Free day in Florence! Our intention was to take the train into Florence this morning as we are staying outside of the city in a suburb called Montecatini. However, apparently Italian train workers decided to go on strike about an hour before, so after about a 45 minute wait we had to face the fact that no train was coming. At that point we had to improvise. Luckily, there is also a bus station, so we made tracks getting there and were just in time to catch the next bus going into the city.
We arrived in Florence around 11:30, and set out to do a little shopping and a little looking around. In the afternoon we met our Tok connection - Jen Smith who helped us with great tips about language and culture met us in the Piazza della Republica. She is taking some classes in Florence this summer, so some of us went to lunch with her.
By the afternoon we had split into several small groups to do fun things like shopping the markets, eating gelato, taking horse and carriage rides around the city, sipping espresso, and a few other adventures!
However, everyone was very prompt about our meeting time for dinner, and over dinner we all agreed that today was the most fun so far!
Tomorrow we leave with a final destination of Rome in the evening, but will spend most of the day in Assisi seeing the sights.
You are indeed intrepid travelers. What? The train is on strike? No problem!! We'll take the bus! What a lesson these kids are learning...
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