Day 15- How Nice

Due to our late night touring of Florence we slept in as late as we could and packed up our stuff not knowing what was ahead of us or where we were headed. We ate one last delicious brunch in Florence and walked around a bit more before saying areverderci to the city. We headed to the train station just in time as it began downpouring just as we got to the station. Pisa sounded interesting! We bought our first ticket to Pisa and off we went.

On the train we met two more Americans who seemed to think we were really cool until we started talking about WWOOFing on farms. I guess WWOOFing isn't cool in CT?
We got off at Pisa and got very little help from anyone with finding this leaning tower. Instead of roaming around Pisa on our own to find it (because we know how great we are at that) we boarded the next train right away that was headed to Genova (semi in hopes for making up for our previous stop in Ancona).

More friends were made, this time Australians. Now people are beginning to use pick lines on us! The train ride was spent trying to figure out where we were and where exactly we were going. Thanks to the Australians we got to look at a map! We decided on the nice ville of Nice Ville. Should be nice in Nice!

After figuring out that we would be in France, we had to cancel our flight from Italy. This was not an easy task. While switching trains and going on buses, we were attempting to work out all our arrangements, thank you Henrik. Now we don't have to trek back to Italy.

Anyways, Genova was exactly was we hoped for. The city is right on the coast and was filled with carnivals, dog shows, beaches, and happy people everywhere. After being famished from hours of train rides and no gelato breaks like we got used to
In Florence we searched Genova for food. With only an hour till our next train we took a bus to the water front and grabbed the first paninis we could find. We had a speed-picnic overlooking the water and headed back for train number three.

This three hour train ride to Ventimiglia was the prettiest train ride imaginable. It was if we were on a boat as we rode along the coast of Italy the entire time. To pass the time we sang Disney concerts and learned rap lyrics and to our surprise got no looks of disapproval. We must have sounded great! When we got to Ventimiglia we thought that we might be stranded there for the night as we couldn't find anyy train tickets to Nice. The train station workers were very helpful by explaining to us that we could only by beer from them, not train tickets. We hoped on the next train that came that was headed to Monaco. Our third country! We got to be outside in Monaco (the vegas of Europe) for about a whole 15 minutes, but we decided this amount of time is sufficient enough for a thumb tack.

Finally we boarded our fifth and last train to Nice! Henriette was at the station waiting for our arrival. As random as this sounds to you...it was to us as well. When we were in Switzerland she kept offering to put us up if we ever were visiting the area. After our Italian fiasco we decided to take her up on this offer, hoping the short notice wouldn't be a problem. She was more than happy to have us! She brought us back to her apartment overlooking the entire city. INCREDIBLE. She is going to show us around the city tomorrow and her daughter and nephew are going to take us out at night.

We already knew that Henriette was very nice but by welcoming us into her home in Nice, nice doesn't do her justice!

Au revoir!

-J and C