Italy Day 1 & 2

DAY 1

We arrived at the Pisa Airport at quarter past 11 in the morning of Thursday, May 21st. Our bottoms were just hurting after the long flight from NY to Pisa that it was a relief to be on our toes. Overall, Rafael did pretty well in the plane. Except for a few understandable times when he cried, he was mostly good throughout the flight. We lucked out with our seatmates at both the LA-NY and NY-Pisa flight as they were both girls and quite sympathetic with our plight of travelling with an infant. Rafael would occassionally smile at them.

When we got to Pisa, there was a bit of a line to the immigration but after a few minutes, we got through it without problems. Weather was/is pretty warm. Felt like mid to high 80s and humid. Benjie came to pick us up a few minutes after we got there. She then drove us to their house in Montecatini. Bruno prepared his signature pasta pomodorro for lunch.

It didn't take us long before we hit the road. First we went to San Barronto, a 20-minute drive from Montecatini and a popular training ground for amateur and pro cyclists because of its hilly (and I mean hilly) roads. On our way there, we stopped for some authentic Italian coffee. Uhmm, I could get used to this! Benjie and I had a shot of espresso while Angel had a cappuccino! It sure woke our tired heads up! When we reached Montefiore, Sofia, the hotel manager, showed us around.

Some photos:

















On our way back to Montecatini, we dropped by Vinci (Leonardo da Vinci's birthplace). It was already closed as it was about past 6 pm when we got there. We managed to take a few photos outside.









DAY 2

One of the greatest coincidences of our trip is that the very popular Giro d' Italia happened to be in Tuscany today. Started our day with coffee and some local pastries. Benjie then took us to Lido di Camaoire where the 13th Stage of the Giro started. The atmosphere was festive though it was tough to get a good view of the cyclists.

Some photos:

A photo of a young Giro fan












We headed to Pisa afterwards which was a good half an hour drive from Lido. Though Pisa, known to be one of Tuscany's gems, is packed with tourists, the sight of the tower is still pretty impressive! Benjie took care of Rafael while Angel and I walked closer to the tower.