Month: May 2022

Since I booked us an afternoon train to Florence, we didn’t have to rush this morning. We went down to the breakfast buffet to get our fill before coming back to the room to shower and pack. We checked out of our hotel at noon and started the slow walk with our luggage to the metro station. It’s like everything expanded overnight! This stuff was definitely not this heavy the other day!

We made it to our train station and platform without issue and waited for our 1:20 train to come. We did almost get on the 12:50 one since we were there so early, but thankfully we didn’t. Not sure if it would have been a problem or not, but I don’t want to find out. I’ve read horror stories online of people getting charged €50-75 for not validating their tickets and things like that. Who knows what they’d charge if they realized we got on an earlier train (that has assigned seats).

Speaking of, this train claimed to have WiFi, too, but it wouldn’t connect. So I read my book and worked on the blog. It look less than 2 hours to get to Florence. We got off the train and made our way outside. What a beautiful city even from this busy spot! We decided on a taxi to get to our Airbnb instead of walking, there’s not a bus or subway here to take us any closer to our Airbnb, and it’s almost a mile walk on uneven cobblestones.. which is fine normally, but not while toting some heavy luggage.

Our taxi driver got us right in front of our door, and the Airbnb host, Andrea (said like On-drey-ah), met us at the front door. We’re right in the heart of the city, 4-5 minute walk to the river and less than that to get to the Uffizi Gallery. It’s gorgeous! Andrea carried mom’s luggage up the 3 flights of stairs and I followed him.. whew, I guess I was complaining I needed more exercise! Hahaha, I started having flashbacks of running the stairs at work with Kristi one night that had me drenched in sweat after 3 minutes..

Our Airbnb is incredibly gorgeous! Two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room with two small terraces, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer! It’s always exciting when the place exceeds your expectations and not the other way around! It was too soon to pick our rooms, we were overwhelmed with the views and hungry, too. So, we connected to WiFi and googled Andrea’s sandwich shop recommendations, and left the unpacking for when we return. Florence is known for having incredible sandwiches and we were ready to figure out why!

We decided on a shop that was a 4 minute walk from our apartment. As we walked out, we realized our place is next to a museum and across from a church with a huge bell tower.. which is an awesome way to locate our road! The sandwich shop was easy to find and the food itself was so dang good! The meat was stacked so thick and every bite was full of flavor. Don’t even get me started on the bread-the baked daily fresh bread.. ah. The guys working spoke Italian, English, and Spanish. They were cracking me up because they sang along with their playlist while they worked, songs came on in different languages, different styles-and man it was such a nice difference, seeing people enjoying their jobs. They just seemed happy. And with those sandwiches, we were happy, too!

We went exploring the cobblestone roads and stone store fronts. The building all looked to be very old, and so stunning. You could smell the leather in the air.. and then suddenly the tight roads and tiny alley ways would open up into a square or piazza filled with fountains and statues. It felt like a scene from a movie. We were in love!

We walked down a road next to the museums where people were selling their artwork.. many had prints of their work, but one man was actually sitting there painting with his watercolors. His work had beautiful scenes of Tuscan wineries and views of Florence from the waterway. I had to have one! I already know it will hang in my office with the watercolor painting I got from Paris in 2019 and the paintings from a man in Peru the year before that. I’m literally so fascinated by people and their talent, whether it be artists or musicians or performers. Maybe in my next life I’ll have some skill that blows people away with one look or listen (I think we all know it’s not going to be for my profound writing skills).

From there we walked along the water and snapped photos of the bridges connecting the two sides of the city. One of the leather stores ended up catching mom’s attention.. purses and jackets and wallets, oh my! The man, Marco, was quite the salesman. He asked if I’d like to see a jacket, I say no.. because I just saw the price on one beside me (€750).. he goes, “trust me, I have the perfect one for you..” yeah, ok-whatever. I say yes, fully expecting to not like what he picked for me.

He comes back with a camel colored leather jacket. The sleeves and hips have detailing on them, it’s a side zip with a pretty collar.. and, it is incredible! I think, no way will it look good on me though.. he zips it-spins me around, checks the sleeves, and then tells me he’d tailor it for me-the sleeves were a bit long. I’m starting to get sad, because I just know it’s going to be way too much money.. but Mom is asking him how much and it was no where near as expensive as the ones I had been seeing, like a fraction of the cost! Mom decided to get it for me as a gift, and I am still reeling over how much I love it! It felt weird to pay for it and leave it there with Marco, but he said he’d have it tailored tonight and ready in the morning for us to pick up.. Wow!

