Bel and Phil's Adventures

By belandphilsadventures on June 14, 2018

Wednesday 13th June

It was a VERY early start this morning, leaving Megan and Paul’s at 3:45am. We had a lovely driver in the taxi who was providing further information about the history of Dublin on the way to the airport. We checked in, without incident and made it to our gate. The flight with Aer Lingus was fabulous. We got to Pisa and made our way to our hotel – the Grand Duomo Hotel. Luckily they had a room available (as we were early). We were exhausted. We just wanted to relax for a while. We opened the shutters and looked out the window and were gobsmacked. The view was stunning! Then Phil looked the other way and there is the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Oh my goodness! We couldn’t believe it.

The view from our room – after the rain

It looked like it was going to rain, and we were very behind on the travel blog, so decided to relax and update the blog. This turned out to be a great decision! The rain started pouring down. There were heaps of people out around the Leaning Tower and in the Via Santa Maria (the pedestrian area outside our hotel) and they were getting drenched. There were so many people it was crazy.

The rain cleared up (and we were starving). We decided to go and get our first Italian meal in Italy in 12 years! We asked for some recommendations from the hotel and went to Il Toscano. The service wasn’t amazing, but the food was delicious. We started with bruschetta, then Phil had spaghetti bolognaise – which was really good. I had tortellini with ham and cream sauce. It was amazing. I’m not sure I can go back to the Latina pasta again J. Clearly we needed a bottle of Prosecco to wash it all down with! It was amazing. Phil then had some vanilla and chocolate gelato.

Bruschetta – really delicious

Prosecco

Tortellini

Spaghetti Bolognaise

We wandered down to the Leaning Tower to take some of the normal tourist photos. There were still a lot of people around. We wandered around the square and then headed back to our room. We were exhausted and fell asleep.

Phil helping the Leaning Tower stand up!

View looking along the Via Santa Maria

Another view looking towards the Square of Miracles

Water fountain near the Square of Miracles

Buildings fronting the square

The baptistry and the corner of the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta

Baptistry

Church of the Santa Maria Assunta

Baptistry and Church

I slept for a few hours and Phil woke me up so we could get some photos at sunset. The view from our room was fabulous. We then went up to the rooftop bar. That was stunning. We took photos of the sun setting and then headed down to take photos in that light around the Leaning Tower and the other buildings in the square. We were very surprised that there were hardly any people around in the square, near the Leaning Tower. Clearly the tourist groups don’t stay in the area, they just zoom in and out. We were so glad that we stayed the night.

We went for a walk taking photos in the increasing darkness. Neither of us were that hungry, so we both decided to just get some gelato. Phil had vanilla and chocolate. I had strawberry and lemon. It was just perfect. My first gelato in Italy! We headed back to the room. Finished getting the travel blog up to date and edited the photos from today. We were really pleased with the photos that we had taken today, including the night shots. We’ve enjoyed our time in Pisa and are really glad that our travel guru convinced us to stay the night here.

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset from the rooftop

Sunset

Part of the Old City walls with mountains in the distance

Phil holding his and my Gelato

Tiny little Italian Restaurant.

Across from the Hotel

This little park we found up the road from our hotel, with an amazing Gelato place on the corner. Perfect

The Leaning Tower at night! Stunning

All the bikes parked.

View from the Rooftop