Florence is a pretty noisy city. It's all huge wooden doors that slam theatrically and cars, motorbikes and sirens. I'm sure it wasn't my snoring that kept Tony awake... Breakfast doesn't start until 8.30 so we didn't hurry ourselves this morning. After a nice breakfast which included croissants with cherry jam, we wandered down to the railway station to board a train to Pisa. The station is VERY busy and confusing so we asked a uniformed woman for help. She directed us to the automatic ticket machine but another lady who had overheard Tony came up to us and said she would get our tickets. Having been caught out in Thailand by 'helpful' strangers, we were naturally a little suspicious. She didn't give us time to object however and she was soon sweeping us along to the train for Pisa which was leaving in 5 minutes. She turned out to be quite genuine and explained that when she was in the USA someone had helped her in a similar way and she never forgot it. So, a short ride later (well about an hour) and we were in Pisa.

Pisa doesn't seem to have a very good rap in the tourist blogs/books because of all the tourists going there and taking the 'holding up the tower' photo but it's very underrated. Pisa is equally as pretty as Florence but not nearly as crowded (except around the tower precinct) and prices are cheaper than Florence. Our first stop was the gelateria - Tony decided on Baci flavour and I had hazelnut. They were both very yummy; 1.60 euro each. The leaning tower is very impressive when you turn the corner and it comes into sight. Then you catch sight of the church next to it and the whole thing together is amazing. The buildings have clearly just had a major clean and are looking amazing. We didn't remember to pre-book our tickets to climb the tower and there were only 18 places left for the 4.00pm session (this was at 12.30) and there were lots of people in front of us! We decided to give it a miss and just walked around looking at the surrounding buildings. We decided to come back to Florence and do some more sight-seeing but not before we stopped at a pavement cafe and had lunch. We asked what size the pizza was and the girl said "normal - enough for one". What she actually brought out was more like what we would call medium and usually share between us! I'm glad I got the foccacia.

Back in Florence we walked to the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge that straddles the River Arno and is lined with jewellery shops - very mediaeval looking. Then we walked a bit further and climbed the 162 steps up to the Piazzale Michelangelo for an amazing view across the rooftops of Florence. We meandered back to our hotel (about another 45 min walk) and now we're knackered. We can't even be bothered going out for food. Off to San Gimignano tomorrow... if we can figure out where to get the bus...