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Bus
Public Transportation is difficult with your pack! Its been a few days. Well, we missed one day I guess. Yesterday we hopped on a bus from Rome and headed north to Tuscany. Rome was overwhelming and crowded, Tuscany is your picturesque Italy--quaint, vineyards everywhere, stone houses, and cobblestone streets. We were quite excited to spend the night there, in Siena. We were a little frazzled as we got off the bus, and tried to orient ourselves. We didn’t exactly find the tourist information very helpful, plus I(Laura) left the lunch food on the bus, oops! So we were a little tired, a little hungry, and a little frustrated that we didn’t book lodging ahead of time (We decided it would be a “great” idea to be spontaneous and to just find a hostel when we got there. It was a great idea in theory, but when we got there, we had a bit of trouble. We found they only have one hostel in the town). So as we’re sitting on a stoop with our bags at our feet marking hotels on our map I look down the street and see a sin that says hotel . . . The one we had just tried to find 15 min. ago!! The entrance to address number 10 is across the street (more like a sidewalk), of course, why didn’t I think of that!! So we ended up in a simple, nice hotel that was a bit out of our price range, but it was not too outrageous. We did some shopping, walked the city streets, visited a church, ate some dinner (bread, cracker, tuna, salami, apples, and wine . . . Mmmm, mmmm, good!!), and then sat in the square for a long time, enjoying the summer evening and people watching. Overall, Sienna was a great city--cobblestone streets, huge old buildings, an aweosme city square, great food and shopping. (I would post pictures, but I cant figure out how to hook up my camera....)
Now this morning, after sleeping in a little, and enjoying the best Italian breakfast yet (the are so great! Coffee and a croissant) we hopped on another bus and traveled from Siena to Florence. Florence is known for a lot of things, art, authentic leather, crowds, and now for us, it’s know for it’s beat!! It’s hotter here tran it was in Rome!! In general tris whole country is hotter than we anticipated! So after doing a little laundry, cooling off with a diet coke, and enjoying the view we headed out to the city center. The bus system is once again pretty easy to figure out, they don't run as often, which we figured out on our way home! Anyways, so we went to see the church and do some shopping, and boy were we successful!! We both got fine Italian leather purses from a cute little shop, with an even cuter, charming Italian 😊 We had a delicious dinner, and then tried . . . key word, tried . . . to make our way back to the campground. We needed to stop and get provisions for the next couple of days so since the bus wasn't coming for almost 30 minutes, we went to the market, and what do you know the bus came early and we saw it driving away as we left the store! So then we had to wait for another 45 minutes. We checked the bus schedule several times and I even said to Jen, "of course this time it will probably be late," and it was. But we had fun waiting, we got just talked, watched, and observed. Someone drove past on their scooter and yelled, "where's the party at?" Another said, (with an accent) "hi girls, welcome to Florence." And earlier some guy in front of meat market asked me, "you want to buy ham? I make good ham!" Funny, funny! Best of all is when Jen went to check the bus schedule and we had to figure out what time it was currently in military time, because that's how they do it here, and so being the math minor know-it-all that I am I said to Jen, "It's 17:20!" She looked at me funny and said, "no it's not" Thinking I was still correct, I strongly replied, yes it is! 12 plus 9 (9 o'clock) is 17!!! (It was more than a strong response, it was a snotty, how-can-you-be-so-dumb remark (Added by Jen)). Where I got that from I don't know, I think I was thinking, 9-7 is 2 . . . just don't ask!! In case you're wondering we made it back to the campsite just fine and even made some friends! Yay!
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