Had our first Italian dinner - it was delish!

And went to \240see the city views from our rooftop - gorgeous! And the buildings behind her aren’t too shabby either. 😊

Then we finally got a good nights sleep. \240Adjusting to the time change has been even more challenging because in Ramstein and Kaysersberg, it didn’t start getting dark until 10, making it hard to fall asleep before midnight.

And speaking of challenges....

Being this is our 3rd foreign country in a week, we have pretty much created our own language by using them all haphazardly together. \240Each time we visit a new country, we translate some basic phrases and important words. We are so confused now we have to think to answer in English, which thankfully many people speak here.

Tueaday morning we headed out to visit the famous sights in Pisa.

And of course, we had to try the obligatory pictures with the tower. The most fun was watching all the other tourists doing them, too. They lined the entire perimeter of the piazza. Some got very creative; we played it safe...

Then it was time to catch the train to Florence. Amanda’s itinerary had us making the 25 minute walk to the station, \240but it was sweltering hot, so we opted for a taxi ride instead. At the station, it was a little dicey finding our train, but Mckenna found someone nice who spoke English and confirmed we were on the right platform.

After a hot and uneventful ride, we got off on the right stop in Florence.

Some observations about the stations/trains: they aren’t particularly nice or pretty. They look like stations you would encounter in any city and don’t make a good first impression. However, with a little distance, the landscape improves tremendously.

The train ride itself was smoother and more quiet than I had expected, and although air-conditioned, were a bit warm. We also found it interesting that no one ever checked our tickets, which we had purchased online. We were nervous all the way to the exit, worrying we had done something wrong and were about to get busted.

The train station in Florence was much larger and confusing, with two exits. By this time, we were hot, tired, and sweaty, and could hardly wait to get to our hotel to take a shower and nap. But then it happened.....we encountered our first roadblock. 😳

Stay tuned for part two to find out what happened.....