Day 222, 11 February 2013, Pisa, Italy. We headed out after breakfast to explore the Mercato Centrale. It was foodie heaven (though awfully early in the day to be thinking of cured meats). The fruit and veges were superb and we think we've discovered the most expensive porcini mushrooms in the world - massive dried and sliced mushrooms for €15 per 100 gms (so an incredible €150 a kg!). We bought some fruit for the train trip to Pisa and also sourced the most perfect pale green coin purse to replace the ill-fated Turkish one. Made in Firenze, Italy. At least the stamp that was used to mark the leather might have been... not too sure how strong the country of origin rules really are here. We were pretty much frozen before we got on the train to Pisa. We're not sure where the sun and blue sky has gone, but there is snow in the air today. And rain. And hail just to add interest. As the regional train trundled towards Pisa, we passed through masses of snow covered countryside and were initially quite excited about walking from the station to the Tower through the snow.... ahhh, imagine the photos. But it was not to be. The snow ceased and the rain and hail stepped it up a notch, so we invested in bus tickets to get to the tower. Jolly easy to find the right bus. Look for Linea Rossa/Red Line. Look for bus stop with 50 odd people waiting. Insinuate selves through masses and ensure a place on the bus. Done. Easy to know when to get off too - Look for Leaning Tower. Leap off bus before you get squashed by 50 odd camera toting tourists. Despite the rain and the cold and general grayness of the day it was definitely worth the trip - quite funny seeing the Tower and knowing it initially leaned in the opposite direction. The lean became apparent even as it was built and rectification works ended up with it leaning the other way. From certain angles you can even see where the top bends inwards to try and flatten the angle of the curve! We also took the opportunity to visit the Cathedral just before it closed then headed to a local restaurant - €21 for 3 hours of fast wifi with lunch and a litre of wine thrown in - brilliant. (We got a deal on our slightly dodgy hotel in Florence and it has a great location, but we will not, under any circumstances, pay €9 an hour for the privilege of wifi!) We decided we couldn't stretch lunch much past 3 pm and made it back to Florence by 4.30 ish - too early for dinner, but not too late to head to hotel for more clothes - it wasn't snowing, but it felt like it wanted to. We considered a restaurant for dinner but ended up having a new experence together - we stopped at one of Florences many cafe bars (sandwiches, pasta, coffee, full bar and waiters in uniform). We had heard of the Aperitivo con Buffet, but this was the first really appetising one we'd seen. the bar was covered in mini-sandwiches, nuts, antipasto veges, pasta and calzone and for a mere €6 a head we had a glass of wine and could help ourselves. Suffice to say we made a noticeable dent. Suspect it's supposed to be a pre-dinner event, not an actual-dinner event. C'est la vie - it was fun! We spent the rest of the evening taking in the sights by night. And in the rain. We think it's a civil ordnance of some kind, but apparently tourists must dissolve in rain, because we could not walk half a block without at least one (sometimes 3) street vendors trying to sell us umbrellas.... "No - Grazie" - I'm not sure what "You're kidding aren't you" is in Italian, but I'm sure we heard it over and over again last night. If we started buying umbrellas every time we got caught in a sprinkle of torrential rain, we'd need another suitcase! Ponte di Vecchio was gorgeous by night. Off to the Accademia tomorrow to pay a visit to David. We actually feel like we know him quite well already having seen figurines, postcards, jigsaws and some highly explicit boxer shorts for sale in the local markets!