Italy over Carnival - Pisa via Stansted - The 22nd of February 2020

An envisaged short trip to Italy which had been meticulously programmed many months before ended up putting the three of us right in the middle of the Corona virus outbreak. Upon reaching Stansted I was subject to body temperature measure, as was Mia and Liam before. This meant the queues were huge and by the time I managed to walk into my hotel room it was gone two in the morning and I didn't have but a few hours to relax before flying to Pisa.

 

 

 

The welcoming sun made us momentarily forget all the complicated airport procedures we had to go through and despite a certain sense of uneasiness we decided to make the most of it.

 

We walked from the train station to Piazza del Miracoli where our Hotel was located right in front of the leaning Tower.

The Baptistery, the leaning Tower,  the Medieval Cathedral and the Camposanto Monumentale were very impressive as seen from the outside. Having realised the situation around the virus was a lot more complicated than  we had initially expected, we decided to keep away from groups of people and avoid crowded places even at the expense of not visiting some of the well known Monuments we had gone to Italy for.

 

 

Many of the Carnival parades were cancelled but in the evening we came across a live Musical show that made up for the absence of other festive demonstrations. 

The Window to the Tower Hotel