Start the day in Rome and end in Florence

View from the train ride from Rome to Florence.

Ahh.....grapes

That's grape juice....

The walk up to Piazza Michelangelo

Guitar player playing to the young kids hanging out at the PIazza Michelangelo

The Ponte Vecchio

Restaurant that Jay at at while he was here.

It's a REAL selfie!! ....and you can't even see the Duomo back there:(

       

The hotel entrance where they have free happy hour from 6-8;30...which became our dinner last night:)

Today Cam was tired and really wanted to just chill around Rome. I think he’s been up late talking to his friends since there is a 7 hour time difference and it’s the only time they can talk. Hmmm…that has to stop! It is clear that I really am a low maintenaince person! I'm proud of that! I can be ready before him, I go when my back it out or I have a "Roman cold" and I get up and am ready to run the Arno while he's wining that he's tired. I also don't complain when it's hot and I'm totally shower worthy:) That said, waking up and being hot are the ONLY things he has issue with. Cam is the best traveler ever! He has saved us numerous times and has the been naviagator extraordinaire. He's learned a lot and I know he could travel the world alone and be just fine!And it's fun to travel with someone with such desire to see and learn and with such extensive historical knowledge! Now if he'd just get out of bed!!!

I went to breakfast by myself and brought him a croissant. We finally left the room at checkout time at noon, dropped off the bags and the desk and off we went to Campo di Fiori. It was a cute market but small compared to city market in Kansas City☺ We found the most amazing sandwich place. It was just a tiny whole in the wall walk up place. We each got a prosciutto and mozzarella Panini and a soda for 12 euros which is a good deal! After that we just walked and walked and wandered. We sat around the back side of the Pantheon for a while and eventually it was time to get our taxi to the train station.

We heard that the train station was a dangerous place in that there are many people wanting to “help” you and pickpockets. I will say we were pleasantly surprised after reading so many negative reviews. We were approached by 2 sets of people but just kept walking and shook our heads and said “no”. After that it was a piece of cake. However, it wasn’t until we were in our hotel elevator that I breathed a sigh of relief and congratulated us on a job well done!!! There were a lot of doubts and unsure moments but it all turned out fine.

Train ride was nice and had beautiful views. Arriving in Florence, Cam didn’t take the time to really look for the taxi queue so I followed him out and he really just wanted to see the Duomo! Then we had a bit of a walk to the taxis.

Arriving at our hotel made it worth it all. This place it top notch. We arrived in time for the daily happy hour from 6;30-8:00 so we had some wonderful red wine and snacks out in the gorgeous courtyard! We met a couple that was having troubles because they had rented a car and within 10 minutes had been pulled over and given a ticket that apparently cost them a fortune. They were pretty upset and were trying to research how to use the train system to get where they wanted to go. I’m telling you, research is so important. I have to wonder how their trip might have changed if they had researched car rental and driving in Italy.

We walked up to the top of the Piazza de Michelangelo and saw the most amazing view of the city of Florence! It truly was stunning! There was a guitarist playing on stairs and a great restaurant that Jay told me he ate at when he was here. We walked down a different way and back at the hotel we are making our plans for a big day tomorrow!!!