Italy trip of Pisa, Siena, Luca in Tuscany: Airline lost my baggage but I am still enjoying it!

“Stay safe in Rome” said the security officer at Seattle airport when he saw that my destination in Italy was Rome.

I was very excited when I learned that my husband will be attending a Data conference in Italy and I get to go with him. I have never been in Italy before, so I started trip planning. While trip planning, my husband found a website dedicated to how to avoid pickpockets in Italy. These days, high-tech pickpockets digitally scan your credit cards or passports with chips so we even bought RFID blocking bags where we can store stuff with chips. The website said to blend in with locals, but being Asians and reading maps on streets looking lost make it hard for us to look like locals.

Our final destination was Pisa, and we had 2 connecting flights, laying over at Los Angeles and Rome. When we got to Rome for connecting flight, we had to run through a long passageway at Rome airport to catch the flight to Pisa. Hot weather, and running hard made me sweat. Not a stylish way to start off the trip. When we got to the gate, the attendant told to go to gate 19. My husband and I ran as fast as we can to catch the flight on time. When we got to gate 19, other attendant told us to go to another gate! Luckily we made it because the flight was delayed.

When we got to Pisa, we waited for our luggages, which never showed up. Alitalia airline lost our luggages in Rome. We waited about 2 hours before our turn to file the claim at Lost & Found. They said that it usually happens and people usually get the luggages back. They looked laid back, and didn’t seem concerned. Well, it never happened to me before, but after all we arrived in Italy. Let our trip begin!

In Pisa, we stayed in a hotel next to central train station. If you plan to travel to different cities, staying close to train station is highly recommended. Pisa is known for leaning tower, and in fact it is more of college town. At night, when we strolled around the town, it was somewhat peaceful, and only locals seemed to be hanging around the restaurants, and eateries. Many locals are college students, so the town can be vibrant with young people at night. Many of them were sitting on the edges of the bridges overlooking a river. My husband and I tried the same thing just to experience what it is like to overlook the river.

Although we loved every single food we had in Italy, Pisa had the best seafood pasta and grilled swordfish which we had on the first night in Italy(Besel restaurant). It also provided appetizer buffet if you purchase 5 euro or higher drinks. Italians are very generous with food portions. They seem to take great pride in the cuisines. The food is generally healthier, with fresh ingredients. Even in super markets, I didn’t find many chips, chocolates or other junk food.

When you order food, coffee or anything, be sure to ask to see prices listed on menus. Remember to check if there are price differences between ‘to go’ and dining in. Once, we got charged almost 3 times more when dining in for coffee and bread instead of having ‘to go’(without taking a look at the menu). Charging 5 euros for a piece of bread was outrageous. Usually 1 euro for a piece of bread and no more than 3 euros for a cup of coffee if you take ‘to go’.

Still no sign of our luggages, and with the stores closed, the first night in Pisa was a bit different from what we expected, but we still had romantic night.

Pisa during the day can be very busy even on weekdays with people taking pictures in front of learning tower (posing as if they are pushing against the leaning tower is the common pose). You can pay for a combined ticket and visit several landmarks in the area where leaning tower is situated at. To climb up the leaning tower you need to make a reservation which gets sold out for the next few hours quickly. Even if you don’t climb the tower, there are plenty to see (baptistery, cathedral, cemetery, etc) in the square of Miracles (piazza dei Miracoli). Be sure to set out early in the day to avoid the heat. In Italy, water is usually not free in restaurants, so we had to always carry water bottles and fill water from fountains(not many are around) or purchase water bottles.

Not just in square of Miracles, but Pisa has many small buildings and parks. Just walking around corners of streets, you will find cute shops, squares, and some statues. Since they are not famous or well-known, you will experience the city like locals.

The next day, we took a train to Siena in Tuscany. Taking trains in Italy is quite convenient and pleasant, much more so than taking a bus or even flight! Scenery on the way to Siena from Pisa was very serene, with many trees and hills and took about an hour and 45 mins.

