trip to italy

heading out on our trip today. after taking the dog for his walk and having a coffee with p in the cafe (that i didn’t want to go to anymore because i decided that their coffee was too expensive for mediocre quality), i went to get the rental car. i had this idea that instead of one of us taking the train an hour out of town to take the dog and then back and then a bus for another hour out of town to get to the cheap airfare airport, that, for the same price, we could all go in a rental car, drop off the dog, stop nearby at monet’s garden for lunch and then drive another hour to the airport. it seemed like a good idea except that it was the beginning of the school vacation and traffic was horrible. it took 2 hours to get to the kennel and we didn’t have time for monet’s garden. we did get to sit along the seine up there and have a sandwich. that was nice anyway.

the flight from beauvais airport was very easy. quick check in, got on plane, 2 hour flight and we were in in pisa. we picked up a rental car quickly, but got lost in the dark small streets. we had a map, but the scale of things weren’t clear. when we hit the river, we figured out where we were and found the hotel. p is a good at figuring out those sorts of things. the lady was waiting for us and since they were overbooked, led us to a sister hotel, higher ranked for the same price. it was exciting to be in italy. we couldn’t wait for dinner. they recommended a few restaurants and we picked a nearby one called “i santi” –something about saints. it felt very “campy”(in a good way). the walls were decorated with large surreal touched up photos of “saints”. it sort of looked like it might have been someone’s art project. we had a wonderful dinner. just what we were hoping for. jj got gnocchi with tomato sauce and mozzarella which we all thought was the best dish of all. i got a very good octopus salad, mushroom tagliatelle, and also a fried chicken cutlet which i shared with jj, p got bruschetta, 4 cheese gnocchi (a bit rich and heavy) and smoked swordfish carpaccio and wine. the total was 80 E – so cheap compared to paris!– afterwards we walked the 3 blocks to the leaning tower, which is really so funny. “campy” too, in a way, without meaning to be. it was lit up, there was a festive spirit around it with all the late night tourists. then we had gelato to top off the night.

Print this post