Travel to Florence
Train trip
Left for Florence by train today. Went to a travel agent down the street and picked up two second class tickets for the express train to Florence. 1:30 hours on the express versus 2:30 on the normal train. I didn't ask why there was such a difference but I think the slower train made a stop in Orvietto. We took a bus about 2 blocks to the Termini and then waited 30 minutes for our train.
The trip was amazingly easy. Easier than I expected. The train was right on time and we found our seats and settled in for the trip.
Florence
We arrived in Florence to rain but by the time we were out of the terminal it had stopped. Since our hotel room seemed so close, we decided to take the bus. The bus ticket operator told us to take bus 23. When we got there, the bus operator told us it was bus 1, but everyone else was telling us in Italian that we could get there by bus 23. We decided to chance it. We ended up getting lost in Piazza Firenza. Fortunately, we had a small map with us and was able to find our way to our hotel. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to come out. The roads were so small and our hotel was in the pedestrian center of the city so the walk was nice.
Here is a picture of me in front of the famous ponte vecchio.
And here is a picture of ponte vecchio from the Uffizi gallery.
Plenty of shopping
There are so many little shops on each street. Keri is very excited to walk around and shop. They have several outside markets where they sell everything from food to purses to trinkets. Some of the streets are large enough for one car to fit through.
Also, it seems like every other street has a large church or monument. So far, I would say that Florence is our favorite town.
Here is a picture of one of the smaller domes at sunset.
Hotel Alessandra
Our hotel sits a bit back from the river Arno and you can see a small bit of it from our room. We are also next to a large church that rings a bell, right across from our room, every hour from 9AM to 9PM. Thank goodness for earplugs. We are a couple of blocks from the Uffizi gallery and the Duomo. We have reservations for both on the 3rd and 4th.
The hotel is on the third floor, although it is hard to tell by the stair count and with luggage, feels like 5 floors. Our room is very large and spacious and the bed is soft.
Here is the view from our room. The big building on the left is the clock tower.
Pisa
We were hoping to take a small day trip to Pisa. I really wanted to see the tower. But it looks like all of the tours are half-day trips so I'm not sure if we can fit it in our schedule.
Tomorrow
We plan to do the Uffizi gallery and then shop. I have a feeling that we will be doing more shopping than siteseeing.
14266
14266 steps for the day. I found my step counter in our luggage. Typically I get around 4000-6000. No wonder we need our nap. I wish I had the step counter for our Colosseum day. It had felt like we had easily doubled todays number of steps.
Left for Florence by train today. Went to a travel agent down the street and picked up two second class tickets for the express train to Florence. 1:30 hours on the express versus 2:30 on the normal train. I didn't ask why there was such a difference but I think the slower train made a stop in Orvietto. We took a bus about 2 blocks to the Termini and then waited 30 minutes for our train.
The trip was amazingly easy. Easier than I expected. The train was right on time and we found our seats and settled in for the trip.
Florence
We arrived in Florence to rain but by the time we were out of the terminal it had stopped. Since our hotel room seemed so close, we decided to take the bus. The bus ticket operator told us to take bus 23. When we got there, the bus operator told us it was bus 1, but everyone else was telling us in Italian that we could get there by bus 23. We decided to chance it. We ended up getting lost in Piazza Firenza. Fortunately, we had a small map with us and was able to find our way to our hotel. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to come out. The roads were so small and our hotel was in the pedestrian center of the city so the walk was nice.
Here is a picture of me in front of the famous ponte vecchio.
And here is a picture of ponte vecchio from the Uffizi gallery.
Plenty of shopping
There are so many little shops on each street. Keri is very excited to walk around and shop. They have several outside markets where they sell everything from food to purses to trinkets. Some of the streets are large enough for one car to fit through.
Also, it seems like every other street has a large church or monument. So far, I would say that Florence is our favorite town.
Here is a picture of one of the smaller domes at sunset.
Hotel Alessandra
Our hotel sits a bit back from the river Arno and you can see a small bit of it from our room. We are also next to a large church that rings a bell, right across from our room, every hour from 9AM to 9PM. Thank goodness for earplugs. We are a couple of blocks from the Uffizi gallery and the Duomo. We have reservations for both on the 3rd and 4th.
The hotel is on the third floor, although it is hard to tell by the stair count and with luggage, feels like 5 floors. Our room is very large and spacious and the bed is soft.
Here is the view from our room. The big building on the left is the clock tower.
Pisa
We were hoping to take a small day trip to Pisa. I really wanted to see the tower. But it looks like all of the tours are half-day trips so I'm not sure if we can fit it in our schedule.
Tomorrow
We plan to do the Uffizi gallery and then shop. I have a feeling that we will be doing more shopping than siteseeing.
14266
14266 steps for the day. I found my step counter in our luggage. Typically I get around 4000-6000. No wonder we need our nap. I wish I had the step counter for our Colosseum day. It had felt like we had easily doubled todays number of steps.
posted by Alex at 9:52 PM
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