Firenze - Day in the life of an Italian Toursist

This day started at 2AM in the morning in my hotel in Assisi. My throat was on fire with thirst. I realize that I have not had any water ALL DAY!!!! in Assisi. Even including the two hour hike up and down the mountain. We were so happy to have gotten unlost and found our hotel and that the restaurant was open that I ordered a bottle of wine instead and NEVER any aqua naturale.

I am desperate and even drink the water from the bathroom sink (foreign country, not a good idea.) Puita wakes up next to me because she thinks she hears something at the window. We turn on the light. Nope. "I've GOT to get some water." I hopefully meander out the hotel knowing I will not find a vending machine. Nope. I wander all around. I push into the second dining room of the restaruant. A ha! A FULL bottle of water sitting on the table. I proudly bring Puita my "kill" and we gulp down the whole bottle in one swallow.

We are supposed to be going to Firenze on the 9:30 train, but we have three obstacles that we are too tired to care much about.

1: We do not have an alarm clock and I am not one for waking up without one.
2: There is a sign that says you cannot check out until 9:00 am. We most likely cannot checkout, find a taxi, ride the taxi to the train station and get on the train all in half an hour.
3: We are supposed to be meeting C in Firenze and don't know where or when because we cannot figure out how to use the damn phone. We tried all last night and cannot dial their number

7 AM - PUITA wakes me up. Wow, how did she manage to wake up? I am so impressed. While she takes her shower I fiddle around with the phone and somehow manage to call Cristina's cell phone! We will meet at the train station in Firenze at noon. If we miss our train due to the checkin issues we will meet her at 2Pm. Check. Time for 8AM breakfast.

8AM -- We are in a state of bliss drinking our Cafe Latte's and pastries and juice and yogurt. We notice that other individuals have left their wine bottles on the table from the night before, I guess they have a designated table. It is at this point that I realize that I stole someone else's water last night, and... phone call? C wants to know if we can check out yet. We don't know, we were distracted by the Cafe Latte. We ask the waitress. Sure, she can check us out. Hot damn, all our troubles are over. I need another Cafe Latte, per favore.

9AM - We have the cutest little taxi driver. He tells us that he could have been our chichinoro (travel guide) while we were in Assisi and that next time we come he will show us more than just the religious things, he will show us the Roman ruins and other things in Assisi that are not on the travel guides. He tells us it is Pescado that we could only stay one day. We flip thorugh the Italian dictionary ( a pity). He gives us his card for next year when we come.

We sit in the same cafe that only yesterday we felt so foreign and timid in now with a swagger like we are now experienced tourists who can get around anywhere in Assisi. A couple comes up to us and asks if we live in Assisi! Can we tell them places to go. We have visited many of the Franciscan sites, we say. "We were hoping to find some gardens or Roman ruins." they tell us. hmmmm.... I know just the thing I say, and hand them the Chichinero's card. "He can set you up right."

10AM - We caught our train and I am dead asleep on it.

12 -- We arrive in Firenze and puita has to shake me awake, I have been dead as a doornail asleep.

1PM - We have met C at the train! She has a map and she has lots of things for us to see and we are running through the streets with the map. We are distracted by a booth that has Florentine stationary. Puita wants this for her roomy. oh la la it is muy bonita. I grab some for my coworkers who are doing my work for me right at this very moment.

1:30PM - We need lunch before we can go any further. We find a cafe that looks touristy but it is within a rocks throw from the stationary stand so we head towards it. I am becoming addicted to the minestrone soup over here. Must have some of this and puita and I split a tomato, basil and mozarella salad. yum yum yum. I am looking over my should and notice a cute Italiano is a few inches from me. Unbeknownst to me, Puita later tells us that he had been eating lunch further away, but changed tables to be right next to us. His friend joins him. They switch to English to say, "How is your girlfriend"? "You mean my sex?" "Ha ha, yes, your sex in the city!" They think this is very funny, and then switch back to Italian. Were they trying to impress us with this talk? Do they think that all American women are like the ones on Sex in the City? Perhaps they are conducting an experiment. C later talks about price of living in San Francisco, they interrupt her, "You do not like San Francisco?" C screws her face up into the most contemptuous one she can muster, pauses for a dagger killing moment and says curtly, "Yes, I like it." Then we continue on with our own conversation. No sex in this city, boys.

