The trip to Florence

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As Florence isn't that far from Rome, we don't have a huge distance to go today. After tidying up the apartment, we caught the 12:30 bus to the subway station and connected from there to the 12:30 Eurostar bound for Florence. The ride on the speedy Eurostars is so smooth and fast, you feel somewhat removed from the country side, insulated from each bump in the landscape.

The train's final destination is Milan and it is obvious that this is the main business run between the two big cities as there are lots of people aboard in business attire. We feel a bit out of place in our faded travel clothes. I think someones laptop must have tripped the fuses in the car, as the lights stop working and each tunnel plunges us into an eerie darkness for a minute or two.

When we arrive in Florence, we follow the written instructions we have to get the bus to the area of the apartment. Unfortunately, the first bus is totally packed. We plan our assault on the next bus, staking out the the spot where the rear doors will open and get aboard with near military precision.

From checking the apartment address on a map, we know we need to cross the main river before getting to our stop. A kind passenger is able to help us and lets us know when we reach it. Not wanting to repeat our wanderings in Rome, we turn on the GPS and wait for it to get a signal before heading off to find the the apartment.

Street numbers in Florence are very strange. Businesses have red numbers, where as houses have black numbers. For this reason it is possible to have a red number 13 next to a black number 6. We are lucky enough to knock at the door of a kind resident who points out the address we need, just a few doors away.

Shortly after ringing the bell, an Indian woman comes down the street. She speaks very little English or Italian but it is clear this in the Teresa that we were to meet. I had mentioned to the apartment owner that we would be arriving by train in Florence about 2:30 but somehow that had passed on as us arriving at the apartment at 2:30 and poor Teresa has been waiting nearly an hour for us.

In the ad, the words “cozy” had appeared a few times in the description of the apartment. It is indeed a tight space with no separate bedrooms (instead a pull out couch in the living room and another one in the kitchen) but is very nicely furnished and recently renovated. It will be a tight three days, but we have had worse.

As we still had some daylight remaining, we left the apartment and wandered back across the bridge and into downtown Florence. From a walking perspective, the apartment is very close to everything and it is only about a 10 minute walk to most things. On the way, we make note of a grocery store and then happen upon a bookstore selling new and used English language books. Evy and Benjamin in particular are quite happy with the find. After leaving the bookstore, we round the corner and are suddenly looking up at one of Florence's most iconic landmarks: the Duomo.

The Duomo is a huge cathedral Dome, which from a distance dominates the Florence skyline. The view from the top of the Dome is incredible, and we check out the times and prices in order to do it another day.

The last stop on our little reconnaissance mission is to scout out the times and prices for one of Florence's most famous museums, the Ufizi museum. From the looks of the line up, we will need to get there early tomorrow morning if we plan to visit.
We finish our quick tour with a gelato ice cream before shopping for dinner. After dinner in our tiny apartment, we watch the Simpsons in Italian on TV before pulling out the couches and transforming it into one big bedroom.

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