The Leaning Tower and Italy's Renaissance City

Originally, Jane and I were going to take a night train from the Cinque Terre area to Naples. Having reconsidered the idea, we instead made a short detour to Florence. On our way, we made a very SHORT pit stop in Pisa to see the leaning tower. It was one of those places that I really wanted to go to and glad we did.














Our apartment-mates in Monterosso recommended a hotel to stay at in Florence as they had just come from there. We nicknamed the hotel "Grandma's Hotel" as it was run by an older lady (who only spoke Italian) and her grand-daughter Cristina. As the hotel only has 8 rooms, we weren't expecting on there being any available. However, to our luck, it had an empty room for one night. The arrangements were very simple, however it was clean and very affordable. Plus, anytime while travelling, it is such a treat to have people such as Cristina and her grandma be so welcoming. The name of the hotel was Soggiorno Magliani and it was near the central market.

The next morning, Jane and I went to explore the city a little bit before we had to leave on our train. We went to see the Duomo - Florence's Gothic Santa Maria del Fiori cathedral. It has the 3rd longest aisle in a Christian church. We also climbed the dome for a beautiful view of Florence.

After a bite to eat at a small cafe, Jane and I found the "Straw Maket". Jane bought some purpose and I too had had my eye on one. Having heard that leather purposes in Italy (especially Florence) are often better quality and less in price than in the US, I was really interested in getting one. However, I've never been much of a bargain shopper. I did though manage to get a purpse for 10 Euro less than what the guy was offering it for. I felt special!

It was getting late and we needed to start heading to the train station. Jane and I were also interested in some Gelatto because supposedly, it is supposed to be the best in Florence. We stopped at a few places, but it was kind of expensive. So, we stopped at one final shop, we each ordered a cone. To step back, Jane remembered a few days ago that she forgot her ATM card in Germany. So, I became known as her "Sugar Mamma" for the rest of the trip. As I went to pay for the cones, the total was 14 Euro. My jaw dropped and I began to laugh as I think that it was the most expensive place that we had stopped at yet.

We enjoyed our cones and hurridly made it back to the train station. However, our train was delayed 40 minutes. As we sat and waited, we met a very nice man from Rome whose name was Ramolo Bernardi. He is a business man who works with aeronautical companies such as Boeing. As we waited, he sang for us one of his favorite songs by Frank Sinatra. He also told us that his favorite movie is Message in a Bottle with Kevin Costner. It's funny what people from other countries consider their favorite movies (as many of them are made in the US). Especially the older generation. I suppose, thinking about it, pop culutre (music and movies) is one way that people from other countries learn English. US music is all over the place. I can't think of too many songs in another language that are popular in the US.

As he was teaching Jane and I Italian to further us along in our trip, our train arrived, and it was time for us to board for our ride to the Amalfi Coast of Italy(Sorrento, the Isle of Capri and Pompeii).