Continued from Florence 2026 Day 2.

Look at me, I’m smart. Since the coffee overflowed yesterday, I found myself a larger cup this morning.

We are heading to the train station for a late morning train. Heading to Pisa today to see…you know, the tower. We debated about whether we would like to take a whole day out of Florence and go through the hassle of getting on a train to go to Pisa. Then PL bought a charm for her charm bracelet and it had the leaning tower of Pisa on it. Then we asked if the kids wanted to go see it, and it was a resounding yes. So yeah, I guess we’ll make the effort to go see it. On top of that, seeing how annoyingly crowded and touristy Florence is, we are happy to make a day trip out of town.

This 10min walk  to the train station is much more enjoyable without having to carry our heavy backpacks.

Reached the station in no time, easy peasy.

Holy shit balls, it’s crowded here at the station. Seriously, not a fan of Florence crowds.

One train, no transfers. This should be easy, in theory.

While on the train ride, RL was showing the children photos of dogs. For some reason, RL likes this dog, as if having one terrible dog at home already isn’t enough.

Got here from Florence in a little bit over an hour. Now we walk.

There she is.

In person, the lean is quite severe. Like…how has it not fallen over yet?

We could have gotten tickets to climb the tower, but LKL is too young to climb. I guess that makes it easy, let’s not climb. It’s also really hot over here anyhow, so probably best idea to not climb.

We are going to get lunch here before the restaurants fill up with crowds.

It’s a little tricky trying to find a restaurant in an area that caters almost exclusively to tourists. I feel much the same looking for restaurants in Florence. When everyone has good reviews, rightfully or not, I tend to pick ones that are a little farther away than the one with better view or shorter walk. I figured their rent is cheaper so it’ll either be better food for same price or cheaper food.

This is the spot. And by farther away, I meant we had to walk an extra minute.

Always show up early with a group of 5, so you can get the big tables. And in this case, the tables in the back room with COOL AC!!!

CL with her overall that she got at Uniqlo in UK. Looks cute, but we told her it would be hot today. She chose cute.

I think I prefer Menabrea, but this isn’t bad either. Italian beers all seem to play pretty nicely with my tummy.

The girls just want their spagetti. Well, it’s never just called spagetti, it’s always some fancier name here in Italy.

We are a little bit closer to the coast over here in Pisa, so some seafood. I’m surprised there isn’t more seafood options here in Italy, since we are really not that far from the coast anywhere we’ve been.

Cheeseplate…of course, they put pistachios in the jam/honey, so we had to ask for new ones.

LKL wanted pizza, fine. Let’s keep it simple and easy today.

Italians make good steaks. Lunch was good, and it was even better since the AC was working well.

Now, in search of gelatos.

I think we are eating even more ice cream on this trip than when we were in Japan. Not complaining, and neither are the kids.

Let’s snap a few more photos before we head back to the train station. Already have our return tickets booked. 2.5 hours in Pisa including lunch and we’ll be done. Been there done that now.

I mean…I guess it’s kinda cool to see it in person and see the crazy lean.

What’s this crazy plant by the train station restroom?

Paid entry to use restroom. Works for us, keeps them nicer than otherwise.

Of course, we have the only train platform where we don’t have cover on top. It’s really hot and sunny, it’s miserable. We are hiding here underground until we get closer to our train arrival time.

Waiting up top, train is late, of course. This is the only shade up here, and it’s just a tiny piece of clear plastic. Why do the other two platforms have full shade and we don’t here? Sucks, and miserable.

Finally on the train, let’s go back to Florence.

Found an underground walkway in Florence station that avoids some of the walking in the sun, nice.

Priests jaywalking like the rest of us. Good thing only ecclesiastical laws apply to them and not secular laws.

Got back to our Airbnb, fed the kids some food we’ve accumulated in our fridge for the past few days. Surprised I forgot to take a photo of their dinner.

While the kids were eating and watching on iPads, RL and I went out right across the entrance of our building and into a restaurant to have a little meal by ourselves. This time, it’s in the basement. I couldn’t get cell reception down here, so I had to connect to their WiFi in order to be able to receive and send texts to the kids on their iPads to check in on them.

Pretty cute basement. RL picked out this shirt for me to wear on this trip for when we eat a nicer meal. Well, that nicer meal didn’t really happen since it’s just been so much traveling with the kids, so I’m wearing it now.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the relaxing dinner we had hoped for. At the table right behind us, these two Taiwanese girls were recording their meal for social media. RL felt uncomfortable being in their video frame the whole time. We tried scooting to a different spot on our table but being such a small restaurant, there wasn’t too much we could do.

It comes in cans.

And in tiny baby bottles.

Some pork and of course, some roast chickpeas. We need to make chickpeas like this back in Austin. Yum.

And also big bottles.

Hey girlfriend!

Back at our Airbnb after a quick dinner. LKL loves these grissini and wants to bring this all the way back to Austin for his Ah Ma. Kinda sweet.

Cool terrace, wish we had more motivation and energy to use it. Also, if it was cooler that’d be nice too. RL said she would use it but I never want to go out there with her and she wants my company.

To be continued at Florence 2026 Day 4 Part 1.