A Room With A View

Two words: never again.

Since I've already been to Florence, I really wanted to go to Pisa.  Thinking that I could navigate the train system, I figured we could do both.  But then a couple more people wanted to come with us, so I said sure.  Then a few more, and their parents.  Okay.  Then a few more.  And their parents.  By the time we head out in the morning, we had a group of 16 people, 6 of whom were a little elderly.  This had disaster written all over it.

We missed the first train so we had to wait an hour for the next train to Pisa.  Once there, we had to walk a little bit until we got to the Field of Miracles, where the tower and the cathedral were situated.  Before everyone scattered, we agreed on a meeting place and time.  I spent most of it using my friend's mobile wifi hotspot to figure out our next move.  I was able to get a selfie with the tower before we moved on.

The train station we needed to reach to catch the train to Florence was a 20 minute walk away.  Everyone wanted to take taxis, so we tried to find one.  There was a 6-person taxi who took the first group.  It took a while to flag down another, but it would only fit 4 people, so we sent off the next group.  After what seemed like forever, the original 6-person taxi showed up again, so we piled in and left.  Unfortunately, we missed the direct train to Florence, but we quickly got tickets and piled onto the next train, which would take a little longer due to the stops.

By the time we got to Florence, we really only had about 30 minutes before we had to catch the train to go back.  After bathroom breaks and buying our return tickets, we walked to the Duomo.  It wasn't hard to spot.  People started scattering again, but it was so crowded and loud, I was afraid we were going to lose someone.  Janet had the good sense to gather the elders and start walking back to the station first.  I stayed back, made sure we had everyone, then did a mad sprint back to the station.  Running through the roundabout was probably the worst idea, but we had a minute to go.  By some miracle, we all made it onto the train as it was about to pull out.

The stress wasn't over yet.  We had to change trains in Pisa, and according to the schedule we had a five-minute window.  If we were late, or the other train left early, we'd be in trouble.  Luckily, the second train was late, so we were able to make it without too much running.

So the room, in my case, was a train car, and the view was mostly of the Italian countryside speeding past the window.  I felt terrible that they didn't get to see much of Florence, but they all said they appreciated my efforts, which was nice.

But still...never again.

"You better know know know that I have conditions, I make the rules and make the decisions"