17 September 2007

Day Four: Fiesole and More

On Sunday morning, rather than going to Siena as we had first planned, we decided to stay here in Florence. In the long run, this was the best decision, but I digress.

We got up, packed up our stuff, and moved to our new hotel, the Hotel California. Yup, that is really the name. As I mentioned before, I woke up all nice and swollen from the tons of mosquito bites I seem to have. It sucks. So we moved over then went to find the bus for Fiesole.

Fiesole is a beautiful hilltop down right outside of Florence. We went through it on Friday when we were doing out city tour, and since we decided to stay longer, I thought it would be nice to go explore. The day was hot and really muggy. We headed up there on the bus, which was super crowded after about one stop. Luckily, we got on at the train station and were able to get seats. For about 20 minutes, we took the windy road up to the hills.

I guess it was originally a place where rich Florentines went to escape the city. Supposedly, it was also a place to escape the heat. This was certainly not the case on Sunday. It was HOT up there! I was not in the best of moods due to my swollen eye, but tried to get into it as we hiked up to see the view. It was stunning, if not hazy. As I took pics, I had no idea how they'd turn out...with the haze and the eye issues, I was just hoping to get something. We'll see when I get home.

We headed back down the hill and went our separate ways. I think Pebble's likes that she can wander around Florence by herself and feel ok. It is a pretty easy city to navigate, and since there are so many tourists around, safe when you stay on the main streets. This has helped her to get to know the city, and given us time to ourselves, which, as a normally solo traveler, I definitely need.

I made her choose and direct us to the dinner place...she wasn't very happy about that but I stood firm. We ended up at a place at the Piazza Republica. It was fine... a bit overpriced, as any of these places in the main piazzas are, but the pasta was fresh as could be. Then she wandered off again - she's becoming quite independent - and I went to the book store. I finished the book I brought (which was really weird), so got one about the history of Florence, which is much more interesting!

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