I know that this is quite a late entry, but, during my travels with my mother and later my first couple of weeks (which turned to months) home, I really needed the time to rest, relax, and emotionally detox. So, my apologies to anyone who has been waiting for this.
After arriving back to Arezzo from Rome, I was incredibly tired. I don’t know if it was from the overwhelming nature of Rome’s hodge-podge of impressive sites to see coupled with my first real experience with the crowds of foreign tourists or if my constant travels and long class hours had just caught up with me. In either case, I was overjoyed when my mother arrived the next day to the villa, but was underwhelmed by the lack of desire I had to spend my next ten days traveling Italy.
Luckily, they were an amazing ten days, and I’m incredibly glad we had that adventure together.
Our travels began with a simple beginning; I needed to show my mother Arezzo, the town that had become another home to me. The day she arrived, after we packed my things up (yes, that was an interesting adventure on its own) and had dinner at the villa, we walked my favorite route from the villa into the walled section of the city to see a performance by the MFA students. It was a rather rushed walk, but a fun introduction to the city.
The next day, we got up, had breakfast at the villa (where I said my goodbyes), and headed into town to explore Arezzo by day. We leisurely walked to Piazza Grande, to Gianni’s family's pastry shop (I miss it so much! *sob*), around the main streets, and eventually settled in a Piazza near the train station to eat some panino kebabs (which I got mom hooked on) and some gelato.
After our wonderful lunch, we made our way to the train station to pick up a cab that would take us back to the villa where we would load up our luggage and head back to the station. Ignoring the difficulty of moving with four pieces of luggage and two bags, this part of the journey went smoothly.
Unfortunately, at the train station, we ended up experiencing some difficulties. Firstly, our train ended up coming 25 minutes late (which was bad since we needed that time in Florence to check some bags at their station) and then we ended up getting on the wrong train (it was also going to Florence and leaving from our platform…it was just the slower train). Luckily, a very nice train conductor told us about the mix up and told us where to get off in order to catch the fast train we wanted and getting on the right train got us to Florence with enough time to get lost looking for the counter and to eventually check our bags.
We then got on the train that would take us to La Spezia, and, from there, we took the train to Monterosso. Amusingly enough, while boarding the second train, I saw a girl who lived in the same dorm as me freshman year in Beloit and we said hi. Small world, eh?
Once in Monterosso, we debated calling a cab, decided to walk when my phone ran out of money to call with, and then caught a random cab that pulled up just as we decided to go. We then checked into the hotel, dumped our remaining bags in the room, and headed out to dinner in town. At first, mom was a little annoyed that nothing looked familiar and amazed at how much expansion had happened in 21 years since she had been there last, pregnant with me. However, I assured her that the main part of the town was just over the hill and that, once we got there, she would probably recognize much more.
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| Views of Monterosso |
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| Views of Monterosso |
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| Views of Monterosso |
So we walked over, giving mom enough time to make friends with all of cats in the area (seriously, I barely saw three cats during my time in Italy and none of them said hi to me. Mom met over five in her ten days and they all came up to let her pet them). Once we were in the main part of town, mom began to recognize things and we walked around briefly (even finding the ceramics shop she bought something at during her first visit) before having a lovely dinner and heading back to the hotel to eat the pastries we bought that morning and to sleep.
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| Mom with one of her new kitty friends |
Our original plans for the next day we to swim in the morning and head into town briefly to check out the ceramics shop and have lunch before taking an afternoon train to Venice. However, when we got up, it was raining rather hard and swimming seemed unlikely to happen.
We didn’t let that spoil the day though. After a great breakfast at the hotel (fruits and cereal and chocolate cake! Oh my! :D ), we walked back to the main part of town to explore, find the ceramics shop, and a place to buy a bottle of the wine my mom had the previous night. Luckily, by that time, the rain had dwindled away leaving it a bit cool out, and we had a nice walk over. We quickly found the ceramics shop (mom got some more clay houses to add to her collection), and then we walked around the city a bit heading upwards to see what we could find from mom’s memory.
