FIRENZE.
Sept 14th.
I couldn’t sleep all night, Jetlag won that battle. With three hours of sleep, we woke up and got ready to spend the next two days in Florence. This trip is going to be interesting because last year I had Tammy directing me everywhere. This year, it was up to me. The night before my uncle kept asking me if I remembered how to use the public transportation to get to the Termini. Honestly, I was afraid to say “no last year I just followed Tammy around and im actually really dumb” So I just kept saying yes and thankfully as I started to go everything was coming back to me. I successful got us from my uncles to the metro, to the train that would take us to Firenze, the only thing I forgot was to validate my train ticket, as I ran out of the train looking for the validation machine, I couldn’t help but feel like I was traveling. I mean I knew I was, but I felt it this time and it felt great. I loved being back in this culture where everyone probably already knew from my frantic, lost face that I was American. I tried to get a bottle of water in Italian and the man just smiled at me and without answering asked me “Where are you from?” haha.
Day 3 and my George Costanza-ness has already kicked in. We get to our hotel to check in and it’s a disaster. The man right off the bat wanted our passports and I’m like hold on a second. I look at the sheet that he wants me to sign and I see a list of ridiculous extra fees. 25 euro for sheets, 10 euro per person for electricity and like a 200 euro cleaning deposit. I question it and he kind of blows me off and asks for our passports. My mom says no and begins to question the fees and he says they are state on the site. I ask for proof and he argues with me and accuses me of calling him a liar. I tell him that we cant afford this and to cancel our reservation.
So my mom and I set out to find a hostel and as we start walking it starts raining, being the child I am, I start to throw an internal tantrum, my back is hurting and now I have to wander in the rain to find an affordable hostel. Every place we checked out was 200+ then we finally found one for 75 euro. We go in there and my mom says she wants to check out the room first. We go to the room and it has a queen and twin bed and a bathroom inside. Im like PERFECT. My mom goes in and when she sees the shower she begins to laugh. Its literally a half bath and someone installed a shower head in front of the toilet. She refuses to stay there and wants to stay somewhere else. Finally we get to Hotel Di Anzi and she likes it. So we unload our stuff and go to find something to eat…did I mention that I didn’t eat all day? We go to this pizzeria and of course I get pizza con salame and my mom gets lasagna. We get a glass of house wine and it is delicious. During dinner it started to rain even harder, so of course my mom and I didn’t want to walk around in it. We didn’t get dressed for the rain, so we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our next dilemma…
Michele was supposed to meet us at the original hotel at 9pm, without a phone, I had no way to let him know what had happened. He of course gave me his phone number and work email but being me, I didn’t write it down because I figured I’d have it on facebook or something. So my mom and I decide we just have to go meet him at the old hotel , problem is, we have no idea how to get there. So I ask the lady at our hotels for directions and something was lost in translation because where I thought she told me to go was no where near where we ended. We asked someone else and they told us which way to go. As we walk it starts to rain again. Keep in mind im in shorts and flip flops. So we are walking on the sidewalk and im on the sidewalk and my mom is behind me a bit. As she ‘s telling me to not walk in puddles, just like in the movies, a car drives through a huge puddle and splashes me. My mom starts to laugh and all I can think of is how I am George Costanza and if this was a movie, I’d find an Italian husband to come save me, but my life is not a movie. So we laugh about my misfortune and continue on our journey. We get to the hotel at exactly 9 and as we are standing under the overhang I see someone walking towards us. I step out to see its Michele! Perfecto!
We walk my mom back to our hotel and then Michele and I go exploring. We get gelato (Fragola) and go to ben and Jerrys because he had never been to one in Italy. Haha. I saw more in Florence that night than I did in the day and a half that I was there last time. We spent a couple of hours walking around, catching up and it was great. Im so grateful for having these friendships with people all over the world and im happy that ive been able to maintain them over the years. It just sucks that when I do see them no time seems long enough. We went to the only pub like place that was open and got some wine. This place reminded me of a bar in SF. A lot of young travelers were there and practically everyone was speaking English. It was a little weird. After our drink we called it a night. We said our goodbyes for now, we were going to try and meet up after the wedding and before I left for Germany.
The next morning we woke up after check out which pretty much decided for us that we were staying another night. We got up and got dressed and started walking around. My mom was all about the markets. She spent most of the day buying souvenirs for people and shopping…oh the scarves I got! When we were all shopped out, I took my mom to Ponte Vecchio and we just wandered around the city again. We went back to our hotel to drop off our bags and then went back out. We walked by a gelato shop and the smell of waffles drew us in. I cant remember if I had it last year or not, but I nearly died. Waffle sandwich with chocolate and whip cream. It was amazing. We spent the rest of the night relaxing by the duomo, got dinner, saw a street performer then headed back to our hotel. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.
PS. A new phrase I heard this trip, “I like brown sugar”
Sept 14th.
