Day 1: Rick Rocks!
Flooding, construction on the railways, and wall-to-wall Italians on holiday. This was our first glimpse of Italy. We arrived from Switzerland to the Milano train station prepared to buy tickets on the fast train to Florence in time to catch our tour group at 3pm. Little did we know that we choose to travel on this trifecta of bad days! By the time we found the ticket counter we had been told three times we would not get to Florence today, "try tomorrow." I fought tears as we waited for the final verdict. Thankfully a helpful English speaking gentleman greeted us at the front of the line. "All the fast trains are booked" he told us, then proceeded to explain all the above rarities, including informing us of the national holiday weekend. "But I can get you there. It's slower but cheaper, and hey you're on holiday, it's Italy, it'll be fine!" Relieved we bought the tickets and found a place for our first slice of Italian pizza while we waited for our train. Mind you this was at 10:00am...but we had been up for a while on the train from Switzerland already. We took 3 different regional trains, filled to the brim with local and foreign travelers. When we finally made it to Florence at 9:00pm we had missed the first part of our tour and (we thought) dinner. Thankfully we had been warned in Switzerland that we might be delayed because of the storms so we had used Sykpe to call Rick Steves' and tell our tour guide that we could be running late. When we found our way to the hotel we discovered that Ben, our Lead Tour Guide, had left us several notes throughout the day telling us where to meet them. We got back so late we were sure we missed dinner, but the hotel manager told us our group was not yet back, and gave us great directions to the restaurant just a couple blocks away. We felt sheepish as we walked in, looking tired and hungry, asking for "Rick Steves" but not knowing what any of our group looked like. When we rounded the corner and the waiter pointed out our group they sent up a cheer for us! It was such a lovely sound to hear and sight to see happy faces eager to meet us! Though they were on their third course everyone made room at the table and Ben had the two previous courses brought to us so we could catch up! And we were just hoping to make dessert! It was a perfect way to end a day gone...off schedule... :) Immediately we knew this trip, with this group of people, was going to be a blast.
FirenzeDay 2:
Today we saw Florence in the daylight for the first time. The sights were beautiful, the Duomo overwhelming, and the charm better than we could have asked for. Our group went to the Uffizi to meet our local guide who led us through the museum, pointing out the masterpieces and explaining the evolution of Florentine art. Then we ventured through the city on our own! Our first real taste of Italy. |
The Duomo
After walking through the silk market and the San Lorenzo leather market, we needed a bit of sustenance so we found a small sandwich shop behind one of the many leather stalls full of Itallians. As Rick says, find the spot filled with locals! We sat at a picnic style table with another Italian couple surrounded by family conversation in Italian and soaked up the atmosphere while we devoured our fabulously fresh lunch!
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Mercado CentralDay 3: Josh and I got up early to check out the Mercado Central with our new friends from the tour Chad and Tina. After seeing more types of meat than I could ever imagine, and rows of fresh mushrooms, fruits and vegetable stalls. Then we checked out of our Florence home Hotel Academia and jumped on the bus to head to our next stop; Lucca!
The Rocky Family Ready for Lucca
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