Una Storia Italiana Part 4

Hello my darlings!

Subtitle of this post:
Finding Family in Firenze on a Friday.
There was food involved. Lots of food. And fotos. [sic]

Things I forgot to say in the last post:

When we got back to the hostel we sat outside with some fellow travelers. Among them, a VERY attractive Aussie named Kielakmagicalaussie. Ok, no one actually remembers his name (well, maybe Tristan does) it was quite exotic.

You'll see why this is important later in the post.

Back to Friday

When we first arrived in Firenze Sara very casually told us, "So I've got some family here, right outside of Florence..." [BUG EYES]

"YOU DO?!!?"

"Yeah, I've got their contact info...maybe we could get into contact with them...and maybe even visit them..."

"YES YES PLEASE!!!!" cried the children.

So, Sara gave the contact info to the lady at reception who SO KINDLY called the family a few times throughout the day (they were a little hard to get a hold of).

We returned that night (this is still Thursday night, the "spotting the Aussie" night) to discover, with little help from the reception guy currently on duty (dear lawwwd he did not understand what was going on, even with my hand gestures) that the reception lady had left us info about what time we can go and what train to catch. SHE DID IT! GREAT SUCCESS!!!

We were to catch a train at 9 the next day. We literally couldn't contain our excitement. WE GOING TO SARA'S DISTANT FAMILY IN ITALY. SOMEONE'S HOUSE. A REAL DEAL ITALIAN FAMILY'S HOUSE, IN ITALY.

I don't know what sloth bit all four of us an injected it's sloth venom into us, but the next morning even though we were up and at em at 7:30, before we knew it it was 8:30. There was no hope of catching a bus and trying to get to the train station on time.

After a "Sara!" from the reception lady (can you hear the tone?), she called a taxi for us and I think we left 8:40. It felt like the longest ride. And it was raining. We stared at the clock with great intensity as if we could at least slow it down if not completely freeze it.

We arrived at the station at 8:56 and after we paid the driver and got out by way of crawling over him, climbing out the windows, and I'm pretty sure Sara rolled out while he was still in "Drive," we SPRINTED inside the station, stopped momentarily to look at the timetable (EVERY time I think back to this I die of laughter. We literally didn't know what we were doing/what we were even looking for), VERY quickly realizing our destination wouldn't be up there as a final destination we ran to the ticket machine to purchase tickets because, oh yeah, we still didn't have those. Thank the lawwwwwd the ticket machines worked the same way in Italia as they do in Poland. We started punching in the letters for our city when a nice man came by and seeing our frantic foreigner faces, he told us to use the other machine because the one we were using was credit card only. We successfully printed tickets from the second machine and then the angels of time and travel and all things good came down. We looked at the departure time: 9:15. NINE FIFTEEN! (I can't caps lock numbers for emphasis...oh wait! I can make the font bigger and bolder!) 9:15. Better?

It was 9:03.

The helpful man looked at our tickets and pointed at the last platform. We ran.
The first man in uniform I spotted I ran up to and desperately held my ticket in front of his face.

"No, platform #10 to blah blah blah"

So we ran to platform #10 to blah blah blah and did the same thing to the conductor there.

"No platform #3 to blah blah blah blaaaah"

So we ran there and, ACCEPTED! It was the right train! I squealed and jumped and almost hugged the conductor (but refrained).

We climbed aboard and were on our way!

About an hour later we arrived at the train station and looked around for a lady with a sign (she told us she'd have one). Sure enough after one circle around the waiting area we see an Italian lady with a "Sara and company" sign! :D It was too cute! After a game of, 'Which one of you is my family?", the unlikely redhead being the winner, she drove us to her home. She doesn't know a lot of English but managed to tell us she works at a bakery, baking and decorating cakes. She also played some fun music on the radio, so we all just sang along.

Are my stories getting too long?

More coming tomorrow!

Always,
S

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Una Storia Italiana Part 3

Hello my darlings!

So, continuing with my story...

We rode along the bike path by the river and it was splendid really. Our goal was to get to this big park, but as we kept biking, we realized that our time was quickly slipping away. We had no choice but the abandon the park mission.

We had 40 minutes to get back to the bike stand before it closed for the night. 40 minutes? That's not too bad right? Wrong. I don't think we realized just how far we'd biked. So, we started biking back on the other side of the river assuming it would also take us back to where we needed to go. We biked through a playground and saw all of these PRECIOUS Italian children playing around, being Italian. I really wanted to snatch five one up and never let him/her go.

Shortly after going through the playground, we discovered that we were kinda lost. Sooo, we biked alll the way back to the "Abandon Park Mission" point, and then crossed a bridge and rode back the original way, crossing streets when we shouldn't have, almost getting hit by other bikers, and just....yeah. It was ridiculous (but great in hindsight!). 

We got back to the city area, well, I mean the city's so big, so even if you're in the "city area" you're still far from other "city area" locations. We had, oh I dunno 15 minutes left maybe? Oh and we were lost. Again. We biked around and around and around, following Tristan, trusting he would get us to our final destination. 

This part of the ride was particularly, er, emotional? I was filled with anxiety and fear that we wouldn't get back in time, and I was also overcome with awe at everything I was seeing. "We'reGonnaBeLate. We'reGonnaBeLate. We'reGonnaBeLate. Awww look at that house! Look at that street! Gawd this beautiful! We'reGonnaBeLate. We'reGonnaBeLate. We'reGonnaBeLate. Ohhhh look at the old couple taking a stroll! Do you smell that pizza??? BikeFaster. BikeFaster"

It felt like we were riding circles. Oh, because we were. But THEN like a beacon in the night, we saw the street that would take us back to the bike stand!!
We made it with 3 minutes to spare. Three.

