Bad Information

After spending a few days in Pisa, we decided to head to Camp Darby, an American military base about an hour south of Pisa. The English speaking hotel clerk at our first hotel had told us it was very simple to get to the base from the bus station; no bus changes and a short walk to the base's main gate.

This proved to be yet another reason to never stay at 2 star hotels again. I swear that the clerk at a 3 star hotel would have had good information.

The only part the man was right about was that we didn't have to change buses. The walk...not short. The gate...closed. I am all about physical activity. Our children are well practiced in hiking and walks, however not along busy, 2 lane roads. The walk to get to the gate was about 3 miles, not 3 kilometers. By the time we got to the gate, and found it was closed, I was about near tears. A security guard manning the gate told us we would have to walk back up the road we came in on, and turn left. The only gate they used was on another road. "Are you kidding?????" Insert a myriad of cussing here. On the verge of tears, restraining myself so my 3 year old would not start crying, we set back out to the other gate. At one point, DH was carrying both backpacks, and I was carrying a worn-out child. Shortly after that, DH and I were each wearing our backpacks and carrying a child on our shoulders. And to think my trainer from the gym in the states said I would get fat living in Italy.

At some point, the gate guy must have taken pity on us, and came back in his car to pick us up. The MP's met us at the gate, confirmed that we were not terrorists, and drove us to the travel office where we were able to book a hotel and get a car rental. After having spent so much time on our feet, I decided it would be better to take our chances driving rather than the risk of having to tote kids on my back again. There wasn't enough Vicodin in the world to ease away my back pain that night.

Ciao' for now!