Today is not going to be an overly exciting blog. We left our apartment in Venice around 9:30 AM to catch our train to Florence. Otherwise known as Firenze. Thank God we caught the right water bus, and the train station was only one stop from us. It was completely packed full of people, though. People were heading home or to the next destination catching either a train or a plane. We couldn’t even make it back to find a seat so we ended up standing. We hopped off, sat outside for a bit, then decided to make the track inside. Knowing there were not a lot of seats inside, we were concerned about standing for another hour. These are moms words not mine, but the best thing about Ginger having a cane is everybody helps her pretty easily. She doesn’t need to ask. They just lend her an arm, help her with a big step, take her luggage and put it above the seat or even carry it for her down the steps. I don’t exactly get the same help. I try and look a little pitiful, a little. You should’ve seen us trying to get on and off the water taxi the other day. You would’ve thought we’ve never been on a boat before. Our water taxi driver stopped to pick up his friend Giorgio. It seemed a little odd at first, but he was so helpful helping mom get out of the boat. I wasn’t about to complain; he was a godsend.

Back to today. When we got on the train, it was starting to fill up and of course, our seats were at completely the other end. We are dragging our heavy bags, we saw our seats and two people sitting across from us. We would be facing them. Oddly enough we never introduced ourselves, but we talked mostly the whole way to Florence. Guess where they were from – Tampa. The woman’s family was from the Philadelphia area, but she spent most of her life in Florida not terribly far from Lithia. He was from Peru, and had moved to Miami. They were a lovely couple, also helped mom put her bag up.

When we arrived in Florence, the queue for the taxi was quite long. Somehow, another I dropped a piece of paper out of my pocketbook, and ask mom if she could pick it up. Which is clearly a mistake. She leaned over and the way her backpack took her down. It was another Ginger slow fall onto her butt move. All is fine. You could tell nobody falls that slowly and really hurts themselves. A fellow passenger helped us get her up off the ground. We waited another 15 minutes for a taxi. It’s funny when you haven’t been around cars for four days, you don’t realize how much don’t miss them. The honking, aggressive, driving, motorcycles noise, etc. much more peaceful in Venice.

We arrived at our Airbnb, checked in with Francesca, and she gave us a tour of the apartment. It is much bigger than we anticipated. We each have our own room this time. Yay me. Last night Mom pushed me in the middle of the night and didn’t remember doing it. She said she had a bad dream about paying bills. Before heading out to dinner we tried our damnedest to call the Budget rental car agency because we needed to change our pick up time on Thursday. It took a little longer than we anticipated. We were told to call the US budget and they eventually said you have like a two hour window which you can pick it up so we’re fine all that time was a little wasted, but we had time to put our feet up, a little, and enjoy this beautiful apartment. I should’ve taken these photos during the day, but here are a few of the apartment.

We walked about two blocks to dinner at a place called Bistro Cafe 19.26. I happened upon this article about the bistro:

It’s hard to put a label on Cafè 19.26 which by the way was not founded in 1926 as the name suggests.  The numbers 19 & 26 are lucky roulette numbers and hold a special significance for owners, brother and sister who take great pride in their restaurant, created with the desire to give the neighborhood and corner location an upgrade.  A lot of care and love has gone into the interior decor thanks to Tuscan designer, Becattini making you feel like you are a guest in someone’s home. Against a backdrop of dark wood and marble, decorated with artwork, vintage signs, mirrors and trinkets from around the world, each space and room has its own special ambience, similar to the flair found in Montmartre. The corner room was once a pharmacy and the stunning original cabinets have remained. (pictured below)

The food was delicious. The menu was only in Italian so it was challenging to figure out what everything meant. Mom ordered the hummus which was was beetroot humus with chickpeas, cooked beets, and feta cheese accompanying this dish. I ordered a pasta dish, with a pomedoro sauce with shrimp and tomatoes. It was a light broth. That was very flavorful.

Tomorrow will spend the day in the city starting at the Uffizi.