When people think of Italy they tend to think of the Colosseum of Rome, the waterways of Venice, and the leaning tower of Pisa. I’d seen two of those all the way back in 2009, but I’d never been to Pisa. This trip to Milan and Florence was a way to correct that with a day trip to the town of Pisa.

To start my day I only needed to do one mile of running, so after photographing the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella I started running towards the dome we’d seen the day before, and then back. This dome turned out to be the one for the Basilica of San Lorenzo, a church from the 1400s. Even with stops for photographs, doing just a mile was never going to take long at all. It probably took longer going back up the steps to the apartment.

We set off at 08:30, heading in the direction of the train station, and then carried on past it to an area where there were a number of buses parked up near the Medici fortress. We soon found the ticket office for our tour, and were given stickers to show which tour we were on. When we boarded the bus we found I’d actually booked one that included lunch, so the sandwiches we’d packed were not needed!

We got to Pisa around 11:00, and from where the coach parked up it was a short walk to the cathedral. As you’d expect, outside of the square it’s very tourist-centred with many market stalls all selling the same or similar wares. There’s even a McDonalds that charges people €0.50 for using their facilities if you’re not eating there.

Inside the Piazza dei Miracoli we were going to be led to an English-speaking tour guide who would take us inside the cathedral and the observatory. We took a few photographs as we went along, and I decided I’d not bother photographing the Fontana dei Putti statue until after lunch when we’d have some free time. I carried on walking, but then after a few seconds I heard a crashing sound as if someone had fallen over. I started to turn to see if someone needed help, and then heard a scream. It was my sister, flat on the floor.

I rushed over to her as people were gathering around her and saw that people were already checking on her, so I checked on her phone to make sure nobody took it, and that it wasn’t damaged either. I know she’d have been even more upset if she’d had done, which fortunately she hadn’t. I then checked up on her, and she was in tears. One knee was grazed and bloody, but she hadn’t noticed that - she was complaining about her ankle that had given way when she’d fallen off the curb after having taken a photograph of the statue I’d not bothered with.

One couple was helping to clean up her graze and used up all of my sister’s water cleaning it up. Someone else provided some hand sanitiser for it, and someone else some tissues. Eventually I helped get her to the steps outside of the cathedral and the guide went to get some ice, whilst we used her jumper to elevate the leg. It was luck she’d had it with her as she was going to use it to cover her shoulders when going inside. The guide asked if she should call an ambulance, but we felt pretty sure it wasn’t broken.

I urged the others to carry on with the tour, and I stayed and helped her. It did mean that because the tickets were limited, I would not be able to join them for the tour at all. I would have to miss going inside any of the buildings - the cathedral and the observatory. I’d hoped to go up the Leaning Tower of Pisa as well, but the tickets for that are for around thirty people every fifteen minutes and sell out incredibly fast. What I’d seen so far was all I was going to see. Was it the last we’d get to see of Italy?

Once my sister had calmed down, and was comfortable, I transferred all of my water into her bottle so she’d have some. It meant I might get a little dehydrated during the course of the day, but as long as she was comfortable maybe, just maybe, she’d be okay tomorrow for some tourism around Florence. As awful as it sounds, it would have been very disappointing for us both if she couldn’t manage to see anything more.

I left her laying down in front of the cathedral in the shade for a few minutes whilst I quickly took a few photographs of the famous bell tower and the cathedral. It was difficult to get the shots I wanted, but I felt I couldn’t really hang around waiting - I needed to be back quickly. When I did return, the guide had rejoined us. Once I’d used her bandana to tie the ice to her ankle, we helped get her to the restaurant where she was able to put her foot up on a bench as she also ate lunch.

This was my best chance to hydrate as well, with two glasses of water. I’d get no more until the evening. We had a salad as a starter, of which I just ate the lettuce and sweetcorn, and then a strange looking lasagna as a main course. An American couple and a Canadian couple had joined us by the time everyone was ready to eat, and one of the Americans said he was from a band called Squirrel Nut Zippers. The strange thing is, I was sure I’d heard that name before, but couldn’t say why. It wasn’t until much later I remembered it was for ‘The Ghost of Stephen Foster’.

As soon as we’d both eaten our lunch, a waitress gave my sister some more ice for her ankle, and we started the long process of getting her back to the meeting point for the tour group.

