Excitedly, I went back to DH and we went over to the ticket office. However, we discovered that the

I had booked tickets online for the Frecciargento train from Venice to Firenze. I ve done this before, and the process was fairly easy this time. DH always gets a bit frazzled at the train station, seelbach hotel louisville but I was confident that I knew what I was doing. It was the boys first experience on a train, and they were excited to ride it.
We took the vaporetto from Rialto to the train station, seelbach hotel louisville rolled seelbach hotel louisville our bags up the stairs to the station, and settled in front of the Departure board to await notice for our train. seelbach hotel louisville Since we are still somewhat neophytes, we had arrived quite early so we had to wait a while.
DH waited with the bags while I took the boys to the restaurant. There they had their first experience paying seelbach hotel louisville the cashier, and then going to pick up their food. We were disorganized when we ordered, and forgot to get a panini for DH, so I sent YS back to the cashier to order one more.
Meanwhile, OS was watching one small bag at a counter table. He had a strange experience there with a creepy guy who had no bags or food, but stood a few feet away from OS and the bag. OS moved to the other side of the table a few times and stared him down, and the creepy guy finally gave up and left. What do you think? Probably out to steal the bag? We thought so
All this time, I was getting our orders, and YS was trying to communicate what he wanted to the very kind woman at the cashier desk. He came back not too sure what he was getting, but we were running short on time, so didn t really care. We took our packages and hustled back to DH.
While we were standing there watching the board, we suddenly heard a great commotion and shouting, and looked over to see two policemen dragging a yelling man out of the station seelbach hotel louisville by each arm. Hmmm it wasn t the same creepy guy, but apparently there are many.
DH was a little worried that I didn t know what I was doing, but I assured him that our train to Santa Maria Novella was in fact the same train listed for Roma. Soon, the bin number for the train was posted, and we all dashed off to the correct platform.
Our seats were in First Class, carriage 3, and in the mad dash to get to the train all my previous experience went out of my head! I forgot that all the carriages are marked either 2 (for 2nd class) or 1 (1st class), so there can be many that are numbered 1. While I was working this out, a kind gentleman asked if he could help, looked at my ticket and led the way to the other end of the train. There he helped seelbach hotel louisville load not only my luggage, but also that of two other women, and the rest of my family. I assumed that he must work for the train station.
There was some confusion with seats once we got onboard, as other people thought they had the same seats at first. The kind man watched from outside seelbach hotel louisville as we worked things out and then he knocked on the window. I showed him my ticket and he nodded and pointed to my seat. Then, as I settled our bags, he knocked on the window again, and started pantomiming playing a violin. It didn t occur to me at first, but then I realized that he was asking for a tip! I had to laugh at my naivete, and then asked DH, who was still near the doorway, to please go back out and give him some money. The man actually did work hard for the money, though, so I really didn t mind
After all of our adventures so far, I thought that the rest of our arrival in Firenze would be a breeze. This was my sixth trip to Firenze, seelbach hotel louisville and having shopped seelbach hotel louisville the streets extensively I felt that I could find my way to Hotel Hermitage next to the Ponte Vecchio like a homing pigeon!
So, when we exited the train, I suggested to DH that we save ourselves the taxi fare, and just wheel our bags to the hotel. He agreed, and as we left the station, we said Non, grazie to the man who tried to cajole us to ride with him. I confidently led the pack across the bustling road toward the historic center of town, certain seelbach hotel louisville that I could get us to the hotel directly, as soon as I saw the Duomo. I got out the TripAdvisor City Guide once again, and Pointed us There to Hotel Hermitage. It didn t seem that far
We would go along at a brisk pace, stopping seelbach hotel louisville every couple of blocks to check the compass on the app. No Duomo came in sight, and DH looked like he was about to pass out from the heat (he gallantly carried the heavy shoulder bag and wheeled two others). OS was trying to help out with two more heavy bags, and even his energy seelbach hotel louisville was lagging. This wasn t going as smoothly as I d planned! We stopped at a corner near a restaurant to get our bearings, and the kind waiter came over to see if he could help this obviously misguided family.
He set us off in the correct direction, and we soon came to the Duomo. From there it was a direct route to the hotel, seelbach hotel louisville but not a quick one. When we finally dragged ourselves to the hotel, we were somewhat dismayed to see the staircase up which we were to lug our bags. I left the others downstairs to recover, seelbach hotel louisville while I went up to check in.