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| More views of Monterosso |
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| More views of Monterosso |
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| More views of Monterosso |
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| More views of Monterosso |
We ended up not finding anything, but the walk was lovely and ended up leading us to a wine shop where we picked up a bottle of what my mom had had at dinner. We then ate lunch at a pizza parlor and headed back to the hotel. We briefly stopped so I could climb the GIANT AWESOME LOOKING ROCK overlooking the sea and for me to dip my toes in the water (it was really cold and the beach was painfully pebbly, but it was worth it).
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| Woo! I've reached the top! |
Once back at the hotel, we decided to just walk back to the train station with our luggage since it was actually pretty close by and the rain had stopped long ago. Arriving at the station way ahead of time, we caught an early train to la Spezia and had less of a rush to catch the next train to Florence (where we had dinner) and from there we took another train to Venice.
We arrived at the Venice train station well after darkness had fallen, extremely ready to put our bags down and relax at our hotel. However, our lodgings were near San Marco—basically on the other end of the grand canal from where we were currently at—and I was rather worried about getting totally and completely lost trying to find the hotel when we got closer. Luckily, I had very little to worry about.
Leaving mom with the luggage, I went to the vaporetto (Venice’s water buses) ticket counter to get us passes for the next couple of days. The woman selling them turned out to be very polite and even gave me information on how to get a discount on the tickets we were buying which saved us quite a bit on their cost. We then went to the docks to catch a vaporetto and, after a short time sitting, we caught one. There weren't any seats open, unfortunately, but we moved to an area in the back with windows since I thought that mom should enjoy the sights of the canal.
Eventually we reached the stop that our hotel directions mentioned, and we got off the boat. At this point, I began to get nervous anticipating getting lost and having to lug our bags over numerous bridges with stairs. To my great surprise, however, almost all of the streets we needed to take were marked with signs and there was only one bridge between us and the hotel, so we reached our destination easily and quickly.
Unfortunately, there was a large staircase—with no elevator in sight—to greet us when we entered the hotel, but we quickly conquered them and settled in for the night.
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| The stairs in our hotel in Venice |
The next morning, we woke up and had a lovely breakfast at the hotel (though mom managed to get on the waitress’ nerves quickly by sitting at the wrong table and then by requesting a new coffee after the first one was the wrong type. Mom was mortified and I ended up always being the one to order her second coffee every day we were there). We then walked to San Marco, which was a wonderfully short distance away.
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| San Marco |
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| San Marco |
Mom quickly was charmed by the beauty of the piazza, and I ended up surprised myself at how much I enjoyed being back in Venice. We walked around the piazza admiring the architecture and window-shopping (mom really liked some of the murano glass lamps) and then circled around the piazza to see the palace and the Bridge of Sighs. We briefly debated going into the Duomo, but decided to do it at a later time since the line to get in looked pretty long. So, instead, we headed deeper into the island slightly aiming for the Rialto.
On the way, we discovered a nice glove shop (where mom got an awesome bright blue pair,) and I was surprised to see the shop where I bought my flower purse (which I never thought I would see again. Ever. So I got another one for when mine wore out). Sparked by this successful discovery of a site from my last trip, I decided to try and find the animal mask shop from before as well.
And we did! We did end up walking most of the way to the hostel I stayed at before and back (a different way), but I found it with hardly any trouble! We then had a wonderful time trying on different masks and I ended up purchasing a lovely black and gold scorpion mask that I had been thinking about all semester.
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| Trying on maks |
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| Trying on masks |
We then wandered over to the Rialto and over it to discover a small market on the other side. We walked down it while munching some strawberries bought from one of the stalls, both enjoying the sights since I hadn’t really been in this area before. At a certain point, we both realized we needed more food than the strawberries and crossed back over the Rialto to find a restaurant.
