Florence in the Rain
Highs, lows, and buffalos from the first part of our trip
Catch part 1 of this story if you missed it…
(Also, here’s my original reference to what a buffalo is.)
As S’s birthday trip got within the 10-day window, I started peeking at the weather and it was not great. But weather changes, so I stayed hopeful. Alas, the forecast at departure was rain, rain, and more rain. It was a super bummer because Florence is a walking city. Of course, the other complication regardless of rain was that S was still rehabbing her knee. Things were not looking as rosy as they had been when I conceived the idea for celebrating her birthday, but that’s life.
We packed umbrellas and hoped for the best. Our flight to Pisa left on time; we navigated the Pisa Mover (automated tram) and train to Florence with relative ease (I bought tickets on my phone so we wouldn’t risk forgetting to validate them); and we avoided rain along the journey! It seemed like an auspicious start. But right after we arrived in Florence, the skies opened up and it started pouring. Sigh.
We ducked into the pharmacy at the Santa Maria Novella train station to get some ice packs for S’s knee and then took a taxi to our AirBNB. The place itself was beautiful inside (click to see video short). It had been completely refurbished. N declared it the nicest AirBNB we’d stayed in. I don’t know about that, but it was aesthetically pleasing for sure. The best feature was the huge outdoor terrace. Unfortunately, we likely weren’t going to get to enjoy it.
When the heavy rain let up, C and I popped out for a quick grocery run. There was a Conad practically around the corner. It’s one of those stores that from the outside looks like it’s going to be tiny because the store width is quite narrow, but then you get in and it just keeps going back and back and back. Many European grocery stores are like this, especially in the heart of a city. We (okay, I) had fun searching for things and came home with bags of basics.
I wanted to take the girls to the pizza place I had discovered last fall and figured our first night in town was the only real opportunity to go, so I looked up how to take the bus (since S had already walked a lot and her knee was sore) and we headed out. I can’t say it was necessarily the best decision.
We tried to take the bus. (Side note: The busses—or at least this particular one—in the center of Florence are adorable. They’re miniature sized!) But there wasn’t much room inside and it was challenging for S to get on and stand; no seats were available. Also, once aboard, I discovered that the tap-and-go option to pay was out of order. I had no idea how to pay otherwise and I didn’t want to get a ticket for fare evasion! So we got off at the next stop and walked. This was a challenge for S’s knee and it upset N because it represented a change in plans, which she doesn’t like.
So N bickered at me, S bickered about her knee, N and I bickered at each other, and then S tried to mediate, calling us 5-year olds. We were quite the spectacle as we walked by the Duomo. It was not our best moment.
But we pulled ourselves together and made it to dinner, where the girls asked to share my wine. (This reminds me that I still need to share the New Year’s Eve story in Budapest. It’s a good one.)
Before heading home, we stopped at a pharmacy to buy more ice packs for S. The pharmacist asked where we were from and I said: We’re from the US but we’re currently living in Albania. Her face lit up with a smile and she said, “I’m Albanian!” We talked to her for at least 10 minutes. She was so nice. Whereas we had been surprised to encounter Albanians in Italy when we visited in fall 2023 (especially in Venice), I wasn’t surprised at all this time. There are so many Albanians in Italy! (Many fled there in the 90s after the fall of communism and others have continued to go, looking for opportunity.)
We walked home in a light rain and headed to bed at a reasonable hour. I was exhausted and really hoping for a good night’s slumber. [Side note: I had been reading “Why We Sleep” in the days leading up to our trip, which was fascinating. Unfortunately, it really messed with my mind and triggered a terrible round of insomnia, which I’ve long suffered from. I had gone 4+ nights with only 5-6 hours of broken sleep, so I was running on empty arriving in Florence.]
Remember how I said our AirBNB had lovely aesthetics? Well, it did not have lovely soundproofing. We discovered at some ungodly hour of the night that the neighbors upstairs were not quiet, nor was the piazza outside the back window. I ended up moving to the couch in hopes of being able to fall back to sleep. I finally did, but only after being awake for at least two hours.
Then I was up earlier than I wanted to be on Friday morning (because: circadian rhythm) and discovered that it was pouring rain. N had wanted to go out to breakfast, but I didn’t want to go anywhere on little sleep, in the rain. So we ate at “home.” Once the heavy rain subsided, the girls and I ventured out to the Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio. I absolutely love local markets. We ended up buying several types of pasta and a chunk of parmigiano reggiano.
We had hair appointments at midday. The girls hadn’t gotten their hair cut since we were in the UK last summer! Our AirBNB host had recommended the salon and set the appointments for us. S declared that she wants to return to Florence every six months to get her hair done. 😂
I set off in the afternoon to ship some documents to the US (story for another day) and to see if I could buy a new pair of running shoes. I stopped first by the New Balance store but it was closed. Maybe because it was lunchtime? Some places do close for a few hours in Italy.
So I popped over to the shipping center. The woman there was lovely and, as I wrote down the info for where to send my documents, she said that they would go out on Monday instead of today (Friday) because of the flooding.
Flooding?
I probed as best I could, but she mostly spoke Italian and, while I could generally understand, I couldn’t speak back in Italian.
Flooding? Had the rain been that bad? We clearly weren’t dialed in enough. It’s sometimes hard to be when you’re traveling.
I left the shipping center and went back to the shoe store. Still closed. Hmm. I really needed new running shoes! I popped into a cafe and sat until 3pm, then tried the shoe store one last time. Still closed, lights off, like it had never opened at all. I headed “home” the long way past a different shoe store I had seen the day before thinking I could at least try on some running shoes there, but when I arrived, it was also closed.
What was going on?! Red weather alert? Did we need to be concerned? Looks like I had some investigation to do… Continue the story.