Florence from Rome airport - Oct 30-31, 2024
We landed in Rome FCO airport on a British Airways short flight from LHR after a long (6 hour!) layover in LHR and after an American flight from DFW. On American for dinner, I had the BBQ chicken, which was good with a good dark chocolate cinnamon brownie. Travis got the special meal, halal, that was good and came earlier since is a special meal. They also served a very small breakfast. British only served a small bottled water and a snack of corn nuts. It was a short flight, but I was surprised only water as a drink option. It was nice to have a bottle water to use in Italy; I was tempted to ask for another but did not.
After landing, getting through passport control was quick. I read bad experiences in the past. The lines were not long and which line, for US and UK citizens, was clear. We did the passport scan and take your picture. Though it had a finger machine, so that confused me both times that it wanted to collect fingerprints, it did not. After doing this automated, an agent stamped our passport only, asking no questions. I read that you had to get a stamp when getting to Italy; if you did not at the airport, that you had to find a police station to get one. Luckily, we got one. I also read that they were moving to the new automated EU system in the middle of our trip, so we just used the automated machines leaving and the booths with agents were empty/no stamp now. I'm guessing the required entry stamp is no longer required with the automated machines in place.
We used the Terravision Electric Spa bus from the airport to the Rome Termini train station. They sold a 5:15pm departure time, based on a printed sign in the ticket box window, but it filled before we got to the beginning of the line -- false advertising. A lady at the bus said the next one would be there in 15 mins. Translation, it will be there, but then it will not leave until 5:45pm. We wanted to make our pre-booked train from Rome Termini to Florence. It is recommended to pre-book the longer, high speed trains, while not necessary to pre-book the regional, local trains. The bus was also more expensive than Google maps thought -- 9 EUR each. When the next arrived, they told each person to load their own luggage (fine, but not as organized as someone who loads all and all the time). Then we waited for the 5:45 pm leaving time and to get enough people. There was a restroom right by the bus loading area that was complimentary. I got off, asking, and visited it before the bus left. The traffic was bad in Rome -- crazy, but not unexpected for Rome. There were places where too separated roads ran side by side in the same direction -- why? how do you pick which one to use? Cars and motorcycles/mopeds weaving through traffic -- crazy!
Our booked train was at 7:40 pm on Italo. Outside the Rome train station did look a little sketchy at night, but we were not staying long. It seemed like the bus driver got a call or radio about traffic or a blockage and told to go around. We were dropped off on the West side, but came in from the East side, and needed to walk North to the entrance or where Italo was labeled on Google maps. We found another, non-main entrance. There were people there. We showed our tickets, and she just waved us in. Travis then found a paper sign with platforms assigned based on train times, so we went to that number. It ended up later being over one, but just across the platform, not move to another. The train number to match to the ticket was electronic on the train side. They also had announcements in English second about which platform and approaching trains. Once on the platform, we could see the main entrance where people were scanning their tickets into the platform area.
We had assigned seats on Italo in an assigned coach. The coaches were also numbered on the outside. The ticket to Florence for two was 51.80 EURs, economy class, and not changeable without an additional fee. People were in our seats. So I just showed them our tickets (not speaking enough Italian), and they moved with no hesitation. Honestly, I did not know if we should just find another seat. There was room above the seats for our two roll-a-board suitcases. The train had a restroom available. We were tired from travel and missing the night of sleep on the flight over. We settled in for the ride, which was about 1 hour and 40 mins. It was dark, so we could not enjoy the Tuscan scenery. We arrived at Firenze S.M. Novella (Florence), which was not far from our hotel. However, we did a quick grocery store stop, on the way, for a bottle of water. After being sick in Italy 25 years ago, I'm afraid to drink the water. This may be unfounded now because they provide it free on the streets in Rome. Some were constantly flowing fountains. Between the Forum and Colosseum was free still or sparkling water, but we did not try this because of the lack of restrooms, more on that later.
The hotel had a 24/7 check-in; we had to show our passports. We were not asked to pay the city tax, in cash only, until we checked out -- 12 EURs for two; it was only 6 EURs for two in Trieste. Florence wants to milk more out of the tourists; more costly to run Florence. We stayed at Hotel Nuova Italia; it was nice, except the cold shower that I had! It was hot for Travis, but would not get hot again for me, never beyond ice cold for me. I tried a few times. It was so weird because the sink, right next to it, was super hot. I tried a sink "shower" with a big hand towel they had. Then trying to use the shower and a small plastic cup that came with the room to pour on water, but the shower was still dipping some of the ice cold water. Travis noted that we were slower getting to bed, and I noted my challenging shower. I had been on a plane for a long time; I really needed a shower.
Room and bathroom pictures.
