Pisa offers a quiet holiday. Apart form the Leaning Tower square where the tourists flock, the city is fee of the kind of crowds one sees at Florence. An 11 KM bus ride brings us to Marina de Pisa, the coastal extension of the city, where the Ligurian Sea and quaint buildings provide a few hours of relaxed walks. However, there isn't much of a beach. Gone is the tension of the previous night, when,flying into Italy in the late hours, my wife and I were a little apprehensive. Compared to Germany where we had spent three weeks, Italy, one thought, was 'unsafe'. The fears were compounded when the night bus from the airport terminated at the railway station instead of going all the way to out hotel. "Ten Euros, " said the cab driver at the station when asked how much the ride to the hotel would cost. Quite sure he war overcharging, we got in nevertheless. At 10:30 p.m., we anyway had little choice. The streets were dimly lit and the driver was uncommunicative. Stopping at a desolate building after we had clearly gone out of the city limits, he announced: "Your hotel." I gave him a 10-Euro bill and turned away. But the Cabman stopped me. "Your change, sir," he said pointing to the meter which read 8.20 Euros. The small change I got back that day was like receiving the certificate of a nation's honesty. Italy, as it turned out, was just fine. Pisa offers a quiet holiday. Apart form the Leaning Tower square where the tourists flock, the city is fee of the kind of crowds one sees at Florence. An 11 KM bus ride brings us to Marina de Pisa, the coastal extension of the city, where the Ligurian Sea and quaint buildings provide a few hours of relaxed walks. However, there isn't much of a beach. Gone is the tension of the previous night, when,flying into Italy in the late hours, my wife and I were a little apprehensive.