As the buses can't go right up to the door of the Pisa square, you have to take a shuttle bus. There were a lot of people lined up waiting for a shuttle bus. Our tour director, Simona, had everything arranged with a gentleman that runs a shuttle bus shaped like a train, with two "carriages". We didn't have to wait and got straight on our own "choo-choo". Boy, did we get dirty looks from the people waiting!
Once we arrived at the old town walls, it was a short walk in through the gates to Miracle Square and the leaning tower. Of course there were already hundreds of people there taking their photos like they were trying to straighten the tower up.
We had around 1and a half hours to look around and shop for souvenirs then it was time to get on the bus and head back to the hotel in Montecatini. At Pisa, I bought a white hat with a wide brim becasue the baseball cap I have just didn't cover the back of my neck and it was stinking hot.
While some of the others went to the highest hill in Montecatini, I thought I'd rest a little. Jean wanted to go to the market again so we, together with James, took a stroll through the market. Then, as the market stalls started to slowly close for their siesta, we decided it was a good time to have some lunch. Luckily for us there is a small cafe right next to the hotel so we went there and had something to eat.
Jean and James had a pizza and I ordered a ham, cheese and tomato focaccia. Jean and James got their pizza while I was still waited for my focaccia. Jean and James had almost finished their pizza, I was still waiting for my focaccia. We reminded the lady three times before I got my lunch. expected my focaccia to be toasted, the reason I ordered it with cheese, but received it untoasted. I ate it anyway. We ended lunch with an ice cream.
After lunch we decided to walk down to the main street. We could definetely tell it was siesta time as all the shops, except the eateries, were closed and there was little traffic. It made for a pleasant stroll.
As we weren't scheduled to leave for the dinner tonight until 5pm, I went back to my hotel room and just relaxed.
Five o'clock rolled around and we were off for our Tuscan dinner. It seems that they hadn't gone to this particular restaurant before as Giordano had the old GPS out. At one point, the GPS lost him and we had to go around a round-about two times before we could continue on our way!
The restaurant was actually a working "farm" which specialised in producing olives and olive oil and wines. Our host walked us to one of the vineyards and explained about the different wines and how the Italians don't put sugar in their wines but other countries do and how to identify these wines. He later took us to a workshop and explained to us about extra virgin olive oil and how the real oil is produced. Also, how the cheap ones are produced. The big companies use chemicals to get the acidicy levels right, then take these chemicals out but, when they do, they also take out the good stuff from the olive oil as well.
It was then time to eat. We sat down at a long wooden bench table and long wooden benches under a hay roof in the shad of some trees. The others had a wine tasting of 6 wines - two whites, two reds, and two dessert wine. I had soft drink.
Our starter was some bread, sun dried tomatoes, olives, prosciuto/ham where we had to drizzle the bread with olive oil. Then out same some small bruscietto withthe usual tomatoes on the little slices of bread and also some mince meat.
Then the salad came out and some meats - chicken, sausages, beef slices, ham.
The people around me had a fabulous time tasting the differnt wines. Then the almond biscuits to dip in their wine came out, followed by some strong coffee flavoured tiramisu.
After dinner, some of the others felt very merry and decided to get up and dance on the dance floor. Roger, our New Zealand gentleman was the first to lead the charge.
Then it was all over and tiem to get back on the bus and back to the hotel.
Once we arrived, Jean wanted to go shopping again at the market but James just wanted to go up to his room so I accompanied Jean. She finally found a top she liked, and most importantly a hat. All day she'd been looking for a hat like mine but was being really fussy as she just doesn't like wearing hats. No matter what James or I said, she just said "no, I don't like it".
Then, finally, bedtime.
Tomorrow we leave Italy and head into Nice, France.
