The last breakfast.
I find myself filled with an excitement and eagerness to explore Florence again as I finish packing this morning. I contemplate the coming day while
sipping on my coffee, taking in my last view of the canal the cool breeze a welcome change from the humidity of the previous days. A huge
cruise ship taller than the hotel carefully navigates the narrow
water ways with the aid of two tug boats. The passing of the ship
seemed to signal it was time to go. I take some pics of my room to remember the luxury that was mine for such a short time.
Yes, I even had my very own bidet.
Everet had used his points for the stay
so the bill should have been pretty lean. I notice internet charges on the bill so made sure they took them off since they were supposed to be included. As he was about to settle the bill, Girard
turned around and said “$103 Euro for breakfast...each day!”
What?!!! Are you kidding me?!!! You mean to tell me it was almost
$70 per person for BREAKFAST?!!! I remembered during check-in that
they had given us the option of benefits and we selected breakfast so there should be no charge much less that amount. The receptionist double checked the account and to our relief, confirmed that it was indeed supposed to be included and took $315 Euro off the bill.
Oh...my...god. I had no idea it was so expensive. What if I had elected for a bottle of wine or something?!!! Wow...just wow. I'm still in
shock. For that amount of money, I expect breakfast to give me
directions and provide concierge service, maybe even give a hot stone
massage while I'm eating.
We head out to the water boat loading area for the ride to the
train station only to find that not all the boats were running.
That's right! There was a public transportation strike going on
today! We were told that yesterday while reserving the train to
Florence but didn't realize it affected all the water boats too.
Hmmm...how are we supposed to catch our train? The boat workers
mentioned we could catch another boat over at the Rialto stop but
that would mean dragging our luggage about a mile all the while fighting tourists
and canal bridges. I suggested we take a water taxi which ran about
$60 Euro. Even the water taxis were scarce as many people leaving
were opting for the same. We lucked out and were able to flag down a
water taxi in about 5 min. It was around 10am and our train was
scheduled to depart at 11:32. I was silently patting myself on the
back for suggesting we give ourselves a good two hours to get to the
train station in anticipation of delays from the strike.
The water taxi was fun and wound
through the canals that we had not been through since the public
water boats were too big to get through.
We zip to St. Lucia in no
time and I had plenty of time to top and sip on a cafe latte in the train station cafe. It's amazing, even crappy train and bus station cafe's have mouth watering coffee. We jump on the Eurostar and settle in for the ride. It was a clean comfy train, so very different than the one we road in
on. We had a/c yay!!! It'd been ridiculously hot and humid until
today. I dozed for most of the ride and in a few short hours, I
heard “Firenze!”
Our cell phones lost reception at the
train station in Florence so after many unsuccessful tries and
finally cajoling a restaurant worker to help us, we used the public
telephone to call the hotel. It was around 3pm and the hotel shuttle
wouldn't be here until 5:30pm so we decided to grab a cab. The cab
wound through the VERY narrow streets of downtown Florence and I
excitedly pointed out the sites I recognized from my last trip.
There's Ponte Veccio! There's the Duomo with 400+ steps I climbed
with the girls! Ooooh, I remember driving on this street!
Everything was so familiar, it felt like I was coming home.
We get to the Sheraton in about 20
minutes and walk in...to a blast of heat. It seemed the a/c at
he hotel went on the fritz recently so only one out of the four a/c
units were working. The rooms were a little better as there was some
cool air but the lobby was stifling. We were down there getting some
food since all the restaurants in the area are closed between 3-7pm
and it was now around 4'ish. We chat with the bartender, planning out
the next few days. The Sheraton was about 10 miles from city center. The thought of taking a
shuttle or taxi into downtown Florence after a long day was unappealing so decided to
chill until dinner.
The hotel receptionist recommended a
restaurant by the name of Osterio Di'Giogo, a quick ½ mile walk from
the hotel. It seems “Osterio” referred to a family style
restaurant and are known for their authenticate dishes. We headed
down and sat in the outdoor covered patio surrounded by cute decor and .
The restaurant staff spoke little to no
English which was a good sign. I had a cheese ravioli while Girard
had his staple Spaghetti Bolognese. As I tasted cafe latte's across Italy, he tasted spaghetti bolognese. The food was amazing and they
were very understanding of my mosquito issues and lit some anti
mosquito candles as well as brought some bug spray for me to use. Even so, I had 4 'squito bites by the time dinner was over.
Full bellied and happy as clams, we
shuffled back to the hotel which was still sans air conditioning. The
rooms had some a/c but were still pretty warm. Hopefully they'll get
this fixed tomorrow. I took some pics of the room though it'd be tough to beat what we had in Venice.
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