Wednesday, July 19

We got off the ferry from Corsica and found a taxi-van right away. As we made our way towards the stazione, we looked at our train options. One was leaving at 7:04….and it was 6:45! The minutes ticked away as we made our way through Livorno. The taxi driver knew his way, but had picked side streets with lots of little cars entering and leaving the road. We made it to the station with about 6 minutes to spare. I jumped out of the taxi and ran to the ticket line. No one was in it! I got my tickets and ran back. The kids were down the stairs headed to platform 6. We were running. Up the stairs! Erin yelled it’s already here, and the sign is flashing! I recall Ben struggling to bring the big blue suitcase up the stairs. I briefly tried to help him, but a voice inside screamed, “Leave him, he’ll be fine!” I scooted around him to the top of the stairs and started chucking bags in the open door. It was probably 7:02. The kids made it to the top and immediately began piling into the car. It was a scrum. Kids were screaming, crying, and Ben lost his glasses under the train. Suddenly auntie Erin was on her knees groping under the platform. I yelled, “Leave them!” She said, “I can get them!” I scrambled down to help however I could, but she was already within reach. She got them, we threw the last of the children and bags on, and got on the train. Kids were crying, everyone was out of breath, sweat was streaming down my back. It was a scene. We slowly got our bags up on the racks, gave the kids some gummy crocodiles, and calmed down.

25 minutes later we got off the station at Pisa and walked our way through town to our apartment. It was a fantastic old stately building that we had two separate apartments in. It was relaxing, cool, and well stocked for breakfast and drinks.

We dumped our things and headed out for dinner. It was ~8:30, we had had a really long travel day, and the kids had done a great job. But we were losing them. We found a close pizza place, ordered, ate, grabbed gelato, and headed back home. It wasn’t as fun as it should have been, considering the mini-celebration we could have had for such a long day, but I can’t blame the kids for how tired they should have been.

We made it home, showered and got the kids to bed. It was probably 9:30 to 10 before bedtime finished. They were crazy, but it was silent in about 5 minutes.

Erin met us in the front hallway for drinks. The wine they gave us for our stay was slightly bubbly and with no label…our favorite! We went to bed later than I would have liked.

Thursday, July 20

We got going slower than we would have liked. Sara had grand plans to go to the pharmacy and restock our supply of sunscreen, but didn’t make it. Our check out time was 11; The kids got up and we got out around 9:30. We walked a couple blocks, turned the corner, and found the leaning tower. It was truly leaning! The crowds weren’t that bad. We walked around, got photos, and by the time we started back at 10:20, I was realizing we had to really get going. We got back to the apartment at 10:40, quickly packed, and the moms took a taxi to the airport and got rental cars. The kids and I found a cafe, sat ourselves down, and ordered:

• 3 cannolis (pistachio, cream, and chocolate)
• a rice pudding pie
• a little mini pizza
• a salami sandwich
• some juices and lemonades
• a cappucino for myself

After a bit of coaxing and reverse psychology, Hayden ate both the sandwich (with arugula and salami) as well as some bites of the pizza. I also got her to eat some of the rice pudding by saying that pudding was like warm ice cream, and that rice pudding was just vanilla pudding with rice in it….and that I didn’t want her to eat it. She ate it. The day heated up, we finished our food, and the girls came back just in time. We got in two cars and headed out of town.