we found it and were shown our room we were very satisfied. It was quite spacious for a European room-- double bed and two twins and a small table and two chairs and yet still room to walk around. The bathroom was also decent sized. The A/C worked which was important. In the morning, they had a nice breakfast buffet with rolls, pastry, cereal, yogurt, fruit, and the kids' favorite-- cake. Chocolate cake for breakfast!
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| Our first view of Florence |
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| Our very gold hotel room |
We tried to get dressed and ready in a reasonable time in hopes of catching the 8:30 am train to Venice. We got to the station early enough but had trouble buying tickets. Every scenario we plugged in to the self-serve machine-- 1st class, 2nd class, family-- would get us almost there and then say "only 3 tickets available" and kick us out. Ahh! So we gave up on that train and tried the next one-- at 9:20 am-- and had similar problems. We finally got it to say we could have 4 tickets and also picked our return trip for the evening, and then it rejected our credit card when we tried to pay. We were getting a bit frustrated at this point. We tried doing it all again (when it rejected the card, it started all over) and tried cash, but it wouldn't take bills, just coins (not feasible with a multiple 100 euros fare). My husband went looking for a ticket desk. I found a little help desk and asked there-- turned out most machines did take bills, just not the particular one we had used. We tried one more time at a different machine and were able to feed in our money and get our tickets. Phew! Since we now had time to kill, we went and walked around the outside of Santa Maria Novella-- a large church right by the train station. Then we came back and found our train to Venice.
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| Santa Maria Novella |
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| Santa Maria Novella from the side |
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| Close-up of the obelisk in the square--supported on the backs of turtles |
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| A typical train station on our way to Venice |
