We are now riding on the train between Florence and Rome. We are due to arrive in Rome in about 1 hour and 40 minutes. However, Alessandra had warned us that the Italian rail system is not nearly as prompt and punctual as the Swiss lines. Unfortunately, she has been correct on several occasions. The arrival and departure times are merely guidelines that should be considered +/- 15 minutes. So far, in our experience, it has been consistently +15 minutes.
Once again we have to flash back over a full day, for me to fill you in on our adventures. The day after the wedding (Saturday), we woke up, grabbed a quick bite, and boarded the train to Milan. Along the way, we stopped for a couple of hours to hang out with Ron, Alessandra, my parents, Dave (one of Ron’s witnesses), and a couple of his past and present colleagues at a town called Verrena. Verrena is located on the shores of Lake Como. It is quite a large lake in northen Italy with beautiful villas and towns dotting the shores up and down the coast. Rumor (or some E! television show) has is that George Clooney owns a house a couple miles down the coast from where we were. We admired the view, snapped a few pictures, and grabbed a bite to eat at a small café. We were actually surprised at our hunger despite the eating marathon that took place the previous night. After a plate of spaghetti, we headed back to the train station, said goodbye to our company, and took off to Milan.
It was a couple hours to Milan. The Milan central train station was quite a shock to us. We were not used to sharing space with so many people. From the moment we landed in Zurich, every place was quite sparse and moving around was easy. Milan’s train station was packed, and people bustled around with nearly wild abandon. This actually set the stage for what we would experience in Florence.
In Milan, we had a few minutes to find the new platform and board the train. It took almost another 3 hours until we arrived in Florence. The Florence train station was packed likewise, and it took a bit of work to navigate around. Luckily, we ran into an American who had been in Florence for a few weeks and was glad to point us in the right direction.
When we got out of the station, we walked to our hotel…
Now I suppose it would be the correct time to tell you about our perception of Florence. In Florence, the streets are incredibly narrow—almost just wide enough for one car to park along the side and one to travel down. Sidewalks are similar in that they are normally less than three feet across when they are actually present. They are packed with people all the time, and most seem reluctant to move aside to accommodate anyone else. Most people drive motorbikes, scooters, or small compact cars. There are almost no stop signs or traffic lights. People just zoom around. And, to top it off, people drive incredibly fast. There is no speed limit; you are simply allowed to drive as fast as you can without hitting people…or at least they are required to give people enough time for pedestrians to dive to safety. In Italy, traffic rules are simply guidelines that you follow if you feel like it. People park wherever they want, drive as fast as they want, and stop when the feel it is appropriate. On numerous occasions, Megan and I both said we would never think of driving a car in Italy. Ironically, everyone wears a helmet when on a motorbike or scooter. They drive at light speed, but they wear a brain bucket. Tall buildings on both sides border each narrow lane, and they prevent you from using anything as a reliable landmark as you navigate the city. The other prominent features were the smell, graffiti, and trash. There was rarely a building that was not defaced by some graffiti, and usually it was everywhere…in every language…saying just about everything. Street vendors were all over the place selling all sort of garbage including Prada knockoffs, sunglasses, art prints, and personal crafts. Most of these people were selling illegally, and they would often pick up “shop” and move to another street corner. It reminded Bob and I of Mexico with pushy street vendors who are always willing to haggle. In fact, we found out that buying imitation goods nets you a fine of 1,500 euro. However, there is no sign about selling the stuff. We were all appalled and disappointed that some of the most historical places and most influential pieces of art could be housed in such an armpit of a city. Trash was everywhere. Needless to say, we were overwhelmingly unimpressed especially since we came from Switzerland and small town Italy.
After checking into our hotel and enjoying a brief stint in the air conditioning, we walked down to grab a bite to eat. We stopped in a pizzeria and sat down in their back garden. It was quite nice really. It was off the road, and it was quiet and peaceful. We had some pizza and headed back to the room.
We all decided to explore the city, and we went our separate ways. Megan and I scouted out the route to the Academy where we would be going to see David the next day. We found it easily enough, but we also discovered that the Academy sported more graffiti than any other building in the whole city. Our heart sank at this sight, and we were not what to make of this. Then, we decided to explore some more and happened upon the Duomo Cathedral in central Florence. The immensity and detail was incredible. This church took centuries to complete, and it is topped with a magnificent dome that overlooks the city. The façade was white, avocado green, and pollution black. They were working on part of it, and we could only hope they were attempting to restore its natural beauty. We walked around it and continued to marvel at the overwhelming size. We snapped some pictures, but the camera could not capture its true size. As we approached the halfway point, we saw a café with a few people watching the Russia-Netherlands soccer match. We took a peak and saw that it was tied in the first period of extra time. So, we sat down to watch. In fact, the café was closing, but the waiter was intentionally taking his time to clean up the street side tables to be able to watch the match. It finally ended 3-1 after the second period of extra time.
We then walked back to the hotel and turned in for the evening.
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