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| The market on the other side of the Rialto |
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| The market on the other side of the Rialto |
We quickly found a nice place that was both a sit down restaurant and very close to a gelato shop and enjoyed a relaxing lunch/dessert. Once done, we continued our shopping and window-shopping adventures (I found the shirt I had wanted from my last trip and mom found gloves for dad and I). However, we were quite bogged down by our bags at this point and decided to head back to the hotel briefly.
After a short break, we decided to continue to explore in a broader scale by taking the vaporetto down the grand canal. We were already at the “bottom” so we hopped on one that would go around the islands to bring us back to the “top” to start our sight-seeing from there.
When we reached the “top”, mom and I briefly got off so that I could take her to the Calatrava Bridge that had been my first (and lovely) sight of Venice. We then got on the next vaporetto to come by (unfortunately one without seats in the front) and rode down the canal. I had seen some of the sights before (mostly at night during my last visit), but I discovered many interesting new buildings and it was a real treat to see everything by day.
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| On the Calatrava Bridge |
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| Views on the Grand Canal |
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| Firefighters on the Grand Canal |
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| Views on the Grand Canal |
At the Ponte Accademia stop, we briefly got off since mom wanted to see the hat shop where I had found my hat the last time. I was surprised at how quickly I found it again, and we had a great time trying on all of the hats we could find. We then boarded the vaporetto again and headed back to our hotel to relax until dinner.
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| At the hat shop |
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| At the hat shop |
For dinner, we decided to explore the side streets near our hotel. While looking, mom and I discovered a photographer we knew from Chautauqua, NY! He had been in Tibet (I think) for the year and was currently visiting his sister in Italy. After chatting for a few minutes, we said our goodbyes and found a restaurant. We ate at a nice sit down restaurant and ended up buying tiramisu and some chips at the restaurant right next door. We then headed back to the hotel for the evening.
The next day, after a nice breakfast where I again ordered a coffee for my mom from the waitress who was miffed at us, we headed over to the Duomo. There was already a long line to get in (even though it was early), but I told mom that she had to see it, and the line was moving pretty quickly.
Once inside, mom was thrilled by the church. While I gazed up at the gold mosaics, she was enjoying pointing out to me the different marble floor patterns and every abstract mosaic on the ceilings and walls. We had a great time, and I ended up noticing a lot more the second time through.
We then walked around San Marco, checking out the different glass beads (mom bought some for earrings she wanted to make at home) until lunchtime. When we got hungry, we found a vendor selling fries and sandwiches and sat next to the Duomo to eat and watch pigeons swimming in some bird-sized puddles.
Since our flight was at 3:30pm, we left for our hotel immediately after finishing our food. Along the way back, mom pulled me into a jewelry shop that had caught her eye every day. Mom found certain pieces that she loved (a necklace and some earrings) and wanted to recreate at home. However, she also quickly made friends with the jewelry maker in the shop and all three of us ended up chatting for a while about jewelry making and our experiences in Italy (and my frail grasp on the language).
By the time we were done, a good amount of time had passed, and we hurried from our hotel to the vaporetto docks. We then took one from our stop to the main San Marco stop and began to look for the vaporetto that I thought would take us there fastest. Unfortunately, it took a while for me to locate the dock that had the information saying it was only a seasonal boat and wasn’t currently running. We then took another boat to a stop that had another vaporetto route to the airport only to discover that we needed extra tickets to take it and that we had just missed the one we wanted to catch.
After buying our tickets and waiting 30 minutes for the next vaporetto, we finally boarded and headed toward the airport. The trip was lovely and we saw more Venice sights (including the Ghetto which I was happy to point out to mom), but I was getting increasingly worried that we would not make it to the airport before our flight would leave.
Eventually, the vaporetto reached the dock outside the airport, and we ran the “7 minute walk” to reach the entrance. However, once inside, we learned that, even though we had 30 minutes until the flight took off, we would not be allowed to check in and were going to miss the flight.
At this point, I burst into tears.
