Florence

Florence is about 2 hours from Rome on the train. Maybe 1.5. We knew it was going to take us a whole to get to the train station on the bus, and we didn't know exactly when the buses ran, so we had decided yesterday to take the 8:30 train. We didn't know exactly how long it would take us to get to the train station, so we decided to leave early. Mom needed to stop by the ATM, and luckily there was one on the way to the bus stop. As we were gathered around the ATM looking tough (it was early enough  to still be dark), a cab pulled up and asked if we needed a ride. Max talked to him, and he said 10€. The bus would have cost us 5€ anyway, so why not. We climbed in.

What an adventure! As we careened around the streets of Rome, my question to Max was that I wondered if he had oil slick. I felt like I was in Spy Hunter. We got to the station in record time, and we dizzily stumbled out of the cab. Then we waited. And waited. Then we peed. Then we waited. And some more. We had left early to allow plenty of time for a bus that went around the city, and our 2.5 second cab ride had left us with plenty of time to spare. Ah, well, better early than late! We finally got on the train, and we were off!

mopeds

While on the train, it started pouring. Huge sheets of water so that we couldn't see out of the window kind of pouring. None of us had brought our rain jackets. Damn. But, by the time we got to Florence, it was beautiful. We found a little book stand in the train station and outfitted ourselves with a guidebook and map. We decided to go to the Academie where David hangs out first, since if we were going to only see one thing (which I was sure we would), we wanted it to be David. We went past a moped parking lot. There were a lot of them.

We walked right there, and smack into a huge line. There were people hawking tours so you could skip the line, but they were 20€ per person over the admission, making it an extra 100€. We weren't going to pay that much. We waited, and waited, and waited. There seemed to be a big movement about every 30 minutes. They could only have so many people in at a time, so we had to wait for one group to leave before they would let another one in. Max, Em & I took a little walk while Mom & Steven stayed in line. We offered to take Steven with us, but he didn't want to come. Emma took pictures of pigeons in a park. When we got back, they had moved a little. Woo hoo! We stood in line. The original plan had been to eat lunch after seeing David. We stood in line. We went to a little supermarket near the Academie and got hot dogs and mini pizzas. We ate them. We stood in line. Then we waited. Finally, after almost 3 hours, we got inside. Guess what there is to see there? David. That's about it. But luckily, ya know, it's pretty friggin' cool to see David in person. He's huge! You aren't allowed to take pictures, but after 3 hours in line, I took pictures, dammit. I'm pretty good at taking pictures from my hip as the camera just hangs there, so it isn't obvious I'm taking them.

David

After David, we still had a good many hours left. So, we thought we'd try to hit the Uffizi, where the Botticellis live. I love Botticelli. Primavera is my favorite painting. I did a 1,000 piece puzzle of it once. I still have it, all glued together, just waiting to be hung. It's been like that for probably 15 years. It moves with me.

On the way to the Uffizi, we stopped and admired the Duomo. That is a seriously cool building. I don't even know how to describe how cool it is. It looks like no other building I've ever seen before. We also found a lovely umbrella. I've been looking for an umbrella with art on it for years, since the ones I used to see in the Signals catalog when I was a kid. This one had Primavera on it, so how could you go wrong?

The Duomo

The line for the Uffizi was no better than the one for the Academie. Mom had wanted to get me something as a late birthday gift. I begged that it would be a tour so we wouldn't have to wait in that line. She said OK. Yes! We got in the groups like, which only took us like 15 minutes, instead of 3 more hours. The only problem with a tour is that you then have to stay with the tour. They had Max's driver's license as insurance against their headphones, so we couldn't just leave. So, we started the tour. Em had enough just a couple of rooms in. I can't say I blamed her very much. Once you've seen the medieval paintings at the Louvre, you've pretty much seen the medieval paintings at the Uffizi. She had another mental breakdown, crying uncontrollably. I had seen that there was a cafeteria, so I told Max I was going to take her, we were going to find the Botticellis, and then we would meet them in the cafeteria. I was pretty sure she was getting my cold, so I wanted to give her some Tylenol & Sudafed before she started to feel really bad.

So, Em & I took off. We rushed through pretty much every gallery, trying to find my paintings. Since we had been with the tour, we had no maps. We went through the upstairs, we went through the downstairs. I finally found a person and asked, and she said they were back upstairs, on the other side of the building (it's shaped like a U). We went back up. We went back to the other side. We finally saw them. I took some illegal pictures.

Birth of Venus

Primavera

As we were headed to the cafeteria (finally), we saw our tour group again. It was much smaller than it had been. By this time, Steven was bored, too, so I took both the kids to the cafeteria. We got some waters, I gave Em her pills, and we sat outside. There were pigeons to be watched. And chased. A bit later, a group of elderly Chinese ladies decided to feed the pigeons. They enjoyed watching the kids play with them, so they gave the kids some crackers to feed them. Now, ever since Amsterdam, Em has been obsessed with trying to touch pigeons. She got to touch a good many of them in Florence, thanks to the crackers.

After that bit of a break, both kids were feeling much better. We headed out of the Uffizi and toward Ponte Vecchio. It's a huge bridge lined with jewelry stores. We walked about halfway down and back, since none of us were in the market for jewelry. We then decided we were hungry, and we figured we would find dinner on our way back to the train station. We still had almost 2 hours until we needed to be there. We saw a little place with sandwiches and pizzas that looked reasonably priced, so we stopped there. One thing we discovered about Italy is that food in display cases is two different prices depending on if you want it to go, or if you want to make use of their tables. We took our food to go, and headed to a park near the train station. Luckily, it was the kid of park where people sat on the grass and ate. So, we did. Then, the kids chased more pigeons.

We were exhausted by the time we got back on the train. Em slept through most of it, and I slept through some. We hopped on the bus and took it back to the apartment. This time, we knew how to validate our bus tickets, and we realized what a good thing it was we had taken the cab to the station that morning, because there wouldn't have been anyplace open that early for us to have bought tickets, and we had forgotten ours from the day before.  Oops. Lesson learned. We headed home and got straight into bed.




Emma says - I'm glad Steven didn't mind me using him as a pillow for a little while. David is cool, he has the most famous junk in the world.It's on underwear, postcards, calendars, aprons, etc. Everywhere. The paintings in the Uffizi were really pretty, but now I hate lines. D=<