Monday, December 17, 2007

The beginning of the Italian Recap, where the trip gets back on track...

OK, you've all patiently waited for me to recap the Italy portion of our trip, so I figure I'd best get into it before the holidays takes everything and runs with it.

So, for a musical soundtrack to the trip, I'll offer up Lavender Diamond. I saw them last week, and aside from being in the running for having the cutest singer ever, they are one of my latest musical obsessions. Another one of my latest musical obsessions is the Appalachian Terror Unit, but their music is not as aesthetically appropriate for a trip recap.



We finally arrived in Florence, exhausted from the Paris-Milan-Florence jaunt, and starving. We were at this point, about eight hours behind schedule, having originally intended on hitting Florenec early that morning on a leisurely overnight train ride. Instead, we checked into our hotel with a little less than an hour to meet Z and the Mr.

Normally, this would not have been a problem, as Florence is not that big, and we were about a 10-15 minute walk from our predetermined meeting place, in the shadow of the statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa aloft. Unfortunately, as we made our way there, it became obvious that we didn't quite remember our way from the year before, and Florence is not on a grid, so we missed the meeting point entirely at the first pass.


A still life in Florence
Originally uploaded by alpharat
At this point, TFN was visibly frustrated. It was her birthday, and she was really looking forward to meeting with Z and Mr. Z to restore a bit of normalcy and festivity to the day that had thus far gone horribly wrong. As the meeting time came and went without us having yet made it to the piazza, she was in very low spirits. Fortunately, when we arrived at the statue, 15 or 20 minutes late, Z had waited for us, and smiles and hugs happened, and the trip got back on track.

I will confess that our evening with Z and Mr. Z was by far the hardest we partied the entire trip. Drinks lead to dinner (at a secondary choice after we discovered that our original favorite restaurant was now trendy and difficult to get into, and came with rude service as well. The dinner that we ended up with was delicious and came with two liters of wine.


Florence
Originally uploaded by alpharat
After the dinner, we ended up at a literally underground bar, where we pushed rude and stupid American college students out of the way, while an Italian band played covers of English songs from the '60s. This included a cover of "Paint It Black" for TFN's birthday. This evening also included many drinks until we stumbled back to our hotel, just a few hours away from having to get up for a trip to Siena. We were happy that the trip was back on track, although we'd be cursing Z due to our hangovers the next morning...

More soon...

1 comment:

fineartist said...

It all came flood, rushing back to me as I read your meeting place description. I think my heart jumped up into my ribcage a little higher than normal, but then, aint really nothin' normal about me. Isn't that Perseus piece to the right of the copy of Michelangelo's David? If it's not, lie to me, it's been a rough week. I'm kidding don't lie to me...

I see the dwomo in the second shot and I want to throw myself from the top of it with a bungee rope attached to my ankle, of course. Then again, wouldn't want to knock all my teeth out on the way down bouncing off of stuff, I suppose there's a reason people bungee off of bridges.

Lavender Diamond, I like 'em. xx