To continue from last night (the girls were ready to go to bed)....

Up the mountain we went. Coming down we really realized it was ridiculously steep and wondered how we ever made it up.

When we finally made it to the bottom we headed straight to find some water (not free in Italy) and ended up finding 2 girls from CofC.

We headed back to the train station to catch the 6:28 train back to Florence, but first we needed a potty break. That is one of the most difficult situations to be in in Italy. Seriously, do Europeans just not relieve themselves? I appreciate decently clean public toilets in The States so much more.

Traumatized by the hole-in-the-floor, foul lavatories, we hustled to catch our train.... the 6:22 train. We were bumping happily along in the direction of Florence stopping in each of the coastal towns on the way back. In the last (first coming from Florence) of the towns we got really excited when the car cleared and we had a seat to ourselves to get comfortable in for the nearly 3 hour ride back to Florence. We were a bit slow noticing that we weren't just the only ones in the car... we were the only ones on the train. The 6:22 train was obviously not the 6:28 train. We snatched up our assortment of beach trip accessories and bolted. Lucky for us the train we were supposed to be on made a stop at that station. And when it comes to getting off the trains, if you don't know exactly where your stop is in the string you better make friends with somebody who does because no one bothers to announce them. So far though, the trains have always been on time (who knew the 6 minute difference between trains in Italy mattered)... a concept we Americans really take for granted.

So today we had our next adventure. We caught the train from Florence to Lucca (having to be on point to catch our stop again). But we successfully made it and set out to explore. Lucca was like an implanted Charleston. We found magnolia trees, horse drawn buggies and even paid parking on the street (first we've seen of this). And cars actually stopped for pedestrians (we've been to 6 towns/cities in Italy and only the drivers in Lucca are concerned with vehicular manslaughter). But unlike Charleston, Lucca was entirely surrounded by a 30 something foot wall. The town was so clean and uncrowded and quiet. On the train to Monterosso we met a guy who told us that we had to bike the outer walls of the city. For only 2.50 euros we felt like the Sound of Music :)

From Lucca we got a train to Pisa. We were already dead tired and Pisa is pretty much the ghetto of the region. There was graffiti on one of the oldest buildings in the city. But just seeing everyone goofily position themselves to take the typical Leaning Tower photo made it all worth it. While there we realized that nobody in Italy drives around blaring their music. I also realized that we take our language for granted. In Florence, most things are in Italian and English. I can't say that much for the smaller towns. Come to find out, everything in Lucca is in Italian and less people speak English but they make a legitimate effort to communicate with you. At lunch today our waiter actually apologized to us for not speaking better English. In America we're far less accommodating and expect everyone to speak English.

I feel like I need to comment on the male sex here in Italia. Any girl who can't get a man interested in her and would like to, make your way to Italy. You will never feel unappreciated. There's more than enough "Ciao Bella!"'s to go around. But be warned, they like to either whistle or simply suck their teeth and expect you to look. Its quite repulsive. There was a funny man at the train station in Lucca though who told us we were all beautiful then proceeded to tell everyone else who walked by to "compliment them."

I turned on the pedometer on my iPod right before we got off in Lucca. By the time we left Pisa to head back to Florence I had trooped 14,073 steps. Gelato for me tonight! :)

P.S. Poor Cristy has strep. I'm staying far far away.