Ciao Firenze

 

Monday 

12 August 

Day 43

53 to go

We finally arrived at our last morning with Francesco, our time in Forli coming to an end. We were awake at 730am, but chose to lay in for a short while, before starting the final pack of our things. We had our breakfast, gathered our bags, placed them in Francesco’s car and then he drove us to 

see Margherita and her family. We were very fortunate to be able to see them all before leaving. Margherita, Daniele and Aurora were all away during the week on Scout camp, only returning home last night. 

We hung out in their kitchen, speaking in broken English, though most was us listening to them speak to each other in Italian. We could see that the family was quite tired, after their big week.

At 11.30am, it was time for us to say goodbye and to make our way to the train station for our travels to Florence. Francesco helped us with buying our ticket and then it was a sad farewell, as we made for platform 2. The train arrived at 12noon and we made our way to Bologna Central station, sitting in pull down seats in a doorway, while clutching our bags and trying to hold our breathe, due to the smokers. 

We arrived at Bologna at 1245pm, we had plenty of time before our train was due, so after checking the departure board, we made our way towards the platform. We stopped at a small cafe for a quick lunch snack and then with 20min to go, we stood on platform 18 waiting for our train. 

When it finally arrived, we entered cart 5 and attempted to find our seats, but were left confused, as it was a food cart and there were no seats. I went looking for someone to help, but all we were getting were shakes of the head and someone saying not this train. Eek. By then it was too late and the train was moving, so we just stood in the cafeteria and hoped for the best. 

As it turns out, there are two trains Italo, which we booked, and Friccarosa, which we were on. Thankfully, this train was still going to Florence. We did check with an attendant and we were told sternly that we should be more careful and we were to get off at the next station, which was not a problem, as it was the Florence terminal. 

We arrived at 2.20pm and then had to navigate out of the terminal and around to the apartment we had booked into. It was only a 500m walk, but the large cobbles were a pain to navigate. We were glad to be out of the sun and inside, when we had finally reached our destination. Phew!

With everything put away and the aircon cranked, we were finally able to rest for the afternoon. I did some forward planning of the next part of the journey. I was unsure about the trains, so we will need to got to the station tomorrow to ask questions and hopefully sort tickets. Unfortunately, when we leave on Thursday, it is a public holiday, so I am unsure of the train timetable. 

At 5.30pm, we ventured out. Our first mission was to find a supermarket, so we could collect supplies. With that complete, we went out again, this time heading to the river Arno. It was very overcast and the muggy air was ramped right up. I thought it might rain, but it didn’t eventuate. We walked along the path, passing by a couple of bridges, before finally taking Ponte Santa Trinita to the other bank, snaking through the street and heading for Ponte Vecchio, the covered stone bridge with many jewellery shops and plenty of tourists. 

We sidestepped the crowds, eventually making it back to the original bank and making our way towards the hotel. We passed by Piazza Santa Trinita, where there was a woman performing an operatic piece. Paul was very unimpressed. We then continued on by Piazza Goldoni, before seeing familiar buildings and returning home. 

We opted to eat in, salad and octopus, that we had bought from the shop. It was nice to have a meal with greens and not pasta or pizza. We stayed in until 745pm and then went out for a walk round the block. This time we wandered by the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. There was quite a crowd here and another busker with a guitar, who was somewhat better than the earlier musical encounter. 

We made our way passed the train station. We were glad to retrace our steps from this afternoon, so that we had more of an idea of what was around, seeing we were so busy trying to get ourselves to our apartment without losing any wheels off of our cases on the large and uneven cobbles. 

We were back at our room shortly after, happy to have done More than 10000 steps for the first time in a week. We were also grateful for aircon and an early night, so that we could be refreshed and ready for our day tomorrow.