There are 37 people on this aircraft. It’s September 2020. 

Restrictions have lifted enough in the Uk for us to travel to countries on the green list. Every Thursday brings amendments to the list and so far Italy is go go go!

We land at Pisa airport and it is empty. It is 5pm local time and all services are closed. This is strange. Following the signs, we head to the Pisa mover that’ll take us into the heart of the city. Masks are on, backpacks strapped up and feet are eager. This is the kind of transport I like. Just EUR2.70 each and 5 minutes to the destination! Next stop: Pisa Centrale.

It is a 25 minute march to our only stop in the city. The daylight is fading and we must get back for our train to Florence. We cross the Arno river, so still in the evening sun and I have to pinch myself to believe that our postponed Italy trip has finally begun. We weave our way through old apartment buildings, where the restaurants underneath are just starting their terrace table service and the sounds of humanity grow louder.

And then, there she is. The leaning tower of Pisa. We emerge onto Piazza del Duomo and the setting sun streams its light upon this architectural wonder. It is illuminating. The whole scene is. There are more people here than in both the airports we have passed through today and they are smiling. Covid feels like a bad dream that we have now woken from. There are families taking selfies, couples arm in arm strolling and the army around the base of the tower. All life is here. 

The sky is various shades and shapes of mottled grey. But underneath the Cathedral and Tower of Pisa glow in the most magnificent light. It is the most spectacular welcome to any vacation we’ve had. We enter the Piazza and head left towards the Porta Nuova. The sun continues its journey towards the horizon and the intensity makes the scene dance before us. We stop every couple of metres to pick out the extraordinary details of the tower. It is a picture that will never need a filter. A memory that will never be replaced. A piece of life slotted into the dread of 2020.

The grass of the Piazza is the greenest grass we’ve seen. The light is the brightest. The smiles are wider. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve experienced something like a pandemic.  The good times are magnified. They boom out of the silence.

We follow the square around to the Battistero di San Giovanni. A huge circular building that is currently playing peekaboo with the sun. The detail on the facade is breathtaking and reminds me why Italy is one of the top destinations in the world. Italy’s unassuming nature to have these structures sitting just a stone’s throw away from regular life. Restaurants, stations and homes. It’s like this place just sprung up one day. And life just carried on without fuss or bother. 

The shadows grow long on the grass as we walk alongside the Cathedral, which in its own right dominates the space. With the light fading the marble turns from orange to a light grey. It is disappearing into the night’s sky. 

Up ahead the tower is alive burning orange in the sunset and the details are darkening by the second. It is transforming before us. I am so glad we came.

The initial plan was to use Pisa for its airport and head straight to Florence. Tourist traps are not my guide when planning city breaks. They’re all good and well dotted here and there in a day’s plan, but I find myself more and more drawn to the life of cities than the lines of citizens of the world, elbowing each other for photos and the best vantage point. But the fact of the matter this time was the proximity to something that I couldn’t pass by. An hour’s grace and detour meant it was done and dusted. Been there, done that. And yet it became so much more than that. It was the gateway of the whole trip. It started as it would then go on. Fulfilling every promise. Healing the fears of 2020 and soothing the worries for the future. Pisa encapsulated the feeling that life would move on. That people could come together again, smiling, laughing and enjoying the simplicity of existing.