Bless you Tristan.

After that we were STARVING. We hadn't had anything since our pastries that morning. 

We started to walk in some direction and came across the university.

A university with students standing outside.

The time had come for me to practice my Italian.

"Dove buon mangiare?" (Probably not grammatically correct)

[Confused faces]

[Insert Sylvia's Nervous Super Fast English That Even Tristan Didn't Understand]

"SoLikeIsThereAnywhereGoodWeCouldEat?GoodPizza?ItDoesn'tHaveToBePizza.AnythingReally."

Poor students. I think I really scared them.

So then I just smiled, and Tristan took over.

They pointed to a small pizza place, we thanked them, and went got some FOOOOOD.

Pizzas in hand, we went to some stairs where we'd seen the youth hanging out before, being Italian. So we joined.

After pizza, we walked around the city and drooled.

I mean, LOOK AT IT!

Then we saw the Duomo at night. I almost fainted. 

It looked like the coolest cardboard building.

My camera doesn't do it justice, but it honestly looked like whitewashed cardboard!

We were hungry again. We wanted to find a non-touristy place to eat, but the Italian lady in front of this restaurant just wouldn't take "No" for an answer...and I think my stomach was thinking a lot louder than my head at this point anyway.

So we ate at this touristy place but it was still really really good!

Then things got weird. ;)

Cuuuuttte.

Trying to be cute.

Then it just got awkward. hahahah

After dinner we stumbled upon a street show.

And then this guy.

We went on another walk around town before going back to our hostel, because walks are really just the best :). Maria found a REALLLLLLLYYYYY GOOOOOOD gelato place, so we ate some of that and all was good in the world. :D

Love always,

S

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Una Storia Italiana part 2

Hello my darlings!

Ok, so I definitely left out some photos from Day 1. Here they are:

Found the bus to take me from the airport to my hostel.

Half of the room. See the bed with the black jacket? THAT'S Seattle-Swimming-Shorts'

Found food!

Yeah, that's about it.

THE NEXT DAY....

Like I said, I arrived in Florence at 9:45. The American girls showed me where the buses were and I caught the one the hostel told me to catch. I got off at the stop I was supposed to get off at, and then I realized I didn't know exactly where to go after that...so I just walked straight down the street for 30 seconds before coming to my senses. 

Now I was on the hunt for a helpful Italian to guide me to my temporary home. Spotted: Lady with a baby stroller [Approaches] Fast Italian lady speeds away. 

Spotted: "Cool" looking girl, early 20's, with neat hair and stylish but casual clothes. [Approaches] Accepted! She pointed to the street I should go to and then patted me on the back with a big smile and wished me luck. SO NICE.

I turned right on the street and noticed the numbers going 20, 24, 26 ...but there were also other numbers in blue. I decided to ignore those. I turned and walked the other way since I was looking for #11. 16, 12,10...Right. I need to cross the street to get to the odds.

Hostel reached.

I walk in to see an ADORABLE group of little school children who were visiting Florence for a school trip. I checked in and asked for my friends' room numbers.

Numbers in hand I was getting so excited because within a minute I would see Sara and Maria!!

I turn some corner and find the stairs which are next to 4 computers. I see red hair. Could it be...? YES. It was Sara!!!! I got so excited but kept myself from screaming right then and there. I sneaked up behind her and surprised her. It was SO good seeing her after these months!

We then went up to find Maria (HUGS!) and I met Tristan, the fourth person.

And so we were off!!

We found this FANTASTIC cafe that wasn't touristy. There was a nice old Italian man drinking his Espresso and reading the morning paper, a business lady grabbing a bite to eat before work (she also helped us with one of our orders), a mom with her baby etc.

Sara and I bought three pastries each and then cut them in half so that we could try them all.

Planning out our day :)

We're baaaaaccckkk

First up: BIKE RENTALS.

You see, SAMS has this thing with bicycles. We love them. Absolutely adore them really. And what better way to see this new beautiful city than by bicycle? We were on the hunt for the rental place and were being pretty successful thanks to Tristan and his impeccable sense of direction.

At one point though we could feel that we were close by, but we couldn't see the stand anywhere. Then, like the nun of one of my previous stories, I spotted a man on a purple bicycle (purple ones were rental ones) and left it up to chance to see if he'd be returning to the rental stand or going somewhere else. I power walked behind him for a hot minute and then, like a beacon in the night, we saw the bike rental station!!

Bikes: rented.

We rode around in a circle for 5 minutes in this convenient plaza area just because we were so darn happy to have the bikes!

Our plan was to go see the Duomo. With Tristan leading the way, our fine biking crew took to the city.

It was like a movie. Speeding down streets, avoiding the man carrying a closet full of clothes to his bazar stand, passing ladies selling flowers and couples taking afternoon strolls.

It was perfect.

We got to the Duomo (beautiful), parked our bikes, and went inside.

                                  

We climbed to the top and sat up there for at least 40 minutes just soaking up the INCREDIBLE view.

After the Duomo we went on a walk to find the leather market.

Went to the leather market (forgot to take a picture...but Sara and Maria took some, so I'll steal some from them). I bought a belt that the man cut to custom fit me. " Right now, it is in the middle. To holes to the right for diet. two holes to the left for pizza" :D

I also bought a great little leather journal.

We only had about an hour and a half left before we needed to return the bicycles, so we went for a ride along the river.

Ok, so this post has gotten ridiculously long.

Next time on Una Storia Italiana: The race against the clock and pizza.

Always,

S

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