Day 10

Flexibility is the key to any good trip. It's great to have plans and be organized but you need to be able to go with the flow if you get thrown a curve ball- like say a rail strike in the middle of your trek across Italy. 

Today was a travel day for us. We were up at 6:30 and on the road by 7:00. We were headed to Florence with a stop along the way to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Our first clue that something was up was at the central station in Rome. All the incoming trains on the arrivals board were showing up as cancelled. Our train was still running so we didn't really think much of it. When we got to Pisa we were greeted by a great long line up at the ticketing office. We had planned on getting off our train, booking the connecting train to Florence in a couple of hours and spending the afternoon in Pisa. We quickly joined the line to find out what was going on and book our next train. As luck would have it the girl next to us in line was Canadian! She has been travelling through Greece and Italy for the past 2 months. We quickly struck up a conversation and she explained to us that there was a 24 hour wildcat strike by the National Rail workers and we couldn't get a ride to Florence until 9:00pm- if we were lucky. Well that put a damper on our plans but hey we're flexible so we waited in line and hoped we could get on the 9:00 train. As we were standing in line trying to figure things out we heard a rumour that there was a train to Florence that was still running and going to be at our station in 10 minutes! Could it be true? Do we take a chance and wait for the later train or do we get out of our spot in line and try for this new train? We decided along with our new friend to jump on this chance. We left our spot and made our way to the platform. It was true! A train did come in 10 minutes! We were sad not to see the tower but we would have hated to not make it to Florence and lose our reservation.

Our apartment in Florence is awesome! We have a kitchen, the cutest orange bathroom with a towel warmer and a blow dryer ( I have been missing that luxury for the past few days) and a large sleeping area with 3 beds a couch and a desk. It just seems so big after our little cabin. 

The wifi here is amazing. I am fine to live without wifi- if I can't have it I can't have it, I can deal but sketchy wifi is the worst! The hotel in Paris wasn't too bad but the campsite in Rome was terrible. You could have wifi if you stood outside the restaurant on one leg with you arm stretched up to the sky lol. 

Another handy hint to remember is to never run out of food. You have no idea where or when you might get your next meal. We were so spoilt in France with the free breakfasts and all the markets and street vendors. Nicole snd I always had a handy snack in our bags. Today on the train this morning we finished off our fruit. When we got to Floence we discovered that most stores are not open on Sundays or close early in the afternoon. We were very hungry and a bit panicked to say the least. We found a little coffee shop and bought some chips and we were afraid that was going to have to be our dinner.

We saw a couple of restaurants that looked really nice but they were closed. In trying to decipher the signage we could tell they opened for dinner at 7:30 but we didn't know if Sundays were included.  We ventured out to see and were happily treated with a warm smile and fresh bread! Dinner was delicious. It was a cute family restaurant with handmade pizza and pasta. We all had calzones for dinner, full of yummy mozzarella and ham. 

The Momma at the restaurant took great care of us. She seemed so happy to feed us. If we were staying here longer I would definitely go back to see her.