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This is our last morning at the farmhouse. There were a lot fewer people at the breakfast table. We said our goodbyes to everyone, then went upstairs to finish packing, pulling out about 10.
We wound up taking the scenic route to Pisa instead of the highway. It was nice, but there wasn't much to see along the way. Or, at least, there wasn't much to stop and take pictures of. We got into Pisa about 1 and fumbled our way to a parking space near the main piazza, where the Leaning Tower is. We could see it from a distance, but couldn't figure out how to get to it. Pisa needs better signs....
We had a quick lunch near the piazza, then waded back into the crowds. And it was crowded. More like Disney World on a holiday than anything else. The leaning tower (Torre Pendente) was the only sight to see in Pisa. It was interesting and I'm glad we saw it, but I don't think I'd ever drive out of my way to see it again. The whole place was a zoo!
The photos above are of the Torre Pendente (Leaning Tower of Pisa). The one on the left includes the cathedral associated with the bell tower. The one on the right includes a statue in the foreground.
Back to the car and a quick drive to the town of Vinci, birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci. We found a parking spot and walked around for a while. It was market day in Vinci that day, so we got to stroll around that for a while before making our way to the Leonardo Museum. It was a fascinating place. Well worth the drive.
This photo was taken outside one of the gift shops in Vinci. It's a bicycle jersey touting one of the bicycle tours that runs in the area and says to come to Tuscany, where the bicycle was born. Leonardo da Vinci included drawings for a bicycle among his papers.
Then back to the car to drive the rest of the way to Florence to drop off the rental car. We made it to Florence okay, but had major problems finding the airport!! Usually, airports are very well marked. This one wasn't. We were doing okay until we reached a point where the signs said the left two lanes were for the airport. Turned the corner and the left three lanes were for the airport - for about two blocks. Then, without warning, there was a small sign saying Airport and pointing to the right. There was no way we could cross four lanes of traffic and get to the turn, so we kept going hoping we'd find something familiar or additional signs indicating how to get back to the airport. I had two maps, but one was for the major roads between cities and the other was the city map for Florence which started a couple of miles closer to the city center than the airport location, so I as navigating blind.
All I knew for sure was that we didn't want to go towards city center. Carl was doing okay until we reached one intersection and he asked "Left or right" and I replied, in a small voice, "I don't know". Then he knew were were in trouble. At that point, I decided to just go back out to the highway encircling Florence and start over. So, we followed the signs for that until I found Airport signs again. Soon, we were back on the same streets where we had gotten mixed up on the last time. This time, I had Carl move to the rightmost lane that was still marked for the airport and we got to the right hand turn quite easily. This dumped us directly into the Car Rental Return area.
Which was the strangest Car Rental Return I've ever seen. You parked the car in the correct section, based on rental company and left the car there. We unloaded and kept expecting someone from the rental company to come over and accept the car and keys. We finally went over to a nearby building where all the rental companies had windows. The one for ours, Sixt, was shut tight. Seems they're not open on Sunday!!! So, we asked the woman at the Hertz window what to do. It seems you take the company's copy of the paperwork, write in your mileage and gas information along with the date and time of return, wrap it around the keys, and drop them in the key drop box and walk off!!! We weren't comfortable doing that, but there didn't seem to be anything else to do.
So, we pulled our bags over to the taxi stand and grabbed a cab for the hotel (Porta Faeza). Which was on a very smelly street. The hotel gave me the creeps initially. Was it a mistake to include Florence in our itinerary? I don't know. We did some neat things there and saw a lot of good stuff, but it was a smelly city with a LOT of tourists. We probably won't go back there again.
It was late, so, after checking in, we just dropped the bags in the room and went in search of dinner. We wound up at a fish restaurant called Lobs. It was good sea bass, but the prices were a bit high. On the wall behind me was a life ring with Titanic on it.....
This hotel has a strange feature. In order for your room to have electricity, you have to leave your key in a slot near the door. As soon as it's pulled out, the electricity shuts off! I'm sure it's an energy saving feature, but I had left a battery charging when we went out once. The charging resumed once we got back.