 August 26 Today, we would leave Venice and travel to Florence. After another fine breakfast, we checked out, took our last water bus ride, and retrieved our car. Venice is a fascinating place that we have only begun to explore. We hope to return in the future and spend several more days there. |
Firenze is 265 KM from Venezia. We elected to make use of the Autostrade to cover this ground quickly, which we did (click the moving car above for a link to information about the autostrade system). We ate lunch at a quick-stop style cafeteria en route. The food was comparable in quality to what you might expect at a similar establishment in North America, i.e., edible. Maybe we should have exited at Bologna to see if they really make it there, but we passed. |
| We arrived in Florence in late afternoon and found our lodging, a converted hayloft in a walled residence on the outskirts of town. Our landlords spoke as little English as we did Italian, so communications were sparse. They told us that the autobus is a handy way to get to downtown and where to board the autobus. What they didn't tell us, or we didn't understand, was where to buy the biglietto (ticket). One does not get on a bus and drop coins in the meter – you need a ticket that is validated when you step on the bus. Bus drivers don't well tickets, they are purchased in tobacco shops. We walked about a kilometer in the very warm Florentine weather before we finally found a place to buy the tickets. We purchased enough for all the rides we were going to take today and tomorrow. |
| Tickets in hand, we soon were aboard a bus headed downtown. On the way, we spotted an internet business (the only one we saw on our entire trip) which we were to make use of the following day. We got off near the center of town and had dinner and a beer in the shadow of the Duomo (cathedral). After a bit more exploring, we boarded the bus and returned to our hayloft. Our room was rather hot that night, but we managed to survive. After all, tomorrow we were to explore one of the most fascinating cities of Italy.
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