He even told mom he’d make her a completely custom jacket of her liking, if she’d tell him the specifics of the colors and details that she prefers-and it would be ready before we leave Florence, but it was getting hot in the shop and she was over it.. so she declined and we went on our way. At some point we found a shoe store that caught Mom’s eye, and she ended up picking out a pair of leather shoes she fell in love with. She tried them on and walked around and we couldn’t leave without them. We’ve been in Florence only a few hours and we’ve already bought all the leather things!

We took her new shoes back to the room and rested our feet while we looked for a place for dinner. We settled on one that had been recommended by our host and also had great reviews online. On our walk there, I got us a little lost and we passed a different restaurant that smelling amazing-but we kept going. We found our place and got a seat inside. It was a small place and the lady working was so kind.. but Mom didn’t quite love her food.. (I did, I think I’d love anything anyone here gave me..)

She ordered the walnut ravioli, I ordered the mushroom risotto. I knew she didn’t like hers because she actually asked for a bite of mine-and then let me share some with her! I loved her ravioli, although the walnut taste was a strong one.. she said it was too strong and tasted like dirt. I thought she was being a little dramatic 😉 We vowed to stop at any restaurant that smelled phenomenal from outside any time we cross one from now on.. and I promised I’d find that place we skipped tomorrow.

We walked around a bit more, and Mom got an ice cream (gelato in Italian) by the river while I ran my mile in a figure 8 by the water and across 3 bridges. It was so beautiful at night and less crowded than during the day.. although I was still bobbing and weaving.. plus the roads were well lit so I could watch my footing on the uneven cobblestones. It was one of my favorite runs so far, I need to learn to get up before I have to and get my runs in during the morning where there is plenty of sunlight, no crowds, and I can actually get more than a mile in because I haven’t just devoured my meal, some of Mom’s, a basket of bread and half a bottle of wine.. hmmm.. maybe tomorrow..

We leisurely walk back, enjoying the scenery, listening to the different languages of the people passing us-and hearing some music in the background being played by street performers. Such an absolutely beautiful city. Neither of us really wanted to go inside yet, but our feet are sore and we are tired, so we call it a night and head up our several flights of stairs. I let Mom pick her room, and then we start unpacking, showering, and getting into our pjs.

It’s been a wonderful day, I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us! The only thing planned is seeing the sculpture of David by Michaelangelo.. which I can’t wait to see in person.

And with that, Goodnight!

Well. I didn’t get up at 8 to go run. Or 8:30. Or 9.. it is what it is. I did get up at 9:30 and decided I’d run later, of course. Mom was already awake and had perfected the coffee maker and had a cup ready and waiting for me. We sat and sipped and sampled some little pastries Andrea left us.

We got dressed and went to pick up my leather jacket around 11, we brought it back to the room and then hoofed it across town to the Gallery of the Academy of Florence, where the statue of David stands. We met up with our tour group and I was almost immediately annoyed. Our group was literally only 7 people, but one man.. ONE MAN.. was ruining it. He kept interrupting the tour guide, Natalie, mid sentence with a random question having nothing to do with anything she was talking about. It didn’t help my irritation any that it was crowded and getting hot-like low 80s.

We made it inside and through 2 rooms before getting to David. Mom and I walked around, got our pictures, took it all in-tried like hell to listen to Natalie, who was still getting her commentary cut off by this man.. so much so that other people couldn’t ask her anything at all, and that man kept getting close enough to her that we all heard everything he asked or said to her through the headsets. And I’m talking crazy things like, “well, we’re going to go to this other museum, is it easily accessible? How long of a walk is it to get there? How long with that take us?” Like how in the hell is this woman supposed to know how long it’s going to take YOU to walk somewhere? Sheeeeesh.

So, for the first time in my life, I turned my headset in early (Mom’s too, although she had turned hers off a long time ago lol), and Mom and I carried on through the museum without the tour. We escaped the crowded museum and started down one of the roads. We passed yet another (more like 400, but somehow this one seemed special) leather shop that Mom just had to go into. She spotted a purse she loved and after talking with the lady awhile we decided to go eat lunch and if she was still thinking about the purse, we’d come back and get it after we ate..

Which is exactly what happened. We ate at a restaurant with outdoor seating beside the big cathedral. We shared a caprese salad and a pizza. I tried the famous Aperol Spritz.. I’m not a fan. I’ll stick to wine from here on out. lol After we ate we went back to the purse shop and got mom her gorgeous leather purse, shes still giddy over it!

