[Itinerary Page]The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
September 26 - Nice to Pisa
Travel days always seem to be non-events. I will say that traveling by train will make you re-think how you pack! The roller bags are definitely the preferred solution on flat, even surfaces, but get away from the straight and level and it gets a lot tougher.
Access to European trains requires negotiating a long set of steps from the station down to the tunnel under the tracks, then back up another set of steps to get on the proper platform. Then you have to hoist the bags up into the train and wrestle them down the aisle (while others are trying to wrestle THEIR bags in the opposite direction.
Eventually it all gets sorted out, of course, but there were times in there when I wished I had gone with the shoulder bag! Aside from the bag-schlepping problem, train travel in Europe is fast, clean, remarkably on time and reasonably priced, particularly in light of gas at $8-9 a gallon!
We left Nice at 10am and arrived in Pisa at 5pm. It was too late to search out the Leaning Tower -- and we had made that particular pilgrimage on a previous trip anyway -- so we settled into our hotel, visited a local trattoria for a plate of pasta and called it a day. Tomorrow ... Tuscany.
© 2008 Restaurant Doctor