Buon Giorno Roma & Firenze!

Dr. P, Future Dr. H, and I arrived bright and early (7:15 AM) in Rome after a pleasant flight in which I got about 30 minutes of weird sleep (half-awake, half-dreaming) and they did not sleep at all. (They are snoozing next to me on the train as I write this.) We went through customs, collected the bags of the good doctors, and headed to the train to Rome’s Termini Station, from which we would catch a train to Firenze (Florence).

The train was quite crowded, and the three of us had to stand. For some reason, this appeared to irritate the older woman (probably in her mid- to late-60s, sitting next to her husband who ws the most stereotypical-looking Italian guy I have ever seen, with a strong Roman nose, wearing aviator sunglasses and a cheesy suit, like someone straight out of a Woody Allen film from the 1970s) who was in the seat beside where we stood in the aisle. When the train arrived at Termini Stazione, she refused to let Dr. P out of the train and shoved in front of her and behind me. Dr. P accidentally (seriously, on accident –she is not a bitch like me or Steph) ran into the woman’s ankle as she tried to maneuver her suitcase on the tight train. The woman gave her a dirty look. Dr. P let it go, although later as we were walking through the station, she told me what happened. Several seconds later, we passed by the couple and I muttered “arrivederci, bitch” and walked around them. This made me laugh and laugh. It is always important to be able to amuse one’s self after an 8 hour flight.

At the station, we bought tickets for the train to Firenze. Unfortunately the train we wanted to take was sold out, but there was another one about 25 minutes later. We passed the hour or so by having coffee (Dr. P and FDH) and pan au chocolates (Dr. P and me). We also wandered around the mall a bit, and Dr. P attempted to get money from the ATM. I say she attempted to do this because it seems that her bank card does not work here, although Dr. P specifically stopped by the office of her credit union before we left and told them she planned to use the card on her trip to Italy. Not sure why FDH did not attempt to withdraw funds, but she did not, so this left me as the sole possessor of Euros for our party. My Euros came from Husband, who travels to Europe frequently for work and thus had some at home. (The good man is going to Majorica at the end of the month.) Hopefully, Dr. P will fix her banking situation or FDH will get some money, or else I will remain the sole holder of cash, which would suck. Fortunately, credit cards have worked thus far for our ticket purchases or we would be royally fucked. (I wonder how you say that in Italiano.)

We should be arriving in Florence in about 25 minutes, and we’ll take what I hope will be a fairly short walk to our hotel. FDH discovered that San Giovani’s finger is in a museum of objects from Il Duomo, and I also read that there are many reliquaries for an evil (well, evil in my mind) missionary zealot whose name escapes me at the moment in San Marco, all near the hotel and open on Mondays. I hope we shall be able to see them today.
*******************************************
(Later)
We arrived in surprisingly nice hotel room. We have a little private balcony, which is awesome. The room is pretty big, the bathroom is huge, and we have free robes and slippers. Exciting stuff. So far, I am very pleased.

We walked around a bit today after we checked in around 1 pm. Two interesting stops: Museo Ferragamo, which was free and had some cool shoes on display, although they were a mere fraction of the entire 10,000 piece collection; and the Church of San Lorenzo, which would have been totally disappointing except for the random skeleton in a glass coffin on display. The coffin read “Santus Caesarus” and said martyr, among other info that was not clear to us. The skeleton was tucked into some sort of red material that resembled crepe paper, but its feet were in leather sandals. The skull had all its teeth and wore a crown. The whole thing was no taller than me, so we wondered if it was an early death. We also indulged in excellent gelato. It was from a place called Perché no!. I had pistachio and hazelnut. Unbelievably good.

After all the travel and walking, tonight will be a quiet one, as we are exhausted. Tomorrow we plan to go to the Uffizi Museum. We also at some point need to get to the church of San Marco to see the Fra Angelico frescoes (as well as relics from the missionary zealot), the Duomo Museum to see the original doors to the baptistery and San Giovani’s finger, the Galleria dell’Accademia to see David’s pubes, the Boboli Gardens, and shop at a grocery store.

Buona Sera! Ciao!