After a farewell breakfast at the Pirate Café, we boarded our train for Florence. Less that halfway there we had to change trains and learned that we had failed to get first class vouchers at the Vernazza station. Not that big a deal, except that the entire new train seemed to be first class. These have reserved, numbered seats. We walked the length of the train looking for a coach car and finally got fed up at the last car and sat down. If people got on with tickets for those seats, we’d just move to others of the several that were empty. We made it to Florence without having to move, but I was a little stressed out by the whole situation.
Getting to our hotel was pretty easy. It was only a few blocks from the station and on the way we passed a Laundromat (yup, that time again). Hotel Croce di Malta is very nice and we were delighted to learn that our room had a small balcony with a table and two chairs.
After getting settled, we wondered around the corner to the Piazza della Republic, a large square lined on one side with the canopied tables of cafés. We were in the mood for pasta and I wanted to see how their pasta with clams compared to mine – though the wild boar pasta was tempting.
After our late lunch/early dinner, we walked down to the river and along it toward the Ponte Vecchio, crossing the river a bridge before to avoid some of the crowd. The approach to and one side of the old bridge are lined with shops, nearly all of which sell jewelry (?). Connie and I are not shoppers, though we have been looking for certain fabrics and ceramics without any success. Once back on the city side of the bridge we meandered back to our hotel. Florence is the first big city we’ve stayed in since Barcelona. Though everywhere we’ve been has been crowded with tourists (like us), somehow it’s more overwhelming in cities.
We decided to stay in this hotel because Peter and Meghan came here on their honeymoon and raved about sunsets viewed from the rooftop terrace. We went up to have a glass of wine and watch the sunset. The view of Florence was great with the Duomo dome and all the campaniles dominating the skyline. After watching the sun go down with a few of the other guests, we went back to our room and to bed. We were tired and had a big day planned for tomorrow.