Tuesday October 16, 2012

Stress is defined as the constraining force or influence: as a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation. I would agree with that definition. Today we traveled to Florence.

Jill and I ordered room service this morning so that we could get an early start to the day. We got off the boat by 8am and were one of the first ones on the transport bus that would take us to the city center of Livorno, Italy. Unfortunately we had to wait until there were enough people on the bus before we actually left the dock. Once we finally reached the city center we quickly found the information center where we got a map of Livorno. Objective #1 complete, next task was to find an ATM. According to Rick Steves there was an ATM within the same building. What he failed to mention was that it was associated with a credit union and the ATM wouldn't work with your bank card. We now had to scramble to find another ATM. One block away we found a bank with an ATM but it was inside the building and after about 30 minutes we found out that when a door has a pull type handle it might be a push type door. Unfortunately once we finally found that out there were two men camping out in front of the ATM and the other people waiting in line with us were getting upset. Another 15 minutes later we had finally withdrew some money for the next 3 days. With money and bust tickets in hand we got on the next available bus to the train station where we would take a train to Florence. The train station was quite easy, it was just a matter of waiting for the train to arrive. Our train ran every hour and was a 90 minute trip between the cities. What we didn't and couldn't plan on was how unreliable and late the trains in Italy would be. Our train to Florence was only 5 minutes late (which seemed okay) but once aboard the train sat at the station for another 15 minutes. Once we got to Florence we found the train time tables so we knew what time we had to be back at the station. 15:28, great three hours to see all of Florence. Man I wish I would've had some coffee this morning, room service messed up our order and brought us tea instead.

Jill and I quickly found the information center and grabbed a map and then started for The Duomo. From there we walked down a side street and had our first gelato on our way to the Plazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery. We weren't able to see everything at the gallery (you'd honestly need a whole day to do that), so we hit the important pieces and then quickly viewed the rest on our way to the exit. Once outside we had to choose between viewing the statue of David or going to the Ponte Vecchio as we didn't have enough time to do both before getting on our train back to Levorno. The walk to the Statue of David was too far away so Jill and I walked across the Ponte Vecchio, stopped for some photos of the Arno River, and then headed our way back to the train station. I likened our trip to Florence to someone baking the world's greatest cheesecake but they only give you a crumb and expect you to taste everything the cheesecake has. On our way to the train station we stopped for some hot preshutto sandwiches which were incredible. We got to the train station at 15:10, our train was on the board but no platform was listed. 15 minutes late. This was going to be cutting it close. Our train got back to the Livorno station at 17:30. One hour before our boat would close its doors and begin its departure. We waited about 5 minutes before our bus arrived that then took us to the city center. Also on this bus was half of Livorno's population, we were so crammed on the bus it wasn't funny. At one stop a little Italian grandma got on and immediately started venting. At one point I think she was even yelling at Jill because she just happened to be standing next to her. Man I wish we knew what she was saying, Jill and I had to control ourselves from laughing and causing further anger.

Once at the city center Jill and I quickly walked to the pick up point for our shuttle bus to the boat only to have someone tell us that the last bus to our boat had just left and we'd need to find a taxi. I felt my blood beginning to boil. Just when I was about to start looking for a cab another bus pulled up. Thank goodness.

Once back on the boat we had just enough time to empty our pockets of maps, ticket stubs, receipts, change, etc. and get our 18:45 dinner and then a musical at 21:00, Saturday Night Fever. The musical was great, it's now midnight and Jill and I are already stressing about tomorrow's trip into Rome.