In the morning, breakfast was included; compared to many hotels in Europe with expensive add on breakfasts. The best part was the hot chocolate and Americano coffee from a fancy machine that a lady asked us and made up when we walked in. The table was already set with the food, though there was a little more on another table. It was fancy, but not much choice, but enough. A croissant, other roll, a soft cheese, and toast pre-prepared and packaged. This seemed very odd to me, but we later found it common in grocery stores later.
We had an 8:30 am time-entry to David or rather Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze where David resides. I read to be there 15 minutes early. We left a little earlier to explore a little before heading to the Gallery. We checked out, and they stored our luggage for the day. We asked the night before, and they noted a small seating area for it. They told us to put it there, and later they had labeled it with our name.
We walked first to a fort. It was under construction, so was much in Rome. They are preparing the 2025 Papal Jubilee events. Then we headed toward David. The lines had time-entry slots labeled, so we knew where to stand. We got in quickly with ticket scans and backpacks through security (we bought both backpacks to not need to store one at the hotel with the luggage). There is a lot more to see here than just David, and they have a restroom. David -- note his larger than to scale hands and feet because he was first to be displayed behind an altar further from the viewers.
The Academy had art that students were assigned to copy for their studies. In the sculpture room, it was noted to observe the evolution of how they sculpted the hair. I liked the little kid sculptures; I guess that I have not seen many kid sculptures before. These were plaster, and some had metal frame reinforcement sticking out (the black dots if you click in to make a picture larger).
Also in the main entrance are Michelangelo's four unfinished Prisoners.
There was also a music display. This is the piano-guitar -- 1793 ca.
I was impressed that this tapestry used metal pieces to ascent the art.
Then we went to see the iconic Duomo with cathedral, bell tower, and baptistry. We were accosted by a self-stick salesman. I avoid and try to get away from everyone like this, but it does upset me during and after. So much to see on the cathedral; we used our monocular (that we got before our Norwegian Fjords as nice and small for travel) to check out the detail closer up, while still keeping a close eye on our backpacks. I had a money belt with passports, credit cards, and cash that we withdraw for our tour in Slovenia for our first port of the cruise and to start collecting the correct change for the Pompeii tickets.
Piazza della Signoria -- all the art in the Piazza was surprising and awesome to see. There is a copy, from the cast, of street David.
This is supposed to be Michelangelo's graffiti, but some believe that it is not really his.
Walking by the Uffizi Gallery; also supposed to very good, but we did not take the time to visit. You can also pre-book tickets to it.
The River Arno and the famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio. I had a 5 EUR slice of pizza on the bridge; it was not good.
View of Florence from the Rose Garden, which was across the River Arno; it was a nice and a nice view. However, the stairs to go to the top were closed; they would not let us go to the top without going back down, around, and up again. We could see others up there; so close, yet so far.
Back down and walking on the other side of the River still, I liked the reflections in the water. Found a mini-Duomo.
We went to the market, il Mercato Centrale Firenze, for Travis's lunch; he tried the Florence-known tripe sandwich. He said that it could have been more seasoned, but was fine and good to try. We went back outside, through an outside market, looking for gelato. We ended up getting some at the inside market. We shared three scoops of flavors: Pistachio, Stracciatella, and Dark Chocolate. I thought the Dark Chocolate was the best. I tried others during the trip, but this was now the bar and others did not measure up. The sandwich was downstairs, and the gelato was upstairs. Upstairs also had a free restroom; downstairs at the exit, there was a pay restroom.
Before going back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store for bottled water, candy, a breakfast for Travis, soap (instead of cruise ship bath gel since we don't pack poofs), and toothpaste (since it was a longer trip, and we just had small hand-on size toothpastes). Then we went back to the hotel to get our luggage to catch our train to Trieste, Italy, our cruise embarkation port. I was hoping to see the Tuscan countryside from the train since we were leaving earlier. Over the full trip, we found the sun to set too early -- 4:30 pm, except for a time change in Greece where it was 5:30 pm. This also seemed to put the sun in a bad position for our sightseeing pictures. On the plus side, we had great weather, no rain or fog and comfortable temperatures, and were very thankful.
This time we went into the front of the train station. We had Italo again with a two travel for the price of one ticket for 69.80 EUR for both. This was a 4 hour and 20 min train ride -- eek, long. Our train was at 4:40 pm. Our train was on the sign after scanning into the gates but with no platform assigned. Then we learned that everyone stood below another sign waiting for their train's platform to be assigned, so we did the same. We also had assigned seats and a coach on this train. Also, signs noted where to stand on the platform for different coach numbers, but only right before the train arrived. This luggage did not fit above our seats. The luggage holders for shorter for a section, so we used a wider section further away. Trieste was the end of the line, so everyone was getting off. Back to the exciting of viewing Tuscany out the window. We saw a little at dusk, but wow, there are lots of tunnels with nothing to see. Then it got dark. On both train rides, they came through and checked the tickets once.
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