Well, the day is finally here - we are leaving Italy and flying back to Germany. We have truly loved our 2 months here in Italy. We have seen so much and had the luxury of time to absorb the culture and enjoy the people, food and wines of Italy. The cycling has been great in Italy and it has far exceeded our expectations. We rarely rode on bike paths, except for parts of the Etsch route in northern Italy. We mostly rode on quiet secondary roads and we found that the drivers were considerate and patient. The only time we found the drivers and traffic challenging was close to Rome - but that can be a problem when you get close to major cities anywhere. Even though the feeling is bittersweet in leaving Italy, we know that we will return to Italy someday....soon, we hope. We are excited to get on the plane as we are looking forward to the time we will have in Germany to visit with our friends before we fly back to Canada. Last night at the hotel, we received a call from Soeten's that our bike was being delivered to Georg and Cora's house that evening. This is ahead of schedule and that is good news. We are looking forward to seeing how our bike fared the journey from Rome.
Casa San Tommaso - a good place to stay in Pisa: centrally located and comfortable.
We had a huge surprise while waiting to board our Ryanair Flight to Germany. We met Pim, a young man from Paris, when we were camping at Landeck, Austria. Two months later, we bumped into him at the Pisa Airport. He had flown to Pisa from Paris to spend the weekend with a friend who had flown from Albania to join him. He was waiting to board his plane back to Paris. He was even wearing the same t-shirt that he was wearing when we met him in Austria. What a small world!!!!
It is a beautiful sunny and warm day in Pisa - it is bittersweet to be leaving Italy, but exciting to board a plane and head back to Germany. This will be our first flight on RyanAir. Knowing its reputation, we paid for extra legroom for Barry. Seats 1A and 1B are worth the surcharge - and the crew were very friendly. All in all, it was a good experience flying with RyanAir.
Pisa is a small city and easy to navigate on foot. We enjoyed touring the Tower and the historic centre - but we also liked wandering the streets away from the tourist attractions.
We enjoyed wandering the area around and along the Arno River in Pisa. You can see the Leaning Tower, Duomo and Baptistery to the right of the river - about a 15 minute walk away.
It feels good to be back in Germany. Cora and Georg met us at the airport and we stopped for a view of the Moselle River on our drive back to their house.
