Our 10:15 am departure was delayed a half an hour. Seemed like a wasted shower earlier in the day with the hot and muggy temps and the hurrying to the train station. Fortunately the train had a/c (when it finally arrived), and we were able to board.
I started typing for my blog. It was an exercise in frustration typing on the iPad keyboard, but I was grateful at least to have my iPad. I have forgotten it before. This time I forgot the Apple keyboard. Uggh. It took me almost ten tries to type the word "frustration" at the beginning of this paragraph. We had a two-hour train ride, and I was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me.
We arrived in Florence amid the noise of the train station, traffic, and construction.
Lots of roads were blocked off making travel with suitcases a little challenging. We finally found a bus to the hotel, a Hilton Garden Inn, a short distance outside the city. Again we were working with Hilton points and needing two rooms. We were excited to have breakfast included.
The girls’ room was ready for us to check in to so we left all of our luggage there and set off for the afternoon. Misha decided to stay at the hotel for the day and have some downtime. She had Flat Amy for company (and apparently Amy was needing a nap).
Chris, Kristen, and I headed in to the heart of Florence to the Duomo. We caught the bus and sat across from these two punk boys who were noisy, had their feet up on the seats across from them, and were just being obnoxious. Kind of nice when karma happens. The bus patrolman was sitting behind us and popped out of his seat when we got going. Chris handily produced our tickets, But the boys had none. They had to hand over their ID. They got a ticket!!! And they spent the rest of the bus ride smack talking. It was satisfying.
Kristen wasn’t so thrilled to listen to the Rick Steve’s tour but we did anyway (the second time for Chris and I, but at least it wasn’t pouring rain this time!).
The square surrounding the Duomo was crowded with tourists. After finishing the audio tour we walked a couple of blocks away to find quieter streets and some gelato. Yum. We sat on some steps and watched the crowds and tours for a little while, we hadn’t had great meals today and all three of us were low on energy.
Chris in his research found a great lookout point above Florence with many stairs leading up to it. The stairs weren’t so fun, but the view was spectacular. Apparently it was even more crowded in the evening with tourists as many came to watch the sunset along the Arno river and the Ponte Vecchio. There were art students sitting on the steps drawing the scene. We figured Misha would have loved the experience. Except for the stairs. She definitely would not have liked the stairs!
We walked back down the steps to find a place for dinner and lucked out with a small trattoria next to the wall of Forte di Belvedere--Il Bastioni di San Niccolo.
Chris' calzone was shaped like a shark?
Much to Kristen’s disappointment, Chris wanted to explore the rode leading up the hill along the Fort wall. The road went on for miles without any way to turn left or right. The fort was walled off on one side with a six or seven foot wall and an equally high wall on the other side of the road to allow privacy for the big fancy estates. Chris caught glimpses over the wall every so often, but there was not much to see for Kristen and I.
We finally reached an exit point and started walking downhill, enjoying the sunset along the way. We crossed paths with a group of runners as they followed the path zigzagging down the hill. We just walked straight down. We passed a bus full of tourists heading up to the lookout point. They would be a little late if they didn’t hurry.
When we got to the bottom of the hill, Chris asked about all the runners and learned that it was a 10k with all-you-can-drink wine at the end. Obviously good motivation for them.
We stopped for one more round of gelato for the day. Chris ordered caramel apple. I had a few bites of his. In our broken Italian and the server girl’s broken English, she and Chris talked. She asked where we were from. He then mentioned how beautiful it was in Florence. She kind of shrugged her shoulders and indicated “meh”. I guess it all depends on your perspective.
We found a bus to take us back to our hotel with a couple of stops along the way. We even passed the Hilton Villa Medici, the hotel Chris and I stayed in on our last trip to Florence. It would have been nice to end our day there.
We got the key for our room next to the girls’ room, dropped off food for Misha from our leftover pizza and calzones, and went to bed.