Monday, September 26, 2011

We have arrived (Firenze)!

We have arrived. Thank you Piero and homeexchange. No issues with travel. We both slept on both flights, ptl! We have had a couple of small hiccups thus far: our apartment is a little further from downtown than we expected; the sheets weren't on our bed; and the apartment definitely has a stench of bachelorhood (lesson for next time- only exchange with couples. Well ,for next time maybe only exchange with a couples and a baby). Anyway, we have arrived.

Day 1: Arrived at 2pm. Took a cab to our apartment (about 30 mins), got settled in the apartment. 

Then we headed out for an early dinner. We walked around the Duomo, Uffizi, Baptistry and then settled on a small trattoria for pasta and a quick to bed. We drove the car down from our apartment to Piazza Michelangelo and then walked down to city center. It took us a little while to figure out how to get the car moving (had some trouble putting the car in reverse) and then we had a little bit of trouble getting down to P.M. (tiny scary streets, and just generally getting lost). From P.M. to city center it was a steep walk down and then obviously the way back was a steep walk up. The dinner was fine, not excellent, but fine for a first, sleepy night out. And then miraculously, the car ride back was super easy- no wrong turns, no backing up, easy parking, wawho! 

Stayed up until 10:30 preparing for church day tomorrow and crashed after reading two paragraphs (not even a whole page) of my book.

 

Thursday, September 8, 2011

SBR and WDR +1 going to Firenze

Here we go. T minus 16 days to go. We fly into Roma and then a small plane to Firenze to stay at Piero's place (homeexcange.com).

Three books have arrived from the library to begin to sculpt our trip:
Eyewitness Travel Guides
The Food Lover's Guide to Florence
The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo

We've got a lot of reading to do and even more Italian to learn!!