When I got to the small elevator, there was a young American seelbach hotel louisville girl standing in it with her suitcase as she puzzled over how to get it to work. I asked if I might fit in the elevator, and she gladly moved over. The reception is on the fifth floor, so once we figured that out, up we went.
After stopping for gelato, we headed over to the Piazza della Signoria by way of the Uffizi. The usual painters were there, and mindful of all the postings about fake watercolors, I was a wary consumer. Within 10 minutes of our arrival, I had found a beautiful seelbach hotel louisville watercolor (authentic, I think) and we dispatched OS back to the room to put it safely away.
When he returned, we set off for Santa Croce, to visit the church seelbach hotel louisville (and unofficially, to shop on the way!) The piazza was blocked off in the center with lots of temporary seating set up, so it wasn t as beautiful as we remembered. However, the lovely little gilded wood shop on the corner was still there, and in I went with OS, who genuinely seemed to enjoy these excursions. After selecting a couple of boxes to add to my collection, I asked the young man at the counter what was going on in the piazza. I couldn t believe it when he said that Roberto Benigni (Academy Award winner for Life is Beautiful) was going to be giving a performance of the Divine Comedy there that night!
Excitedly, I went back to DH and we went over to the ticket office. However, seelbach hotel louisville we discovered that the Canto being performed was from the Inferno, which seemed a bit depressing for our first night in Firenze seelbach hotel louisville not to mention, it would naturally be in Italian, so we decided not to go. Good decision!
seelbach hotel louisville We went to dinner that night at Trattoria Quattro Leoni, which is right across the Arno in a delightful little square. We had been there on our last trip and expected to be treated like royalty. However, we were treated just like everyone else, which was still fine. There was a couple who sang and played guitar in the square for a while. We had a special treat when the man at the table next to us got up to join them for a song. This guy was amazing, with a terrific voice and polished stage sense. Yet, he didn t try to take over the attention, deferring to the woman when they sang. It was hard to believe seelbach hotel louisville that it was an impromptu performance! The entire square erupted in applause at the end, and he modestly returned to his seat. What a special experience!
After that we wandered across the Ponte Vecchio, where some other street musicians were performing, and made our way to Piazza della Signoria. That is one of our favorite places in the world at night. That night we had another musical treat, as a band was set up in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. So we sat on the marble benches seelbach hotel louisville lining the Loggia and enjoyed people watching while we listened to the music. Another magical night in Italy!
Over the next few days, we saw a lot of art! We had a private tour of the Uffizi that I had booked through Freya s Florence seelbach hotel louisville that I would highly recommend. Our guide was Nicholas, and he did a wonderful job putting seelbach hotel louisville all that art into an historical context, while tailoring it to our boys level. It was like an art history course, and DH commented that it was the first time that he really understood what he was looking at in a museum. The boys also enjoyed the tour and often referred to what Nicholas had said when we toured other museums later in the trip.
We visited the Accademia with a reserved ticket; I don t understand why more people don t do this! There was a very long line waiting to get in, and the people were all standing in the oppressive heat on the street while we just sailed in. This happened all the time on our trip. Hopefully, some people seelbach hotel louisville reading this will take the suggestion to book tickets online in advance for the more popular attractions and spend more time enjoying their vacations!
San Marco monastery highlight: frescoed walls in the tranquil cells by Fra Angelico, Savonarola s cells. We were a bit confused by that part though, seelbach hotel louisville because it seemed as though they were honoring him. (He was the fanatic monk behind seelbach hotel louisville the bonfires of the vanities.)
Since we were in Firenze for 5 nights, we had the luxury of doing things on the spur of the moment. Although we had decided not to go through all the trouble of catching a bus to Fiesole, as we were leaving San Marco we happened upon an empty bus labeled Fiesole . Since we had no real plans that day, we hopped on the bus. I was excited to show the others the view over the city of Firenze that I remembered from a previous visit with my sister. I was quite certain that I would recognize the stop when we arrived, and described the statue of David in the circle overlooking the city.
Well, the bus came to a stop in a part of town that I didn t recognize, and I asked the driver for directions to the David. He didn t speak English, but told me that I needed to go back to Firenze to see David. I tried to describe the other David on the hillside, but he didn t understand. A kind young British couple asked if they could help, but had no idea where I could possibly be talkin