We pre bought our tickets to Florence yesterday while roaming around and JM dumpster dived and scrounged boxes so we could mail some stuff off to NC...to lighten our loads. Each of us dumped a pair of shoes...SOB...my Seibel German sandals are in the dustbin! So are three shirts and a blouse and a bag of shampoo, and various other lotions and potions accumulated along the way. My suitcase does feel a little lighter, but I still can't carry it...I think I can pull it though!
And our taxi was on it's way...fortunately with a strapping young guy with a fair command of English and a sense of humor because he was going to need it! We asked him to stop at the post office so we could mail off the two boxes and he looked a little oddly at us, but said OK and away we went. Bless his heart...he translated for us, got us the forms to fill out and finally they were done and gone...seems that postoffice doesn't usually do packages. Oh, and our wallet was about €150 lighter!
Train ride was lovely, cool, and featured beautiful scenery along the way.
Upon arrival at the train station those little angels were with us once again...the train was on the track closest to the station...no steps down, walk, up steps and over necessary...just hop on that train! Well, JM still had to hoist them up to stash them between cars, but he did that much more easily it seemed. Just maybe we'll make our weight limits to fly!
Once we were in sight of Florence we faced one more obstacle...Florence has more than one train station. We missed the first one and hoped it wasn't that one! And we got off at the second, much larger one. It seemed more central or at least in an older part of town. Then, bathroom and taxi in that order! The taxi line was very, very long, but there were many, many, many taxis and a method to all the madness. Two or three taxis were available to you when you were the first person in line...you could choose according to the number of passengers and luggage. Somehow it all works.
The funniest thing we saw was a very young petite woman, very well-dressed for a summer tea party and looking very happy but hassled, literally dragging five huge Prada shopping bags to the back of the taxi queue. She got no sympathy from onlookers!
Once checked in at the Hotel Orto De' Medici, we roamed and wandered and tried to orient ourselves. We were given two welcome drinks and used them around seven o'clock before heading out again for more of the same. We actually made up our own Night Walk based on some Rick Steves info I had stored on my iPad...and it worked. It helped us get to and from our hotel and to and from our next day destination...the River Arno. But we were tired puppies early and fell into beds quite late...tomorrow we meet Florence for real!
Quote: "A room without books is as a body without a soul." ... Cicero
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