Tusker3: A grand day out ...

Yesterday we planned to go to Pisa to visit an art gallery. We tried this a couple of Sundays ago, but our train was cancelled, kaiboshing the plan. This time we planned a variation. Rather than take the direct route, we planned to get the train "the wrong way", ie up the valley away from Pisa to a place called Aulla, where we could then get a connection to Pisa down the coastal railway line, which we have never been on.

What actually happened at Aulla was - we boarded the wrong train, and just as we realised, the train took off - for Parma!

Well, we got off at the next stop - Villafranca - which we had never heard of, but interesting enough - the mountains in the distance were different anyway. There was a train to Pisa scheduled, but we had an hour and a half to kill. The town itself was rather dull, until after quite a walk, we homed in on the church, which is usually where the old part is, and were rewarded with a beautiful walled town which is on the Via Francigena - the medieval pilgrims' way from Canterbury to Rome.

After a coffee in the old town, we headed back to the station - and got on the right train this time. The trip down the coast is interesting. The land is very flat to the seaward side , so there was no view of the sea, but nearby sidings were full of huge blocks of marble from the quarries at Carrara - which themselves were visible in the distance looking like great patches of snow on the mountain sides.

In Pisa, we only had time to see the tower, have a delicious lunch in a really nice busy restaurant, and then hop on the train back to Barga. That art gallery'll just have to wait!