Campo dei Miracoli

Thursday was day one in Pisa. I woke up at 4 AM after a late night, showered, got some stuff together, ate breakfast, and met Vaune at the elevator at 5:30. We took the RER to Chatelet and the 1 to Porte Maillot, where we crossed a giant (empty) intersection to get to the Beauvais Airport shuttle bus. Beauvais is the airport that the cheap airlines fly out of, and technically it is an airport that serves Paris, but it is an hour and a half out of the city. We left around 6:30 AM. The drive was actually rather nice, and being on the highway in Paris reminded me of being on the highway in New Orleans. I put in my headphones, turned on my iPod, and conked out to Deb Talan.

Vaune woke me up when we got there at 7:45 AM. We couldn't check in yet so we got some sandwiches and water, and expressed our excitement that we were going to Italy.





Around 9 we checked in for our 9:55 flight. It was so easy, because it's such a tiny airport and nobody flies out of it, so there was no hassle. This airport was literally maybe the size of half of one floor of Clarke Middle School. We went through security and they gave me shit about not having the prescription for my Epi-Pens with me. I wonder if it would ever occur to a French person that in the US we don't keep our prescription papers, we give them to the pharmacists. Then we just waited around, blah blah blah. Finally we got on our plane. No assigned seating, just sit wherever you want. The plane was nearly empty. It was a very strange experience. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw... The Alps. Mountains as far as the eye could see. It was surreal. It was like a painting, or a miniature Styrofoam sculpture. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera.

We landed around 11:45. I got my checked bag (actually Alexis' extra duffel bag) with no problem. We had a little difficulty figuring out which bus to take, but once we did it was pretty easy. We changed at the main train station and got on another bus. We were supposed to tell the busdriver that we wanted to get off at "Coop Cisanello." I was terrified to do this, because although I expected the people at the airport to speak some English, I did not expect the busdriver to speak any, and my Italian is shaky and forgotten at best. Also, there was a crazy guy blocking my way. Once I navigated past the crazy guy and got up to the bus driver, I managed to squeak out a paltry "Scusa?" which got him to look at me, at which point I dove in headfirst - "Um, devo scendere al Coop Cisanello. Può dirmi quando ci arriveremo?" - meaning (I hope), "I have to get off at Coop Cisanello. Can you tell me when we get there?" This was as far as I had gotten in my practice Italian the night before, so I was kind of thrown when the bus driver said, "Coop Cisanello? Never heard." He could say barely anything in English, so we had a very odd conversation. He asked me where I was from and told me he had a daughter in Los Angeles. He told me I speak good Italian, at which I laughed out loud, and he protested, saying, "Is true! Is true!" I have found that if you can say one sentence in Italian, that is enough for the Italians. They are proud of you for trying.

He asked me if it was near Cisanello Hospital, to which I replied (in Italian), "I don't know. Someone said Coop Cisanello," which was all I could get out. He asked if I was staying in a hotel and I told him, "No, con un mio amico," and he promptly told me to call the guy and ask him where the stop was. So I called the guy we are staying with. His name is Yorgos and he is half-Greek, half-Sicilian. I found him on Couchsurfing, and he is awesome. Anyway, I called him, and he picked up the phone exclaiming "Roberta!" in an Italian accent. It was wonderful. Anyway, he looked up the stop and told it to us, and we had no trouble after my brief, frightening yet exciting exchange with the bus driver. Yorgos picked us up at the bus stop and took us up to his apartment which was very close to a) the bus stop and b) Coop Cisanello, which turned out to be a giant grocery store. We met his cat Janis, and he made us spaghetti for lunch. Vaune and I could barely keep ourselves from hopping up and down with glee. In fact, we didn't really restrain ourselves and just kind of giggled with happiness throughout the whole meal.







Yorgos making pasta for us


After lunch it was time to explore. Sadly, Yorgos couldn't come with us because he had studying to do. Equipped with a travel guide from Madame Beaufort's office and directions from Yorgos, we headed for the river.


























On the bridge








We turned right at what we thought was Piazza dei Cavalieri but turned out to be Piazza Garibaldi and wended our way through a tiny back alley.









Vaune is excited that we found Kebab in Italy




I was walking down the alley and said, "I feel like there should be laundry hanging out somewhere." And then I looked up, and there it was!


"Ahh, I'm standing in a creepy alley!"


A tower, and a pizzeria


Once we got out into the bigger streets, we turned a corner and suddenly there it was, the Tower of Pisa, leaning before us. I mean, it was just right there. It's not the kind of thing you expect to turn a corner and just see. I expected some sort of lead-up, security, throngs of humanity in camera-happy stupor, but it was just there, at the end of the street.



"Oh my god, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is RIGHT THERE."


We don't know why this car tire was filled with cement.


We just walked right up to it. There was practically nobody there. It was AMAZING. I just couldn't get over how crazy it was that it was just there, with a tiny little fence thing around it. Leaning. And it really leans. I always knew it did, of course, but pictures don't do it justice. Pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa are so common that you start to just think of them as postcard images and not as something real. But there it is, really leaning. Actually, all of the buildings in the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) lean a little bit, but you don't notice it because the "Torre Pendente" leans so much more. IT WAS SO COOL. I was ecstatic. Vaune pointed out that I never get that way about France, and it's true. France doesn't awe me any more. But to be at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and for there to be nobody there, and for the sky to be so blue... it was just breathtaking.







The cathedral






We walked around to the front and took some totally fun Leaning Tower pictures.



















Leaning Bobbie and Vaune in front of Leaning Tower


I even took one of Vaune taking a picture of the Tower, because some of those pictures look so fake.



After exhausting every possible angle, we walked around the rest of the Campo dei Miracoli and then back the way we came. On the way back we stopped at the Bottega del Gelato, which was mentioned in our guidebook and which we kind of stumbled upon. I agree with Yorgos - it may be the best ice cream in the world. Especially the Tuttobosco, or "forest fruits." Yum.

On the way back, we walked along the Arno listening to our iPods. Deb Talan accompanied me through Pisa. She should really know that I listen to her music as I stand next to famous rivers.

When we got back to the apartment, we couldn't find the grocery store or remember what floor Yorgos lived on, so he met us downstairs. We went to the store and got stuff for dinner. After that we relaxed for a bit, and around 7:15 we started cooking. I cut up the fresh mozzarella, Vaune cut up the tomatoes, and Yorgos fried the pork chops. It was AMAZING. Pork chops fried in butter, and salad with mozzarella, tomatoes, corn and balsamic vinaigrette. YUM.



Afterwards we had wine and talked for hours about a lot of things, including Italian film, politics, and the American higher education system. Yorgos is "90% sure that a Republican will not win." I wish I had his confidence. We also showed Yorgos our pictures from the day... and a couple of Peter Shields' music videos. He translated the Greek from one of them for us. Apparently Peter is pretty good at Greek and could feasibly achieve his dream of becoming a Greek crossover star.

Then it was time for bed. Yorgos brought out two cots and we crashed. We slept like babies. Don't you want to know what happened next? Tune in next time for Italian pickup lines and tiny churches.