We left Naples by train headed to Florence. It was a two hour train ride. We had booked a seat that had a table and it was shared with whoever booked the other side. While waiting for everyone to board Kay struck up a conversation with a gentleman across the aisle. He could speak some English. He was very nice and when he didn’t understand they used Google Translate. An older lady armed with grocery bags sat down across from us and she spoke to us. She realized we were Americans and she moved to the seat across the aisle. The gentleman questioned her in Italian and basically he made her come sit with us. He said she wanted to be able to talk to who she was sitting with. He told her that Kay tried. Kay had learned the grandkids ages in Italian. After, he told us why she didn’t want to sit with us Kay showed her a picture of our grandchildren and said their names and then ages in Italian. She immediately warmed up to Kay and they used Google Translate, sometimes the gentleman helped. But once she realized Kay was a Nonna too it was all good.
About an hour into the trip she starts showing us all of her groceries. She had bought a huge sandwich for the trip and had picked up at least 5lbs of fresh mozzarella. I don’t know where her final destination was but she was ready! Besides Kay leaving her phone and the 30 plus stops going to Sorrento. The Nonna that didn’t want to sit with us made it a memorable train ride.
The train system in Italy is fantastic. The stations are relatively easy to navigate. The only thing is they like to go on strikes. We know this so we Google every now and then before a trip because they will “schedule” strikes, you know the date and how long it with last. Some a couple of trains are running. Others might be 8 hours long. All transportation systems do this. They publish it ahead of time so people can make other arrangements. In the USA they just drop their tools and strike. Nope, not in Italy. They warn you!
Back to Florence. I had mentioned in one of my first post that we really didn’t see that much of Florence on our first trip. We took a cooking class called “The Art of Pasta”! We came home armed with some fantastic recipes! We visited the Duomo, the David and the Uffizi Gallery. The rest of our time there was tours. We had two tours scheduled one we thought would be a small group turned out to be a big bus full of people it was all day and three cities. The other was a wine tour luckily it was a small van and two wineries that were super easy to walk through.
Our first tour was to Pisa, San Gimignano, and Siena. In Pisa we had a very long walk from where the buses parked to the piazza where the tower stands. It was on that walk that Kay heard a pop and her ankle and leg started hurting. She immediately started limping and couldn’t even make it all the way to the tower. She could see it from where she sat down. She sent me to take pictures. Everywhere we went that day required a lot of walking. She really wanted to see San Gimignano, it’s a very traditional old city in Italy. It was known as the Manhattan of Italy because of all the towers. The rich would build towers and go up in them when they were being invaded to keep their family safe. The taller they were the safer you were. We didn’t make it very far until she had to sit down. By the time we got to Siena her foot and leg had swollen so badly that she told the tour guide she would just stay with the bus. They wouldn’t let her but in Siena they were able to transport us by taxi to the main piazza. There, Kay spotted a pharmacy. Neat fact all of their pharmacies have neon green cross (like the Red Cross) signs. She Google Translated and showed them her leg. They got her compression bandages and some cream that was supposed to help with pain but didn’t. So we waited outside of a restaurant and got her wrapped up and propped up and waited on the rest of the group to gather. The tour guide was great when he finished and everyone was on their own he came and sat with us making sure she didn’t need anything else. He got us a taxi back to the bus and we headed back to Florence.
Next, day another tour! Yes, I told you we over did it! However, this was an easy day just 8 people most of them spoke English. We visited two small wineries. Although one was small it’s making it’s way into the US markets. We follow them on Facebook La Sala del Torriano. It was a delicious Chianti Classico. If you know anything about wine you know that’s a name that is given out very sparingly. At the end of the day that was it for Florence. We did eat at Central Market, that’s our go to place. I ate a 32 ounce steak one night. Let me say we snacked on it for a couple of days.
One funny thing did happen while we were in Florence. Remember I had told you that we had carried backpacks (just because the people on YouTube make it look easy don’t do it). We had found me a rolling duffel very reasonable in Sorrento. Kay was looking at some luggage at one of the booths around Central Market. She found what she was looking for but he was asking $80. It wasn’t worth that she was willing to pay $40 for something but not more. Now you have to understand that Kay had worked on learning some phrases and one she learned was “assolutamente no” / absolutely no. Well that guy start bargaining with her and she would hold up her hand and use that phrase and start walking toward the door. She got to the door and he ask how much would she give and she told him and he sold it to her for her price. She was so proud! It was a lifesaver the rest of the trip. We checked it coming home because it had mostly souvenirs and some clothes. If it got lost we could go back for it. Now that we travel with connections we carry on and do not check luggage going or coming home. If we have something that doesn’t fit we ship it home.
So, very tired we spent our last night in Florence and prepared to cancel tours for Rome since Kay was still in pain. The next morning we take the train an hour back down to Rome.
