Let’s go, Pisa!

So, our last day in Morocco has arrived. At 6:25 PM, we’re off! :o) Yallah Pisa (=let’s go to Pisa). Today, the entire medina was open again, so we took a taxi down there to spend a bit more money... and get "swindled." It’s almost unavoidable. We picked up a few more belts—still 70 dirham for two! Since we hadn’t had breakfast, we were pretty hungry by 11 AM. A seller recommended a restaurant, so we decided to give it a try. It could have turned out to be a nice local experience... but unfortunately, it didn’t. It ended up feeling like a scam. It took an hour for them to serve the starter, a tiny salad. Normally, that would come out in just 5 minutes. We ordered the same thing to keep it simple, but somehow we ended up with different main courses—one got chicken and the other lamb. The portions were incredibly small. Usually, the dishes are so big we can’t finish them. Three courses cost 80 dirham, but it definitely wasn’t worth it. Feeling hungry and with our new purchases in tow, we searched for an exit—it can take a bit of time! :o) After that, we hopped in a taxi back to Ville Nouvelle, where we found a restaurant to satisfy our last cravings before heading to the airport. A taxi out there costs 100 dirham and takes about 30 minutes. The airport is small, so don’t expect too much. Ryan Air is known for its punctuality, so we arrived 20 minutes before the scheduled arrival time of 11:20 PM. Pisa Airport is only 5 km from the city, so we quickly made it to our hotel by taxi. We had made a reservation in advance through tripadvisor.com, which highly recommended this hotel that has been in the same family for over 200 years. Royal Victoria Hotel is right by the Arno River and only about 7 minutes from the city’s main attraction—the Leaning Tower. Everywhere you look in the hotel, there are pictures and memories from its long history. It’s an incredibly beautiful and cozy hotel with a great breakfast buffet. We were excited to spend the evening in Italy, so we quickly headed out to find a restaurant. Even though it was getting late, the eateries were still open. Close to our hotel was a really charming restaurant with good prices. Tapas for 6 euros. Pizza for 6.5 euros. Wine for 5.5 euros. By chance, there was an Italian family at the table next to us who had been on the same flight from Morocco. We struck up a conversation with them. They owned several houses around Italy, and they gave us their business cards so we could book one if we wanted to later. They even had a house in Sicily with a view of Etna—wow!