Venice to Florence

July 8, 2011

We woke up early so that we could get to San Marco’s Square and get into the Basilica before everyone and their sister decides to get in line.  We made it with only a 30 minute wait, then headed to the bell tower right across the road for panoramic views of the city.  We saw so many parts of the city we hadn’t seen before – towers, more churches, endless red roofs… it was awesome.  And we went up by elevator!  Yay!

On le boat

Duomo

Roof of Basilica

cute little island

gondolas in the city of romance

sweet red pedestrian bridge

sweet white train bridge

A few more boat trips and a swing by our hostel to get our luggage and we were back at the train station, looking for the next departure to Firenze, AKA Florence.  I was peacefully waiting with our bags in the station while Susan went to go get some last minute postcards when I realized I had left my camera battery charging in one of the plugs and my bath towel at our hostel.  It set us back an hour, as the ride on the boat took 30 minutes each way.  When will I learn!?!?

our hostel.  We were on the top floor.  no elevator.  bleck

One Red Bull, half a book and one sauna session later, we arrived in Bologna.  Seriously, TrenItalia has air conditioned cars about half the time.  I kept bouncing from one seat to the next, trying to keep out of the sun’s rays as the train would change direction.  A quick sandwich (which was AMAZING – ham, tomato and cheese) and real legit pesca (peach) juice for dinner, and we BARELY made it on our train to Florence.  We were literally running down the platform because we could not find it for 15 minutes, and I had flashbacks to volleyball and basketball days where I ran until I thought I would pass out.  It’s not easy rolling a 40 lb suitcase with a 25 lb backpack on top while running. Half the train ride was taken up by fanning ourselves, and the other half was spent talking to a futball player from Nigeria.

We made it to the hostel just fine, and boy was it nice!  Free internet, free breakfast, free walking tours, and really cheap snacks available.  We thought we were on cloud nine when we bought a bottle of wine for 2.5 euros.  We took it outside to the communal deck, and met some young Finish guys who were backpacking – they made it easy on us by allowing us to call them Sam and Larry, easy versions of their real names.  And then came the 34 year old Hunt Holiday from Colorado.  Then another guy from southern California.  Our 3 female roomates were from Thailand, and they were as sweet as could be. It’s so much fun that everybody here hangs out with everybody else, talking easily with each other as if they were long lost friends.