This morning we were sadly obliged to leave Rome and so we packed everything up in preparation for the train journey to Florence. Not that much preparation is required, really, because the train was a Eurostar Autovelocita (i.e. it was fast) and the trip only took an hour and a half. We had read in a guidebook that there is a free wireless network in central Rome which you can use for an hour a day by verifying your mobile number.
So we went traipsing around for a while with the laptop looking for somewhere that was
a. safe to sit with a computer, and
b. could get access to the network.
Eventually at the Fontane di trevi we could pick up the network but for some reason couldn’t join it. So that was a nice way to waste nearly an hour and a half which could have been used seeing the Piazza Nuovo and the statue of Giordano Bruno, or even the Circus Maximus. Anyway, next time we’re in Rome….
So we gave up and went to an internet cafe, checked our email and sent some replies and whatever, then grabbed our stuff from the hotel (who kindly, again, let us leave our large backpacks there after checking out). The train was clean, comfortable, and stonkingly fast. We left Rome at 12.30 and arrived in Florence at 2pm, where we found our hotel and checked in within 15 minutes. The hotel room here is pretty nice; high ceilings, a balcony (on the fourth floor, perfect for drying washing), and also above the bed there is, spookily, a framed print of Klimt’s The Kiss.
So are we following it or is it following us?
Then we kicked around the hotel room for a bit, watched some rubbish Italian TV and bits of the olympics, and went out exploring and had our by now mandatory afternoon pizza. Italian people are generally surprised if you want your coffee at the same time as the meal, although they probably wait til we sit down to mutter ‘fucking inglese’. Our hotel (and the train station) are very close to the Duomo, which seems to be undergoing some renovation and restoration and so on at this time. But that doesn’t detract very much from how monumental it is.
Nice navigating landmark as well.
Down by the river we had gelati (the tiramisu flavour here has actual cake in it, not like in Rome) and walked across the Ponte Vecchio where teenagers were engaging in trying to break the all-time face-sucking-on-a-famous-bridge world record. Over the Arno is a pretty nice part of town; on this side (compared to Rome) actually looks kind of like a city; there is graffiti and visibly homeless people and the drains smell rotten. Nonetheless we are enjoying Florence (herein Firenze) so far.
However the major sights (the Uffizi, the David, the Florentine Museum and so on) are all this side of the river so this side wins.
We were out on the balcony drinking our large bottle of beer (€1.08!) and the Floretine evening when a large shiny ute pulled up at the small garden across from the train station. Out get four dudes, one of them with a bumbag. One immediately answers his phone and steps away to ‘talk’.
The three others stand backs to the ute, while one of the group of people who were obviously waiting for that car to arrive steps forward to do the talking. The other four people in the waiting group all stand behind him in a semi-circle. He represents them.
Then he starts shouting and waving hands in the face of the two men reclining against the brand shiny new ute (mitsubishi triton by the way). They shout and wave their hands as well, but not as much. The third dude (with the bumbag) is also answering his phone.
Every now and then they all have a quick look around over their shoulders, just because that’s what people do when they’re meeting at night. Eventually they agreed to disagree (I think) and the four dudes hopped back in their car and disappeared. Then…. all the people who had been waiting around in the garden went and retrieved their cardboard boxes from various places – including underneath one of those portable metal office buildings, which I thought was a pretty clever hiding spot – and laid them out for the night.
Ah, Firenze…
Greg
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