Florence vs. Pisa

6/21/2010 Monday
I’m writing about the trip that Josh and I took to Florence yesterday, Sunday 6/20 (it still gets confusing to me about this time tripping thing, so some reference to days may not always match up – I guess that’s what vacations are about).
With some stress in the family between Mary and myself about separating, Josh and I take the train from Pisa to Florence. We find ourselves sitting across from a couple from Australia, and since they can speak English it’s good to compare notes of travel through conversation and to do reality checks. We have to pay attention to the stops that the train makes to make sure we get off at the right station in Florence (population about 300,000). When we arrive, we are bothered that we have to pay to use the public toilets (I guess they are not so “public”). Exiting the train station into a large open area, we see many old buildings, lots of people, and know that we can’t hardly scratch the surface of how much there is to see, especially with the famous art, and the famous lines you have to stand in to see the popular exhibits. We decide to get on a tour bus for a quick orientation. We ride in the top level of the bus, which has open sides with a soft top, and ear buds to plug in to hear the recorded tour guide with selectable channels for different languages. We hear about Michelangelo, Galileo, and many other famous and not-so-famous people and places . It starts to rain hard, and it gets cold and wet, even under the cover of the roof of the bus. After the one-hour tour, we feel somewhat oriented to the town and places we want to try to see on foot, but we have the need for the bathroom, and don’t want to pay for toilets again, so there is a familiar sight – McDonalds! And yes, free toilets! After that, Josh and get cappuccinos (at McDonalds!) and wait for the rain to lighten up. Then we walk for awhile trying to find a famous building, and walk by poor people who are just pathetic in their condition (a woman in a dress in the gutter of the street, wet from the rain, curled up on her knees with her head down, hand out palm up and trembling as if having a seizure).
We attempt to enter a beautiful church, and are turned away with our camera but they are allowing local people in for what appears to be services (understandable). Another woman begging outside the church, and Josh gives her a coin, but in her Italian that we don’t understand, she gestures to try to tell us it wasn’t enough for her “cinque bambinos” (five children?). We wave her off, and she later tries to take another run at us, as if she didn’t remember us from the first time.
We tour a museum of photographs (which was expensive and disappointing). We walk more, and duck out of the rain for another bathroom stop at a local restaurant, crowded with local people watching the World Cup soccer match (Italy vs. New Zealand).
We finally surrender, glad we saw parts of this famous city, but disappointed it was too big and too crowded and too much for such a short time. We get back on the train to Pisa, get a quick dinner, and get back to the hotel before the agreed-on time, and find that Mary and Nathan attempted, unsuccessfully, to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and got lost and scared trying to find hotel again. (I’ll let Mary tell that story).
Todd