Day 4 - Florence

We slept in on Friday and had an easy morning. We got packed up and the three of us headed to the main train station where we would catch our 12:30 train up to Florence. We had never been to Florence and were excited to visit. I have had so many friends talk about how much they loved Florence so I was nervous that perhaps I had some high expectations of the city. It was a quick 90 minute trip through some pretty scenery.

Excited as we were rolling through Tuscany

Scenery from the Train

Myra on the train

When we arrived we checked our bags at the station(because this wasn't our final destination) and headed out to the city. Florence was very pretty and very small. We ate lunch and Myra guided us around to give us a good overview and feel for the city for when we would return alone on Sunday. Myra also wanted to check out a few shops she had visited before. One of the shops was a great little leather shop called, "Roberta". The man working was so incredibly nice and him and Myra hit it off like they were best friends. He showed us pictures of his home and his roses and was so friendly. He even invited Myra to come see his home in Tuscany next time she is in the area. Michael and I kinda watched from the sidelines as they chatted, but he gave me a 30% discount on a bag I bought too! YAY!

The Shop

I got the green one in the middle

From here we walked around a lot and saw the city.

Arno River and Ponte Vecchio

Arno River at Sunset

More Sunset

We were staying the night with a colleague of Myra's in a town called “Uzzano” which is outside of Pescia. Jimena offered to host us for the weekend. The plan was to meet Jimena at the Florence train station at about 7:30 and catch the 8:00 train to Pesica. She never came but we hopped on the train anyways. As we were on the train we were hoping she hopped on a different car. After some text messages we found out that her train was running late and she would be taking the next train out of Florence and meet us at the Pescia train station an hour after we got there. She wouldn’t arrive until about 10:15pm. The first 30 minutes of our wait was quiet and uneventful, but then stumbled in a double fisting box wine drinking young Italian guy named, “Lucca”. He was hilarious. A few minutes after Lucca started “chatting with us” an older gentleman joined our conversation. He was sweet and it was entertaining to watch him and Lucca talk. They both spoke with Myra since she knows quite a bit of Italian and Michael and I just stared blank faced at them when they would speak directly to us. When Jimena arrived she started laughing as she told us she was worried we would be sitting in the station bored and tired. I think we surprised her. When she started driving us to her home, I was surprised because as we started climbing up what seemed to be a mountain. I had imagined her house sitting on top of a little bitty hill overlooking the city, but we kept climbing up and up and up the mountain. She lives at the very top and even at night her view was incredible. We could see all the lights from the small city and neighboring towns. I was anxious to see what everything looked like in the daylight.

Before bed we were treated to a couple little shot size glasses of homemade orange liqueur made from the orange tree outside. It was delightful!

Crazy Italian Friends

Jimena and Michael with the biggest basket of fruit I've ever seen