vie a la table

Well… our trek has come to a close.  We’ve traveled afar, seen quite a bit, and experienced the life and culture of a couple european countries.  If i had to use one word to describe my response and feeling after all that we’ve seen and done… ‘exausted!’

Kris and i were walking back to the train station today and we were talking about our time in europe and good and bad things about it and what we would do differently.  We both decided that this last day in florence was probably our favorite. We slept in a bit this morning after a long night on the train and after we got up, ready and packed all of our stuff, we checked out of our hotel.

We walked down the streets pulling our luggage toward the train station and we came across a giant crowd that seemed to be protesting something.  There was extremely loud music, police at every corner, and people holding signs and chanting.  Then we turned a corner and saw another very large crowd doing the same thing… only, they were protesting something else (perhaps the opposing group).  It was quite the scene, and luckily we were able to step around the large groups quite quckly and ducked into the station.

Earlier in the week we saw a spot were you can store your luggage during the day so we walked over and checked in our bags.  This was great because now we could travel around the city without having to carry our bags everywhere.

We had read about an open market in the center of town so we made our way the three blocks east to see what that was all about.  We came upon a large square that had vendors lined up and down each way!  Too bad they only had a bunch of knock off ‘touristy’ crap.  There was a large building along one of the streets with a bunch of people going in and out, so we went up to the steps and stepped inside.  This was the open market we were thinking.  Meat, bread, cheese, pastry, fruit and veggie vendors were everywhere!  They were chopping, portioning and wrapping up stuff for locals that were out to get their weekly supplies.  It was really cool to see all the fresh foods.  We wanted to buy a bunch of groceries and start cooking just to be able to live and taste the culture. Kris grabbed a small basket of fresh strawberries for 70 cents and claimed they were some of the best strawberries she ever had.

After our walk through the two stories of fresh foods we we took a taxi up to the piazzale michaelangelo… a large terrace that overlooks the city below.  The drive up was short but winding!  When we reached the top, we saw another replica of the david statue; he was looking out over the city.  From here, not only could you see the city, but you could see plenty of surrounding countryside.  There were fields with ranch style houses, olive tree orchards, grape vinyards and a giant wall that protected the city (somewhat like the wall of china).  Next to the terrace was a stairway and down that stair and around the corner was a little cafe that had tables next to another (smaller) terrace in the shade.  We sat down and had some italian pizza and pasta (accompanied by, the regular, warm water).  Knowing we had about 7 hours until our train left, we spent lots of time sipping our water and enjoying the view under the shade.  A few lattes later and we asked for the bill so we could venture back down into town.  I reached into my wallet… i only had 15 euros left.. not only that, they didn’t take credit cards.  I asked our waiter where the nearest ATM was.  He smiled and pointed down to the city below… We weren’t worried about taking one of his tables for such a long time since in italian culture, guests are welcome to stay as long as they want at a restaurant.

So, I made a dash for the city to grab some cash.  I had no idea where to look so i just decided to walk along the main streets and ask people where a bank was.  I went down the steep hill (there were some steps for pedestrians) and turned the corner.  The nearest bridge (to get across the river and into town) was about a third of a mile.  I walked across and began to ask… anyone who spoke english had no idea where one was, and all the italians just pointed in a rather vague direction deeper into the city.  I walked and walked and after about 3 miles and a half hour, i ended up at the atm that was about 2 blocks from our hotel (which is at the complete opposite side of the city, it was the only one i could find!!)  I ran the 3 miles back to the giant hill and walked back up the stairs.  I ordered one last water and we paid our bill to the chuckling waiter and ventured back down the hill into the city.

We decided to head towards the train station to wait there, but on the way, kris spotted a small cafe that offered wine by the glass.  We sat down and kris had a white wine from the cinque terre area and i ordered an expensive chianti.  One of the guys that worked there came out with a couple bottles to offer me some of their more exclusive wines.  We chatted about what was what for a couple minutes and I went with his suggestion (which was a similar chianti).  The wine was excellent!  Probably in my top three wines i’ve ever tasted!  This time we had enough cash to pay right then.

After a last gelato stop, we ended our day back at the train station.  Kris and i are now sitting in the cafe waiting for our train to come and whisk us away and back to paris.

Today was what we thought our stay in firenze would be like.  Long, quiet lunches with romantic views of tuscany, sipping wine on the street watching people walk by, and some fine gelato to end our evening while walking through the streets.  If every day here was like today, i think we would’ve enjoyed it more.  That not to say we didn’t enjoy it, i guess it just wasn’t what we expected.

We are both excited to go home.  We are worn out and we miss our daily lives… and our baby.

Kris will probably write a post about our overall european experience in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that.

Until then, Arrivederci!

Filed under:
europe, fun, photos, wil by kris