Pisa

Ah, Pisa. Pisa was the second stop on our Italian vacation. In order to get there we rented a car and drove from Rome. This, I believed, was going to be the true test of our relationship. I'm not a fantastic navigator and driving in Italy is difficult under the best circumstances. I believed that if we could make it through driving in Italy we could make it through anything. Once we got out of Rome the Autostrada (Interstate) wasn't so bad. Once we got to Pisa our directions didn't work quite so well, though. We got lost and wound up having to go to the airport and hire a taxi to take us to the hotel. Once we were there we learned that the hotel had everything that it had promised...just down the street. "You need to park your car? You can do that just down the street." "You want to use the internet? Well, ours is down but you can use it at our sister hotel...just down the street." "You want to exchange money? You can do that at the bank...just down the street!" All other things considered, the hotel was nice and very cute. Unlike Rome, all of the sites in Pisa are conveniently located in one location. With one stop you can see the Leaning Tower, the Duomo, and the Baptistery. They are all very beautiful and the tower leans more than I imagined. While in Pisa I had the best food that I'd ever eaten. We had dinner at Osteria dei Cavalieri and it was amazing, even though when I first looked at the menu nothing excited me. For an appetizer we had the prosciutto and fried dough (if you've never eaten prosciutto you absolutely must. It's delicious.) For my main course I ordered homemade tagliatelline with duck, carrots, and juniper berries. I was hesitant to order the duck because I'd never had it before and let's face it, they're quite cute. Steve convinced me to take a chance and I did and I'm so glad. I've never tasted something so delicious in my life. For desert I had crunchy egg ice cream with almonds (I know, sounds kind of gross- crunchy egg ice cream?) and it was heavenly. That meal was the highlight of my time in Pisa. Pisa was a nice change from Rome, much slower and quieter. We enjoyed our time in Pisa (and definitely the food) but our favorite was Venice, which I will chronicle next time, dear reader.