We docked at a town call La Spezia which is quite aways from Florence where we planned to stay overnight.
We had to hurry off the ship as our first train was at
8:32am.
It was raining when we got off the ship and walked to the
shuttle bus off the port, about 20 minutes.
Then at the taxi stand with 3 other couples, we couldn’t get
a cab to the train stations. Finally one
came and we all shared one van to the train station.
On the taxi ride we met two guys who had been together for
over 20 years and lived in Cancun and we ended up sitting with them on both
trains to Florence.
Then we had to transfer trains in Pisa for the remaining train
trip to Florence. The problem was that
it was 7-minute window. We and 8 others
literally ran down the planform down stairs and underground to the next set of tracks. As we jumped onto the train, the doors
closed, we all laughed and we now could relax on a nice 1-hour trip to
Florence.
At Florence, we took a taxi to our hotel, the Arte” Boutique
Hotel and it was everything we expected and more. The hotel was originally a palace for a rich
member of the aristocracy in the 1400’s.
Then it was a home to several rich families. Since 2019 it has this boutique hotel of 13 rooms. We had an upgraded room that had an amazing
over the main Cathedral in Florance, El Duomo.
When we arrived it was drizzling and it continued throughout
the day.
We had a fine 2-hour walking tour that took us to the major
sights in the city and after that we went back to the hotel.
While we were on the ship, one of the couples that we ate
with gave us the name of their favorite restaurant in Naples and we made
reservations for lunch and it was wonderful.
As it typical in Europe, the good restaurants are small and
the owner is always there to greet you.
This restaurant was no different and the owner stopped by at our table
several times. We had to go there for
lunch as the only available time for dinner was 11:30pm!!
After we finished dinner, the rain had stopped so we walked
around, had some gelato, and then finally went to bed.
On Wednesday, we had an amazing breakfast as I am sure the
picture swill show will show and then went to the El Duomo Cathedral to go inside. We had a line pass, so we skipped ahead of what
seemed like hundreds in line to get in.
the guide spent about ½ hour inside telling us all about the church.
This is the third largest church in the world, behind Rome
and London. It still has the largest
dome in the world. The original plans
were destroyed in a fire and they still have not figured out how the architect
built it. One of things that made this
Cathedral unique was it its exterior is all marble giving it a white exterior –
truly magnificent.
The original church was built in 4AD and was a church for
the people and had no domination, rich or poor all were welcome. The church as stand today began construction
in 1296 and the building process lasted 72 years and finished in 1368. At the time, it was that largest church in
the world and still is the church of the people. Even admission to see the church is free and
the church is now a Catholic Church.
We then had time to ourselves to explore more of the church.
They have a clock inside that hs 1 at the bottom. To the people then 1 was 1 hour after sunrise. Someone climbs up to the clock every two weeks to reset the clock to keep time correctly - amazing.
Then we went walking for the next couple of hors and of
course Barb found some beautiful scarves.
We then checked out of the hotel at noon and took a taxi to
the train station. This time we had 28 minutes
to transfer trains in Pisa before getting back to this about 4:30pm
Then it was time to take a fast shower and get ready for the
evening.
The show tonight was a production show by the cast of the
ship and it was not that good and we had seen it several times in the past.
Then onto dinner in Blu where we shared the last couple of
days stories with people we had met before.
Tomorrow is our second day at seas and we are looking
forward to just relaxing in the sun (we hope)
Night on the way to our last stop, Naples.
