Florence is the place pictures are made from. Literally, all those pictures of grapevines with terra cotta colored houses on the hill are from this beautilful Italian Tuscan countryside, in the middle of which lies Florence. With the Arno River running through the city and its many bridges, I am reminded of all the movies I’ve seen that were filmed in Italy. When we arrived by train in Florence on Friday the 13th, it was pouring rain. We weren’t sure where to go, but a nice gypsy-looking woman asked Michael if we needed a taxi and he said “yes”, so we followed her outside where she walked us past the waiting taxis to two cars down the way. They piled our luggage into their cars and we piled ourselves in. As we were pulling away, several of the taxi drivers who had been in line started yelling at the drivers and pounding on our windows. I wasn’t afraid, but it was very weird. Our driver, Angelo, yelled back and then loudly proclaimed how stupid those guys were and they “get out of prison with all their tattos and they get a taxi license…” He went on and on the entire trip to our Hotel saying “They can’t speak to the customers because they can’t speak their language, they can’t even speak Italian!” All the girls were in his taxi (me, Amanda, Hailey, Brittney and Lexi) and we were trying very hard not to laugh. When he droppped us off, he gave us his card and said if we needed any rides to call him direct. It turns out the loud gesturing Italian temper is not just a stereotype! Once we got settled into our rooms, we tried to get our laundry done, but discovered (after all of us filled out the forms and stuffed our dirty clothes into laundry bags) that they only did laundry Monday through Friday and it had to be picked up in the morning for next day return. Since it was already Friday afternoon, no laundry would be picked up until Monday morning and we were leaving Monday. We were now into Day 10 with no clean laundry in our future! That problem was exacerbated by the heat and humidity – nuff said. We found a great restaurant just a couple blocks away called the Rotunda. After dinner we settled in to get a good night’s sleep because we had to leave fairly early the next morning to go on our Vespa Scooter ride. We called Angelo and he agreed to come get us at 8:30 a.m. We arrived early to the tour office for the Scooter ride, so we walked down to the Piazza. It was very pretty and we vowed to return later when we had more time. We finally were rounded up and climbed into a van to take us to the location where we would get our scooters. It was a good 40 minute drive, for which I was grateful, as I did not want to ride scooters in the city with all the crazy Italian drivers. If you think Americans drive bad — these folks have no use for lane markings and it seems a challenge to see who blinks first in the game of chicken between the autos, the bikes, and the pedestrians! When we arrived at the “scooter barn” we were greeted by 3 gentlemen – two Italians and a Bostonian (the Bostonian was the hardest to understand). They were young and walked through the safety concerns and offered us scooter insurance, in case we wrecked one of their bikes. Michael purchased insurance for all (what a lack of confidence)! They separated the group into 2 – those who have ridden a scooter or motorcycle before and those who have not. Only Amanda, Hailey, and another woman had never ridden; so they stayed for some instruction while the rest of us rode off for a test drive to make sure we could handle the scooters. When we returned a few minutes later, Hailey proclaimed that she would be a passenger and she was upset. I asked what was wrong and she said she couldn’t understand the guy who was instructing them because his accent was so strong and she was scared to death to drive the scooter. I assured her she did not have to drive and that she could ride with one of us or even in the golf cart-like vehicle that follows the group. She agreed to ride behind Henry and he graciously agreed (what a great guy). Lexi and Brittney already knew they had to be passengers because you had to be 18 or older to drive. Brittney rode with me and Lexi decided to ride with one of the instructors, as Michael seemed a bit unsure of having a passenger since it had been so many years since he rode a motorcycle. Amanda did very well during the lesson and she was eager to get on the road. So, off we went — a line of goofy looking tourists riding their Vespa scooters through the hills of Tuscany. It was so fun and so beautiful. We stopped a few miles into the ride to take pictures of the countryside. Brittney was a little apprehensive, but eventually settled in and relaxed. At least until a large insect of some kind (my best guess is a dragonfly, since that is about the right size) flew into the chin strap of my helmet and got stuck there! I had to reach up with my hand to get it loose and I was yelling something like “what the hell”. I had control of the scooter the entire time, but my yelling and rubbing my chin freaked Brittney out a little. However, we survived the mini-crisis and carried on. We eventually stopped at the Castello Vicchiomaggio Winery and took a tour of the winery, then sat in the shade to have breadsticks and taste some wine. There was only 1 white and I don’t like red, so it was easy to keep the promise I made Natalie (Brittney’s Mom) that I would only sip a little wine, so as not to place our Brittney in any danger. The wine was very good, so we ordered some to be shipped home for us, as well as for Amanda and Henry. We then got back on our scooters and headed back out for some more riding. A while later, we were taken to La Paglietta Restaurant, a little place up on a hill in the wine country. It was mostly just our group in the restaurant (which included our 7, plus a couple and single woman – all from the United States). We had a wonderful meal of meat, cheese and bread to start; then minestrone soup, then pasta, then dessert! Also, all the red wine you could drink (that really doesn’t seem like a good idea, does it?). Fortunately, our group was very responsible; plus as mentioned earlier, I don’t like red wine anyway. After eating and getting to know the other 3 Americans that were also on the Vespa tour, we finished our ride and were taken back to town by van. It was late afternoon by then, so we didn’t do much else. The next day, we bought Hop On/Hop Off bus tickets and rode the bus around several times — an indication of how tired we were all getting from so much walking, stair climbing, touring, and traveling. When I put my ear buds in to listen to the tour guide describe what we were seeing as the bus maneuvered through the heavy traffic, I could not hear anything in my right ear. I turned to Michael and the girls and in a panic, proclaimed “I’ve gone completely deaf in my right ear!” Michael calmly took the ear bud out of my left ear and put it in my right ear and said, “Can you hear now?” I sheepishly admitted I could and realized one of the ear buds was not working. In self defense, my hearing has gotten pretty bad these last few years and the girls are always giving me a hard time; I just figured I had finally gone over the edge. And that — “I’ve gone completely deaf in my right ear” — is the Quote of the Day for Sunday, June 15th. (I realize I have not had a quote every day, but really, documenting a trip like this can be challenging in and of itself; give me a break, okay?) During one of our turns around town, we got off to see the Duomo, the first large cathedral dome built without scaffolding! It was incredibly impressive. We also stoppped up on a hill to see the Piazzale Michelangelo, where we were able to get a great picture of the Duomo amidst the many buildings in Florence. On more than one occasion, everyone took advantage of the many Gelaterias on every corner (like Starbucks, only 10 times better). Yummy! Next stop, ROME…
This bridge across the Arno River has shops and apartments built on it.
Lexi, Hailey, and Brittney on the scooters (they didn’t actually drive one).
At the Winery.
Amanda and Henry relaxing at a Tuscan Winery.
A view of the Duomo.
Tuscan Countryside.
Safari So Good 