October 2, 2006

Our trip started off slow by being delayed by an hour from Calgary to London, not departing until 11:00 pm. Our pilot tried to catch up lost time by flying full speed and managed to save about 30 minutes. Nevertheless, many travelers missed their connecting flight. On arrival, we needed to go from London Heathrow airport to Gatwick by bus. The bus ride was only supposed to be 70 minutes and it ended up being 2 and half hours because of bad traffic. The bus driver decided to try some side roads rather than the motorway and that gave us a chance to see the countryside. According to the original plan we should have had a leisurely 6 hour transportation gap between the two airports. In the event, it turned out we had just enough time to grab a bite. The waiting situation at Gatwick is rather awkward because the airport doesn’t assign gates for the aircraft until 30 minutes before takeoff so everyone hangs around the main seating area and then rushing off down a long corridor to catch the plan. In the end the flight to Florence was also delayed an hour and a half. We didn’t get into Florence until midnight, tired and hungry.

October 3, 2006

We were woken up by the sound of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, just outside our hotel window. Having had a very tiring travel day, we were too sleepy to find out what time it was. As it turned out we slept in until 9:30 and luckily had the foresight to postpone our walking tour to 2:00. It was originally scheduled for 9:00. Our Hotel, the Hotel Aprile by Palazzo dal Borgo, like many in Italy, has a continental breakfast that was included with our room and while we got down to the breakfast room rather late and found the eggs a little rubbery, we recognized that we were getting there towards the tail end of breakfast service. Breakfast is how I envisioned Italian cooking and they have taken to it very seriously since the last time I was here; beautiful bacon, wonderful pastries, and of course, superb coffee.

We wondered around the hotel after breakfast into side streets where there were many street hawkers selling souvenirs and cheap products including counterfeit purses. It also gave us a chance to see some nifty vehicles used to get around the very narrow streets here. We stumbled into the San Lorenzo market where they sell produce, meat, pasta, and cheese. After our morning walk we went back to the hotel for a break then met up with our local guide, Niccolo Salvestrini. He took us on a walking tour to Palazzo Pitti, tracing the route of the corridor designed by Vesari, Ponte Vecchio, and the courtyard of the Uffizi museum, San Croce, Duomo, and Battistero. It was very informative and he made everything more interesting with the enthusiasm. Great guide and highly recommended. After the tour we went to the famous Vivoli for their famous gelato. I had pistachio and pear and Wallace had café and melon. We’ll have to go back as both of us greatly enjoyed it and made a point of knowing what to order next time. Then we headed to the Santa Maria Novella Farmaceutica for their famous hand cream.
As dinnertime approached, we asked the hotel clerk to recommend a restaurant close by. A chance meeting with another couple in the lobby with the same intent allowed us to have dinner together. Jan and Ineke were from the Netherlands and we had a great dinner at 13 Gobbi. We made it into the restaurant at 19:00 being about the first ones there and it quickly filled up so it must be quite popular.