Rieti

We set our alarm this morning for 5.45, yikes as we had the plan to stop in Pisa on our way to Rome. So we were packed and on our first train by just after 7, then after a second one we arrived in Pisa at 9am. We had booked a place to store our bags, and after 2 false starts for finding the place it was very easy to use - called Stow your Bags. Had a quick toilet stop at a cafe with a croissant (yes they do go together !), and then we had to try out the e-scooters that I had spied in the piazza near the cafe.

I have been wanting to try out scooters for quite a while and were so pleased that we did that today. It was around a 2km walk to the leaning tower from the train, and while the walk there would have been ok, walking back in the heat was probably not. But we cooled off nicely hooning along less busy streets and were there pretty soon.

There were a lot of people around the tower. We took a few pics, and watched others taking pics, and then walked around to the baptistery where we could walk on the grass and that was lovely in bare feet. We lay there in the shade for a while. Both of us were feeling rather jaded by the heat and the humidity was very high today as well. Bonus today was that we found some cheap hand held fans to help cool us down.

So then we scootered back, went to the same cafe and had lemon gelatos, picked up our bags, went to another cafe to try and find something to eat in the train, but it was all made up focaccia. Trisha’s looked good, but I was rather disappointed to find that mine was some sort of tuna paste, yuck!

We were at the station very early for our train and had booked 1st class this time. It was great to relax for 3 hours in good air conditioning.

Our host in Rome had contacted me several times and is really chatty. Instead of using google maps to find our public transport, which we have been very successful in doing, we followed her directions and of course we got on the wrong bus. Realised it after a while, got off, and waited nearly an hour for the right bus. So we didn’t get to our accomodation until it was dark. Our hostess Kiara couldn’t meet us tonight but her older mum did and she was just lovely while not speaking a word of English!

Our place is really nice with 2 large beds, one upstairs and one down. Our beds last night were very small singles, and we both felt like we were falling off them all night. Though I am sitting here wondering if the washing machine is going to break down cos it is pretty noisy. In fact it didn't break down, but didn't spin clothes at all and I suspected not rinsed either, so I did that by hand.

We did need some food and are staying in Trastevere which is renowned for good food. We had a restaurant in mind, but then went past this awesome pizza place which had chicken legs, potatoes and a nice mixed rice salad. Just the perfect food to take back to our house where we once again have plates and crockery!

It’s supposed to be 33 degrees tomorrow, so let’s see now far our stamina takes us.

Steps 15,201. 31 degrees.Read more