A Few Days in Florence

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Wednesday Eric and I took off on Air France with a brief stop in Paris on our way to Florence, Italy. Five minutes into the drive to the airport, I got an alert on my phone saying our flight was delayed 4 hours, so we went back home. We were going to miss the second leg of our trip, so I nervously waited for everything to be rearranged and rebooked, and fortunately it was all smoothed out in time.



The flight and stop were uneventful, though Paris CDG airport was under construction and we felt very rushed going through security a second time and making our way to the other concourse. The Thursday midday landing in Florence was extremely abrupt, and I overheard the flight attendant mention to a mother with small children that the runway was very short and to be prepared. As if in a movie, the plane's brakes were slammed immediately after touchdown and all the passengers simultaneously threw our hands up to the seatback in front of us to avoid a faceplant. We disembarked and walked across the hot tarmac directly to the very small open-air baggage claim and waited. And waited. And waited. We finally realized our luggage was not coming. The airline's app showed our luggage was still in Minnesota. I didn't think that was accurate, but after waiting in line at the customer service desk, the attendant confirmed that our bags indeed did not make it on the plane. She did say our bags would be delivered to our hotel the following day, so I provided our hotel's address and we made our way out of the small airport, oddly not even going through any sort of customs/immigration or even getting our passports stamped (they did get stamped in Paris, so I suppose that was good enough).



You know how they say to always pack a change of clothes in your carry-on just in case? Yeah, I've never done that, and I sorely regretted it this time. By the time we found Hotel Nella after taking the tram, wandering around the station then going down the wrong street, hiking up two flights of open-air stairs and sweating our butts off in our masks in the hotel's office while the more than kind concierge person showed us all the important places we should visit, shop at and eat at on the map, we were exhausted and decided to just take a short nap before heading out to buy new clothes. Unfortunately, all the shops were closed when we woke up, so we wore our long pants and t-shirts out to dinner, having already been in them for 24 gross and sweaty hours. Dinner was at L'Imperatore Ristorante Pizzeria - I had a mushroom/truffle crostini appetizer (I'd never had anything like it, usually love mushrooms and truffle-flavored things, but the snot-like texture of the topping on these toasted breads was nearly inedible, but I sucked it up and downed it with the most poise I could muster) and Eric had an authentic caprese salad with a huge ball of fresh mozzarella (he similarly didn't like his app and noted he was absolutely not a fan of "wet cheese"), then I had the best pesto gnocchi (easily the best gnocchi I've ever had and so far the best meal in Italy I've had so far) and Eric had a pizza with sausage; desserts were chocolate mousse and tiramisu - both very good. I'd tried tiramisu once and didn't like it; for some reason I remembered it tasting alcoholic, but this one was all coffee and no booze and all the things everyone has raved about - I've definitely been missing out all these years and wanted to swap desserts with Eric.



Friday morning after a decadent breakfast of flavored croissants, caffe lattes and pineapple juice at Caffé degl'Innocenti at the end of the block, we walked to H&M and found acceptable replacement clothes, then all but ran back to the hotel to shower and change. The concierge asked if we knew when to expect our bags, and reminded me that if they came after 6:00pm they wouldn't be there to answer the door and the courier would have to contact me directly. Since I had no cell signal and my only connection to the outside world was sadly inside our room (on WiFi), we decided to stay put a couple of hours before heading out for our planned trip to Pisa. The last train to Pisa was at 5:30, so we assumed we had plenty of time. Little did I know how frustrating it would be to get any information or tracking for our bags, and it ended up totally ruining our day and we never made it to Pisa at all. Instead we stayed in our barely-cool room while I attempted to make contact via email, phone, live-chat and even Facebook Messenger with the airline, the airport, the courier, really anyone at all to get some idea of when our bags would arrive and got more and more frustrated and bummed out by the hour when my attempts were only met with recordings and automated replies. The only contact I'd gotten was a text when the bags arrived in Florence in the early morning and another around 11:30 when the courier picked them up. As the day progressed, we were stressed that our bags weren't even going to make it that day and wondered how we'd handle it since we were checking out in the morning and jumping on a train to Rome. Eventually the boredom got the best of Eric, and he wandered around the shops nearby and bought some souvenirs. At some point late in the afternoon, after being frustrated and being bound to the WiFi, I searched my cell carrier app and realized I needed to sign up for an add-on international plan. I did that faster than you can say gelato. Later, we went to dinner at the attractively decorated Trattoria Pizzeria Nerone where we both had excellent pizzas (mine pesto and potato, his some meat-stravaganza thing - both pretty good) and gelato at Il Triangolo delle Bermude - very rich and it hit the spot after a pretty rotten and let-down day. Just as we walked up to the hotel, I watched my red suitcase get hauled out of a van and I literally jumped for joy, shouting "That's mine! That's mine! Grazie! Grazie! Grizie!" The courier said my happy face made his day and I thanked him several more times. Then we hauled our bags up the two flights of stairs and reveled in having our stuff back.

It was 102°F and very humid both days we were in Florence. If I could re-do this so far, I would go during a cooler time of year, bring clothes and toiletries in my dang carry-on bag, and figure out the international/roaming cell phone plan before leaving.



Italian words/phrases I've learned and/or used so far (the 'r' is always hard/rolled and sounds like a soft 'd'):

Thank you - Grazie (rhymes with Yahtzee with a lilt at the end like in mobster movies - grahtzeeay)
You're welcome - Prego
Please - Per favore (pair fah VOHR ay)
Excuse me - mi scusa (me skooza)
Yes - Si
No - No
Hello / greeting - Buongiourno (bone jurnoh)
I understand - Capisco
I don't understand - Non capisco
I like it - Mi piace (me pee YAH chay)

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Photos

Hotel Nella
Our room was very cutely decorated

Porcellino
We saw this by the vendors next to H&M and made sure to rub his snout, but didn't know about the coins at the time.
Read about the legend here https://www.florenceisyou.com/2016/11/the-legend-of-porcellino/

Street art
madonnari.chalkheart

Breakfast
So glad we got to eat here twice (included with hotel)
Caffé degl'Innocenti

Comments

[Cindy]

What a rollercoaster ride, which I felt like I was momentarily on just reading your post! So sorry your first day didn’t go well. I would not handle delays like that well at all. Here’s to a fabulous rest of your trip!