A good night's sleep was had after our exhausting Venice tour and we were back in our favourite VW Touran. Driving in Italy seemed so much simpler than in France with clear signs and excellent expressways. In-city was another story, although I hadn't really driven in any French cities at this point.
Once again, we had another B & B booked (a couple days prior only) and directions printed out from their website. And once again, as we entered the city, the printed directions seemed to make less sense. By this point, we had learned to just go with a bit of gut instinct. One tricky thing about driving into Florence, is that certain historical areas require a permit to drive in otherwise one faces a steep fine! Well, we got off track with our directions and found ourselves heading past the train station where the roads turned to cobblestone. Were we in one of these sacred areas?! If not, we were certainly close, as best as we could figure. Almost turned around on a one way street (oops), but finally did get back on track and found Via Bolognese--after learning that driving around round abouts in Florence was a kind of free-for-all. Still we could not find Villa La Sosta and it was somewhat of a busy and narrow road.
Maybe you can sense something terrible about to happen since I am giving such detail to the driving. I think I was beginning to feel frazzled and when we finally found the right place, I had to turn around what was feeling like a large vehicle in the middle of this road and then maneuver my way through the iron gate entrance. I was just getting it all in order (while still feeling frazzled about cars coming behind at high speeds) when I realized the driveway had a big dip and I was just about to severely scrape the bottom of the van if I didn't take it slower! Phew. Close call. Or so I thought. In my attention to the speed and the dip and then incline of the driveway, I undershot my right turn and here's what happened when a Touran met an iron gate:
Sigh. There had to be something, right? That evening and for months later (up until about November) I found myself on the phone with the rental car company, my credit card insurance company and the travel agency with which we booked the vehicle. Fortunately, it wasn't anything more serious. It was really just a pain. Not to mention the embarrassment I felt as our new charismatic Italian host looked on, shaking his head. Apparently it had happened before and he predicted it happening again. I was spent!
This guy actually turned out to be very cool. He had an amazing place to stay and had lots of connections in the city. We ended up taking his advice twice on dinner. The first night was a quaint little place within walking distance with a young, caring chef at its helm. There I enjoyed my first ratatouille and more fish. That evening we also partook in grocery shopping, paying special attention to buying Chianti wines and Italian grappas after our host shared one vintage sip of his own.
14 July
This was the day to explore Florence, the city famous for its part in Renaissance thought and art. Very cool for me, who would start a Western History course in September. We had lined up for ourselves a day of shopping and exploration, with a viewing of the Statue of David in the midst. We had already shared a number of laughs about a phenomenon noticed of tourists who swoon and faint over such pieces of art and wondered how we would handle it. Ha ha. Our taxi driver ended up taking us to the most expensive shopping area of the city for some reason (did we really look that part?), so we walked from there. It all turned into another day of two pairs wandering around, going in different shops and checking out a cathedral! Here we are at Duomo, which was very beautifully painted.
We all reconvened to take our reservation for seeing David, but in the meantime, Sharon and I had met a convincing man in a leather shop who said that it wasn't worth the Euros and with the amount we'd be spending so far, we took his advice and just waited outside for the others.
This same leather shop man became a convincing one for all of us, but more specifically in his line of business. Sharon was displaying to the others the jacket she had just purchased when they noticed a snag in the leather, so after David, we all four went with her back to the shop. Bad move. Or not? While Sharon's jacket was being repaired, Judy and Patti started looking around, intrigued by his wares. The whole forty-five minutes that Sharon had previously deliberated over buying her jacket, I kept myself away from trying any on myself. But for some reason on this return, I picked one up and put it on and....sigh. I was hot!
We must have spent another forty-five minutes in there deciding if the three of us should join Sharon in her fantastic purchase. After all, they were cutting us such fantastic deals! Patti made a pretty quick decision on a funky coloured suede jacket, so now it was over to Judy and I to decide. Hum haw. Hum haw. Yes, we did all four walk away with leather jackets that day. And to this day, no regrets. Never before had I ever thought of owning a leather jacket, but it has become such a great staple. It certainly came in handy back in England at the end of this trip.
After this, we were headed for a far off restaurant that our host had arranged for us. All we knew about it was that it is amazing and that we could pay 30 Euros and have a traditional Italian-style meal with many courses made especially for us. Our walk to the restaurant became an obstacle to overcome, although with its own share of comedy; particularly Judy carrying Patti's bag of purchases like Santa's sack over her shoulder. We could have taken a cab, but had resolved to hang in there, even though by the end we were parched! (I'm certain the waiter found us odd to chug down the water so quickly, yet to hesitate at him bringing us more because we were scared of the cost!)
This trek turned out to be highly worth it as this trattoria tucked away on a hidden side street ended up serving our favourite meal of the whole trip! We were completely unprepared for the amount of food and in our hunger, scarfed down lots of the antipasta and bread. Then there was the pasta and finally, the meats for which we had little room! The best wine we had (which was their house wine) as well and a taste of panna cotta to finish off sweetly. All this included (as was the water)!
Definitely took a taxi back to the Villa.
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