We walked back to our room, and she swapped out her purses and we put on dresses for dinner. As we walked out Mom spotted a hair salon and asked the lady if she’d wash and style our hair.. and boy did she! Mom was so happy to finally have her hair styled nicely-we bought a curling iron but it doesn’t quite work the way we thought it would and the hair dryers aren’t quite strong enough-that or we don’t have the patience-to get our hair the way we like it.

Once our hair was curled, we started our journey to locate the great smelling restaurant from yesterday. It only took us an hour and a half to find it.. some of that was because we’d pop in and out of a store here and there.. but mostly because I just couldn’t find it-until I did. The host sat us in the garden and it was already off to a better start than yesterday. I had my wine, Mom got a coke-and the waiter put ice in a wine glass for her, lol! So, we cheers’d my Chianti Classico and her Coca-Cola Classico in a fit of giggles!

Our main meal was awesome.. Mom had some type of ravioli like noodles stuffed with potatoes and covered with a meat sauce (phenomenal) and I had spaghetti carbonara (also phenomenal). I knew mom loved it because I only got to try a bite 🤣 My spaghetti noodles were fatter than a noodle from home, and I am here for it! It was delicious! We were so full from eating every bite of our dinner that we couldn’t even attempt desert.

We slowly meandered back to the room around 10:30. I changed my clothes and got my run in and then started a load of laundry when I got back. We attempted to watch TV, but there wasn’t anything in English and this remote isn’t as fancy as the one in the hotel, so it wouldn’t swap the language for us. I was too tired to read subtitles. Mom went to bed while I’m sitting here waiting on my laundry to finish so I can put it into the dryer before going to sleep. It feels like it’s taking a lifetime!

We have an early morning tomorrow.. we have a full day trip to Cinque Terre, the National park on the northwestern coast of Italy. There are 5 towns that are connected by tiny roads, steep hiking trails, and trains. I’m so very excited! It’s probably going to be another trip highlight, for sure!

We had to get up early: 6:20 for me, earlier than that for Mom. We left by 6:45 to walk to the bus station for our day trip tour to Cinque Terre, a National park in northwestern Italy. We walked our mile to the station, snagged some McDonalds for breakfast (it was literally the only thing open during that entire mile walk), and joined our tour group. It was a HUGE group.. double decker private bus huge.

The drive from Florence to La Spezia took 2 hours on the bus. The tour guide talked into the overhead speakers the majority of that time.. loudly. I did enjoy some of the history he was sharing, but he had my ears throbbing with the speaker volume. When we arrived in La Spezia, we split into two groups and went into the train station. We were told where to meet in 15 minutes.. we stood in the bathroom line for 14 of those minutes and had to leave before actually making it inside.. only to stand at the train platform listening to this guide say all the things the other guide said before on the bus.. cool. Had we known that, we wouldn’t have gotten out of the bathroom line..

We board the train to take us to the second of the five towns in Cinque Terre.. the towns go in order from La Spezia north like this:

0. La Spezia

1. Riomaggiore

2. Manarola

3. Corniglia

4. Vernazza

5. Monterosso

So, we went from La Spezia to Manarola. When we got off the train, we were supposed to be listening to the guide to know where to go and when to be back.. Mom had other plans. she went into a cafe and bought croissants and water so we could use the bathroom. There were two other women in there doing the same thing, also annoyed we didn’t get a chance to do so earlier when there was clearly time to allow it.

Mom and I then walked up the ginormous hill into the cliff side of this town. When we got to some great views, we turned around and walked back the way we came, so we could go into a dress shop and then walk down to the pier before it was time to meet the group. We both got cute dresses, and then rushed to snap a pic of the water.. and then all but ran back to the train station. When they said “fast pace tour” I don’t think this is what we thought they meant.

From Manarola, we went a whole 4 minutes to Corniglia. From the train station you have to walk up about 400 steps to the top of the village (with gorgeous views of the cliff side homes and vineyards surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea). So absolutely beautiful, but hot and apparently we had to be up those steps within 10-15 minutes to “stay on track..” Hearing that even that would be rushed, Mom opted for the shuttle bus to the top and met me at the village center.

We didn’t do the lunch option with the tour because so many of the preset meals had something with seafood, and mom doesn’t do seafood, so we’d be on our own to explore Corniglia and find lunch, then meet at the restaurant the group went to (those that opted in), by 1:05. It was less than an hour from this moment, and the guide kept repeating himself over and over, so we went to walk away, and he stops us.. fusses, “I am trying to tell you something important, I’m trying to tell you the meeting time and meeting spot!” So, I said back, as polite as my irritation would allow, “1:05 in front of that restaurant, we got it! Thank you so much!” And kept walking.. it has already felt like we’re being herded like cattle, please quit cutting in to free time we actually do have..