Trains travel between cities, and usually they don’t get sold out even on the day. Italy’s transportation systems are like honor system, meaning that often times they don’t check your tickets but when they do check and if you don’t have valid tickets, the fine you have to pay will be very expensive.

Many Italians told me that Siena is such a beautiful city and a must-see. Indeed, everywhere you go it feels like an art museum and has unique characteristics. It had somewhat hilly roads with narrow passageways and the roads had curvy sides to it. It had many beautiful, historic churches that are hundreds of years old, decorated ornately with paintings, statues, frescoes, etc.

Siena is more touristic than Pisa, and the food and drinks tend to be more expensive, so you want to avoid tourist traps. Restaurants near famous landmarks tend to be tourist traps. We used yelp, and tripadvisor for reviews. Many restaurants are not listed in yelp, so you can check both.

The food is very good and there are lots of gelatos, and dessert places. It has many cute shops with souvenirs, or bags and other fashion items from local artisans. We ordered calzoni and pizza, and we were stunned how big the calzoni was, as big as my husband’s head.

We got our luggages found and delivered to us on the third day! We were overjoyed because I wasn’t sure if the airline was ever going to find our luggages. Usually airlines give reimbursements for purchases you make up to a certain amount when they lose your luggages. So you can check their reimbursement policy in case it happens to you.

I traveled to Lucca by myself because my husband was doing a poster at the conference. I heard from some Italians that Lucca is a very nice town in Tuscany where it is not very touristic and can experience the local people’s lives. It is only about 40 mins away from Pisa by train.

It is surrounded by a walk that looks like a fortress. So you need to go into the wall from train station to get into the city. Because it is less touristic, many people don’t understand English much compared to major tourist cities like Rome.

I loved every city in Italy I visited because each one is so unique. But I will start out by saying that if I have to pick only one city as favorite, it will be Lucca. Many people probably haven’t heard of Lucca and that is why I really felt like I was living in the city as Italian when I visited there. I would see little kindergarten kids walking after their teacher, holding hands with each other. I will see little vendors with used books where Italians were reading the books and chatting over coffee. There are colorful candies that look almost like ‘healthy’ snacks.

Lucca is not a large city, and you can see the entire view of the city from a tower in the heart of the city. I went to 2 towers in Lucca. Guinigi tower is very interesting because it has trees on the top. Below is the pictures of Guinigi I took from a different tower. If you purchase combined ticket to both towers, you can get some discount.

The food in Lucca was amazingly good. I dined at a Trattoria restaurant which had good reviews. It was Tuscan food. Tuscan food is similar to Italian food, but serves some different ingredient dishes too which I liked. I had some pasta and zucchini pudding which literally melt in my mouth.

There are many museums and churches in Lucca as any other city in Italy. I felt like I was living in 15th century days. Each church was extravagant, and very unique. And there were some mansions and villas.

For a church, my favorite was Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata which had excavation exhibit under the church. The excavations were dating as old as 1st century. You can imagine how Romans bathed, and gathered. It was a bit spooky to walk in the underground excavation area by myself because it was dark and it made me imagine some dead souls lurking in the area.

Best museum in Lucca for me was National Museum. There were lots of paintings and statues well arranged uniquely in each room in a villa. It has good stories how each room was used and how the collection came into place. It took me a few hours to view the collections in the museum.

Lucca is convenient for shopping because it has such a variety of shops from luxury brands to local souvenirs/artisan goods. Many stores are situated next to each other, so you don’t have to walk a lot to check out many shops.

As usual, I finished the day with a sweet gelato. I had gelato every night and always got 3 flavors. So many flavors to choose from (mojito, baccio, etc). I blame gelato for gaining 4 pounds in just 12 days I spent in Italy!

In next blog post, I will share my trip to Florence and Rome in Italy. Please stay tuned.