2PM -- We are headed to a museum. This is the one which has Michealangelo's Statue of David in it. The line wraps around the corner, but C has called ahead to make a reservation at 2 and there are only 5 people in this line. This must not be her first time as chichinera! It also has many of Michaelangelo's unfinished works, which are very cool to be able to see the different phases of a statue being made from a piece of marble. He seems to have started with the stomachs fisrt, then the legs and the face last.

There is also a whole room of original casts used for statues which are all around the city. This is very cool. The rest of the museum is of religious works mostly from the 1500's which were originally commissioned for different churches. They are very very beautiful. Different styles, from the early 1400 iconic to the realism..

4PM -- We head towards the cathedral in the center of town. C drops us off and heads out to shop. We head to the tour of the cathedral. We do not know what to expect. We are surprised to find ourselves climbing a very narrow stone staircase. We are even more surprised when we are still climbinb it 5 minutes later. We are surprised to find a beautifully shaped little open window with a spectacular view of the city. We are surprised the 10 minutes into this we are STILL climbing stairs. I am in a piss poor mood now. I do not know why we have payed 6 Euros to torture ourselves and further more... "Oh my God.... We are at the top of the cathedral where we can see the Cathedral's ceiling painting. It has the coolest painting ever. It just knocks the breath out of you. At the bottom are all sorts of scenes of torture by devils in hell and as you get to the top of the domed ceiling you can see the heavenly activities. There are octagonal stained glass windows that are just drop dead gorgeous. You don't mess around with the artists in Florence.

We head toward the exit and next thing you know we are CLIMBING! again! But we are already at the top of the Cathedral! I have now hit my cardio wall. I am panting like a dog in Charleston Summer after a long frisbee tossing fetch session. We finally emerge on the ROOFTOP overlooking all of Florence. Every irritation vanishes as I am overwhelmed with the beauty of the Florence Skyline. Florence is in a Valley, I amazedly think to myself. We have just come from the mountain top and now we are in the valley. The terracotta slate rooftops cover every building and I wonder how old this city is. As I listen to the ever present zoom zoom of the motor scoooters I close my eyes and try to picture what the sounds of the city would have been in Renaissance times and how long it would have taken to walk from one end of the city to the other. This must have seemed like a vast city in those days. It seems vast to me now. There is a silence and almost reverence amongst the rooftop dwellers as we all sit on a bench and ponder our place in history and this world taking in the scenery and memorizing this sight. Slowly we descend and regroup with C. "Oh, I forgot to tell you that there is a bit of a climb involved with this particular sight."

5:00 Shopping Time! - Now the REAL reason C has come to Firenze, and we thought it was to be our Chichinera. We start with an area she has just scoped out that has a huge open air goods market including a leather market. I have been hunting for a purse, and we feel this may be our chance. JACKPOT we all 3 find a purse. I get a beautiful leather flower belt, but depart STEAMING man at the guy for cutting it so that it fits EXACTLY the same as before and my pants are either still falling or giving me a wedgy.

A small stop at the view of the famous bridge over the river. Beautiful! This is what all the paintings of Florence show. I should be appreciating this but I am too busy fighting the urge to take off my belt and throw it in the river.

Next on the list, C knows where "Jewlry Lane" is. It's AMAZING! Silver to the North block and Gold to the South. C gets some good hits but PUITA and I are pretty much done with the shopping for today.

7PM - Our dinner reservation at Marcos. This is MAC's favorite restaurant in ALL of Italy so far, and that is saying a lot for these International Food Afficianados. C gives out his cards to all she meets and I hear rumor that his wife gave C one of her gorgeous Italian Table linens for free. SHhhhhh, Marcos is not supposed to know. We are first in for the evening and Marcos comes to chat with C in Italian for a while. He brings us all a glass of Champagne. The restaurant is so beautiful, and charming with stucco walls and iron metal light fixtues, with an unusual Italian linen runner hanging the length of the ceiling. The menus are beautifully tucked into Florentine Leather jackets. We have Bruschetta and Spinach FORENTINE! (Yes, this is where it comes from, olive oil and garlic.) For the main course Filet! The nightly special of Italian red wine (Yummmm) and the best tira misu anyone has ever tasted ANYWHERE! for desert. We are so moved by the meal, we all three actually have tears in our eyes. Multo Bene. This is what inspires people to kiss the cook.

9PM - Marcos calls us a Taxi to the station and we catch the last train back to Roma. Snoozerina here strikes again on the trip and we catch the bus to Chez Genung around midnight. It has been such a full, beautiful, moving day.