I had already been stressed from the semester ending, mostly organizing on my own this trip, all of my knee problems, and from receiving not-so-great news from home so this new development just pushed me over the edge.
Still in tears, mom and I discussed our course of action and decided to try and reach our hotel in Sorrento tonight by whatever means necessary. We found another flight (with a different company) that would take us to Rome and from there to Naples. We made it to Rome just fine (and ate dinner at that airport), but the real question was how we were going to be able to get to our hotel from Naples.
Our arrival time for Naples was so late that both the bus and the train to Sorrento would have stopped running at that point and there was no other way to reach our destination except by cab. After discussing it, we decided that finding a hotel in Naples after dark with no idea of where to go would be a terrible idea (and about the same fare as a cab to Sorrento), and we shot off a quick email to our hotel stating our situation and asking if they could possibly send us a cab before we got on the final flight.
When we touched down in Naples, I was still pretty shaken and sad and was delighted to discover that none of our baggage had been lost in transition. However, we were both pretty sure that the hotel wouldn’t have noticed our email in time to send anyone and were therefore completely and totally shocked to discover an adorable little man holding a sign with our name on it. Mom later said she could have kissed him at that point.
Feeling as if something had finally gone right, we wheeled our bags to his car, loaded them in, and drove off to Sorrento. For the whole drive, our savior chatted about what historical sights we were passing by (such as Pompeii and Vesuvius, the second of which was HUGE) and what the names of the different towns we drove through. Although mom and I were extremely tired (and the many many many sharp turn were making me a little carsick), we absolutely loved seeing the wonderful sights of the jagged coast and wondering about some of the buildings that had beautiful views.
Eventually, we reached our hotel and again were pleasantly surprised. Although this was the cheapest hotel we were staying at, it was by far the most luxurious. The common areas were all clean, crisp, and decorated with stylish furniture and wall art; the elevator was painted black with mirrors and tiny white lights at the top resembling stars; and our room had high ceilings, a plush bed, and an absolutely beautiful porch view of the ocean and the island of Capri.
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| View from our hotel room |
We were in heaven…finally!
The next day we woke up, had breakfast in the hotel’s dinning room overlooking the ocean (the food was good, but the desserts weren’t the best of the trip), and decided to hang at the hotel until dinner when we would take the shuttle bus to Sorrento.
In the time before lunch, we decided that exploring our surroundings would be a good idea. We took the elevator to the lowest floor (due to the structure of the building, the check in ground floor was level 0 and the top floor, all the other floors were negative numbers) and walked down to the pool. There we discovered a sign stating that, if a red flag was up (which it was), the sea wasn’t safe to swim in, but decided to just walk down and look anyways.
The way down, we found, were a couple of steep rock staircase with rope (or no) railings. Heading back upwards, I explored a bit on my own and found a side trail that led me to a sheer drop off with sun bathing chairs before it and a plant filled path that circled back to the pool. I then headed back to mom and we walked back up to the hotel.
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| Exploring around the hotel |
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| Exploring around the hotel |
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| Exploring around the hotel (view of Capri) |
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| Exploring around the hotel |
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| Exploring around the hotel |
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| Exploring around the hotel (Mom being picturesque) |
With no food with us, we had lunch at the hotel’s outdoor restaurant and ate pasta overlooking the ocean. We then went back to our room where we changed into our bathing suits to relax by (mostly mom, though I did spend some time soaking in the sun and reading the rest of the hunger games books) and swim in the pool for a bit (and boy was the water cold).
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| The hotel pool |
After a few hours, we got up, changed, looked up restaurants in the guidebook, and took the bus into town.
When we arrived, we explored for a bit, searching for the street that supposedly had some nice restaurants. However, before we could find the street, we bumped into two students who had been at the Accademia with me. We chatted briefly about both of our travels so far and they gave us directions to the restaurant that other Accademia students had loved when they had visited over Easter.
