Another incredible adventure … Florence

Piazzale Michelangelo - Overlooking the city of Florence

Well another weekend has come to my time in Italy and of course we are off and running! My supervisor Audrey and I decided we were going to travel to the Cinque Terre - we got back to our hotel after work around 7:40 Friday evening, and we needed to catch the last bus at 8:40 to make it downtown to the train station. We managed to make it all the way to the central train station without any issues. This is where it gets good … when you ride the big fast trains you usually need to buy your ticket and reserve a seat for yourself. Well I have a Eurail pass so we only needed to reserve a seat and we would be on our way. Well the ticket office was closed and the Self-Service machine was not giving us an option to just reserve a seat, so we were just going to wait and get on the train because it was a 10:50 train so we were not too worried about getting a seat. We were just waiting when a very nice Italian man asked if we were alright and said he saw us wandering and wanted to make sure we were doing okay. We told him we were fine but we were having a hard time reserving a seat for ourself on the train. So he kind of helped us out with the machine and was the nicest guy ever! He spoke great English, was traveling for business, and was from the Naples area. Then he explained to us that there was kind of a situation with the trains, the trains were on strike, so the train we were waiting for was going to be 85 minutes late, then we would miss our connection train in Selerno. So he told us it was not a good idea to travel tonight and we would not make it anywhere. OH JEEZ! So we obviously were in an interesting situation. Also the buses were done running because by now it was 10:00. Luckily we have some Camp A girls staying on one of the military base sites very close to the downtown area so we caught a taxi to their place and stayed there. 

The Duomo

Of course we needed to find a new place to go because the Cinque Terre is a 6 hour train ride and you have to leave Friday night in order to get a full day Saturday otherwise it is not worth the long trip. So we chose Florence!! We were able to book 2 beds at a hostel and we were on our way first thing saturday morning (this time without any issues). It is a 3 hour train ride and we made in their around 11 and spent the whole day shopping and just enjoying the city. It is extremely different than Naples. It is clean and small, with open piazzas everywhere (kind of like little parks) and just beautiful!! We did not do any of the popular museums because Audrey did them all 2 years ago when she was here, and because my mom and Grandbarb are coming I figured I would be fine waiting. Florence is known for their leather and it is just the most incredible thing ever! There is leather stores everywhere, bags, jackets, gloves, bracelets, and of course more bags (as I believe you all know I am a crazy bag lady and I LOVE BAGS!) I could have bought a dozen of them. There is a huge central market where all the stores come and set up stands and it is just incredible to wander around and see all the souvenirs, scarves, jewelry, and of course leather. Most importantly there is also the food and gelato. Rick Steves (incredible author/traveling genius) told us about a kind of hidden market within the central market where we could buy a cheap delicious lunch of bread, cheese, fruit, and olives from the many different people in this market. So I bought cheese, bread, fruit, and tomatoes. It was delicious and I had the best experience there!! Then of course we found a little gelato shop and had our serving of gelato for the day. i had mango and strawberry! YUM!

Mercato Centrale

After an incredibly sticky hot afternoon we headed to our hostel to check in and get cleaned up. We showered and relaxed for a little while and then we were off again.There is a little piazza that over looks all of Florence, Michaelanglo Piazza. We dropped by a little super market where we bought a delicious bottle of wine (where the wonderful wine man opened it for us before we left the store!!) some plastic cups and some crackers. We hiked to this piazza and sat on the steps over looking the city as the sun went down. It was absolutely beautiful and it was a perfect spot to spend the evening. On our way down the hill we stopped at a little Pizzeria to share a Gorgonzola pizza (mozzarella and gorgonzola cheese - heavenly!!) As we finished this up we slowly wandered through the city as we made our way back to our hostel. We had talked about heading out for a drink or something, but we were both exhausted so instead we went to bed :) 

Incredible Market

We started Sunday with the perfect chocolate filled pastry and cappuccino and spent a few more hours shopping. We had a kebab for lunch (absolutely amazing! Like a gyro in a pita) as we waited for our train and then headed back to the great city of Napoli. WOW - what a weekend, but so far I have enjoyed every city I have visited. They are all so unique and I could not feel more blessed and fortunate to have this opportunity! Now if only I had more money to buy all those bags!!

Ciao from the most incredibly adventure so far!

Lots of people ride bikes and ring the little bells! I love it! 

The Duomo at Night

Ponte Vecchio