Zonked!

Zonked!

Saturday Sept 10, 2011


If any of this makes sense it will be a miracle because it is written by a man who has had 5 hours of sleep in the past 60 hours.  Primo, we are in Florence.  We left JFK for Paris last night on time with no complications that I can remember at this point.  We arrived in Paris at 9 am local time and had the shortest layover with the furthest distance to traverse; figures.  We deplaned in Paris, passed customs and once on the French side there was nary a soul to ask questions about where we were to head next.  It became apparent that we were in the wrong concourse and we boarded a one hundred passenger bus with 247 people to get to our departure gate.  We got on a smaller aircraft for the two hour trip to Florence.  We were now flying KLM with a significant improvement in all measures of quality.  I had the best in flight brunch of my life; Nace slept right though the whole flight and missed it.  We, of course, did not have seats together in the plane and I was stuck in the window seat of a three seat row.  The occupants of the other two seats were a young couple that apparently did not satisfy all their urges the prior evening.  Thankfully they did not consummate and gain full membership in the "Mile High Club". However I did take exception to being awakened by an amorous male hand deviating into MY pants pocket!


At 12 noon our little 12 hour journey that turned into 48 was now over.  It was nothing short of miraculous that our luggage also made the trip.  A short cab ride and we were at Hotel Desiree.

  We dropped off our luggage, brushed our teeth and headed out the door for a manic walkabout.  Trying to do a "drive by" of the sites we had planned on spending some time with since we were deprived of a day and a half by our flight delay.  Nace had a piece of pizza and I had a cappuccino in a place that was so narrow I could touch both side walls at the same time, but it was molto bene!  

We continued our walking, more like running tour, and ended up at Ponte Vecchio before heading back to the hotel.

Florence Duomo Baptistry

Duomo Entrance

Duomo

Duomo Campanile

Walking across the Arno River at Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio from Oltrarno

Mid point of Ponte Vecchio Bridge

View back toward Duomo

 We returned to Desiree and our all purpose hotel host, Michlo, poured us a glass of vino rosso and our attitudes improved immeasurably.  This was followed by a shower in what is the smallest containment I have ever seen.  You could drop a full bar of soap and it would not hit the floor.  



I have tried in vain to link up with Gustavio and Karina to no avail and as soon as I post this we are heading to the Osteria Natalino, per recommendations of Michlo.  Then we will drag ourselves back and most likely be unconscious before we hit the pillows.


Tomorrow the real fun begins with day one of our bike tour of Tuscany.


Ciao!