Florence: Day Three

Sorry this has taken so long to get up. I'd say I was busy, but I can't think of what I was busy with. :)

Before we got on the train to Florence, we had one last stop to make in Rome, La Bocca della Verita (the mouth of truth). If you've seen Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn and loved it as much as I did, then you'll know why this stop was absolutely necessary. If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?!? And despite Aaron's teasing, "It's so cliche," I did put my hand in. :)


We got to the site a little early and no one was there so we walked up the street to Circus Maximus, the site where Julius Caesar was allegedly executed, and where the chariot races were held (Ben Hur, another must see movie). Now all that's left is a dirt path (Paletine Hill is in the background), we saw several people jogging with their dogs. Turns out we should have stayed at the church because when we got back 10 minutes later, there was a whole busload of Japanese tourists in line (probably 50 people). It seems funny to me to realize that when they show Japanese tourists in movies with their cameras and fanny packs they really aren't making that up, they look exactly like that. :)

So we bought our train tickets and packed up our stuff at the hotel (one block from the train station, nice!), and made a quick stop at a shop on the corner to pick up some Limoncello for my parents and some friends. Yummy stuff, by the way!

We got on what we thought was the right train, luckily before it left with us in it the steward checked our tickets and informed us otherwise. Then it was a mad dash to the correct train, which we made just in time. We also didn't realise that we had seat assignments, until someone told us we were in his seats. He said it was okay and sat across the aisle from us, but we felt bad and as soon as we deciphered our tickets we got up to find our assigned seats. They were taken and Aaron was perfectly content to make the trip standing. I must confess, I had a attitude about it and Aaron finally claimed our seats. I apologized later for acting up.

This is the view from the train:

It looked like this the whole way to Florence. Exactly how I pictured the Italian countryside, lots of vineyards too.

When we got to Florence it was raining, so even though our hotel was within walking distance, we bought bus tickets. This was the only time when I actually didn't speak a word of English when asking for something, and the guy understood me! Yay! I said, "Voremmo due venti quattro ora biglietti, per favore." and he gave me two twentyfour hour tickets. I CAN speak Italian! :)

Our hotel in Florence was definitely the best. The staff was incredibly kind and helpful and the rooms were beautiful. We had windows and a balcony (with these really cool old-fashioned dark green shuttered doors) that opened up to a beautiful courtyard area. This is the view from our hotel room:

We were kind of tired and wet when we arrived so we rested for a while and then walked around town until dinner time. The Duomo, which we were going to see this day, closed at 5:00pm, right when we got there, so there wasn't much else to do (everything is closed on Monday for some reason). So, we went out to eat at Trattoria Za-Za. The food in Florence was the best as well. Even the pigeons couldn't resist:

Appetizers, yum!
This restaurant sells a cookbook that I'm seriously considering buying just for the recipe for the walnut sauce that was on that omelet (top right), and the soup I had for my main course (tomato, basil, leek and bread soup. YUM!)

So, that's day three. I'm halfway done now!