Project Life 2016 ~ May 28 to 30 (Florence)

Project Life 2016

May 28

Florence

We got up early and intend to take the 11:30 am train from Venice to Florence, little that I know that tickets were all sold out, so we had to get the 1:15 train instead. I started to get panic because we were supposed to meet up with Dolce at 4 PM in Florence, she doesn't had a data plan on her phone to let her use overseas, we found a cafe near Ponte Vecchio as our meeting point the night before, and said if we cannot find each other by 4:45, we should just go back to our own hotel. I thought I would have plenty of time if we get on the 11:30 train but now it seems like time is very tight, on top of that, I need to check in at the apartment at 3PM as I already make arrangement with the host, I am doing another AirBnb in Florence.

Things won't going smooth today, even it is my birthday, first it was the rain, and then we cannot find the address given by the Airbnb host in Florence, look at me in that poncho with all those bags....

when we finally found the apartment, we couldn't find the host's name on the bell button, so I had to call her, imagine digging out my phone, and note book in that poncho....
 after we got connected, she buzzed the door for us, we got in and still couldn't find her apartment number..... I called her again and found out that her apartment was on the top floor (4th) of this hundred year old building..... narrow stairways, gosh, why people are just so sly, she didn't mention this on her listing on Airbnb site that her apartment is on the 4th floor of a walk-up, that could be the deciding factor for me because I knew that I am having a big bag this trip, I usually travel very light but because this trip is more than a month, plus I have a graduation at the beginning of the trip and a wedding to attend at the end of the trip, so I bring more than I would like to when traveling in Europe.

as if this is not bad enough for my birthday, we only found out after we brought all our heavy bags up to the 4th floor that the apartment has no water supply due to a under ground water pipe burst happened in Florence three days ago, I am so pissed at this point, the owner had many opportunity to contact me regarding this matter, but she didn't. At this point, I am fighting with time to get to our meeting place to meet Dolce, I had no time to deal with this, the host left us with three bottles of water and we left the apartment as quick as possible to our meeting point.

Ponte Vecchio is the famous old bridge in Florence, it was said that the bridge is so beautiful that Hitler destroy all the others and leave this alone.
 

the first thing that going the right way today is that we actually met up with Dolce, we found each other YAY! We spent the rest of the days walking around Ponte Vecchio, taking picture (sorry, Dolce never like to be in the picture), had a not very good meal nearby and then back to the apartment to deal with reality!

Well, since we had no water in the apartment, we can't flush the toilet, the smell actually got worst after a few usage, I can't no longer stand it and decided to contact the host to see if we can get a refund, she didn't reply my message and around midnight, I just decided that we should move regardless of the outcome, so I get to my laptop and book a hotel near Ponte Vecchio via Hotel.com, I never use a third party booking agent before but in this circumstances, I really had no other choice but to trust.


May 29

The next morning, we packed and ready to leave since the host still hasn't get back to me, I am a tourist, I want to spend my time in Florence walking around instead of waiting for reply from the host in a sticky apartment. Just before we step out of the house, I got a message from the host that we could just leave the keys on the table if we want to move out, she also said that she can't do anything about the refund, sigh..... 

We moved to Pitti Palace at Ponte Vecchio Hotel, just steps from the old bridge, leave our bags in the room, had a good shower, ahhhh... very much needed after a night at that sticky apartment, and then out to meet Dolce and walked around Flornece.

There are a lot of fun road signs in Florence.... They are from street art artist Clet!

we had lunch at the square right in front of Santa Maria Novella....

Clare and I decided to just walk around.....

and then stop for Gelatos...

and then walk some more....

and then we came across this group of Chinese tourists, they took a lot of time to pose for every picture....

and the funniest thing is the one taking their picture...

now look at the lady in green taking picture for the one in red....

of course our Miss Clare has to be part of the fun.....

Clare and I really had a lot a lot of laughter that day......


we found more fun road signs on our way back to the hotel...

we also stop to send our postcards....

back to the hotel by Ponte Vecchio....

we will be flying off early tomorrow morning to Munich!

 

Sorry for such a long post, I am still trying to catch up with all my summer travel, between work and everything else, we are also busy planning more trips, we just drove to California to see Clare last week, it was a short nice weekend, we had two meals together, it was fun.

And next we are going to San Francisco again, and then stay by the Pacific ocean, which I am longing for, I so needed that. 

And then in October is Grand Junction, CO, followed by NYC! Whew.....