Yep, that's right--Santa Felicita does Barca.
The trip had been planned for several weeks and marked the conclusion of my traveling here in Florence. After learning that the Barca/Real Madrid soccer game was being held in Barca, we just knew we had to go back.
93 Euros later, I had booked my flights through Ryanair, a cheap yet affordable airline students studying abroad often use. Of course, the catch is that airlines, like Ryanair, only fly in and out of small cities and not major airports.
So instead of going from Florence to Barca--we took a train to Pisa, flew to Girona, Spain and then took an hour and 15 minute bus ride to Barca. Was it worth it? For 93 Euros, absolutely!
No worries though! My roomies and I had yet to go to Pisa so we decided to go to Pisa early Friday afternoon before our flight and do the whole Leaning Tower of Pisa touristy visit.
Friday, April 20, 2012
After a long run in the morning, I took a quick shower, finished packing my small carry on, and headed to the train station around 12:30 P.M. with my roomies.
Knowing that trains to Pisa run every 20 minutes, we planned to catch the 1'oclock one that afternoon.
Well, typical of the Santa Felicita girls, we arrived at the train station at approximately 1:50, with only 10 minutes to purchase our tickets, validate them and board our train. With minutes to spare, we ran to our train's platform, luggage in hand, and made it in the knick of time!
After searching for a place to sit, we decided we had walked long enough and settled on a private room in 1st class, despite our regular tickets.
By far, it was one of the most memorable train rides to date. Little did we know, Pisa would prove to be even more memorable. For starters, after being on the train for no more than 15 or so minutes, we all began to wonder if we were even on the right train because none of the stops were matching the ones listed on the wall of the train.
And then it came...the dreaded "knock" on the door of our private room. Great, we're about to get kicked out of our private room and sent somewhere else....at least it was fun while it lasted..
Well, much to our surprise, the train attendant simply checked our tickets, mumbled in broken English that we could either get off the train at the second stop, transfer trains and get to Pisa earlier or stay on this train, and then left.
We immediately burst into laughter 1) because no one really understood what he was saying and 2) because we knew with our luck that if we got off, we would never make it to Pisa with our track record.
45 minutes later, we arrived in Pisa and made our way to the bus station to purchase our tickets to take the bus to "the tower," as we fondly decided to call it. After waiting at the wrong bus station for several minutes, a kind woman pointed across the street and motioned for us to wait at that stop. No sooner has we arrived at the stop did the bus come rolling up.
Again, what is it with us and timing??
After a short 15 minute bus ride, we got off at "the tower" stop and made our way through the crowds.
Within seconds, I was standing in front of the monument I had associated with Italy for most of my life. While it was not as big as I had imagined, I was still in awe of the fact that I was actually standing in front of The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
And of course, I had to take the typical touristy picture...you would too!!
So after, we all got our fair share of touristy pictures, we decided to have lunch at one of the places Rick Steves' mentioned in his book. Now, Rick has never failed us, not once, so we were fairly confident that even in Pisa, he would take us to some gourmet ristorante...
Well, apparently Rick fumbled on this one..
I'm not even going to talk about the food because at this point, that was the least of our concerns.
I would like to talk about our actual dining experience with the four roomies plus Victorio..
Now, you might be wondering who Victorio is, and that's a great question, one I would also love to know the answer to. In fact, we are still trying to figure out who Victorio is..
Our lunch started out like most lunches. We ordered our food and drinks and chatted quietly amongst ourselves as we waited for our food. Then, out of no where, Victorio, who (to me) looks identical to Russel Brand except with blonde hair came up to our table and asked if he could eat with us. Not wanting to be rude, we said of course, thinking he wasn't actually serious.
Oh no, Victorio was in fact serious. Within minutes, (the fastest he actually moved the entire day) he had pulled up a chair at the end of our table and began to eat his salad.
He asked us where we were from, which of course prompted us to ask him where he was from, which was of course part of his plan the entire time--However, we truly were curious about this because he sounded british but looked oh so Italian and had an Italian twang if that's even possible...
But boy did we open a can of worms...
Victorio began to tell us that he was born right here in Pisa, but he could change his voice to whatever accent he wanted, Italian or British. He also told us that he owned the restaurant we were currently eating in, the one next door, the leather store on the other side as well as two other restaurants down the street AND if that wasn't enough, Victorio also spoke five languages; English, Italian, German, French and Russian.
And then he left...but, before we could all really have a good laugh about it, Victorio was back.
This time, he told us that he had just returned from London filming a Ron Howard movie called Rush with Chris Hemsworth. He then proceeded to tell us that he played the captain of the Ferrari team and that he has been in several other movies as well but that this was his most recent one. In fact, he was heading back to London again soon to do more filming.
Unfortunately, we checked IMDb and there is in fact a Ron Howard movie called Rush with Chris Hemsworth but no Victorio. Perhaps he has small role and didn't make the credits but, you better believe I will be the first in line to see this movie.
After Victorio left a second time, we all joked that we would come home to America only to find Victorio is a huge star complete with an E Hollywood True Story...only time will tell..
Still hungry after our rather interesting lunch, we decided to order Nutella Crepes. What should have taken, at most, 15 minutes, took Victorio a good 30 minutes. He would walk by, turn on the machine, walk by again and forget he turned it on and turn if off, then again, walk by and turn it back on...
Finally, 30 minutes later, we had our crepes. Ready to get the heck out of this crazy situation, we quickly ate our crepes and asked for the check. Victorio then proceeded to walk over to our table, take Nicole's placemat and write the amount we owed:
"Let's see, there were 3 capreses', 3 pastas, 3 crepes, that's 15 euros...43 Euro is what you owe."
Great. Perfect. Let's put the 43 Euro on the table and get the heck out of here, I thought.
And let me tell you, we have all never been more relieved and excited to leave somewhere..ever!
Confused, and full of laughter from our almost 2 hour and oh so eventful lunch, we left Pisa full of questions.
1. Who is Victorio?
2. Did he even work there?
3. When does Rush come out?
XOXO,
Meggie
See ya in Barca!
favorite post by far! "does he even work there?" sums up the entire experience...oh pisa
ReplyDelete