Cindybelle's Bella Notte TR COMPLETE!! - UPDATED 10/19 With Prices! - Page 15 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Great work Cindy. Love the photos. Keep them coming. Have never been to Pisa in my two trips to Italy. Not part of the tour itinerary. Would like to some day. Have been to Firenze and most recently Lucca of Tuscany in 2006. Another lovely small town in Italy. Great pedestrian areas, narrow streets and the cuisine, I'm sure I don't even need to mention. Great local specialties. Visited some of the exquisite villas here. Pretty amazing and lavish to say the least. Saw how the upper elite live in this region.
Lucca is also a great place for bike riding. Especially, on the old fortification wall where there is great bike route that runs for a good mile or so. Great experience!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 10-01-2009 at 08:26 PM..
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As promised, we have finally reached the part of my story that involves us giving another tourist a magical moment. We enjoyed Pisa so much that it was after 5:30pm when we got back to the train station to purchase tickets for the 18:00 (6:00pm) train back to Firenze. The train was 30 minutes late in arriving, so by the time it got there, a lot of passengers had assembled. We grabbed four seats together in our crowded car, and then we sat -- and sat -- and sat as the engineer started the engine and then it died. And died. And died.
Finally, the engineer got off and didn't come back. Suddenly, another train official came aboard, shouted something in Italian, and left. Immediately, everyone started gathering their things and practically raced off the train. We did likewise, assuming that we were being diverted to another train.
I was the first of our group to exit. As Rick followed me, he noticed that some other passenger must have left a backpack behind in his haste. Rick pointed out the backpack to Paul, and the two stood for awhile, uncertain what to do. It was clear we needed to move fast to get to the awaiting train for Firenze. Paul grabbed the backpack, figuring we'd hand it to the first train official we saw.
Hence the problem: we didn't see any train officials. When we reached our new platform, the train was just about loaded and ready to go. We got on board and then wondered what we should do next. No official ever came into our car.
Rick went through the backpack, looking for I.D. (and also concerned that there might be drugs inside -- we sure didn't want to get blamed for THAT). He found an airline stub for a guy named Andrea, who apparently had flown to Pisa that morning from Amsterdam. We figured Andrea was young, based on the contents of the bag: a camera, a Playstation, and other electronic gear. I suggested looking at the photos, because maybe we'd recognize someone from the train. Most of the photos were of young men.
When we arrived at the Firenze train station, we again looked for an official or for any young man resembling anyone in the photos we'd seen. No luck. We were headed for the Tourist Office when Rick and I spotted the "Polizia" office. They had a glass door that was locked. A police officer saw us looking at him and buzzed us in.
Paul was holding the backpack, so the police officer asked him all the questions and took down his passport number. (We joked later that we could have left Paul literally holding the bag. ) While Paul was explaining how we got switched from one train to another and took the backpack along, a young Italian man suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass door -- looking extremely anxious. Then he spotted the backpack and broke into a huge smile.
The police officer buzzed him in, and the young man (who spoke little English) started shaking all our hands and crying, "Grazie! Grazie!"
I took this picture of Paul and Andrea -- I'm not sure which of them looks more relieved!
Then we walked back through Firenze from the train station. It was nearly 20:00 (8:00pm), which is the height of the dinner hour -- and we were all and in need of a celebratory after bestowing a magical moment on Andrea! We managed to grab the last available table at Coquinarius, a place recommended to us by Gabriella at B&B Il Bargello. The food was MOLTO BENE, but I'm going to gloss over that so I can get to another MAGICAL MOMENT.
Now, remember how I told you September 8 is celebrated in Firenze as the Virgin Mary's birthday? Well, they start celebrating the evening of September 7 with "Rificolone" (Festival of the Paper Lanterns). Rick had read about it online before we left the U.S., and we all agreed we'd keep an eye out for the parade of children with paper lanterns. By the time we finished dinner, we assumed we'd missed any parade, so we began our usual wanderings through town.
Suddenly we heard what sounded like a New Orleans Dixieland band, and we saw a crowd of people near an intersection. You guessed it -- we'd bumped smack into the Festival of the Paper Lanterns!
We immediately started snapping pictures -- many of which are blurry because our subjects were moving and we were being a bit jostled. But you get the idea:
That's not all -- here's how I KNEW it was a magical moment -- and all of you, dear PP friends, will understand my excitement when I saw this:
The Mouse is in the house!
What a great ending to our fabulous day -- from Firenze to Pisa and back again!
.
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After the parade of children and their parents went by, we wandered the streets of Firenze some more and come upon some artists creating amazing chalk art of the Virgin Mary -- right in the streets! I quickly snapped some photos.
I'm showing you this one upside-down so you can look at the art:
And here's one that the artists were working on as we walked up:
Doesn't that all look amazing! My eyes are welling up, just looking at those and remembering those artists working.
WOW! Cindy - so much magic in one day! Good for you for being good samaritans and trying to get the backpack to the right owner. And a Mickey lantern! The chalk drawings are amazing!
More great pictures Cindy. Amazing how you bestowed some magic on Andrea with the back pack. "Disney Magic" will follow you no matter where you may be. You just never know when it will happen to you!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 10-02-2009 at 07:15 PM..
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We were headed for the Tourist Office when Rick and I spotted the "Polizia" office. They had a glass door that was locked. A police officer saw us looking at him and buzzed us in.
) While Paul was explaining how we got switched from one train to another and took the backpack along, a young Italian man suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass door -- looking extremely anxious. Then he spotted the backpack and broke into a huge smile. 
and in need of a celebratory 
after bestowing a magical moment on Andrea! We managed to grab the last available table at Coquinarius, a place recommended to us by Gabriella at B&B Il Bargello. The food was MOLTO BENE, but I'm going to gloss over that so I can get to another MAGICAL MOMENT. 
But you get the idea:
The chalk drawings are amazing!
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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