Well, yesterday I learned that thirty seconds isn’t enough time to validate your ticket and sprint to a train, with it’s doors already closed AND that there is more than one train station in Firenze.
Here’s the story: my two friends and I, Meaghan and Jesus, met at the piazza near our apartments early in the morning, leaving plenty of time to stop at the ATM and get to the train station. We were headed to Verona for the day and were planning on staying over night and then meeting some friends for lunch in a small town called Borgo San Lorenzo on Saturday. We made it to Santa Maria Novella, the main station (which I thought was the only station), with a half an hour until our train. Once we figured out that our train was not on the departure board, we asked at the information booth; the lady told us that we were at the wrong station…and that the train that we needed to take to get to the other station was leaving in 30 seconds. So we sprinted to the train, and like in a movie, slow motion, the train started pulling away. Instead of panicking, we laughed and then we went to the ticket booth to try to change our tickets to a later time, but after discussing with the woman behind the counter (all in Italian!!), we found out the next train to Verona wasn’t until late afternoon. So there we were, “stuck” in Florence and not on our way to Verona. Luckily, we were able to change our tickets to Sunday, so we will be heading there tomorrow..and now know that we will be leaving from the other train station.
Sometimes everything happens for a reason and it actually turned out to be the best day I’ve had in Florence so far. After laughing about how ridiculous we must have looked trying to chase down a train and the whole situation in general, we decided to get breakfast. We wandered across the Arno to the other side (my favorite part of the city) and found a cafe near Santo Spirito. Each of us got a panino and a caffe latte and sat there for about 2 hours talking. We then headed back to Meaghan’s apartment to hang out for a little while and then we decided to climb the Duomo, since none of us had done this yet, even though we’ve been here for a little over three weeks. All I have to say that it is definitely worth the 8 euro.
After climbing the 463 stairs back down, we were hungry so we walked around the city a little, all the while looking for a place that served d
�ners. I had never heard of them before, but Meaghan had eaten them in Germany three years ago when she did an exchange program there, and explained that they are similar to the Greek gyro. So we happened to stumble upon a place and we each got one filled with chicken, onions, tomatoes, spicy sauce, tzatziki sauce and…french fries? Interesting. And so delicious.
With our stomachs full, our next plan was to get some gelato (of course) and head to the Boboli gardens. We stopped at a gelateria by the Pitti Palace and I chose tuttobosco and yogurt, which turned out to be a great combination. We then started walking in the exact opposite direction of the city center, originally planning to finish our gelato and then walk to the entrance of the Boboli gardens. Once we passed the entrance, it was closing, so we just continued to walk. And then started our adventure. We followed a road all the way to the end of the old city walls and then saw a tower that grabbed our attention. So we followed our way to the tower, and then just continued walking into the countryside…for about 30 minutes, and it was gorgeous and exactly how I had always pictured the Tuscan countryside.
Then today, we had a feast, at a festival in Borgo San Lorenzo, but that deserves a post all to itself.
Location: florence, italy
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