"Wow guys, it's like really leaning!"

It is extremely late right now and I am so overly exhausted from the weekend, and while I have work tomorrow morning and have to wake up at 8am I feel as though I need to write a little something about my Italian adventure that was exciting, interesting, and a bit stressful. After taking a 2am train accompanied by a man sitting in the front of our car that was not feeling too great and vomiting everywhere, and then another bus to the terminal, 2 of my flatmates (Celina and Leanne,) and I arrived at Luton Airport, got onto the plane and landed 2 hours later in at Galileo International Airport. Pisa is a province in the Italian region of Tuscany, most commonly known for the ever-popular Leaning Tower of Pisa. Once we arrived we took a taxi to our hostel, known as "Ilton Bed and Breakfast." Little did we know that this hostel was situated in some sort of residential apartment complex. We were very skeptical but went up to the front door only to find that there was no sign of a bed and breakfast in the building. We asked a little old woman by a fruit stand if she knew of Ilton Bed and Breakfast. She proceeded to take us into the building next door, into an extremely small elevator, and in front of a door to a completely different bed and breakfast. We nodded and said thank you even though we knew it wasn't the place we needed to get to. She was very nice for taking us there. After banging on the front door to the building, ringing the front doorbell intercoms, and screaming to the open windows, we waited for a good 45 minutes until a resident walked out and we could finally walk in. We proceeded to climb up and down the 6 flights of stairs about 3 different times (with very heavy backpacks and no sleep) to realize that none of the doors said Ilton Bed and Breakfast. We even knocked on some one's door to ask, of course they didn't speak English so that didn't help. Eventually a woman asked if we were looking for Ilton and let us into the bed and breakfast. Now, this bed and breakfast had no sign on the door and the intercom didn't work, so how we were ever supposed to find this place was beyond us. It was a good thing we finally found it.

We quickly dropped off our things and found the nearest bus station, bought a ticket, and hopped on a bus that we hoped was going to the center of town. After getting off and then getting on a different bus we finally got to the Leaning Tower. It like amazing, we kept saying "Wow guys, it's like really leaning!" It really was! It was leaning a whole lot! But it was awesome, and the mountains in the distance made it look so beautiful. We took a bunch of pictures, and walked around a little, shopped for souvenirs, and ate lunch. We all split ravioli, margarita pizza, and gnocchi with pesto sauce, then we had some gelato. We went on to have gelato 3 times in the 28 hours we were in Italy. It was just that good. Having Italian food in Italy was pretty cool. We couldn't get enough of it!
After walking around the area a little more we went back to the hostel, took a well-deserved nap, showered, and got dressed to go out to dinner. We headed back into town to a restaurant that was recommended to us. It was incredible! We shared a capresse salad with really good balsamic vineger, bread with really good olive oil, lasagna, spaghetti, then chocolate souffle, and tiramisu. Amazing, and we even ate outside. It was a long and expensive meal, but really worth it.
The next day we woke up around 7am to pack up and go to see more of the countryside of Tuscany. We ended up not being able to catch the bus out of Pisa, but we decided to take a different route and go to the Marina Di Pisa. All we knew about it was that there was water, so we assumed it would be nice, and thank goodness it was. After not even knowing what stop to get off (the buses don't tell you the stops, nor do they have signs at the stops) we saw water and decided to get off. We walked down what seemed to be an authentically Italian village towards the marina. There happened to be a sailboat race and what seemed like an outdoor clothing sale along the water too. We walked down to the beach, hung out in the sand, took some pictures, walked around, took more pictures, ate more gelato, and then finally walked back to the bus stop to spend 35 minutes sitting on the curb hoping the bus would come so we could make it to the airport on time. We did, and we got home safely. Exhausted, but we made it through the weekend, ate Italian food in Italy, stuck our feet in Italian sand, and took the typical tourist holding-up-the-tower pictures. It was an experience, and I loved it.