London gave us a rainy send-off, which somehow made my excitement for Italy a bit more bitter-sweet. We were landing in Pisa before taking a train to Florence, the city that was ultimately our destination for the next few days. But who doesn’t have “take a tourist-y photo with the leaning tower” on their bucket list? So I built in some extra time between our flight landing in Pisa and the train’s departure… because sometimes you just need to get the iconic photo.

The train station in Pisa had monitored luggage storage. We were able to hand over our backpacks in exchange for a few Euros each. I received half of the tag attached to my bag for identification purposes before we left.

It was noticeably hotter than London (of course), so our 15-minute walk in the sun from the train station was a bit sweaty. But it was pretty much a straight shot down a long street and over a bridge. I was glad to stretch my legs after being on the plane. And once we made it through the swarm of people, we had 20 or 30 minutes to admire il Torre di Pisa.

It takes some patience to wait for the crowds to part enough for a photo if you’re there during the summer. (But you can do it for the ‘gram!)

Then, it was back to the train and on to Firenze! I was eager to meet our Airbnb host and test out the small bit of Italian I had in my head. (Which, after the Add1Challenge, was certainly more than the ciao! and grazie! I had my first time in Italy.)