Pisa/Venice (Day 7)

I journaled throughout the trip, and on Day 7, I missed Zailey a lot. I even wrote that in our journal. :) Love our puppy!

On the morning of Day 7, we woke up in Lucca, grabbed a chocolate croissant (for me) and a cinnamon roll from a bakery (for the hubs), and walked through Lucca to the train station.

We took a short 26 minute train ride to Pisa to check out the Leaning Tower, Duomo, and Bapitistry. The Leaning Tower was spectacular, and we were very glad we stopped in the city for a short time. We also walked along the Arno River. It was a beautiful morning.

Once checking out Pisa for about an hour and a half, we made our way further up the train tracks to Venice. Once there, we used our maps to find the hotel, Ca' San Giorgio. We loved our hotel in Venice! It was our favorite of the trip.  For our first night's stay, we had a balcony and could see the canal from it. We enjoyed a little time out on the balcony before touring Venice.

Once our things were settled in, we navigated the streets of Venice. The streets are extremely narrow because there are no cars in Venice. We saw garbage men picking up garbage throughout the city. They had carts they pulled along behind them to barges parked on the canals to haul the garbage away. It's crazy to think about how long it takes them to dispose of their garbage!

We walked to Ponte di Rialto (Venice's famous bridge). It was very crowded with tourists. Once strolling the area, we came upon Pescaria Wine Bar and decided to stop for a 1/2 liter wine. We enjoyed the outdoor seating and taking in the sites of Venice.

Once finished with our wine, we continued walking until we found a small piazza where we both enjoyed a Spritz (a very popular orange drink in Venice). Patrick really enjoyed the drink. I thought it was so-so. It had a pretty bitter after-taste. We enjoyed the Spritzes while watching the boats and gondolas glide down the canals surrounding the piazza.

After our drinks and a little break back at the hotel, we enjoyed a dinner of pizza and gelato. After dinner, we enjoyed a stroll and watching the sun set over the canals.

Duomo and Baptistry in Pisa

There it is... the Leaning Tower of Pisa

What a beautiful morning!

Just stopping through

We both had to get our picture in front of the Leaning Tower

Another picture of the Duomo

Arno River

On our way out of Pisa

Our balcony in Venice

Loved our hotel in Venice!

Very neat entrance to the hotel

The sitting room in our hotel

A view of a canal

Another great view of one of the canals

The main canal in Venice

A picture from the Ponte di Rialto

Ponte di Rialto

Posing by the Ponte di Rialto

Grand Canal

Wine at Pescaria

Selfie at Pescaria

Trying the Spritz

Patrick loved his!

Another gorgeous shot of a canal

Love this man

Sun is starting to set

Gorgeous evening to end our first night in Venice

Getting darker in Venice. The canals were beautiful at dusk.

Post-dinner gelato,of course

Just taking a seat by one of the canals

Lucca (Day 6)

On the morning of day 6, it was time for us to say goodbye to Florence and board a train to Lucca.

We bought tickets to Lucca on the regional train for a 9:20am departure. Note: Make sure to check the descriptions on the computer before printing your ticket. We made the mistake of not making note, and we missed our train because Lucca was just a stop along the way to a further destination. From there on out, we took a picture of the itinerary on the screen before printing our tickets. We only made that mistake once. Since it was a regional train trip, we were able to hop on the next train to Lucca at 11:30am. We waited for a couple of hours in our favorite piazza in Florence, Santa Maria Novella.

Once we arrived in Lucca, we walked to our Bed and Breakfast, B&B Casa Alba. It was a very cute little place, and the owners were very nice! We paid in Euro when we arrived as we wanted to leave early the next morning for Pisa.

Once our things were settled in, we walked to eat a late lunch at Gabry's Cafe in Piazza del Salvatore. This was probably our least favorite meal of the trip. It wasn't terrible, but it did not seem all too authentic.

After lunch, we got gelato and walked past Cattedrale di San Martino and then onto the city walls. Lucca is surrounded by beautiful Renaissance walls on which you can walk, run, and bike. We strolled along the walls for quite some time. While we were in Lucca, there was a car show, so we enjoyed seeing old cars and new Ferraris.

After strolling for awhile, we stopped back at the hotel for a short nap and then walked to Piazza Anfiteatro for wine. We shared a bottle at Risto Bar L'Emiliana. We ate dinner at Trattoria Da Leo, recommended by our tour book. We loved the atmosphere, and the food was pretty good.

We got some more gelato and strolled along the moat that also surrounds the city before calling it a night.

One of the first beautiful churches we saw in Lucca

The Renaissance wall surrounding Lucca

Strolling along the wall with our gelato

The outside of the wall

The countryside was beautiful

One tunnel to enter/exit the city

Posing next to some vents on top of the wall

Just strolling

One of the many old cars in the car show

The moat

People seriously hang dry their laundry like you see in the movies

One of the many beautiful churches

More cars in the car show

Sharing our pre-dinner wine

Patrick, enjoying the free appetizers offered

Where we had our happy hour bottle of wine

Patrick, posing in Piazza Anfiteatro

Picture of the piazza sign

Very narrow streets

Our dinner restaurant

Pretty neat how they served their liters of wine

Patrick, posing with our post-dinner gelato in front of our bed and breakfast door

Cheesin'