After exchanging hugs and goodbyes, mom and I privately mused over whom we might recognize in Florence.
When we reached the street that contained both the restaurant from the book and the recommended restaurant from the Accademia students, we discovered that both were closed for the day. Even so, both of their menus looked amazing and we decided to return to both over the next couple of days. Meanwhile, we found a nice restaurant that had a good reputation for pizza (which we ordered along with a nice Bolognese pasta) and then went to a gelato shop with a rather large number of flavours (not as big or as good as the one in Rome though…) for dessert. We then wandered around a bit until the shuttle came and took us back to the hotel for the night.
The next day, we decided to go into Sorrento for the day to explore. We started off by going back to the pizza place for lunch (we had been planning to go to a kebab shop I’d spotted the previous night, but it turned out to not open until much later) and the gelateria for dessert. We then began our exploration by walking to an orange and lemon grove. I was charmed by the trees (some of them interesting hybrids with both lemons and oranges growing on them) and mom was delighted by the limoncelo and basil liqour samples we were given and bought some to bring home (along with a free lemon! :D).
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| Views of Sorrento |
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| Views of Sorrento |
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| Views of Sorrento |
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| Views of Sorrento |
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| Views of Sorrento |
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| The Sorrento gelateria's large menu |
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| Views of Sorrento |
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| In the Sorrento orange and lemon grove |
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| In the Sorrento orange and lemon grove |
We headed out from the grove, bumping into the Accademia students I knew one last time (they were just leaving), and headed back into town to just wander and to go find food to bring back to the hotel for lunch the next day. In our explorations, we found potato chips, giant lemons (I had to buy one and try it!), strawberries, some sun tan lotion, lemon cookies, lemon soap, lemon hard candies, and some jellied lemon peels dipped in chocolate (a new favorite of mine ever since I had some at the chocolate fair in Florence).
By that point, we were getting a bit tired and did not want to carry grocery bags around until dinner, so we took the next shuttle to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. When dinner rolled around, we headed back into Sorento to try out the first of the two restaurants we had found on the first day.
Our choice for the evening was called Meat, and it ended up having a wonderful selection of just that along with an amazing variety of beautiful bull themed art. I ordered some steak while mom got a mixed meat platter and we both enjoyed our dishes (and the service) very much.
Once we were done, we bought some kebabs for lunch the next day and briefly stopped in some clothing stores before taking the shuttle back to the hotel for the night.
The next day was spent mostly just relaxing by the pool, only heading back to our rooms to eat the food we had bought for lunch (the kebabs were disappointing, but filling; the small lemon and strawberries were wonderful; and the giant lemon was surprisingly mostly made of peel and not a very juicy lemon, but an interesting experience nevertheless).
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| GIANT LEMON! |
Eventually, we did leave the pool to shower and dress in non-swimming clothes before heading out to dinner. This time we chose the restaurant suggested to us by the Accademia students. Although, I wasn’t amazed by the food, the venue was beautiful (glass walls looking out into an orchard) and the lemon based dipping oil was delicious (yes, we did buy some to bring home). After finishing our food, we waited for the shuttle and headed back to the hotel.
Our last day in Sorento, we got up early so that we could swim before checking out of the hotel. However, the weather proved to be a bit too cloudy and nippy so we ended up having a relaxing morning before we left. From the hotel, we took the shuttle to Sorento, ate lunch at Meat one last time, and then boarded the local train that would take us to Naples.
I had been told that this train occasionally had trouble with thieving, so mom and I sat in the last compartment, hoping to be closer to the conductor in case of emergency. We actually ended up on the complete other side of the train, but the entire trip was smooth so this ended up being fine.
After enjoying the views of the coast for around an hour, we arrived at the Naples train station early and waited for a while to catch the long train that would take us to Florence again. Although we were both a little sleepy from the lack of activity, the train ride to Florence provided some interesting moments such as the brief, but intense thunderstorm going on outside of only one side of the train’s windows, a view of Arezzo from the opposite side I was used to seeing it from, and a double rainbow.
