A crazy morning, sleepy afternoon and lovely evening...

When we woke up yesterday morning, we knew we needed to hustle to get ready, pack remaining items, and head for the train station. Unfortunately I woke up with a MASSIVE headache --- a result of too much sun or the mysterious drink from the night before, I do not know. To remedy myself without waking Jason, I grabbed two Excedrin Migraine and drank lots of water. A few short minutes later I was sick in the bathroom sending all that water right back out. It is not fun to be sick at home, and it was certainly not fun to be sick in a hot little bathroom in a foreign country. Jason went and got me a little roll, and that helped to settle my stomach and cure my headache. Praise be! As we walked to our vaporetto stop, I sang, as the gondoliers do at the end of a ride, "Ciao Venezia, Ciao Venezia, Ciao Venzia lalalala" (or something along those lines) and we bid farewell to this hectic, glorious city.

We got to the train station and immediately had some trouble locating our track. The train was scheduled to leave at 8:50 and as the clock ticked away we went to the information desk for help. It was there that we discovered we had made a rookie mistake --- our train departed from Venezia Mestre (on the mainland) and we were at the main station, Venezia Santa Lucia. We caught a train hoping to make it to Mestre in time, but alas we did not. Our seat reservations were no longer valid, and we had to rush around trying to communicate with non-English speakers. Finally we got new reservations for the 9:17 train and after a 20 minute delay (figures!) were on our way. Then we discovered that the train was only taking us to Firenze Campo, not the main station, Firenze Santa Maria Novella. We decided we'd deal with this fact later only to discover a few hours later that the train in fact DID stop at SMN. Again, praise be!

The Florence station was packed to the walls with people --- perhaps trains were delayed --- and we cautiously made our way through the crowds. Once out on the street we had to avoid the kamikaze motorscooters and traffic to get to our hotel. After a 10 minute walk in the midday HEAT, we found Hotel Il Bargellino, went to our room, dropped our bags, laid across the bed, and woke up 3 hours later. :)

After our very restful nap, we decided to nix our plan to visit Siena and instead toured Florence on foot. The heat had receded a bit, and after a delicious and inexpensive meal at the recommended restaurant at the end of our block (Via Guelfa) we strolled through the outdoor stalls at the San Lorenzo street market. Prices are much better here than they were in Venice, but we survived the shopping gauntlet unscathed. From here the beautiful Duomo came into sight and we headed towards it. It is a massive building, and the first dome built since ancient Rome. Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance, and Brunelleschi's dome it's most massive masterpiece. We strolled some more, passed through several piazzas with massive statues, and then found ourselves in the courtyard of the Uffizi. A lone violinist was playing in the empty, shaded courtyard and we sat along the walls listening to the classical strains float upward. It was lovely. From there we walked along the Arno River, saw the Ponte Vecchio, had a photo-op and then purchased some (surprise!) gelato.

We walked home and slept quite soundly.

On the agenda today: view Santa Croce church, visit both the Accademia and the Uffizi galleries, climb the Duomo and walk through the third longest nave in Christendom. Tomorrow we are off to Rome and three nights in the Eternal City. Until later, ciao!