Monday, September 24, 2007.Monday morning, woke early to have breakfast and check email. Unfortunately, the signal from the breakfast room was pretty weak so I didn’t check much. Went back to my room to clean up, then went for a short walk around the neighbourhood, to take a few last photos of Rome.
When I got back to the hotel, finished packing the rest of my stuff, did a final check of the room, then checked out of the hotel. I then made the long, heavy trek to the train station. Long and heavy, because of the weight of my packs. It seemed to take twice as long to walk anywhere.
Once at the train station, I checked the electronic boards to see where my train would be boarding. Track 4, according to the printed schedule, but the electronic schedule didn’t have the train listed yet—I was too early. So I leaned patiently against one of the railings and waited.
At one point, I thought I should probably ask someone if I should be validating my train ticket. I hunkered down to spy on others at the validation machines, to see if anyone else were doing so. Yes, indeed, there were, so I decided I would too. What would it hurt if I did, and didn’t have to? However, it would hurt 50 euro or so if I didn’t and got caught. So I validated it, then waited some more.
Train ride was uneventful--an elderly couple sitting in front of me dozed most of the way, and the fellow sitting in the seat next to me looked like a businessman intent on reading his newspaper, so I contented myself with staring out the window at the countryside. The trip took about an hour and a half, and I arrived at Santa Maria Novella station in Florence just after 11am. Time to meet Adam and Jennifer!!
Except, when I got off the train, I didn’t see them. So I started walking toward the exit, all the time scanning the crowd for a familiar face. Still nothing. I ended up walking right out to the taxi stand in front of the station, and waited there, thinking they might be a bit late. Nope. Nothing. Nada.
Finally, after about 20 minutes had gone by, I decided to give Adam’s cell phone a call. He answered, and I let him know where I was. He said, don’t move, we’ll meet you there.
And then there they were! Yay!
After greetings and hugs, we made our way to my hotel, checked in, and checked out my room. Bigger than the others I’d had in Rome, but with fewer niceties—no tv, for instance, and no shower stall—only a showerhead and faucets in the wall next to the sink, and a drain in the floor! But at least the room was clean, and the view from my window was lovely, too. Home sweet home.
Cleaned up, then met them for lunch. On the way, we wandered through the extensive street market, where vendors sold everything from leather purses to leather jackets, postcards and stationery to jewelry and sunglasses. And almost every other stall sold pashimas and scarves.
Ahh, shopping!
For lunch, we went to the Mercato Centrale, sort of a Florentine version of Granville Island market. Vendors for wine, cheese, wine, fruits & veggies, meats and delis, wine, and small cafes and restaurants, too, with wine. We sat at one of the restaurants (“Porks” was the name, believe it or not—no funny comments, Chris and Stephen!), and ordered a bottle of Chianti, a bottle of water, and I had gnocchi al ragu (meat sauce and garlic). It was the best tasting Chianti and gnocchi I’d had in a very long time.
After lunch, we went for a short walk, and as we approached an intersection, we had to stop for traffic. Over my left shoulder, I suddenly saw the Duomo, and gasped. Adam and Jen laughed out loud at my reaction. They commented that that reaction was quite common among tourists, and that many have distractedly wandered into oncoming traffic because they have been so overwhelmed by the sight.
I took a ton of photos, needless to say.
After that, we split for a couple of hours, so Jen could go shoe shopping, Adam could go wi-fi hunting, and I could just go wander around. So I did. I wandered around snapping a hundred photos of everything I could see. I visited the Loggia della Signoria, in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The beautiful statues were breathtaking; I snapped a bunch of photos. I wandered to the Ponte Vecchio, and snapped more photos there.
When we met up an hour later, I suggested that we tour the Palazzo Vecchio together, so we did. I took more photos in there.
Then we went for a coffee break/siesta. Adam had his gelato, Jen had her cappuccino, and I had my Orvieto wine. Yum.
After a short break of a couple of hours back at our respective hotel rooms, I met Adam and Jen back at their hotel room, to do some trip planning for Venice and some wine drinking before dinner. Both accomplished successfully, I think, after Adam had a panicked attack of… well, I’ll let Adam and Jen share that story, I think.
Then we went for dinner. Wandered around looking for a specific restaurant that Adam and Jen had wanted to visit, but found that it was closed. So, we wandered around a bit more, and found another “ristorante” and settled in there. We ordered a bottle of pinot grigio, and good food—we were all stuffed. It was quite late by the time we made our way home. I stumbled into bed and was asleep in a few minutes.
Friday, September 28, 2007. Breakfast room, Hotel Azzi.