When we arrived at Florence, we picked up the bags we had left at the station eight days ago and walked the short distance to our hotel (a very bad idea considering the amount of luggage we now had and our sleepiness). The hotel ended up not being very nice (the shower was not a separate part of the bathroom, requiring us to remove the toilet paper every time we needed to shower; the beds were awful; and we had quite a long stair to walk up to our room with our luggage), but the location was perfect being only a 2 minute walk away from the Duomo.
When we got up the next day, almost everything was shut down since it was a Sunday. However, two of the only things open, David’s museum and the Uffizi Gallery, were exactly what we wanted to see so we weren’t worried about losing time by standing in line for either. After eating breakfast, we immediately headed over to see David, something we were both eager to see again. After waiting in line for a much briefer time than expected, we entered the museum and grabbed some chairs at the front of the statue so we could just sit and stare.
Which we did. For at least a few hours.
It was wonderful seeing David again and, though we chatted briefly about him and occasionally took solo walks around the statue, most of our time was spent just enjoying drinking in the sight of him (which was apparently a weird idea to the two ladies who kept walking by us and laughing at the fact that we hadn’t moved). It was a lovely way to spend the morning.
When we eventually were able to get up and leave, we realized that we still had a while to go until lunch and didn’t want to go to the Uffizi during that time and have nothing to do for the rest of the day. So we decided to wander, and we ended up finding a nice shop selling leather jackets. Mom had been planning to buy one when we got to Florence since before she even reached Italy so we had to go in.
Once inside, mom quickly made friends with one of the salespeople, a woman named Vera from Germany. With her guidance (and rather amusing personal anecdotes about everything from dance warm ups to what to rub on leather to keep it nice), not only did mom find a nice black jacket, but I found a nice deep brown one with interesting buckling and stitching (Vera had me try on several jackets that were meh to me before picking out the perfect jacket in one try when I said I wanted something less tame). She then kept us company while mom’s jacket was altered a bit and showed us some nice quality shoe stores and so forth.
Once mom’s jacket was done, we then headed back to the hotel to drop off our new purchases (though I ended up wearing my jacket out again) before headed to lunch. We had a recommendation for a kebab place for lunch, but eating there turned out to be an awful idea since the shop prepared their sandwiches weirdly and then wrapped the ingredients in a disgusting thin pita wrap (think chipotle)….It was not a very satisfying meal.
When we headed back out again, it had already begun to poor so we opened up our umbrella and quickly walked to the Uffizi. Once in line, I discovered that one bad sandwich was not filling enough so I ducked back out to buy caramel gelato for mom and I (which was not a wonderful, though thankfully brief, experience. Holding two dripping gelato cones while also trying to carry an umbrella proved to be a nightmare of balancing and stickyness). We waited quite a while in line this time, though the gelato and the interesting company (there was a friendly American couple behind us in line) kept the wait from getting too tedious.
Once inside, we washed our hands and then walked up the stairs into the museum.
I must admit, in the beginning, I wasn’t very impressed. As we walked our first lap around the U-shaped gallery, I was finding very few paintings that I either liked or recognized. There were a couple of paintings of Eve that held beautiful expressions and I absolutely loved seeing Titan’s Venus D’Urbino up close (her hair held incredible detail and her skin, shadows, and expression were phenomenal), but both mom and I were surprised when we reached the end of the U rather less than impressed. It was then we realized that somehow we had missed the some of the most famous works in the museum. Where was the room full of paintings by Botticelli?
After some fruitless searching and some wonderful directions from two different museum guides, we eventually found the room…and I was awestruck.
