Pisa Came To Us

We had a little less than two hours in Florence before we had to catch our train back to Tarquinia, so we decided to do a little window shopping and then arrive at the station early. At the station I showed my ticket to the conductor of the train we had to board. I wanted to confirm a transfer we had to make at Pisa. The conductor pointed to a note on the ticket that said "Via Pontederra" and told us to transfer there. Well, we got off at Pontederra and it turns out there was no transfer to a train to Tarquinia--the only transfer point was in fact Pisa. Here was the catch: the next train to Pisa missed the last train to Tarquinia by 10 minutes. We boarded the next train to Pisa, vaguely hoping that the train to Tarquinia would arrive late so we could board it, but naturally, train delays never work to one's advantage.

So we found ourselves stuck in Pisa around 8:00pm, three hours away from our hotel in Tuscania. We explained our situation to one of the TrenItalia workers in Pisa and she kindly gave us a free ticket back to Tarquinia the next morning, apologizing for the incorrect information that we received. Thankfully, my brother brought along our Frommer's Guide and we found a hotel right on the Arno River that put us up for 25 Euro each. It turns out the hotel (The Royal Victoria) has a rich history. Personally, I loved the fact that everything from the furniture in the room to the room key screamed Victorian.

Despite being in a stressful situation, we decided to make the most of it and took a walk over to the tower of Pisa. It wasn't lit up and had some netting around the top of it (offseason repairs, I suppose), but it was still pretty wonderful to get to see it--despite the dark and grainy photos. After a long overdue shower (trying to wash sections of yourself on a moving overnight train and throwing baby powder to cover up the rest for two days is far from fun), we slept in a soft bed. We woke up early and caught the 7:45AM train back to Tarquinia followed by two local busses back to Tuscania. Seeing the walls around the town was actually a huge relief and it was nice to shower and nap in a familar place after living out of my purse for three long (but nonetheless beautiful) days.