September 11 – Pisa to Donoratico

Italian Beans On A Pedestal

I am falling behind on my blogs, so this one will be short.

We had a meager (compared to Ireland) breakfast at the Hotel Royal Victoria. Jim Duncan and Francie Cushman were there finishing their breakfast and we sat with them, talked about our adventures prior to arriving in Pisa, and planned to share a taxi to the airport that afternoon.

Ann and I checked out of our room and left our luggage with the desk clerk. Our overnight at the hotel was noisy. Although we had a wonderful view of the Arno from our window, the wall along it was popular with teenagers who were acting silly and talking loudly. In addition, the wind was blowing hard through our window and making a lot of noise. No mosquitoes, though.

We took the walk suggested by Rick Steves and soon arrived at the Field Of Miracles. The crowds were there but not as large as we expected. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money climbing the tower, so we went into the duomo for free.I took lots of photos which I will post on our website later.

Next was lunch at a paninoteca where we each had a panino. They were pretty good with fresh warm crusty bread and lot of mayo to make them moist. Moist sandwiches are rare in Europe.

We walked back to the hotel stopping for gelato on the way.

Jim and Francie showed up around 2:15 and soon Christy Simpson and Jim Van De Vreugde joined us. We took two taxis to the airport to meet our group.

It was bizarre to see so many people that we know meeting in a foreign country. Everyone arrived and we boarded our bus at 4:00 for our ride to Donoratico for the BAC Tuscany on the Med bicycle tour.

When we arrived, we checked into our room. Ann stayed there to look at the beautiful view of the Mediterranean at to go for a swim in the pool. I walked up the street with all of our group who reserved rental bikes. There were a lot of us and it took a long time to get fitted and on our way. I have a hybrid that has an 11 gear Shimano hub. I wanted to try a bike with a more comfortable fit. Hopefully this will work.

Dinner was at 8:00. The food was good. The wine was good. The company was good. The noise level was out of sight.

Bedtime was late. Thus no blog yesterday.