2.5 Hours

We arrived in Pisa and waited outside for our host, V, to pick us up. We had decided to Couch Surf for the first time! I had arranged everything with this guy who had great references and said he would be happy to host us. I, however, failed to mention it would be a guy and a girl. So as we are waiting by the fountain I receive a text from the guy asking if it would be "two womens or guy and girl". I was getting worried that he wasn't going to show up because there was a guy with me. However, his Couch Surfing profile stated that any gender could stay with him, so I still had hope. He finally showed up 15 minutes late and kept going on and on about there being a guy. His English was poor, so it was difficult to understand everything he said. But he basically was saying he thought it was going to be two girls because my profile picture is of me and another girl. And that he would like to know ahead of time so it's not such a surprise. We apologized, but I was really thinking 'Well, that's what you get when you assume. If it was really that big of a deal, you should've asked before offering to let us stay'. By the time we arrived to the house, he had gotten over the initial shock of it being a guy and girl. He took us to his friend's house, which is where the extra bedroom was. Zach and I were slightly confused with the situation, but we think the room is rented during the summer to vacationers and during the winter they let Couch Surfers use it free of charge. The room was nice and big. The bathroom, not so much. It was shared by the all the roommates, so we chose to use it as minimally as possible. They had put clean sheets on the bed and laid towels out for us to use. The back of the door had information about the wifi and a taxi number. One guy who lived there knew very little English, but was quite funny and friendly. The other roommates were a bit stand-offish. They did say "Ciao" when they saw us though. We got settled in and then headed out with V for our full walking tour of Pisa.

The first stop was a famous square where men would arrive on their horses way back when for meetings. The square is now home to a University and a few shops.

Our next stop was the most anticipated! We had made it to the Leaning Tower of Pisa! It was so neat to see it in person. Tickets could be purchased to climb the stairs inside to the top, but we opted to just admire it from the outside and take the cliche' photo.

Unfortunately, our photographer was much better at the tour guide gig than the photographer one so that -->
picture didn't quite turn out. But I still like it!

Zach, V, and I

Although V's English was limited, we were still able to communicate. We talked about superstitions, which just so happens to be the same in Italy as in America. I explained to him how I fell off an elephant in Thailand. And he told us how he wants to visit Brazil before America. At dinner, we taught him the word "mall" and about the Mall of America. We ate at little restaurant on the main shopping street of Pisa. I ordered a cutto (similar to ham) and mozzarella sandwich. It looked amazing, but tasted completely opposite. The cutto smelled like wet dog, so I couldn't eat it. It was terrible. I tried scraping it off and just eating the mozzarella and bread, but the smell was still there. Zach enjoyed his calzone though and V drank his Fanta. After dinner we got gelato! Chocolate and banana was such a great choice!

The last part of Pisa V wanted to show us was of a building with a mural on the side of it, which was done by a famous New York writer in 1989. Technically, he was an artist. I guess V was just a bit confused on the word. He was very surprised though that Zach and I had no idea who Keith Haring was.

The mural was interesting and it was neat that it was completed in the year Zach and I were born. After this, V said, "The tour of Pisa is finished." This full tour of Pisa only lasted about two and a half hours. Pisa is such a small town and is only famous because of the Leaning Tower, but it was definitely worth the trip!

Tuttomondo
According to Wikipedia, "In June, on the rear wall of the convent of the Church of Sant'Antonio (in Italian: Chiesa di Sant'Antonio abate) in Pisa (Italy), he painted the last public work of his life, the mural "Tuttomondo" (translation: "the whole world")."