Firenze

The day I went to Florence was certainly the most adventure-filled (and delightfully delicious) day I had while in Italy.

The train ride, though very early, was going along fine until we hit Bologna. The train in front of us broke down and we were stuck at the station for an hour or hour and a half or so. At this point I got a little bit worried, since I had no way of contacting my friend to let her know I would be delayed. During the wait I tried to make conversation with the people on the compartment, and although it was enough to find out what was going on with the train it was fairly limited due to my lack of proper Italian.

I would like to pause before continuing. You see, it has been brought to my attention that I have pretty much come across as a "Nervous Nelly/Nancy" in these past few posts, and I would just like to say that this is not true! I usually enhance the nervousness and anxiety for entertainment purposes.

Anyway, finally we made it into Firenze Rifredi Station. I got off the train and went to look for my friend, who as a small blonde in a crowd of mostly brunettes I thought should have stood out.

This turned out not to be the case. Not only were there more blondes than anticipated, I could not find her anywhere. There was also no real waiting area at this station, so I wasn't entirely sure where to look. After walking along all the platforms and in and out of the station cafe, I concluded that she wasn't there. I thought something might have happened and got directions to the nearest Internet Point so that I could check facebook and send her a message (I think this is one of the few times this semester I really would have liked to have a phone).

After finding my way there, about a five minute walk including a tunnel and a weird intersection I sent her a message  and then went back to the train station to check one more time.

After a little bit of back and forth between the internet point and station (The employee at the internet point must have thought I was crazy), we were finally able to get things straightened out and meet up! Whew!

Our first stop was lunch. We went to a sandwich place that had a line out the door (which was positively correlated with the deliciousness of the place). My friend suggested asking for the guy's favourite vegetarian sandwich, since I had no idea what to order.

It. Was. So. Good.

Mozzarella, tomato, spicy eggplant, and some other delicious
things. MMMMMM

Seriously though. I don't think I will ever eat something this good again. Maybe I will just move to Florence.

After this we went to the Christmas markets. They were so cool! I'd never been to a Christmas market before, and was quite impressed! All of the stalls had so many things, I just wish I had room in my backpack to bring things back for people!

Then we headed over to Ponte Vechio ("Old Bridge") with one of her friends, which was of course beautiful!  There were so many nice shops as well!

While wandering around we passed by a gelataria that they remembered as being good, but couldn't remember how much it was. After peering in the window and seeing it was 2,50 for a small cup/cone, they breezily dismissed it with a "We can do better" and we kept walking. I wish I had been here long enough to  know these things! I also learned that if a place had huge mounds of gelato that it means they're not making it every day and you should go somewhere else. 

The gelataria we did go to was absolutely delicious. I don't know how I can go back to regular ice cream after this! 

Cookies and Santa Tristina

At this point it had started to rain, which brought out all the Umbrella Men (Which leads me to wonder what they sell in the off-season). They brought me to this really great bakery, where I got a chocolate brioche and a shortbread cookie under the pretense of saving it for the next day although in reality I ate them on the train later.

To avoid getting soaked we ducked into a book shop near the train station and browsed for a little while. 

WANT

It was really funny to me how many books I read as a kid were just translated into Italian, including Dr. Seuss! In case you were wondering, he does rhyme in Italian.

After saying goodbye, I went to the train station to see which platform the train back to Milan would be departing from. I didn't see any train with the destination for "Milano", but knowing that it's not necessarily the final destination I opened my bag to look up the train number on my ticket.

I couldn't find my ticket.

No embellishment is necessary to describe how panicked I became. Every cliche of hearing one's heart pounding, sweaty palms, and the like applied. Mostly because I always keep my ticket folded around my passport. And as I couldn't find my ticket I assumed the worst about my passport.

I found a spot where I could sit and take everything out of my bag to be sure. Luckily, when digging through my bag I did find my passport, which slowed my heart rate a little. Just a little though.

I still couldn't find the ticket that I had printed, but I was pretty sure I could also print them from one of the self-serve kiosks so I ran over to one of those, noting that the train was due to depart in fifteen minutes. 

I found that this was not the case. Without the reservation number, which is printed on the ticket, I could not print the ticket from the kiosk. I am still trying to figure out how this makes any sense.

I explained my situation to the kiosk assistant, and she told me to go to the customer service office, saying something about calling someone to get the reservation number.

I ran over to the customer service office, anticipating a long line but I was surprised to find that I was the only one there! Whew!

I tried to explain to one of the agents that I had already bought a ticket, but could not find it. And although for the most part my Italian vastly improved in my panic, I was still using the verb "incontrare" incorrectly (still not having remembered that it means "to meet" rather than "to find" as a similar verb would in Spanish). This made getting my point across a little difficult, and the agent kept thinking I needed to buy a ticket.

Once I was able to communicate my situation properly, he said there was no solution but to buy another ticket. I sighed, realising that this was probably the best course of action since according to my watch I only had ten minutes to get on the train, not enough time to find an internet point to print my ticket again.

I opened my bag to check one more time, and there was my ticket, right on top of all my things!

I don't think I have ever felt like more of an idiot. I was so sure I had taken everything out of my bag to check. Not to mention I came across as a complete rambling crazy mess to the two agents in the office!

The agent said "Well there it is! You do have it!" (in Italian) and gave me this look that made it pretty clear he thought I was a weirdo. Which I don't really blame him for. Because it is true.

He then took the ticket from me to check what platform it was departing from. The platform hadn't been announced yet, but he did point out what train it was. I thanked him and said that I should probably at least walk back towards the platforms since the train would be leaving soon.

He shook his head and pointed to the clock, telling me I had twenty minutes until my departure.

What.

I checked my watch, sure that I had less time than that. Then, of course, I remembered that I had recently set my watch ten minutes ahead so that I would be more on time to things.

I know. I am a freak. Not only do I know this, but now both the Trenitalia agents know it too! The other agent who had mostly been watching at this point motioned for me to sit down and catch my breath so I did.

But really. I felt like such an idiot.

After I calmed a little, the two agents and I started talking-about where I was from, why I was in Firenze, what I thought, etc.

These two should be a comedy duo.

They are seriously the two cutest old(ish) men I have ever met in my life.

When I told them I was from San Francisco, they asked me if that was the one with the triangle shaped sky-scraper (in a mix of pantomime and English), and I said it was. Then they started talking excitedly to each other about San Francisco and Los Angeles, although for the most part I did not understand them. 

Then they started writing down something on a sheet of scrap paper and showed it to me. They had drawn a triangle and box to convey the Transamerica Pyramid, then written "600,000" and "6,000,000" next to it and wanted to know which one was San Francisco and which was L.A. I told them San Francisco was the smaller one (Although in reality we have more people than this), then they consulted each other more and asked me how many people live in New York. I said 8 million (I think this is true, based on something Pop once said about if it is a one in a million chance of someone having a tiger in their apartment in New York then there are technically eight people in New York with tigers in their apartment). 

They continued to chat to one another in rapid Italian, and turned to me again to ask if San Francisco is the one with the hills and trolleys, which I confirmed. They then very casually concluded that although they think San Francisco is beautiful "Non è Firenze" (It's not Florence). 

At this point the platform for the train had been announced and they sent me off with a hospitality guide to Florence for the next time I go =]

Basically I want to be their best friend. They were so sweet. And patient with my craziness! And at least I hope I made a good story, and that they can go home and tell their wives about the "crazy American" they met.