This morning was chilly at the campground! Seems strange to me that despite the cold nights Ashley and I both have a bunch of mosquito bites! Itchy itchy! I took a few pictures of the campground and our little trailer before we headed out. It's been a great stay despite our little inconveniences! After a 25 min bus ride we found the train station. It was a little scary at first because it was just a tunnel thing that went down into the ground. Not a fun place to be lugging around 3 suitcases! We managed just fine and after we got into the actual station it was just fine and very open, friendly and manageable. We found out we had to pay an additional 10 euros each for our tickets to Florence...which is actually Firenze here, not sure why we say and spell it one way when it's different here...anyway! The train ride was great! It reminded me a lot of being in a plane. Comfortable and clean and fast! It was great to see the countrysides of Italy. I mentioned to Ashley a couple of times how if we lived in Italy I would prefer these outlying small cities much more than living in the crowded parts that we are touring. The second half of our ride took us through a lot of tunnels through the hills, so we didn't see much on the last half except a black hole!
After the train reached Firenze we paid our euro to use the toilets and then trudged through the city toting our luggage behind us to find our hostel. Cobblestone sidewalks don't make the best surface for pulling our wheeled suitcases over, but again...we managed! We found our hostel without much trouble (about a 20-30 min walk) and rang the bell for them to buzz us in. After entering we found a stairwell that lead up story after story. Yes, we had to lug our suitcases up a go-zillion stairs! We were sweating and laughing and resting on each landing. It was hilarious and horrible all at the same time!! We checked in and got a tour. Shared bathroom, with a shower. Full shared kitchen that we can cook in as well as a fridge to store food in. We have 2 beds in a big room with 3 other beds and a bunk bed. We can leave our luggage here, which will be great not to have to haul it around! Best of all we have FREE WIFI!!! Woo hoo! Problem with that is that we have to be quiet after 11:30 so any skyping will have to be done before that, and even at that it may be a little awkward since there are other people hanging around. But updates, emails, and Facebook will be great! The nice owner gave us a map and showed us were to find the closest grocery store which was our first stop after a short rest. We picked up some sliced meat and cheese and some bread and drinks and made a little picnic of it! It's great to find that right off the bat! We bought a salad with some olives and corn and a few other things in it, and then a can of tuna salad, and some lentils and mixed it all up and had that for dinner. We think that tomorrow we will buy a bunch of veggies and keep them in the fridge and we can just come back here and cook lunch and dinner. That should save us some euros and will be fun too! I'm so glad Ashley is willing to be so budget conscious and easy going!
So after our fun at the grocery store we wandered around town and saw all the street vendors. Let me just say that being here is something I never in a lifetime thought I would be able to do. Just being here is enough, really. BUT seeing all of the amazing leather purses, bags, shoes, belts, and the clothes and food and ahhhhhhhh! It takes window shopping to a whole new level when you know that you may NEVER get a chance to buy these things again! WE just breathed deeep and enjoyed the smell of the leather and walked on. I have to say that the vendors here are MUCH more assertive than they were in Venice. A few of them had great personalities as we joked with them. One was relentless and asked why we could not buy a leather jacket I was drooling on and we said we were too poor as we waled away...he kept calling after us telling us that he was poor too.. "look at me, I'm dressed like a Gypsy!" He was dressed nicely and we all just laughed it off. I don't know if it was just that I was vocal and jovial with them, or what but they all seemed to find it fun to harrass us about buying from them, and they all just happen to have 60% off today!! Hahaha! I caught on to that quickly and soon it seemed that they could beat the price of the guy down the alley and now were 80 or 90% off! One guy told me to name my price for a sachel we were looking at. I first said "Well if I'm naming the price, then 5euros!" he shook his head, but soon he had gone from 15euros down to 8euros! We had told each other that we weren't going to buy anything today so we walked away again, but that was a close one. The thing is, I know if I can get him to 8euros today, I can get him to that another day, or less if I had cash in hand. We will have to be here a few days to see how we are on our budget before we know if we can afford to buy anything. Hopefully we can save some money on food and not having to take boats, or pay for internet. I'm tellin' ya though, the purses, and the leather briefcases are almost worth having a fast!
We did see some great sights. We are just down the street from the Duomo and I was able to get some great picts of the outside as the sun was going down. If you don't know what the Duomo is, refer to the book of Google to find out. We took a min and sat in the square by the Duomo and just took it in. It is really amazing to sit and just look at all of the detail and to think of how long it took to create such a building! Also to think of how old it is and to think of how it must have looked when it was new. Just amazing! The doors are copper and have an amazing patina on them. They have one door that they keep clean to show the detail and to show the copper, refer to the pictures.
Anyway, it's great here. The people so far are friendly and although the street vendors are pushy we feel pretty comfortable. Oh, yeah, we did have to buy a new backpack because ashley's has holes in it and the bottom was almost see through after using it soo much during her stay in Spain. We bargain shopped though and got a great canvas one for 15euros...sigh...that's 2 meals! Oh well :)
It has been mentioned that my posts are long. Lots of words, I know, but there is sooooo much to say about so many things! Hope I'm not boring you, but I guess if I am, you'll just stop reading.
Love you all, miss you all. One week down, 4 more to go!
XOXOXO
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