Pisa; Sunday, 02 October, 2016

Breakfast completed I packed my bag, checked out of the hotel and headed on into town.

I wandered through the city centre to the river and then walked down stream for a while, taking in the views of the palazzos on both sides of the river. I had a quick look around the stunning Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina on the banks of the river before continuing on down to where the old city walls met the river by the Citadel.

I had a look around the old canal and remains of the city wall on the South side of the river before crossing over the Arno and following the city walls up on the North bank until they came to the cathedral area.

The difference between the site in the early evening on a Friday and lunchtime on a Sunday was remarkable, with the whole space heaving with tourists – many of them partaking in the photo opportunity of appearing to be either supporting or knocking over the leaning tower.

I had a wander through the area, but it was so busy with tourists that I decided to head away down the first side street I could find towards the botanical gardens – my actual destination for the afternoon.

Unfortunately, the gardens had just reverted to their winter opening times which meant they were closed on a Sunday. With that plan thwarted I instead headed back towards the centre of town and went for a large lunch instead.

Sometime later, and feeling very full, I headed back towards the cathedral and continued my walk along the old city walls.

After a while it was time to start heading back, thankfully I’d already thought that I would be some way from the train station when I decided to start heading back so had picked up a bus ticket in advance, meaning the bus made the 3KM journey back to the station rather than having to walk it.

I picked up my luggage from the left luggage office and made my way back over to the PisaMover replacement bus (the new airport shuttle railway which had been due to open in December 2015, and was definitely going to be open by the end of September 2016 still a bus service on the second day of October) back to the airport and my flight home.