Just when I think I can't believe we had only been on vacation for 3 days, now I can't believe that this time next week we'll be home! We begin the final 5 days. And what a swell place to spend them!!
But first our sad tale: Florence is a great city to visit, but getting in and getting out are not memorable in a good way. We struggled on our first day, getting lost every time we turned around. And we struggled on our last day because we got hit by the bus-ticket Nazis. We took a ride to Piazza Michelangelo, a great site overlooking the city and saw some really swell views:
We took a bus up to the look-out point and were almost back to the starting point of our journey, reading to go back to the apartment, collect our bags and continue on to the train station, when the official "bus ticket inspector" boarded and asked to see our tickets. No problem, we had purchased 4 -- 2 for the trip up and 2 for the trip back. But Gene could only dig 3 out of his various pants pockets. We were followed off the bus by the inspector who started writing us up and saying we wre subject to a fine.
We argued vehemently that he knew -- in his heart of hearts -- that we had simply lost 1 ticket, but since we had 3 others that we purchased in good faith, it was obvious that we were honest and should be left along to continue on our journey.
That was our big mistake -- assuming he had a heart. He was unmoving, uncaring and brutal. We could follow him to his office to pay by credit card or pay him cash right there. So we got a taste of down-home Florence tourist treatment. Not good.
Punch line: we gave him the fine $$ and walked away, refusing to sign any form or help him complete his paperwork. 2 blocks later it finally occurred to us to check MY purse. We were rattled and assumed that Gene had the tickets since he ran both of them through the validation machine on board. We had both forgotten that he gave me my ticket and I put it in my purse. And there is was and of course when we hurried back to the spot, the inspector was gone.
I've done some googling and this was not a scam. Others on Yelp & Trip Advisor talk about the hard-heartedness of Bus Ticket Inspectors. We are trying to comfort ourselves with the fact that at least we didn't get scammed (at least we don't think so, based on our research). It doesn't help. All we can do is put the incident out of our minds and not let it spoil the otherwise great time we're having. What we did do was see if we could catch an earlier train. We could and so we just got out of Dodge and made our way to Rome.
We were treated to a wonderful apartment and wonderful hosts. Here's our digs for the next 5 days:
I took this photo standing at the front door. The door at the other end of the hall is the bedroom -- and a very nice sized one it is.
The next door down is the storage room. The next door opens into the kitchen, the next door is the bathroom and the final door (white) is the sitting room. You can see the chair just inside the door.
We're on the 6th floor; there is an elevator, thank goodness, and we are only a 6 minute walk from the train
station, which will make it very easy for us on Friday to catch the non-stop "Leonardo" express that goes from the train station directly to the airport. We also have access to the roof top and can sit out in the sun, if we choose. Man, I just can not say enough good stuff about Air BnB.
Once we dropped our luggage and got a 20-minute lecture from our hosts of being very careful of pickpockets and general bad people who live to take advantage of tourists, we were off and running. And so, this was my first site in Rome:
Seriously, I have wanted to visit this guy since I was in the 9th grade. What took me so long??? I don't know, but I sure am glad I finally made it. The close-up tour is Tuesday morning. Can't wait!
Right now, it's time to call it a day.
Total steps: 7,789 + 5,000 walking to a from the Coliseum when I left my Fitbit at the apartment, dammit (approx. 2+ miles): 12,789
Total for the trip: 91,129
I'm so sorry to hear that your time in Florence was tainted by the bus Nazi. Although I know they've likely grown tired of Italians and tourists (usually students) who feign knowledge of bus fares, it wouldn't surprise me if what he really wanted from you was a bribe to make it all go away. Had you agreed to follow him to his office to fill out paperwork and pay by credit card, I wonder what the outcome would have been and if the terms of his "justice" would have changed. Keep that in mind when you go to Rome. My experience has been, the further south you go, there are more...um...opportunists in (and out of) uniform. (But that was more than 20 years ago, so it could be different now.) Your trip on the whole, however, is turning out to be splendid! I love all the photos and the stories about fresh pasta, Gene's astronomy on a train, and your love of everything you see (bus Nazis excepted).
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