We were awake around 9:00 again. We got up and ready. This time round we headed to the main station in Pisa. We walked through the new part of the town, which is a residential area. We walked across a bridge with beautiful buildings on either side. There was also a beautiful church called Santa Maria della Spina on the bridge. Unfortunately, this is currently closed as it suffered significant damage during floods earlier this year.
When we got to the station, we got our tickets and there was a train listed to Florence in the not-too-distant future. Graham got suspicious that with only a few minutes to go, we were the only people on the platform. It turned out that we had looked at the arrivals board rather than the departure board. The train to Florence had just left. Fortunately, there was another one 30 minutes later.
The journey into Florence took about an hour and was not particularly scenic. However, I was quite happy to play with my phone. When we arrived in Florence, we headed in the general direction of the Piazza del Duomo. Near the station, we came across a beautiful church called Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. This is another church that charges admission and the line for the ticket office was quite impressive. We decided that we were happy to just admire it from the outside.
We did get to see one church shortly afterwards. There was an open door in what looked like a townhouse. I was surprised when Graham headed straight for the door. Hidden behind that door was a beautiful church that was a lot bigger than the front of the building indicated. We sat down and enjoyed our surroundings for a while.
It did not take long after we left the church that we saw the cathedral of Florence. This is another stunningly beautiful church with a separate baptistery. This is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Like in Pisa, it had a crazy long line to get inside, and we settled for admiring it from the outside. I took a few photos and then we moved on.
When I did my trip report for our Australia and New Zealand trip, I had noticed that the Gelateria that we had enjoyed so much in Sydney was not a local chain as I had assumed, but was an international chain that had been founded in Milan. They have outlets in Florence and Milan. We decided to go and check out one of the Florence branches. Now, Lucca is a complete maze of alleyways, but Florence is even worse and even though there is tourism in Lucca, too, Florence is just a zoo. Needless to say, we never found our gelato. We checked out a few more interesting looking alleys and squares and checked out the indoor market. Then we headed in the general direction of the station.
I had no idea where we were heading, and Graham definitely has longer legs. Normally it does not matter too much if he gets a little ahead as I can still see him and he does wait for me if he crosses the road or goes around a corner, but this time a tour group pushed between us, and I could no longer see him. When I managed to get past them, I had lost Graham. I carried on a bit further to see if he was waiting for me somewhere, but I could not see him anywhere. As he did not have his mobile phone with him, I decided the most sensible approach would be to head to the station and sooner or later we would get reunited. It turned out that Graham had the same idea, and he was waiting for me inside the station. We may well have been only feet apart at some stage, but it was so busy in the station that we never saw each other. I realised that I had no chance finding Graham in that crowd and headed outside to the station forecourt, which was not quite as busy. When he did not see me after a while, he headed off to see some bridges and then entered the station again through a shopping centre and went back to Pisa. In the meantime, I was circling the station forecourt. At some stage I messaged the hotel to see if Graham had collected our key. We had to leave the key when we were going out. I was told that the key was still there and assumed that Graham must still be in Florence. We pieced together afterwards that when I messaged the hotel, he was sitting in the garden in front of the hotel.
When it started to get dark, I came to the conclusion that even if Graham was still in Florence, I would have no chance to see him in the dark. I also doubted that we would be wandering around in the dark in an unfamiliar place that he did not even particularly like. I headed back inside the station and went to catch the next train back to Pisa, which left a few minutes later. We had a smooth run back to Pisa and I felt perfectly safe on the train. When I arrived in Pisa, I decided that I was not sure if I would find the hotel by myself, especially in the dark. I headed for the taxi rank. I found a long line of people and no taxis. Eventually one taxi turned up. Some people had been waiting for 45 minutes for a taxi. About 10 minutes later another taxi came. Both times people asked if more taxis could be sent. Suddenly there was a whole bunch of them. I was just getting in the taxi when Graham called to check where I was. I told him that I was just getting into a taxi back to the hotel. We were reunited a few minutes later and went straight to bed.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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