A couple of weeks ago a bunch of us all headed down to Florence. We arrived at the train station around 7 pm and really had no idea of where to go from there. We tried our hardest to follow the directions our hostel gave us, but unfortunately, we couldn't figue them out. So we asked a few people to help us along the way, and we eventually found the building.
The woman who runs the hostel was not there and we were told by some other travellers to call her at home. So we walked until we found a pay phone and called her. At first she told Leslie that she could not help us and hung up. So we called her back and double checked that we were talking to the right person. We asked her name and said the name of the hostel and the address, and she said that yes that was her and her address. She told us that she must have overbooked and to call back in five minutes. We did that, and were told to go to the Hotel San Marco for the next two nights and to come back to her hostel on sunday morning.
So we walked to Hotel San Marco and were greeted by a man that does not speak any English. That was fun! The only thing we were able to figure out was that we would be paying twice as much as the hostel costs. But it was the middle of the night and we did not have many options, so we decided to stay.
The next morning we got up early and showered and headed downstairs for a wonderful breakfast. They had the BEST juice ever!!! It had grapefruit, Apple, and lime...so good! The food was cereal, warm bread, fruit, eggs, and yogurt. Overall, we were pleased.
We then headed to the train station to find our tour bus. We sent Stacy and Leslie to go to the tour buses in hopes of finding ours. All of a sudden I see them waving their arms and jumping. So what do Erin and Jen do? They start to run towards them, and by towards them I mean into the middle of a busy street! So I grab both of them by the arms and drag them back to the sidewalk. Yes I definately did the momma grab on them. haha
We took a tour to San Gimingano and Siena. Our tour guide was great, all she talked about was the Black Plague, and how "spacial" everything was. They were absolutely gorgeous!! Siena had this amazing cathedral dedicated to Mary because they believe that she protected them during the time of the Black Plague. While in Siena, we had such a great lunch!! It started off with toasted cibatta bread, tomatoes, and mozaralla cheese. Then we had anti-pasta and spaghetti. Followed by a huge hung of cheese. The whole time our table was full of warm bread and wine. We drank all the wine...it was soo good!! It was Chianti actually made in Chianti!
Then we headed to San Gimingano and I think I found the place that I would love to live at. It was placed at the top of a mountain and is known as the city of towers. We walked around and took lots of pictures. The scenery was beautiful and was exactly what I always imagined Italy to look like. I ended up buying soooo many souvenirs and enjoyed way too much gelato!
We got back to Florence around 6 and decided to take a nap before we went out for dinner. Well that didn't exactly pan out the way we planned because our nap ended up lasting the entire night, and we woke up at 7 the next morning. haha
So we got up and had our wonderful breakfast, and hoped to go to our new hostel and figure everything out. We got there and were immediatley greeted yelling. Linda screamed at us and told us she was not going to help us and we could go to the police if we wanted. We showed her the copy of our reservation and she said, "That is my address, and that is me, but this is not my problem!" Stacy was crying, Erin is yelling at her, and I just walked out. Screw that! So as I'm waiting outside, this girl approaches me and says, "I heard what you were talking about, what hostel are you supposed to be at?" and I told her the International Florence Youth Hostel. Do you know what she said! She said, "That is what I thought, they are one floor up from that woman's hostel. I can't understand why she didn't tell you that." WTF!! So I thank her and run inside and tell everyone. We go up one more floor and low and behold there it is. The receptionist couldn't understand why Linda did not tell us to check upstairs and kept saying that she must have overbooked. She also told us that they waited until 2 am for us, and kept our room open as long as they could, but had to rent it out. But she also said that they have a second hostel that we could go to.
So we walked to Hotel Etrusca to find the most gorgeous Italian man I have ever seen!! We all just gazed at him and listened to his accent. He was very upset that we were sent to a hotel that was twice as expensive. He gave us a room for the night for half of what it would usually cost. We tried to come up with lots of reasons to go and talk to him. Oh by the way, we named him Paulo because we didnt' know his real name.
Once we got all settled in we went and did some sightseeing and souvenir shopping. When it came to dinner time, we asked Paulo for his suggestions and we went where he told us to go. It was great! Jen had pizza yet again, Erin and I had Calzones, and Leslie and Stacy had gnocci. We all loved it!
That Stacy and I left a note for Paulo because we had not checked out yet and were leaving at 7:30 the next morning. So around 11pm he came knocking on our door, we were all sleeping. I opened the door to find him and wow what a sight! I could definately wake up to that face every night! He told Stacy and I not to worry, he had our credit card from the hostel website, and he was just take care of it. "you no worry, just go to bed now." *sigh* and we did. haha
We had lots of time to sit around and wait once to got to the airport, so we took a city bus into Pisa and went to see the tower. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect. Although I definately did not think it would be in the middle of the town. After that we ate a delicious lunch, pizza once again for me, and headed back to the airport.
That was pretty much all the excitement from our Florence trip.
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