We gave ourselves about an hour from the time we left the hotel to the time our train left. That gave us plenty of time to sleep in and have another relaxing breakfast at the hotel. As we finished up eating, we struck up a conversation with three Americans in their 50's. They were from Long Beach and come to find out the man was an urban planner. They were just arriving to Venice so we shared what we had done over the last two days there.
We got our stuff together and grabbed the crowded #1 towards the train station. That was an experience. We were pushed every which direction with our luggage. Josh was worried we wouldn't make our train so I struck up a conversation with a young couple from Malibu. They were going to Florence as well and Josh said they had been on our flight.
Despite Josh's worrying, we got to the train on time. We had to ask about 5 times to make sure we should be getting in the Rome train. We figured out that the #6 on our ticket meant we should be on car 6. I, however, messued us up. When I had been doing my research I thought I had read that the difference between the 1st and 2nd class was that 2nd class didn't have assigned seats. I guess I was wrong for the Eurostar fast trains. After only one stop with us comfortably relaxing in our seats, we were interrupted from reading by an Italian couple who were standing above us and speaking loudly to us. We had no clue what they were saying which seemed to only make them speak louder. Luckily, the woman next to me explained we were sitting in their seats. I got scared that we had no assigned seats and had unfortunately chosen the two seats promised to others - meaning we would have to stand for the next two hours. The same woman took our tickets and showed us that we too had reserved seats right across the aisle. Whew.
Sheepishly, we took our correct seats with a young Canadian couple. They had their own problems. No one told them that although they had seat assignments on this train, they had to trade their EuroRail passes for separate tickets. The ticket checker charged them 23E a piece and they were not happy.
Two and a half hours on the train and we were in Florence. We both agreed how easy the train was. Quicker and cheaper than a plane. And more comfortable.
Upon arrival, I should have known better than to leave the instructions for meeting Phil up to Josh. All Josh said was to meet him by the buses. Huh? I aimlessly stood around the buses while Josh wandered around to see if there were buses somewhere else. Just then I saw Phil through the crowd. He seemed so happy to see us. Josh emerged just then, too. After exchanging hugs we loaded into Phil's tiny little car (literally barely the size of the Smart Car).
Driving in Italy is crazy. Josh kept comparing it to being part of the movie The Italian Job. After driving in and out of traffic we lucked into a parking spot and walked across the bridge. The weird thing about the city is that you have to have a special pass on your windshield in order to park in the city during the day. If you drive in there and don't have it, somehow a camera is triggered, it takes your picture and you get a ticket in the mail. A similar system works for nighttime. Because of the number of folks out at night, no one can drive in a certain part of the city between midnight and 4 am.
We dropped our stuff and made a mad dash for lunch. Most places close by 2:30 pm or 3 for lunch. The first two placed we tried were closed and ended up at a place Phil had never eaten. I was decent, though. Wine, pasta, etc.
After we had eaten we no longer had to run and followed Phil all over Florence. We saw the big piazzas, the huge modern light sculpture, some churches, the river and bridges, etc. We were quite tuckered out by evening and headed home to shower and rest a bit.
Since we had a late and big lunch we just went out for appertivos. Appertivos are genius. the cocktail prices are outrageous here (8-9 euro minimum). However, every night (even Sundays) the bars serve appetizers from around 7-10pm. The food is free as long as you get a drink. Some places it sees to be a set price for the drink, too - no matter what you drink. THat is key as some cocktails are much more expensive than beer and thus a much better deal. We started at a place that had a really cool staircase leading up to a loft. The food was so-so but we were so full. Phil ordered a Nigroni that had those horrible bitters from the spritzers. I stuck with a rum and coke and Josh got his new favorite prosecco.
After a drink we headed to the next spot "Slowly". It was very cool inside. Long bar with booths on the other wall. One more drink and we all seemed down for the count. We were getting up really early the next morning.
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