After the train strike this morning, I thought nothing else could go wrong… Not true.
I made it to Florence over an hour before Gemma was supposed to arrive. I decided to call her UK cell phone in case she had some trouble and to work out a meeting spot. Unfortunately, no matter what I tried, I could not get through. At this point, I decided to check my email just to be safe. Good thing, because I was confused about the date, and Gemma will arrive tomorrow… This also meant that I had no sleeping arrangements tonight.
I first looked online at a few hostel websites and couldn’t find anything that didn’t require a stay of at least two days. I decided to just suck up the difference and get a hotel room. I actually found a single room that includes breakfast for €45. Not great, but not too bad, etiher. My room is right downtown, in the Hotel Esperanza on Via del Inferno and Via del Purgatorio.
When I first got here, I opened the window and took a nap. At 3:00, I got up and started to walk around the city. I had a map, but decided to try to get lost anyway. I found a free Violin concert for tonight, the house of Dante Aligheri, a DaVinci museum with wood models of his inventions, a beautiful cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore) made of many colors of marble, and an authentic Italian grocery store. Perhaps Gemma and I can have a picnic tomorrow.
Tonight I grabbed a bruschetta and cheese panini for €2.10 and ate out by the cathedral. There were lots of people around, and it was sunny, so I had a good time. After dinner, the church choir even came outside and sang for a while.