I couldn’t sleep all night, Jetlag won that battle. With three hours of sleep, we woke up and got ready to spend the next two days in Florence. This trip is going to be interesting because last year I had Tammy directing me everywhere. This year, it was up to me. The night before my uncle kept asking me if I remembered how to use the public transportation to get to the Termini. Honestly, I was afraid to say “no last year I just followed Tammy around and im actually really dumb” So I just kept saying yes and thankfully as I started to go everything was coming back to me. I successful got us from my uncles to the metro, to the train that would take us to Firenze, the only thing I forgot was to validate my train ticket, as I ran out of the train looking for the validation machine, I couldn’t help but feel like I was traveling. I mean I knew I was, but I felt it this time and it felt great. I loved being back in this culture where everyone probably already knew from my frantic, lost face that I was American. I tried to get a bottle of water in Italian and the man just smiled at me and without answering asked me “Where are you from?” haha.
Day 3 and my George Costanza-ness has already kicked in. We get to our hotel to check in and it’s a disaster. The man right off the bat wanted our passports and I’m like hold on a second. I look at the sheet that he wants me to sign and I see a list of ridiculous extra fees. 25 euro for sheets, 10 euro per person for electricity and like a 200 euro cleaning deposit. I question it and he kind of blows me off and asks for our passports. My mom says no and begins to question the fees and he says they are state on the site. I ask for proof and he argues with me and accuses me of calling him a liar. I tell him that we cant afford this and to cancel our reservation.
So my mom and I set out to find a hostel and as we start walking it starts raining, being the child I am, I start to throw an internal tantrum, my back is hurting and now I have to wander in the rain to find an affordable hostel. Every place we checked out was 200+ then we finally found one for 75 euro. We go in there and my mom says she wants to check out the room first. We go to the room and it has a queen and twin bed and a bathroom inside. Im like PERFECT. My mom goes in and when she sees the shower she begins to laugh. Its literally a half bath and someone installed a shower head in front of the toilet. She refuses to stay there and wants to stay somewhere else. Finally we get to Hotel Di Anzi and she likes it. So we unload our stuff and go to find something to eat…did I mention that I didn’t eat all day? We go to this pizzeria and of course I get pizza con salame and my mom gets lasagna. We get a glass of house wine and it is delicious. During dinner it started to rain even harder, so of course my mom and I didn’t want to walk around in it. We didn’t get dressed for the rain, so we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our next dilemma…
Michele was supposed to meet us at the original hotel at 9pm, without a phone, I had no way to let him know what had happened. He of course gave me his phone number and work email but being me, I didn’t write it down because I figured I’d have it on facebook or something. So my mom and I decide we just have to go meet him at the old hotel , problem is, we have no idea how to get there. So I ask the lady at our hotels for directions and something was lost in translation because where I thought she told me to go was no where near where we ended. We asked someone else and they told us which way to go. As we walk it starts to rain again. Keep in mind im in shorts and flip flops. So we are walking on the sidewalk and im on the sidewalk and my mom is behind me a bit. As she ‘s telling me to not walk in puddles, just like in the movies, a car drives through a huge puddle and splashes me. My mom starts to laugh and all I can think of is how I am George Costanza and if this was a movie, I’d find an Italian husband to come save me, but my life is not a movie. So we laugh about my misfortune and continue on our journey. We get to the hotel at exactly 9 and as we are standing under the overhang I see someone walking towards us. I step out to see its Michele! Perfecto!
We walk my mom back to our hotel and then Michele and I go exploring. We get gelato (Fragola) and go to ben and Jerrys because he had never been to one in Italy. Haha. I saw more in Florence that night than I did in the day and a half that I was there last time. We spent a couple of hours walking around, catching up and it was great. Im so grateful for having these friendships with people all over the world and im happy that ive been able to maintain them over the years. It just sucks that when I do see them no time seems long enough. We went to the only pub like place that was open and got some wine. This place reminded me of a bar in SF. A lot of young travelers were there and practically everyone was speaking English. It was a little weird. After our drink we called it a night. We said our goodbyes for now, we were going to try and meet up after the wedding and before I left for Germany.
The next morning we woke up after check out which pretty much decided for us that we were staying another night. We got up and got dressed and started walking around. My mom was all about the markets. She spent most of the day buying souvenirs for people and shopping…oh the scarves I got! When we were all shopped out, I took my mom to Ponte Vecchio and we just wandered around the city again. We went back to our hotel to drop off our bags and then went back out. We walked by a gelato shop and the smell of waffles drew us in. I cant remember if I had it last year or not, but I nearly died. Waffle sandwich with chocolate and whip cream. It was amazing. We spent the rest of the night relaxing by the duomo, got dinner, saw a street performer then headed back to our hotel. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.
PS. A new phrase I heard this trip, “I like brown sugar”
No comments:
Post a Comment