Just like the many other famous paintings that I had thought were boring until seen up close, the Birth of Venus enthralled me and enchanted me with her beauty. In my studies of Greek mythology, Aphrodite had never intrigued me and most representations of her supposedly unworldly beauty always seemed to fall flat or just not make up for her ugly personality. In Botticelli’s painting, everything from her gilded hair to the soft blush of her cheeks to her expression lead to the idea that this perfect beauty was not cold, distant, and cruel lover but a warm love filled only with kindness. This painted angel I could believe would make anyone who saw her fall in love even if the kind gentle beauty was just a mask hiding the true personality.
When I eventually left this painting, I found a room full of other, soon to be favorite, delights. Right next to Venus, was Pallas and the Centaur, a painting that quickly became one of my top favorites due to the incredible amount of layered emotions in the subjects faces along with the beauty and detail displayed in Pallas herself.
Moving further to the right on another wall was Primavera, an impressively large painting featuring numerous characters. Although the general painting failed to inspire, I was drawn to the three dancing Graces and, again, the sheer amount of beauty and expression on their faces.
There were also other paintings within the room, but these three quickly became my favorites, and I ended up gazing at them each for a long while. Eventually my neck started to cramp and my legs urged me that they needed a good long rest so mom and I left the main galleries and headed back down stairs. Amusingly, to reach the exit, we had to wind back through the U on a lower floor mainly filled with tapestries (ugly tapestries) and a few other paintings. For the most part, we both disliked most of these gore filled paintings, but I was excited to see the famous painted shield of Medusa’s head, which I had recognized in the brochure for the museum and had been disappointed to not find upstairs.
Eventually, we exited the museum, I took pictures of the courtyard where my camera had died last time, and we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before dinner.
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| Finally got pictures of this piazza! |
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| The placement of the pigeon definitely changed the meaning of the statue |
When we were finally ready to get back up (or at least when our stomachs proved louder than our feet), we headed out to go find the restaurant that I had enjoyed on my first visit to Florence. When we arrived, I was surprised to learn that it had recently got a good foreign review causing there to be more tourists than I had encountered last time, but we still both ended up enjoying our food immensely. For dessert, we ended up going to a café near the Duomo that had lovely tiramisú, just what I had been craving, before heading back to the hotel for the night.
The next day, with no real plans or agenda, was decided to be about shopping and exploring. Over the course of the day, we explored a synagogue, the shoe shop that Vera had suggested (mom got shoes there), found a much better kebab shop for lunch, watch some hilarious pigeons fight to bathe in a puddle, looked for white cotton blouses for mom in quite a few stores, rubbed the boar’s nose for good luck, walked across the Ponte Vecchio and around the area on the other side, explored many beautiful back roads and side streets, found a fresh fruit and vegetable shop where we bought some lovely raspberries to munch on, found a shoe shop where I found shoes, walked back into Zara on a whim and found a dress I had previously liked but which didn’t fit now in my size, and explored some more. Eventually we went back to the hotel to pack a bit and then we headed out to dinner.
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| The Florence synagogue |
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| An interesting door knocker |
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| The Boar |
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| On the Ponte Vecchio |
We found a lovely restaurant (with a very difficult door to open. Two other groups besides us also could not get in so it clearly wasn’t just us) where we splurged on a many coursed meal of spaghetti with red sauce, some meatballs, and Florentine steak. Feeling wonderfully full and relaxed, we headed back to the hotel to finish packing and to go to bed early in prep for our early rising time to fly home.
At 4am the next day, we got up, took a taxi to the airport, and began our process to go home. For the most part our journey was smooth, though checking in at the beginning was difficult (we were sent back and forth to two separate desks to check two bags, then we went to security where we learned we had to check our other suitcases, so we went back and did it again, then got back to security which by then had a long line, and we then had to run for our flight) and, in Germany, I was body searched by some rude TSA agents who decided that squishing all of the bags I was carrying (all of which held delicate items) was a good way of checking them out. However, after that, we had no more problems and I spent many of the hours traveling keeping myself awake by watching movies.
When we finally pulled into the driveway home, I had successfully stayed awake for 24 hours and could go to bed at a normal hour to reset my sleep schedule. Glad to be home. WOO!
