One such place I've been thinking needed a visit was Montecatini Terme. It's stop on the train between Lucca and Florence so I frequently hear the name. I've also noticed out the window as we've trained by that it looks delightful and seemed to be in two parts: a lower and an upper.
After some research, it turned out the upper part is Montecatini Alto (literally Upper Montecatini), the original town. It is reached by a funicular railway and boasts one of the prime views of Tuscany. Montecatini Terme (literally Montecatini Hot Springs) is the more modern town that is home to a collection of baths and spas. A resort get away for Italians. What better place to visit when it's only a 20 minute train ride away, right? Get to see some big bath houses and springs, ride a funicular, get a great view of the valley, beautiful!
Alas, the day started off as these days seem to. I managed to misread the train schedule and got us to the train station just in time for our train to arrive...at our destination. I had switched the arrival and departure times. Oops. To make things even better, the train runs every 30 minutes...except between the train we missed and the next one when there is an inexplicable 2 hour break in service. Strike 1. So be it, an afternoon in Montecatini instead of a morning then!
We arrived just in time for lunch and found a cafe not far from the station that was actually one of the brighter spots in the day. Unlike many towns here, this downtown is quite modern and, by my now spoiled-by-living-here sensibilities, rather plain. It doesn't feel old like many other small Italian towns nor grand or unusual enough to be particularly interesting. I imagine Montecatini Alto would be more traditional and what we were hoping for. Below is one of the more interesting things we saw: a tree that had eaten a taxi sign.
Our first stop was to be a large public bath/spa area in the middle of town. I had seen some pictures online of cool old looking fountains and columns and water flowing with a general "that would be cool to check out" look to it. Upon finding it however, we found it was fenced up and closed for the season. Seems strange to me that a nice warm spa would be closed for the cool months, but I digress. So strike 2. The pictures show all we could see. Looks cool, but that's as close as we could get and nothing was going on.
The park in which the spa is located however offered a bit of win though. It's a quite expansive park with a lot of fields and nice paths to meander. Sadly no playground for the kids, but a very cool forested area that we spent a good half hour exploring and playing Predator & Prey (also called Eagle Eye) and other games you normally only get to play at camp. Foul tip, still Strike 2.
Reenergized by the park, we made our way toward the funicular to enjoy that ride and to check out the view from above. This had been one of the major selling points for the excitement of the day. I mean, who doesn't love a funicular ride!? (I had been selling it the line "Dad puts the "fun" in funicular!) With little difficulty we made our way half way across town on foot, with only a bit of complaining, to the station...only to discover that it and the railway itself are closed for renovation until March. Strike 3.
Figuring the day would be a complete loss, we came across Termeland (no joke) on our walk back to the station. Termeland, as you might imagine, is a (very feeble) attempt at conjuring a Disneyland like place in the middle of this small town. It consisted of a large playground, a jumpy house, a small fun house, and a ball pit along with a very small bumper car track and a few small games. Imagine a glorified elementary school PTA carnival and you're on the right track. However, after a day full of "almost fun" and "should've been cool", it was a welcome escape for the girls so we paid the 5 Euro fee and they ran around for a bit before our walk back to the train (and mandatory stop for gelato). Oh, and by the by, for those who, like me before I moved here, don't know, that character Arya is next to is not called Mickey Mouse here. He's known as Topolino. And for those who are curious yes, Minnie is Topolina. And because I know you'll ask, Donald is Paperino, Daisy is Paperina, Goofy is Pippo, and Pluto is...well...Pluto.
I believe this is the first one of these trips that has really fallen quite so flat. I'm not sure if my research wasn't strong enough before going or if we just had bad luck. The good news is, even in the failure of the original objectives, we still found a way to have a good time. Guess I call that a win after all.
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