Adventures in Firenze
Today we (Daryl, Ian and Myself) made plans Friday night to go to Firenze (Florence to those of you who have no idea what that is…) on Saturday afternoon, took the wrong bus from the top of the plateau in Orvieto with Ted and had to walk up and over in order to get back in time for dinner. We didn’t. Oops. We got fed anyway and had a nice relaxing night here in the hotel. We were able to sleep in today, so at noontime we started congregating to trip up to the Etruscan Necropolis on the side of the plateau. I had been looking forward to it since earlier this summer when I was researching Orvieto. Unfortunately, the time was changed from 1 to 4, and we had to walk down to it. Our tickets for Firenze were unfortunately at 5:45, and by the time we got down to the Necropolis, Ian, Daryl and I had to leave the tour without seeing the Necropolis. Hopefully we’ll have another chance to do so later in the trip.
So we were pointed in the direction of the train station, and had to walk around half of the plateau, so we moved at a pretty fast pace, but it was all up hill. Eventually we came across a path that seemed to go downhill for a while, and towards the tracks far below us, so we took it. That was an interesting idea, as it went up and down, through the woods, through a few fields and eventually onto a tiny road. It was the service road (a 45° hill is where this was located) to the Funiculare, or tram system up the side of the plateau. After a wicked long trek down the hillside, we made it to the train station, and in plenty of time.
The train ride itself was pretty uneventful: card games and reading Jarrod’s thesis. When we arrived in Firenze, we thought we could walk to our hotel. That was a bad idea. Three miles of weaving our way in and out of tiny side streets trying to figure out where we were compared to the hotel, all the while taking pictures of statues and buildings and such as we went along. It was ridiculous. An hour and a half later, we found the hotel and checked in. We watched a few minutes of Mary Poppins in Italiano, and then went to find the bus back into town to find some food, but took the right bus in the wrong direction. We ended up at the opposite end of the line and had to ride it all the way back into town. When we finally arrived back near the train station (Statzione Santa Maria Novella) we found the closest pizzeria we could (Il Paradiso Della Pizza) and sat down. The pizza was amazing and I suggest it to anyone who is traveling to Firenze. We got a Salami, bleu cheese, funghi and garlic pizza. It was cooked in a wood burning oven which was sweet, and we scarffed it down in record time along with a pitcher of birra. After this, we got some gelato down the street and caught the bus back to the hotel. The three of us fell asleep to MTV Italiano. What a great night.
~Nick Quinn
a.k.a. Poncho!
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Florence Photos coming soon