After several days in Rome, we took the train north to Florence for a day before heading to
Civitavecchia to meet our cruise ship. From Florence to Civitavecchia, we had to change trains in Pisa,
the home of the famous Torre
pendente di Pisa (The Leaning Tower of Pisa), so, with a two hour layover, we decided to take a taxi
to the tower to see it and take some pictures. We were told it was only about a ten minute ride (which it was),
so, dragging our luggage, we headed out of the train station to find a couple of taxis. We were travelling
light, so the luggage wasn't a problem.
Outside the station, we were only able to find one cab waiting. I had asked the hotel desk
clerk in Florence to compose a note for us that read something like, "Can you please take us to the tower, wait for us for a few
minutes, then take us back to the train station.", and when I showed it to the taxi driver, he seemed more than
happy to take us. But we needed another taxi, and there were none around, so, with hand signals and broken English,
we managed to get him to call for one on his radio. We waited a while, but no other taxi showed up, so Teresa, Steve,
and I loaded our luggage into the back, hopped into the taxi and headed off to see the tower, figuring the others
would be coming along shortly.
The ride to the tower, which sits in the Campo dei Miracoli ("Field of Miracles"), was short. Upon arriving, we
decided that one of us would remain in the taxi at all times
to make sure the driver didn't take off with our luggage. (We were pretty distrustful of the Italians, after a
bad experience at our hotel in Rome on the first night.) So while I sat in the taxi, Steve and Teresa took pictures,
then Steve and I changed places, and Teresa and I took pictures, all the time the meter ticking, all the time waiting for the
rest of our group to show up. But they didn't.
We got the taxi driver to call on his radio several times tryting to find out if anyone picked up Mei-O, Grace,
and John, but apparently, he couldn't get any information about their whereabouts. So after about 20-25 minutes of
waiting, we decided to go back to the train station, where they could use our taxi and still have plenty of time to
see the tower and take pictures. As close as the tower was, and with the long layover, it wouldn't be a problem.
When we got back to the train station, we saw Grace, John, and Mei-O standing around their luggage. I motioned
to them to come over to use our taxi to go see the tower, and was quite surprised by Grace's response that they'd
"...already been there and back, and where were we for so long, running up the meter, ...." We paid our taxi driver
the 17 Euro fare, pretty reasonable for the ride and the time he
spent waiting for us. When we told Grace how much it was (we had a common account for things like taxis, etc. that
Grace was in charge of), she was really surprised! We had been there a lot longer than they had, and their fare was over
30 Euros! At first, we couldn't figure out what happened, but finally realized that they had been taken to the other
side of the tower, to a parking area behind a big wall that they had to walk around, while our driver took us closer
to the tower and waited in the street. Because they had to walk around the long wall, they all three decided to go
together, leaving the luggage in the taxi, and leaving the taxi driver alone with the meter running. The best we can tell
is that the driver 'goosed' the meter a few times (there are buttons on the meters that the drivers can press to increase
the fare for things like extra passengers, luggage, etc.), which drove their fare up to almost double ours.
So, we all got to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we got to take some pictures with it, the second
taxi driver didn't take off
with our luggage (whew!), and we now have arguments over which way the tower leans. In my pictures, it leans to the left,
while in John's pictures, it leans to the right!