We stopped a few times, and took those stops as chances to take photographs, and whilst she rested I made sure her ankle was iced, even if I had to do it. When we were about halfway to the meeting point she sat against a wall for a while whilst I photographed the outside of the observatory, and by the time I’d gotten back to her someone had given her some plasters for the cut, and some paracetamol for the pain. It was awfully kind of them, just as it had been for everyone that’d helped her so far.

When we got out of the square we eventually made it back to the meeting point about one minute late, but we weren’t the last to arrive amazingly. As we thought it might take a while for her to get back the coach, we set off ahead of the group and made it back first. In fact, even limping along, my sister overtook some people walking with another tour group. I was also quite surprised I found our way back to the coach park as I’d not really paid attention to where we’d come from. Maybe my sense of direction isn’t all that bad.

Once the group had caught up with us at the coach park it was then a short wait for the coach to arrive, and this then took us thirty minutes back towards Florence to visit Lucca.

Lucca is a place I’d not heard of before a colleague recommended visiting there, and the guide had said that the place is so nice that when the Rolling Stones were performing in Italy, Mick Jagger had requested that they play in Lucca. The place is so small though that they’d had to play just outside instead.

When we arrived outside the walled city, my sister decided that she’d have a go at the one hour long walking tour of the city. For this we had a different guide, and she took us through the Porta San Pietro and showed us the Oratorio della Madonna. She then led us down a street that passed a Gelataria that had opened in 1927, and then to the Piazza Napoleone which had been named this by the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Of the churches we passed after this, the most notable one was Saint Martin’s Cathedral which has a big open square in front of it, and a tall bell tower. We also saw a clock tower, and a large open square called Piazza dell’Anfiteatro that had many markets around it. This walking tour then ended at the twelfth century church of Saint Michele, before being taken down a side street to the Pinelli bakery for some Buccellato cake tasting. Apparently it’s a cake that the bakeries of Lucca are proud of, and each one will use a slightly different recipe with an ingredient they don’t tell others. The one we had, we could easily taste liquorice in. I didn’t mind it, but my sister wouldn’t touch it.

Although we now had an hour of free time, this was my sister's chance to rest her ankle for a while so to begin with she sat on the curb. My intention was to get us back to the cathedral and to go up the bell tower, so as soon as she felt ready I helped her to the cathedral, but she didn’t feel she could go in, so sat in the shade on the steps outside.

The cathedral is €3.00 to go in, and a further €3.00 if you want to go up the bell tower. However, you can also pay €10.00 to include the cathedral museum next door, and another place I never got to see. I started off with the cathedral and decided it was nothing special, so got around that in just a few minutes. Around the corner from this is the entrance to the bell tower that also includes toilets you need to pay €0.50 to use, although there are some that are free inside the museum.

The bell tower starts off with stone steps that have a metal railing on one side that you can see through. I could imagine my sister would have had a problem climbing that even without her bad ankle as she struggles so much with heights. Even if she’d got past that, the next section would have been completely out of the question, as it even gave me pause at times as it felt like the stairs moved a little with each step. I was sure they would be safe though, they’re in the EU so must have some safety standards.

It took some time to get to the top, and once there I could see the big bells above. In each direction I could see out across Lucca, and could see a number of other towers about. Apparently there’s only two that tourists can go up now. The view from this one is obscured for photographs slightly by the protective mesh that stops people from falling out. I did however manage to avoid this by using my mobile phone right up against it.

It was then a steady descent back down to meet back up with my sister, and we took a slow walk around the corner to the museum. I looked around this incredibly quickly, not lingering to see anything for more than a few seconds, and skipping some things entirely. By the time I was done we’d got about twenty minutes to get back to the meeting point at Pinellis. Fortunately my sister managed to hobble well enough for us to get back in time, and still had a chance to buy some gelato, and use the washroom at the bakery. This time my choice was a chocolate and nut cone with a combination of mango and cherry scoops. I’d been tempted by salted caramel, but I had no water so couldn’t risk it making me too thirsty. My sister had about used up all the water I’d given her too, and we had no time to go looking for somewhere that would sell more.

We then headed back with the group to the coach, and began the ninety minute journey back to Florence, getting in at 18:00 as I’d predicted beforehand. It was tough for my sister walking back from there to the apartment, and even more so going up the 104 stairs, but she did eventually make it. As we’d already had one hot meal today, it did have the advantage of being able to have sandwiches and staying in this evening to rest her ankle as much as possible.

She did as much as she could to alleviate the swelling, and hoped that maybe we could still see some of the sights we’d planned for tomorrow.