Grazie mille!
The building code across Canada requires all bedrooms to have windows. In Florence, they may have the same code, however, it must not state that the windows have to be accessible to the persons whom stay in the bedroom. This we learned after staying in a B&B with an opaque hatch in the 10 foot ceiling
The definition of B+B must have been lost in translation because turns out, in Florence it means bed in a windowless room and breakfast for sale down the street at any of the 1,000 bakeries.
That said - we ended up staying a stone's throw from Il Duomo, which turns out to be the most amazing church both of these heathens have ever seen. See pics below. The evening walk turned into an incredible surprise as Florence is not only a lovely city, but is packed full of funny looking people. Grabbed the most memorable dinner (see earlier post) and then headed back to our third storey rabbit hole.
Slept rather well, given that we had no sense of time, and then walked across the lobby to our "private bathroom". Yes, the people checking in likely thought they were checking into a brothel, as we were both equally surprised. Luckily there wasn't enough space to have a separate shower area, so you could also use the toilet while being IN the shower stall.
We beat the midday heat and climbed a few hundred steps to Piazza Michaelangelo, a gorgeous park overlooking the Arno River and entire city/Tuscan countryside. There were a few more statues up there of unendowed men. Naturally, we were inspired to get salami for lunch.
Barb Halsall - cannot believe you learned to drive standard here. We could barely figure out where to walk without getting runover.
Arrived in the medieval fortress town of Siena, Italy after an easy 90 minute train ride from Florence that afternoon. We of course did not have a map to our hotel nor were we willing to spend the outrageous price of 2euro on a map so we could find our way through a foreign city. So we set out on our voyage following street signs to what we assume said city center. After about 20 minutes of uphill walking, in the pouring rain of course, we realized that Siena is a city inside a giant stone wall. So we set out to find a way inside. Eventually, we're not sure how we ended up inside the wall and found a church with a map in front of it. We took a picture of the map and were on our way another 40 minutes up hill to our hotel.
We did indeed find our hotel, which had no signage from the road, and once inside we thought we hit the jackpot. It had a window and a bathroom, that even had a separate shower! Not only that it came with free shampoo, soap, and slippers, all which Jess packed in her bag and took with her.
Quickly realized that we were in the heart of Chianti country and put on our most stain-proof shirts and began sampling. Still at the top of the list for favorite wines.
We'd toured most of the city during our arrival so we asked our sweaty innkeeper for recommendations for the next days adventures. Dinner was a traditional Tuscan beef stew for G and spinach and ricotta Ravioli for J. We've become savvy investors too. If a litre of wine is less than 10euro, we order it.
Morning came, as did the remorse of our financial prudence. Continued touring the city after some caffeine and got some great pics from the top of the fortress walls. Also saw Il Campo which is the site of a twice a year horse race through a downtown square. 10 horses, no saddles and something to check out on YouTube for sure. Another solid day for food, and wound it down with porcini mushroom risotto and spaghetti. If anyone knows of a good surgeon that helps with chin tucks, Graham would like to lose the extra 2 that have appeared below his mouth.
Now on the train to Sorrento and there is an aggressive Caribbean woman that has threatened to throw her misbehaving 5 year old out the train window if he doesn't smarten up. Stay tuned to see if she's bluffing.
Ciao!
J+G