So, we find a sandwich shop, get food and a lemon soda to try, locate the gorgeous terrace and eat our lunch on a bench. It was pretty, for sure, and I loved the idea of it-but this tour was annoying us both by this time. And trust me-one thing you don’t want to do, is tell Connie to hurry up. Yikes. We snap some pictures along the walk from our lunch spot to the restaurant meeting spot. We actually make it there early and our guide spotted us and asked if everything was ok and if we enjoyed lunch.. we tell him we did and ask if we have time to order a glass of wine here before time to go.. he grabs the waiter for us and gets our order in.

We enjoy (well, I enjoyed) our wine on the terrace and took advantage of the restrooms before walking down to meet with everyone. From here, there were 2 options: hike from Corniglia to Vernazza and have the absolute best views, or take the train.. the hike is estimated to take 1.5-2 hours, the train-5 minutes. It was a no brainer to me, I wanted to take the train, get to town, have 2 hours of freedom from cattle probes, and enjoy the views we’ve paid to see. Mom was shocked! Look, y’all, just because I hiked the AT doesn’t mean I want to sweat my ass off and be miserable on vacation!

When we made it to the train station for our 5 minute ride, one of the women from this morning at the bathroom asked me something.. I don’t remember what it was now, but I’m thankful she did because it sparked our conversation that turned into making the rest of this day trip wonderful. Her name is Jennie, shes an ED nurse in Florida, she’s here with her Mom, Diane, who reminds me of Mom so much it’s hysterical. The 4 of us quickly bonded and decided to find a place for drinks together with the view of the sea in Vernazza!

We did just that. Jennie and I tried a lemon spritz, which is 100x better than an aperol spritz, for the record. It was like a lemon candy in a drink-but put a lemon drop to shame. We talked and shared our stories-everything from nursing nightmares to traveling mishaps. At some point we were all laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes! After some time, we all went perusing through the shops until it was time to be at the meeting spot. Ugh. Meeting spots.

We boarded the next train from Vernazza to Monterosso. They split us back up into our groups, so Jennie and Diane had to go with the other guide. Boo. In Monterosso, we had almost an hour (45 minutes actually), so Mom and I found a bathroom, paid our €1 each to use, changed into our bathing suits and promptly walked to the beach. I cannot-hear me now-CAN. NOT. See a gorgeous body of water and not get in it if I have the chance!

We drop our stuff in the rocky sand and walk towards the water. People are sunbathing all around, but only 3-5 people are actually in the water. We step in- HOLY SHIT that’s COLD! Hahaha, but not the coldest water I’ve ever been in (thanks, Lake Tahoe).. so, I walk out until I can swim out farther, keeping my hair out of the water.. mom got her toes in and called it quits! Hahaha

I swam, I floated, I smiled and I giggled. I flipping loved it! And I didn’t have to dodge, bob, weave, or talk to anyone else. There was no one out there! I kept a close eye on my watch and stayed in the water for 30 minutes, giving myself just 10 to walk out, get my towel and attempt to dry off before throwing my dress back on and walking to the meeting spot with mom. We got there and met back up with Jennie and Diane before getting on a cruise boat that would take us from Montorosso back to the first town (the one we skipped this morning), Riomaggiore.

The boat ride was beautiful, but too crowded to even attempt getting a picture. Dang it. Then, once off the boat we walked along the coast just long enough to snap some pictures, stand in a bottleneck line attempting to go down the stairs, and then stand at the train station for 20 minutes.. you know, the train station with no views.. when we could have been enjoying the breathtaking beauty surrounding every other step of this gorgeous town. Awesome.

We take the train back to La Spezia, then walk for 20-25 minutes to the bus.. to take our 2 hour bus ride back to Florence. Good gracious, this trip was so beautiful and could have been so much more enjoyable, but we were honestly worn out and frustrated from the rush rush rush of the day. We originally thought it was just us, but we overheard others say thing the same. Oh well, they meant well-it is so beautiful, and honestly now I know if i ever make it back here that I can navigate this area without using a tour group.

After getting back to Florence, Jennie and Diane walked back with us from the train station. We went into a square with another lovely church and quickly found a restaurant to sit and eat some dinner outside. The best part this trip has been meeting these two! Man, they are funny!
We said our goodbyes sometime around 11:15 (we didn’t get back to Florence until after 9pm), and we walked towards our Airbnb and they walked to their hotel-all exhausted by the day. Upstairs, I changed into running clothes and knocked out my mile-showered-and then we both crashed, hard. Reeeeeeal hard.