Easter Sunday 31 March 2024

Today the clocks ‘sprung’ forward! Chris kindly drove us to the station to catch the 09.45 which was on time, and delivered us to Gatwick at 11.45 where we joined James, Lucy, Ernest and Olive (who had driven from Alresford in 90 minutes) in a coffee shop. Check-in and security were very quick, and our first meal together was at Wagamamas. The plane boarded quickly, and we taxied slowly in a queue as landing and taking-off planes took turns to use the very busy single runway.

We occupied all six seats of row 15, and Ernest kept me entertained with a window seat commentary while Olive settled in happily between her two parents.

Pisa luggage retrieval was so efficient we had barely reached the hall before all four cases appeared, and we were ensconced in a six seater taxi less than half an hour after landing, and in our appartment (3, Piazzetta di San Giorgio) after a rapid ten minute drive – the airport is only 2+ km from the old city. The key safe surrendered its contents, and we clambered up two floors into a traditionally if sparsely equipped apartment.

It was Ernest who spotted the top of the Leaning Tower from our kitchen window, (see just beneath the cloud mass, above left) and we were there half an hour later. The Campo de Miracoli is exactly that! 

A very special, memorable Easter Day. Supper – pizzas – was slightly off the beaten track, after which all of us were keen to head home, and in bed by 22.00 despite it only being 20.00 body clock time. 

Monday 1 April 2024

A slow start! We were all very tired and the forecast for rain made expeditions less pressing. In fact we strolled around the city, birthplace of Galileo Galilei in the very light drizel

before reaching the nearby renaissance Piazza dei Cavalieri with its statue of Cosimo I de Medici, the first Grand Duke of Tuscany and his massive palace. Cosimo Medici’s daughter is the focus of Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait and Lucy filled us in on some of their goings on. The very fine Palazzo is now a senior school… 

We had another good lunch, and sauntered around the Piazza dei Martiri before David and I took Olive and Ernest up to the Campo dei Miracoli again, approaching from a different angle, and paying attention to the fabulous stone, the colours, the surfaces and the carving, before tackling the city walls….

and then rejoining Lucy and James to explore the Botanical Gardens of which Olive declared herself custodian, and conducted elaborate tours of the magnolias and wisterias, salvias, succulents in glass houses, and vast bamboo copses. 

We had one more stroll around the Leaning Tower, the exquisite Duomo and Baptistery, and our first (of many) gelati, before an early pasta supper for the family

David and I crossed the Arno to explore and eat at a small ristorante just off the main shopping drag. 

The Lungarno is striking; a more modest version of Florence, with a modern bridge closed to traffic for the Easter holiday, and crowded with a herbs and spring plants market. However Pasquetta traditions were in short supply as the relentless tourism seemed oblivious to the feast day.

Lucy, Ernest and Olive all collected several mosquito bites but unusually I was spared. The bedrooms were decorated with wallpaper of elaborate fishes and exotic palms and plants reminiscent of the Botanical Gardens, but the kitchen had limited appeal. I imagine people pass through Pisa very quickly…. 

We left the next morning on foot, heading for Pisa Centrale and a train down the coast to Follonica…