San Lorenzo Market - Florence, IT (Day 1 of 8)

Our apartment is on the left

 I could hear the little pitter-patter of rain drops this morning.  A perfect day for traveling.  I snuck in some little lemon pastries last night when I got the take-out ravioli, they complimented the tomatoes and cukes, that Deb had planned for breakfast, perfectly!  Check out, no problem, train to La Spezia, no problem. Which left only 3 hours to kill before boarding the train to Florence.  A second breakfast of cappuccinos and croissants, sipped the cappuccinos slowly, Italian style, so only 2 hours to kill.  With an hour left, they announce the train to Florence is on track 1. Trains in Italy arrive 1 to 2 minutes ahead of time, not a hour before departure, but the sign over the track says it’s the train to Florence, the doors on the train are open.  People are leary, they climb into the train cars but immediately jump back out.  Italians are so apprehensive that they are asking us if this is the right train…we’re not sure.  After staring at it and poking it for 30 minutes, we all decide that it’s probably safe.

Mercato Centrale 

We arrive at the apartment by 4:30, but it’s not ready.  No clean sheets, no towels, etc.  They promise that the cleaning crew is on the way, but what else are they going to say.  We have less confidence that the apartment will be ready before tomorrow, than we had that the train was really going to Florence.

We run a quick trip to the market to get coffee and milk for the morning.  By the time we return, we could hear the cleaners, somewhere in the apartment, complaining about something, we quietly dropped off the coffee and left for dinner before anyone noticed us.  See, that wasn’t so bad!

Seven years ago, we came to Florence, to meet our kids at the airport.  We spent three days in Florence before returning to our villa on the Amalfi Coast.  Megan Hinkley, was studying in Florence at the time, so we all went out for a dining experience at the Marcato Centrale, lots of food vendor hawking various epicurean delights.  Deb has been wanting to relive the experience, ever since.  And pure ecstasy…no seafood…just chicken, and beef, and pork, and lamb, and potatoes and rice.