2025 Italy - December - Day 04 - Goodbye Florence. Hello Rome!

 December 5, 2025

Wow, the day in Florence flew by fast.  I personally really enjoyed the time there.  We were up ready to go by 8 AM.  We walked to the Firenze S.M. Novella train station which is the central station.  It was a 8 minute walk from our hotel, the Sette Angelini Rooms.  Our rooms were clean, big and nice.  The only issue was the noise through out the night and due to the road in the morning.  I now understand why they have ear plugs in the bathroom.

We took the 8:53 train to Pisa.  We arrived in Pisa at 10:04 AM.  They are very accurate on their schedules here which is amazingly nice.  The trains we are taking today are regional trains and they have a larger number mof stops.  Upon arriving, we determined where the drop luggage place was.  We dropped our luggage for a €5 per bag for all day storage.   After having dropped the luggage, we determined a bus to get on.  We watched bus 1+ fill up with a million passengers.  But my GPS was telling me to get on bus #23.  So we waited a bit.  Bus #23 was an 8 passenger mini-van!  We were a bit shocked.  But still we had to tap to pay for our fare to get on and only one of could not get their card to work.  The bus driver told her to just get in, all good.  He never charged her.   The driver was quick and soon we were at the site of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It’s a nice site and you can do many fun things with a camera there and special poses.  I think we spent about an hour and half there.  Denise and Michelle went up the tower while Jeff and I just waited outside.  In the sun, it is really nice.  In the shade, it’s quite cool.  Anyway, after they were through, we used the expensive public toilets and then walked the 25+ minute walk back to the train terminal stopping at a market to get some ‘lunch’ snacks for our 4 hour train ride to Rome.  I am writing this part of the blog on the train heading along the beautiful coastline of Italy heading to Rome, 

It was a 4+ hour trip from Pisa to the Rome Central station.  Our flat is right across from the Termini station.  This station is HUGE!  It is such a zoo.  Anyway, after arriving, we were at the flat in about 5 minutes.  The fellow who is the host met us and showed us around.  The flat has 2 very large bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a small kitchen area.   It will work great.

After resting a bit and unpacking, off we went to figure out how to get to the Trevi fountain.   We did not leave until nearly 7 PM.  My GPS gave me a bus option that I began to follow.  But then it turned up saying that it was 40 minutes delayed.  So I selected another option.  We quickly walked the whole length of the terminal to a public bus station, found our bus, and off we went.  Michelle did get a card found that allowed her the ability to tap on.  It is a Friday night and the city is buzzing.  The Trevi Fountain had a lot of people there wanting to throw coins in…which Michelle and Denise did.  After spending a few minutes there taking pictures, we decided to walk to the Spanish Steps.  Denise and I had never been there before.  It was about a 10 minute walk.  But we were hungry.  So as we walked, we came to a restaurant that looked nice and went in.  Therein we had a nice Italian dinner (pasta only) and booked some tickets to see the Colosseum at 9 AM in the morning.  We booked that time hoping to get to the Vatican Museums by 2:30 as it appeared that was when slots were open.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there, it was fully booked.  Nothing else in the afternoon available.  So we might just be walking around St. Peter’s Square and going into the Basilica there.   We shall see.

After the Spanish Steps, we ventured our way into the subway system here.  We found a train that took us to Termini and we were home in about 20 minutes.  We are all so tired.  And I suspect that we will continue to get more tired.  Hopefully Sunday will be a true day of rest.  

Some pictures:

 

You are going to see a few of these.  I did my best to keep it up!

Picture from our train looking out into the Mediterranean Sea.  Lovely ride up the coast as the sun set.

This reminded me of Dale when he found his 2 liters of Coke.  Jeff found his at the market in Pisa.

Michelle is not going to let this thing grow any taller.  Well done Michelle!

Jeff is the strongest of the bunch and only needs his finger to hold it up!

I think this was the train to Pisa.  Hard to tell.  We had fun training all day today!

Michelle looking down on Denise in the Tower of Pisa.  Isn’t that what older sisters do…look down on the little ones?

Denise got tired of the tower and just wanted to kick the darn thing over.  She couldn’t do it though.  Bad knees I guess.

Nice group shot over looking the muddy river that runs through Pisa.

A good shot of the tower that was built in the 1100’s.

There were 3 other buildings on the campus here in Pisa.  But I’m not sure what this one was.  Library maybe?  I’d have to research.

Inside the cathedral that was on the grounds here at Pisa.

Trevi Fountain.  It’s been many years since we were last here.  Pretty impressive.

The group starting to enjoy Rome at the Trevi Fountain.

This boat thing lies at the bottom of the Spanish Steps.  Who knows why.

A Christmas tree half way up the Spanish Steps.

A good view of the Spanish Steps at 10 PM.  Doesn’t anyone go to bed at normal times?

Cramming into the small elevator here in this building.  I think it has 5 or 6 floors to it.

This was a side street leading off the piazza where the Spanish Steps were.  They were quite pretty…but no color!

An Italian dinner….again!  I’m ready for some Chinese food!