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| Statue of the great man Puccini in Lucca |
I finished one year of studying at the local university,
from 2010-2011 and not the one to miss any opportunity to travel I went to most
of the trips offered to students at reduced rate, visiting: Liverpool,
Oxford,
Cambridge,
Manchester,
London,
Stafford,
Bath,
Salisbury
and
Bournemouth. The trips were mainly for
foreign students which suited me and whilst travelling with lots of foreigners
who had very little knowledge of which direction they were heading, I
befriended a lovely student from
Oman, called Aman. She lived with
me for the last two months of her stay in
England.
When we were both in Bournemouth, Aman who always wore her
head scarf in public, laid flat on the beach with all her clothes on for a
photo shoot (an experience she said she will not repeat back home) and wanted
more travel adventures before going back to Oman. She asked me to accompany her
to Italy and we decided on Pisa, mainly because I
have not been there! My fun started when Aman asked another friend of her to
accompany us, so instead of sharing a room with Aman, I settled for a room own
my own, which suited me because Aman does snore, fairly loudly! An early start,
meaning four a.m. to Luton airport was something we were not prepared for with all
the road work in Luton town but we got there in time to start checking in our
luggage. Aman’s friend (very attractive, very Westernised, without a head cover
with mobile phone attached to one ear) who had booked her own flight on the
internet failed to pay for additional suitcase which she was carrying and
needed to pay hefty fine for her failure. She refused, causing a scene and lovely Aman came to her rescue by allowing all
her friends’ excess luggage to be transferred to her own suitcase.
The non
stop verbal diarrhoea on friend's mobile phone continued from Coventry and it never left her until she was
on the plane and it started again when we landed in Pisa. Aman was kind enough
to act as a translator for me as most of the conversations were in Arabic, I
was well entertained! We arrived in Pisa
for three nights stay and our first day went fairly smoothly. The city of Pisa is fairly
small, well organised sight where the leaning tower of Pisa stands, is surrounded by other wonders
of Italian architecture; well worth the visit. The following day we boarded a
train to Florence.
I was there in 1988 when the centre of the city was completely covered with
plastic sheets for cleaning the great statues and I was very happy to be there again
to spend time admiring the great works of art without any plastic sheets around
them, however my two companions had enough after one hour and wanted to head
back to Pisa to sort out their next adventure.
On the 3rd day, our final day, the girls wanted
to go to Rome and Venice
but had no idea which directions both cities were facing and how far the cities
were from Pisa.
They did not consult me about their next move but went straight to the Italian
travel agent at the station on our return from Florence. After hours of talking in English
to the agent and then in Arabic to each other they realised (to the agent’s
relief) that it was mission impossible and they could only visit one place,
they decided on Venice. The journey to Venice
from Pisa was an early start for them and the
arrival time to Venice
was late in the evening. When they arrived in Venice late in the evening they spent most
their time cruising in the water taxi and then sleeping in one of them, apparently
the water taxis go on all night (they said). During the early hours of the following
morning they arrived back in Pisa
and went to sleep for few hours as they had to be ready in time to catch their
fight after lunch time.
Aman’s friend had bought far too many souvenirs to bring
back to
England.
Aman and I had to share some of her luggage so that she does not end up paying
for excess baggage. On our return journey home, both girls were so tired of
their three days adventure that they both went off of sleep in the plane and
then on the coach home.
Whilst the girls were having adventure of their life time going
to
Venice, I simply caught my train to
Siena a beautiful city in the region of
Tuscany
and then to
Lucca the walled city where the
great man Puccini was born, both were beautiful places to visit and within a
train ride away from
Pisa.
The whole experience with the girls started off being fun
with young Middle Eastern girls but soon turned into frustration I could have done without; once bitten twice shy, I cannot see myself
falling Eastern charm again!
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